Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Ravenstahl's Vision Thing

Those of you that have been on the couch all weekend for Labor Day will, no doubt, have seen this report on Bob O'Connor's recently discovered "vision" for the City of Pittsburgh.

Eleven weeks after his inauguration, Bob O'Connor and key staff met with a consultant and began summarizing the vision critics had said he lacked and setting a course for the city during what they hoped would be just his first term as mayor.

That meeting started a behind-closed-doors process that resulted in a one-legal-size-page statement of 45 goals and strategies for the new administration. It was to be made available to all Pittsburghers in an effort to quiet the critics and give voters the means to decide if he was fulfilling his promises.

The final version arrived in the mayor's office in early August 2006 when Mr. O'Connor was in the hospital suffering the effects of a rare central nervous system lymphoma. He died on Sept. 1.

The vision statement, not released until now, reflects a novel attempt to plot the city's recovery on a single page. It also provides the clearest indication of what the late mayor was trying to achieve, and a means of gauging the legacy of his short-lived administration.
Well, it turns out that Bob's successor also has a Vision Statement which has been surreptitiously smuggled* out of 414 Grant Street and posted here for your viewing pleasure:

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

He really needs to work on that "Monkey Butler" thing.

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*I believe the proper term is "keistered."


3 comments:

Sherry Pasquarello said...

pure genius. i'm still laughing.

Anonymous said...

TROGDOR!!! so lucas is a fan of the burnanator as well? ok i hate him a little less now...

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,

I sat down to read this this morning, and promptly sprayed coffee all over the place. I forwarded it to my officemate who sent a good bit of coke monitorward. Within twenty minutes, there was a thin river of mixed beverage flowing from offices and heading down the hallway to the water fountain. By the afternoon, choreography could be seen, as eruptions of drink rose into the air with grace and timing, a hundred human fountains of incredulity and glee.

It was like Vegas. Except stickier.

Bravo, sir! Bravo!