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'We Dream Big Dreams'
These "maverick mayors" are strong-willed, idealistic, and they seem to be getting the job done.
Bernard Gavzeer
October 23, 1994
ACROSS THE NATION A GROUP OF
tough, talking political outsiders,
ideological mavericks and confrontational
innovators is taking over city halls. Faced
with huge deficits, failing schools, job
losses and violent crime,
these mayors are balancing budgets,
bringing back investment and and
jobs, and trimming city contracts.
Ed Rendell in Philadelphia, Richard
Riordan in Los Angeles, Bret Schundler
in Jersey City, Michael White in
Cleveland and Rudolph Giuliani in New
York have adopted a take-charge
approach to the tough business of turning
around their cities.
Who are, these guys? Described as
strong-willed, determined, inventive and
sometimes unpredictable, they are
individualists who do-not fit into familiar
political molds. "I think we're all
pragmatic-idealists, and what we'd all say
is that what you see is what you get,"
says Michael White. "We are what we
are. We dream big dreams."
I traveled around the country to visit it
these mayors, to find out how they are changing city government.
Bret Schundler, 35, a conservative
Republican millionaire, is in his first full
term as mayor of Jersey City, an
overwhelmingly Democratic town.
Schundler has a variety of schemes to
attack the city's problems. For example,
he wants to stage vendor conventions
where companies that provide
maintenance or cleanup services would have sales booths at which to
pitch their services. Neighborhood
groups would vote for the company
they want and the city would pay for it.
He is particularly keen on voucher
systems. "I'm for changing the welfare
system by providing vouchers for
health, housing and food for those who
have little or no income, and tax credits
for those who have income," Schundler
told me. "If you do get a job, the voucher decreases but doesn't disappear.
The way it is now, 41 percent Of my
people are on public assistance. If they
get a job, they lose medical coverage, and
their income is cut in half. That shouldn't
happen."
Schundler is a champion of school
vouchers, despite critics who say
vouchers would destroy the public school
system. "My poorest citizens should, have
the, same opportunity as richer persons to
be able to afford to choose the best
school available for their children," he
said.
When he took office, Schundler
voluntarily cut his salary from $60,000 to
$30,000 and promised not to accept a pay
raise any year he failed to cut taxes. (His
salary is now up to $45,000.) A former
Wall Street investment banker, Schundler
made his first million before he was 30.
Before that, he worked on Gary Hart's
Presidential campaign but became
disillusioned with the programs put forth
by the Democrats. He got back into
politics to work for change. "What I want
to do is give the people in this city the
power to make decisions governing their
lives," said Schundler.
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First in a series by Anthony Olszewski – Click HERE to find out more.
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