Dude, where’s my car?

Mayor loses wheels while courting civic group

Mayor Tony Mack pulled a surprise visit to the Old Mill Hill Society monthly meeting last night at the Mill Hill Saloon.  But the OMHS had a surprise of its own.  The group didn’t have a quorum so there was no official meeting. 

Instead, the Mayor reiterated the points made in a letter tothe neighborhood delivered after the re-dedication of the newly refurbished Ike Williams Center in Clay Street Park.  The hoopla celebrated the completion of work begun stewarded by collaboration between the city recreation department under former Mayor Doug Palmer and various neighborhood residents.  Some of those residents, rightfully, took umbrage at the initial press release that left the impression the project was entirely the doing of the Mack administration.   

The fact is that most of the work being in done in parks around the city has been on the drawing boards for some time and funding set aside for it.  Those funds were about to expire if work wasn’t at least started this spring and the Mack administration wasn’t shy about touting all the projects from the earliest days of the Mayor’s term.

Public safety also came up at the meeting, giving the Mayor the opportunity to trot out another of his favorite ideas: taking police officers out from behind desks and putting them on the street.  Nobody has ever been able to answer the question: who will be left to investigate crimes and manage the department if you return all of the detectives and desk jockeys to the streets?

At some point during the meeting, the Mayor was notified that his car was being towed.

Apparently, Mayor Mack drove himself to the meeting…presumably in his personal vehicle. (And if that is truly the case, we give him props).  Seeing an open spot across Market Street from the Mill Hill Saloon, the mayor parked and ran in to court the OMHS members. 

Guess he didn’t see this sign. 

Or this one.

And his car was removed from the premises for being illegally parked.

Now, this might be funny and kind of charming.  Except for what came next.

The Mayor, apparently trying to figure out which of the two towing companies made off with his wheels, approached one of the Mill Hill residents who was standing at the bar and accused her of calling to have his car towed.

No rhyme or reason to it.  He just walked up and in more than a serious tone asked her point blank “Which number” she had called to have his car towed.

He asked the question three times as the woman and those around her stood in total disbelief. He never offered an explanation or an apology (obviously not Mayor Mack’s strong suit) to those who had witnessed this bizarre turn of events.  He just walked away.

Uh, Mr. Mayor. You forgot something.  Your manners.