Leadership Needed

For years, I’ve had an Oscar Goodman bobblehead doll on my desk.

Goodman is the mayor of Las Vegas, where I lived before I moved to
Tucson. Like Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup, Goodman is in his third term as
mayor after taking office in 1999.

There, the substantial similarities between Goodman and Walkup
end.

Goodman is, to put it bluntly, kind of nuts. He’s proud of his
former career as a mob lawyer; he’s an unabashed drinker (who once
famously extolled gin’s virtues to a bunch of fourth-graders); and he’s
about as politically incorrect as a politician can get. His views on
homelessness are somewhere between insensitive and appalling.

However, Goodman is a popular, effective leader.

Since he’s become mayor, downtown Las Vegas has benefited from a lot
of development: new shopping, business and residential endeavors have
all come to fruition under Goodman’s leadership. (Much of what is
considered Las Vegas is actually in unincorporated Clark County, so
Goodman’s jurisdiction only goes so far.)

That’s not to say all of Goodman’s efforts have been successful.
Most notably, his push to bring a big-league sports franchise to Las
Vegas has been a miserable failure.

But the point is that Goodman leads. He speaks out. He fights
for things to happen.

Let’s turn back to Tucson: When was the last time you heard Bob
Walkup—or any city official, for that matter—really speak
out or fight for something to happen here?

Tucson’s problems can, in part, be attributed to this total lack of
leadership. We have no spokesman for the city. We have no fighters. And
as last week’s split City Council decision to fire City Manager Mike
Hein shows, we’re going nowhere fast.

Looking at the bobblehead doll, I can’t help but wonder what Tucson
would be like if it had a strong leader like Goodman. I suspect that
the Old Pueblo would be in much better shape if we did.

This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.