Mayoral Health

I am going to sound like that surrealistic “I LUV LUKE” blog, but I am concerned about the Mayor’s health (BTW, their URL is a lot easier to type than mine, I really should have gone with something that simple). He is reporting that he gave up coffee for 12 diet pepsi’s a day, which “keeps his energy up”. Er, … diet drinks have no calories. This is not energy, this is caffeine, unless some of them are decaf (hoping the ones he drinks after 3 pm are, or he might be up all hours). All that phosphorous is going to rot his teeth, too. These are probably 20 ounce bottles, I assume, since it’s hard to find the 16 ounce variety. No wonder the Mayor wants to go to a bar for a drink with his wife. The stress and caffeine is doing a number on him. He's self-medicating.

It’s good to hear he is running three times a week, to “clear his head”. I can absolutely understand, although at the moment I am restricted to an Airdyne type stationary bike because I partially tore a bit of knee ligament or tendon or something. The Mayor needs to cut back on the caffiene, get more sleep, eat more fruits and vegetables, keep up and even expand his running program and perhaps try some meditation. A few years of that and he will be as calm as Tom Murphy. Er … Well, maybe he could run a marathon, like he says he wants to.

One man interested in diets is Mark DeSantis. But the target of his weight reduction program is no one person, rather it is the city government. It is hard to believe that among recent Mayors the mercurial Tom Murphy was the leader in fiscal discipline, but there it is. Bob O’Connor and now Luke Ravenstahl seem(ed) to want to sneak some expansion in, under the Act 47 radar. A good test of the Mayor’s commitment to fiscal discipline will be his reaction *if* city council votes today to freeze the parking tax. I don’t know if that is something he could veto, if so, he should; if not, he should complain loudly. Meanwhile DeSantis, ever the believer in symbols, is willing to trim the Mayor’s office by half. Mike Huckabee, another republican, whose concern with health and weight lead him to lose one hundred pounds while in office, suggested that leaders don’t ask people to do something the leaders are not willing to do themselves (shades of Mooon Over Parador). Mark DeSantis won’t ask the city government to make do with less until he does. Of course, he may have to break his “no layoffs” pledge to shrink the Mayor’s staff (if he is elected), but I think they probably would be moving on anyway. If Desantis has to make do with half a staff, he might start drinking 12 diet pepsi’s a day…