Today Muir Boda, candidate for Salisbury City Council, released his last argument for convincing voters to touch the screen for him Tuesday. It’s most important to Muir as he finished fourth in the primary and needs to leapfrog one other contender to grab one of the three available District 2 seats.
In December when I filed to run for Salisbury City Council I began this campaign with the following message and I feel it is only appropriate to make this my last message before Election Day.
Our campaign has been about ideas, solutions and action.
For too long our city has been embroiled in the politics of personal destruction and the clash of personalities. This has caused much embarrassment for the City of Salisbury and the wonderful people, who live, work and play here.
Meanwhile, businesses are struggling, crime has steadily risen, property rights are under attack and in the end our quality of life deteriorates. We must put aside our differences and come together to address the many issues we face.
I believe in having everyone at the table. All are stakeholders in this city whether you are a homeowner or business owner, landlord or renter, employer or employee, you have a right to be heard. We all have a stake in this community and passing it on to the next generation better than we received it is not just the right thing to do, it is our duty.
Join me as we bring forth a positive message of healing, reaching out to our neighborhoods that are disenfranchised and opening up our doors for business. We have so much work to do and it is going to take all of us putting aside our differences to do what is best for Salisbury.
It seems like a benign enough sort of message, but one problem Muir has faced is the public perception he’s in the pocket of landlords who play a significant role in city politics. Certainly Boda has a number of backers from the realty industry but as I noted last week he’s beginning to diversify his support base while other contenders remain neatly joined at the hip.
I noticed the dig at “neighborhoods that are disenfranchised,” which is an obvious reference to the fact the Camden neighborhood could have three Council members while large swaths of Salisbury are unrepresented, including the Doverdale area where Boda lives. Certainly many problems occur citywide, but it seems the biggest push for cracking down on perceived rental abuses and those who blame Salisbury University students for the city’s decline come from those live in Camden. Never mind that we’re talking about a $96 million industry (according to one of Boda’s opponents who lives in Camden) and an economic force of 8,000 students, most of whom live off-campus, who have plenty of other college choices both in and out of Maryland.
Meanwhile, many in the rest of the city make their living from the rental industry and college students, and we want to welcome both with open arms. After all, there’s a number of entrepreneurs who own just one or two houses in order to create a little extra income for themselves – only a small portion can be considered ‘slumlords.’
We need people on City Council who aren’t antagonistic to these important groups, and Muir Boda fits that bill. Camden would be more than adequately represented with Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen on City Council, so let’s give the rest of the city a voice as well. Remember, there is life in Salisbury east of Division Street, even though none who are on City Council currently hail from there. We can help correct that oversight on Tuesday by electing Muir Boda.
And today’s Daily Times agrees with my original thoughts on the matter – for the most part, anyway – including their own endorsement of Muir Boda.
I would like to see Boda, Cohen and Mitchell.
“Everyone at the table” . . . “stakeholders” — it’s the same platitudinous palaver we have heard from Bubba Comegys in several recent elections.
Thanks, but no thanks. Cohen and Spies are the two standout candidates in this pack.