Public Debate
Public officials are supposed to be, for lack of a better word, public. That means our elected officials need to be responsive to the voters, both in terms of being available to answer concerns and being able to articulate a vision for the community. Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief has decided he needs to do none of these. He rarely attends neighborhood community meetings, doesn’t talk much to the media, and, quite frankly, acts as if he is above all that. Some might think this criticism of Mike has to do with his refusal to talk to the Weekly and telling the other council members to stonewall us as well. Sure, we’d prefer he talk to us, but in some respects he has dropped a present in our lap. Many neighborhood leaders are now rallying around this newspaper, working more closely with us on big-city issues. But that’s not enough, in the bigger picture of what’s good for the city. Cowtowners need to ditch the back-room Fort Worth Way and embrace vigorous debate in the public arena. Just because Dallas can’t do it without a lot of red faces and bitterness shouldn’t stop us – we do other things better, we can do this better as well.
