After Mayor Bob Coble’s “State of the City” speech last night, I tried to wrangle some of the mayoral candidates for comment. It was easier said than done because they were all feverishly working the room.
That was especially true for Steve Benjamin. As I waited to talk with him, his spokesman took pity on me, grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out what Benjamin would say to me. Here it is:
In case you can’t read that, it says:
“Mayor Coble and Teddy Roosevelt were right, it’s not about the critic. It’s about having a bold new vision — for the future.”
Of course, me being the pesky journalist, I couldn’t accept a piece of paper. I had to ask Benjamin myself. So I did, and he told me exactly what was on the paper (plus a few other things in response to some follow-up questions).
But my favorite part of the night was watching mayoral candidate Sparkle Clark take her picture with everyone. I felt like I was watching Michael Moore the way she would ambush people and, before they knew what was going on, they had just been photographed with Sparkle.
My favorite was this picture of fellow mayoral candidate Steve Morrison, who looks like he was caught mid-sentence:
You can see the rest of the photos on Sparkle’s Facebook page.
Adam Beam covers the City of Columbia for
One Comment
I was amazed to read the transcript of the speech mayor Bob gave last night and not see any mention Five Points. The new grocery on Harden (by Drew’s Wellness Center) and Mast General Store coming to Main St. are more noteworthy than what we have accomplished in the past twenty years???????? Give me a break.