This was Aug2021? doesn’t seem that long ago. Was discussing with malcolm how we would do things differently. 

It’s my first day as mayor. The first thing I’d want to do is to meet with all the important people in town to find out what everyone’s concerns are. What are the bottlenecks constraining this city? Sanitation, crime, education, the basics. These are the concrete things we have to make progress on.

While doing this, I think my personal pet project would be, can we improve the branding? What’s the city’s flag? Is it a good one? What are the iconic cultural institutions? What do people love, what are they proud of? Where do people take photos when they get married? What is the city’s media situation? I’d like to see all of the city’s best cultural assets properly appreciated and shared internally, locally, regionally, globally. Let’s make this city something people are excited to come to, make their homes in, play long games in.

I’d also want to reach out to the other mayors of neighbouring cities. What are they working on? What are their struggles and concerns? Do they have any advice for me? What was my predecessor like? What did they do well, what did they do poorly? Let’s have dinner somewhere and ask the owners how things are going.