Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
No City Council meeting this Tuesday means no Mayor’s report.
Gadfly was looking forward to that.
The City web site has had various updates on the coronavirus emergency, and Gadfly has been receiving email updates from the City as well.
All good and appreciated.
But there’s nothing like the personal contact with City leaders when times are bad.
Gives assurance that we are in good hands.
Gadfly felt that way hearing the Mayor, Chief DiLuzio, Kristen Wenrich, and Bob Novotnack speak with Council members during that Saturday meeting a week or so ago (when was that? losing my time sense during this crazy period).
Gadfly felt that we are in good hands.
Perhaps there’s a way to do that again somehow? The April 21 meeting is a long way off.
Are police and fire having any staffing problems? We hear bad things about how the virus is affecting New York public services, for instance.
City staff? I think there was an article in the paper this morning about layoffs in a nearby city.
What’s been the effect on local hospitals?
How do we compare with other municipalities?
Well, and so forth.
Passing information, for sure, but mainly Gadfly is just thinking about the kind of confidence and reassurance that comes from hearing/seeing the people in charge.
Satisfies a need different than the emails and posts.
A kind of hand-holding.
How about that small group mentioned above doing a videocast at the regular meeting time Tuesday night, with people able to ask questions via Facebook or something? (Didn’t Councilman Reynolds do something like that in the past, answering questions in real time?)
If we want to get more adventuresome and enhance rapport between elected officials and residents in this time of crisis, we could invite some Council members to share how the emergency has affected their work lives — how is JWR teaching these days? MGC and PVW sharing turmoil in healthcare? ARW and BGC coping as small business owners? Etc.
This could be an opportunity to make the point that we are all in this together.
