Awareness of the current disarray has moved beyond the chatter of City Hall insiders and out into the community. It's sad, in a way, to reflect on the Brown of Election Night in 1997, when he defeated Rob Mosbacher in the mayor's race. At the time, he appeared confident and beaming with pride. These days, it's quite a different picture. One prevailing question is whether Brown's stewardship of the city is about to fall into an unrelenting death spiral, or if he's simply at a low point in a cycle.
Recent events suggest a free-fall.
The arena defeat, disputed contracts over the Continental Airlines terminal, controversy over the Africa trip and his continuing fights with the controller suggest a problematic trend. Most damaging perhaps was the recent walkout of five City Council members from the weekly meeting, in protest over the administration's handling of a parking contract. Looks grim, especially when you consider that the administration's cumulative response to all this has basically been that it's all someone else's fault. Worse still, those close to the mayor continue to insist that criticism of Brown's trip to Africa was unrelated to the fact that council and the public were misled about the ill-timed trade mission. Rather, they claim, critics just don't like black politicians visiting black nations.