Do Mayors Matter?

Here's an email I received from a friend of mine who still suffers the indignation of living in Cleveland, OH.

About a year ago I predicted in one of my joke/commentary emails that Cleveland mayor Lame...I mean, Jane..Campbell would handily win re-election as mayor of Cleveland.
As ineffectual a mayor as she's been, I stand by that statement.

Should a majority black city like Cleveland have a black mayor. Does it matter? Does anybody care? Nope...and here are five reasons why:

1. The Hood is The Hood...Is The Hood - Former Cleveland mayors Carl Stokes, George Voinovich et. al. What's the commonality. The hood remains f__d up no matter who is mayor...black, white or purple. Potholes and check cashing joints will remain whether it's 1968 or 2008.

2. Big Bucks/Safe Gig Factor - Often, persons highly regarded enough or with enough money to run for and win a mayoral election are better off remaining partners of law firms or CEOs of this or that rather than throwing that away for a thankless $120K per year job with more critics than supporters.

3. Cities Don't Matter - Money, public policies and voters are increasingly directed to suburbs and exurbs (places that were...and in some cases still are...as country as a chicken coop just a few years ago). Why brave the grimy streets of Cleveland for treatment at The Cleveland Clinic when there is an outpost of the Clinic in the suburbs of Strongsville or Mentor?

4. "It's All About The Bucks...The Rest is Just Conversation" - Michael Douglas' character Gordon Gekko uttered those words in the 1987 film "Wall Street" and they could not be more applicable today. If you can put together a coalition of city residents to vote for you and corporate fat cats to fund and advance your agenda...you too can be mayor...and it doesn't mattter if you're whiter than Michael Jackson or black like Don Cheadle.

5. Corporations Run Cities...Not Mayors - A piggy back on #4. When Ford Motor Company says jump, the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan say how high. Same game everywhere. Mayors are but figureheads in the redistributuion of an incredibly shrinking corporate largess.

The best job of pulling the wool over the public's eyes has been the consolidation of civic power by Fortune 500 Companies AT THE EXPENSE of America's most touted democracy, and the "democratic ideals" that we're looking to foist on the rest of the world...? That's the biggets excuse that I've heard in regards to how corporate America can continue to take over the world.

Although that stranglehold is loosening, because China is making a lot of side oil deals with all the energy producing nations that the US is striking out against 'cause of Human Rights abuses (ranging from Venezula to Iran to Sudan). In 20 years the world is going to need 40 million more barrels of oil a day -- where it that going to come from considering that OPEC hasn't increased capacity in decades.

It's so laughable it makes me cry.