Campaigning thoughts
I meet many people during these campaigning days to talk to them about the projects that Nicusor Ciumacenco and I are proposing to Galati City Hall and Galati City Council. I want to write this post to share some very interesting thoughts. The people I am meeting can be divided into two categories: those who are fed up and tired of electoral promises and of the poor attitude of elected officials and those who are pleasantly suprised by our proposals. Here is what the grass roots situation looks like, in my homecity of Galati:
About 20% of the people do not believe in us anymore, the candidates to public offices. I fully understand them and, although I’ve never had an elected position, I feel a little embarassed for being able to talk to them only about future projects and success stories from other Romanian or international cities and not about past accomplishments. These people feel frustrated that although they are being lied before every election, candidates are still approcahing them for their vote! More over, some of them knocked on close doors when they wanted to solve a community problem. I personally believe that a public official should behave as during the electoral campaign thoroughout the mandate and not only one month before elections. This attitude brings respect to voters, decency, initiative, and accomplishments. Unfortunately, I can only hope to meet these people four years from now and talk to them about implemented projects and new needs.
About 80% of the people I meet, are pleasantly surprised to see me. Most of the times we have an informative discusion for them and an educational one for me :). I can now tell that the citizens from Galati do not need mega projects at this moment. They first need decent community services. Here are some grass roots problems that they told me about: they need new parks and better maintained old ones, more parking spaces, they want to get rid of old cars, they want better street cleaning services, they want to cut the poplars and replace them with lime trees, they need social apartments for young people, no more pot holes on the streets and on the alleys between apartment buildings, no more beggars on the streets, and no more street dogs. All these problems could be solved so easily by local authorities thorugh inititive, creativity, respect for voters, regular meetings with citizens, and action!
That is why I believe that the policy proposals made by Nicusor Ciumacenco and the 10 candidates to Galati City Council, including myself, are a perfect match to the current needs of the city. The program can be found here.
