Reply #78: Consider the source

[ProudDad]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E4DC103AF931A35756C0A96F958260

"There are some things to quibble with here. Holli occasionally lurches into social science lingo, and one wishes that he had devoted more pages to his 10 worst list: train wrecks are always instructive. Like most of his correspondents, Holli tends to favor old-style, pragmatically liberal or progressive mayors. He likes tangible, brick-and-mortar accomplishments. In an age of empty political symbolism this is largely refreshing, though critics of the top 10 are too often dismissed with simplistic epithets. For example, Angelenos opposed to offshore oil drilling and runaway development are merely snobs from the ''fashionable west side.''

I would also question the inclusion of Richard J. Daley on any list of the nation's 10 best mayors. Daley's segregationist, exclusionary politics helped to polarize Chicago for decades, and his reckless, grotesque behavior during the 1968 Democratic National Convention is a permanent stain on American democracy. It is not erased by the fact that he made the buses run on time."