Breaking down the Harris-Commerce tete-a-tete

Conflicting perspectives on the story in today’s local paper about new Waynesboro City Councilman Mike Harris’ walking tour of the troubled 200 block of North Commerce Avenue.

- You could view the tour as a shameless photo op. Here’s a guy who’s been on City Council for less than a month, and he shows up for a tour of a bad neighborhood getting written up in the paper every morning wearing cowboy boots. Cue the “Law and Order” theme.

- You could say, Hey, give the guy credit for answering the bell. Me personally, I’ve known people who live on that stretch and the adjoining block of North Delphine, and it’s been a rough patch for more than a decade. Somebody has needed to get over there and show the community that City Hall is aware that indeed North Commerce is still in the city limits. Better late than never.

- For that matter, you could also say, Where has Tim Williams been on this issue? Williams represents North Commerce on City Council. Harris represents Ward D on the other side of town. He shouldn’t have to be the guy to put on his cowboy boots here.

My final, quick analysis: Good job, Mike. The cowboy boots were a nice touch. Sends the message that we’re not going to mess around like we’ve been doing for years trying to pretend that the problems that we have on that stretch aren’t there.

City Council politics are a lot about economic development and budgets and funding for education and infrastructure, sure. But we can’t forget the importance of simply being safe in our own homes. That’s a key area where leadership has been lacking of late.