 |
|
Max Nofziger should withdraw from his ill-considered bid for mayor. He owes at least this to the city of Austin, to its citizens, and especially to his longtime supporters. Nofziger's election to the City Council is still one of the great symbolic acts on the part of the people of Austin -- electing someone with passion, conviction, and a dedication to their principles regardless of the fact that he was a street-corner flower vendor. Unfortunately, Nofziger failed to act on this mandate, turning in three largely uninspired turns during his terms.Nofziger seemed neither an ideological leader nor an effective political navigator. Although a voice for the environment and a strong neighborhood supporter, he lacked the political skills to get much done. Certainly, there were crucial issues that he championed, especially relating to air and water quality, but a successful politician needs to be able to achieve consensus and push agenda, and Nofziger didn't really do either.
Nofziger loved the symbolic act, and this was both his strength and weakness. A warm and decent man, Nofziger was not just a politician, but served as an effective community symbol. This affection for symbols could backfire. Although always expressing love and support for the Austin music scene (and helping to establish both the music commission and music commissioner position), he saddled it with the hideously Chamber of Commerce-sounding "Live Music Capital of the World" moniker (Branson, Missouri well deserves that hyped and hollow title). Nofziger was in favor of alternative transportation, but instead of leading the fight for bike-friendly streets, early on he voted to take inner-city bike money and give it to Gary Bradley's veloway. Instead of mounting a sustained, intelligent bike-way campaign over the years, toward the end of his tenure he promoted the controversial and expensive Pedestrian Coordinator. Transportation is a key issue; this was too little and too late.
As Nofziger was getting ready to retire, the Chronicle asked if we could hold a joint interview with him and retiring councilmember Brigid Shea. Although they shared many philosophies, they differed seriously on some issues, and Nofziger declined the joint interview. This, among other things, does not evidence mature political leadership qualities.
But even if Nofziger had been the best councilmember ever, he should not now be running for mayor. Nofziger was elected as the people's candidate -- an act of defiance against career politicians and city hall insiders. Having neither found a role nor accomplished much in either the private or the public sector, he now returns to the best-paying job he has ever had: elected office. This makes him nothing more and nothing less than a career politician, and one counting more on his personality than his accomplishments.
When Nofziger left the Council, he said he was planning to take three years off and then run for mayor. Having not been sufficiently courted by the Watson camp, according to Wednesday's Statesman, and because he can't think of anything else to do, Nofziger is running for mayor after one year. He misses making policy, he says.
His two big issues are campaign finance reform and the electric utility, according to what he said on Kevin Connor's 107.1 KGSR morning radio show. In the Statesman, Nofziger expresses no real differences with Watson except he thought he was wrong not to condemn the council for inaction on campaign finance reform. This seems an awfully small sliver on which to mount a political campaign. Especially one designed to split the progressive/environmental/liberal vote with Kirk Watson and force a runoff race.
If Nofziger had a stronger record, or a more specific and unique platform, just turning this into a three-way race would be no problem. But he has become a career politician, noted more for personal warmth, honesty, and considerable charm, than for philosophy or accomplishment. The Chronicle has supported Nofziger in the past, because he has a good heart, shares many of our positions, and has been an important symbol in our recent political history. In this race he is trying to play the spoiler, by offering not a different philosophy but a different personality. By running for office now, the 1997 mayoral candidate Max Nofziger is everything that street-corner flower vendor and people's candidate Max Nofziger was elected to the Austin City Council to protest.
Townes Van Zandt was one of the great Texas voices (to simply call him a songwriter doesn't begin to give credit), who, with Guy Clark on the one hand and Willie Nelson and Billy Joe Shaver on the other, have profoundly influenced not only the succeeding generations of Texas songwriters but songwriters everywhere. In performance, Van Zandt could be absolutely transcendent, almost eerily evocative. To consider his material morbid is to miss its aching beauty and unreasonable compassion; Van Zandt really had faith in people, and his songs are infused with humanity. His recent death is a great loss. In this issue Lee Nichols and Ed Ward talk about Van Zandt.
The Austin Chronicle Music Poll ballot is running this issue; be sure to vote! This is the one time of year where the music critics are silenced and the readers express themselves. This, of course, means news of the Austin Music Awards show is imminent -- more on that later.
It's only two months until the South By Southwest onslaught begins, but already this year is shaping up to be one of the best ever. Chronicle publisher Nick Barbaro and I work especially closely on the Film Festival and Conference (with executive producer Nancy Schafer), and we have a number of exciting programs to announce: Director Sarah Kelly and producer Rana Joy Glickman, along with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, will present an Austin Film Society benefit screening of Full Tilt Boogie, a documentary on the making of From Dusk Till Dawn. Steven Soderbergh is presenting two new films, Schizopolis and Gray's Anatomy. There will be four film programs celebrating the 25th anniversary of the distribution company Women Make Movies, and Twister star Bill Paxton will present the world premiere of Traveler, on which he was both producer and actor. More on the conference, films, panels, and panelists later.
Although Nancy Schafer has no official Chronicle job, in her capacity as the Film Festival and Conference producer, she harasses Barbaro and me daily. At one point we entertained the thought of chronicling her adventures as kind of an ongoing serial in this column but decided to pass. Here are her Top Eight films of the year, which we offer for no apparent reason: 1. Fargo; 2. Trainspotting ; 3. Lone Star; 4. Breaking the Waves; 5. Secrets and Lies; 6. Shine; 7. The English Patient; 8. Manny & Lo. n