Birmingham View News Portal

Willis “Mickey Mouse” Hendrix got the biggest laugh from the WorkPlay audience at Tuesday night’s mayoral forum when he said Birmingham’s citizens needed to stop running to City Hall, begging elected officials to fix the city for us.

In the Constitution, he pointed out, any powers not granted to the federal, state or local governments reside with the people. Instead of begging, he said, they should demand what they want from their elected leaders, “Look here, dammit, we want it done!”

(Mr. Hendrix went on to lose ground when, upon being asked what he would do to promote racial harmony, mentioned that he has some “colored” acquaintances.)

The 10 mayoral candidates line up on the Workplay stage.

And what we want, based on the questions raised at the forum (organized by the League of Women Voters, Catalyst, Rotoract and the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists) includes reducing the city’s ridiculous crime rate, tackling inner city education woes, forging partnerships to create a viable transit system, and attracting new businesses and jobs to Birmingham. The candidate with the vision, passion, strategic planning and political savvy to achieve these ends is exactly what Birmingham needs in its next mayor.

This mayoral election is crucially important to the people of this city, based on what I am hearing and what I saw last night. Young, old, black and white, higher-income and lower income folks, neighborhood leaders, young professionals, business owners — all concerned citizens — leaned forward in their chairs, weighing the candidates’ comments. You could almost hear their mental gears turning as they took careful mental note of every word the candidates uttered from WorkPlay’s stage.