Just back from the Iowa State Fair. Our band, Castle Ridge, did two shows there yesterday.

OK, I admit it. I was a local politician. I'm so ashamed.

Upon leaving Chicago (and the Greater Chicago Bluegrass Band) in 1976 for meaningful employment in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we found ourselves living in the small hamlet of Robins, Iowa (population 700). I'm the sort that tends to get involved with things around me so it wasn't too long before I was asked to serve on a couple of city committees. That gave me some insight into the way the town operated and I was persuaded to accept an appointment to the Town Council. I was filling out the term of an elected councilperson who had moved away. I subsequently ran and was elected for another term.

By then it was plain that many of the towns administrative problems existed because the long time mayor had only completed the eighth grade and operated on a friends and enemies basis. I resolved to rectify the situation and was probably the first candidate for Mayor to actually use typeset and printed campaign materials. I held neighborhood meetings, talked with voters, discussed issues and was elected by an overwhelming margin. I guess it didn't hurt that I'd cut my teeth on Chicago ward politics helping independent progressive candidates defeat Richard J. Daley's machine.

The good news is that, at the local level, democracy actually works. It's just you and your neighbors and friends working through issues that they really notice when they come home at night. Once you drive out the special interests, which in our case mostly meant developers, you can do a lot of good work. I had long known that you can do pretty much anything you want to if you apply yourself and have the energy. As everyone here knows, that works with music as well. Along with my supporters, I was able to install a sewer system, get the streets paved, build a new city park, work with county government to get access roads paved, make way for a 52 mi. bicycle and recreation trail that passed through town on an old RR right of way. We replaced old fire trucks, instituted a planed replacement for police cars and created a budget and planning system so the officials and townspeople would know where we were headed.

The downside of being Mayor in a small town is that you can wind up with angry and drunken citizens screaming obscenities at you on your front lawn at three in the morning. In those situations I found it helpful that the police chief lived across the street. You can also find your public meetings filled to overflowing with citizens concerned about particular issues. Some on the council thought this was bad but I always welcomed it. It gave me a(nother) chance to educate folks and help them understand that no one was going to run roughshod over them. It also tended to keep the council members on their toes.

Eventually my computing career became more demanding and there were fewer big issues to resolve in city government so I quit running for office and just let others take the reins. But as a result of the work we did back then, Robins has tripled in size, property values are way up and it's considered a desirable place live.

I'm now retired from pretty much everything but music so music (performing and teaching) is taking a lot more time again.

      - Mark