Mayor Waldron officiated at the last regular Council meeting of his term yesterday. We had a brief ceremony where he was presented with a resolution honoring his service to the community. There really wasn’t any time to offer remarks so I’d like to offer a bit here:

The Mayor has a few phrases and/or beliefs that he liked to mention from time to time and I thought they were insightful.  The first was, roughly put, it isn’t real if it isn’t in the budget. The second is his belief that one of his major responsibilities was to make, by committee assignments and other methods, the Council members the best they could be.

After 2 years on the Council I can tell you that the first is undeniably true. Ain’t nothing real at City hall unless there are bucks associated with it. Talk all you want about something but unless dollars have been allocated, it isn’t going to happen. It took me a bit to really get my head around it but this little bit of advice is why Manassas Next was done the way it was.

As for making the Council members the best they could be, I would argue that he largely succeeded. With half of the Council being in their first term it took awhile longer than it might have otherwise but he was successful. The committees are working very smoothly and the budget process went pretty well (some would argue too well:).

Now, I’ve never served with another Mayor but I thought Mr. Waldron did a pretty damn good job. Surely, there were times where I wasn’t so happy about something he had done or said but, on balance, I expect he had more frequent occasion to be put out with me…:) So, I would like to thank Mr. Waldron for his service to his City and wish him well.

when we grow up?  “We” is, of course, Manassas.  In my short time on council, I’ve looked at many of the plans and schemes that the City has come up with over the years to advance our shared interests.  The plans that I have seen aren’t bad but I do believe that they all share the same weak point:  we haven’t really decided what we want to be.  We don’t have a firm idea of the image that we want to convey to others – and image is everything.  Depending on what document you read we want to be artsy or quirky or family-oriented or some other adjective but nobody has ever selected one (or more) and figured out exactly what that means.

This is what I would like to spend a fair amount of time on this summer.  We need to arrive at an image for old town that we can then advance.  If it is to be an Arts & Entertainment district (for example) then we need to figure out what that really looks like (restaurants? Art Galleries? Antique shops? what exactly!!) and how we get there.   There has been an aweful lot of talk of late about Economic Development (a lot of it from me…:) and I’ve come to the conclusion that until the leadership takes this top level decision that we just can’t get very far forward.  This is really part of Manassas Next and this crucial discussion was part and parcel of that initiative.

So, the question is to you: what should Old Town and, by extension, the rest of Manassas mean to the world?  What carefully considered image should we project?
What kind of stuff would you like to see in Old Town in the near future and the rest of Manassas as time goes by?