Thursday, January 12, 2006

Young Mayor follow Up

This comments  I received on the last entry was worth a whole new entry.  Thanks, Silk.and Elleme

My eyebrows shot up when you mentioned the mayor.  The village is Tivoli, New York, and it's right up the road from me.  It wasn't apathy that got him elected - the kid is pretty incredible, and ran a darn good campaign (it didn't hurt that the village is full of students from Bard College).  Tivoli is maybe two blocks long and four wide, and before the kid got elected it was loud college bars and not much else.  Now there are noise ordinances, and the bars have been replaced by little bistros, coffee houses, and several terrific restaurants.  The village has turned a defunct horse farm into a world-class center for dance, and has been attracting tourists with things like sidewalk painting festivals.  Even the houses look happier.  I'm not sure, I don't much follow local politics, but I think he's still mayor, probably in his mid-20s now.  If anyone remembers Woodstock, NY, in the late 60s, before it got all gentrified, that's what Tivoli is like now.  And the kid shook up the place and made it happen.
~~Silk

That is a fantastic record for any mayor, regardless of age.  But he is not the one I thought of when you mentioned it earlier.  An 18-year-old high school senior, Michael Sessions, was just elected mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan (also a college town) last November.  The record of his administration is yet to be written so it will be interesting to check up on it in a couple of years.  

They say you know you're getting old when all your doctors are younger than you are, but you're really ancient when the mayor is younger than your grandson!

Elleme2

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is a fantastic record for any mayor, regardless of age.  But he is not the one I thought of when you mentioned it earlier.  An 18-year-old high school senior, Michael Sessions, was just elected mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan (also a college town) last November.  The record of his administration is yet to be written so it will be interesting to check up on it in a couple of years.  

They say you know you're getting old when all your doctors are younger than you are, but you're really ancient when the mayor is younger than your grandson!