A Job For Our Mayor

It is pretty much an open secret in downtown Racine that a city inspector is making life hell for restaurant entrepreneurs, three of whom have had their "opening soon" signs displayed for an absurdly long time. And rumor has it that the Journal Times would like to write a story but can't get anyone to speak on the record. As an aside, the French press had a similar problem trying to break a story about impolite guillotine operators.

So what to do? To me this seems like a problem in need of a long overdue intervention from our mayor. Full disclosure: I have known John Dickert since childhood and I like him personally though our politics I am sure diverge. Of course both sides of a political divide can agree that filling vacancies with new restaurants in the downtown is a good thing, one would hope.

One thing about John Dickert that many people now realize is that he is a man of big ideas. As such, he seems to spend a fair amount of his time in pursuit of something big. Big companies moving to Racine, big deals, big out of state conferences with big shots, big developments etc...  I will leave it to others to catalogue the results of his efforts.

A good mayor may well pursue big plans but must also ensure that day to day operations are running smoothly. Presently we have an inspector who is wreaking havoc downtown and no doubt other places as well. This is crushing development and perhaps more importantly, sending very discouraging signals to other would-be entrepreneurs in Racine. The problem is simple enough though no doubt unpleasant. Mayor Dickert - fire away!