The Ruins of Trenton

Mayor Douglas H. Palmer recently got an earful from some of those who assisted with Trenton’s amazingly successful Art All Night event, according to some residents.

Trenton’s frequently absent executive was having a drink at a downtown eatery when some of those who helped run the event arrived, prior to a dinner gathering at the same restaurant.

When asked why Trenton’s “Missing Mayor” didn’t attend the wildly successful event, Doug apparently said he was busy with his U.S. Conference of Mayors duties in Miami.

The event participants asked Mayor Palmer how many people showed up “to his event” down in Florida, and the mayor said somewhere around 1,000.

“We had over 5,000 at Art All Night,” said the organizers, at which point things got a little tense.

The ego maniacal mayor of Trenton got some significant flack for his decision not to attend one of the better city events, which consistently manages to attract thousands of people from outside Trenton into the city for a night centered on the arts.

While Trenton residents have no doubt gotten used to their mayor’s frequent absence from the local scene, it appears the mayor of the city continues to fool himself into thinking that traipsing around the nation touting non-existent programs and non-existent achievements is going to allow him to gain national attention and some larger public position.

Anyone considering handing Trenton’s mayor such a position will no doubt dig a little deeper into the resume of Mayor Palmer, and discover that the man has really not done much of anything, despite managing to rule the capital of New Jersey for nearly two decades.

As L.A. Parker recently pointed out, people in this city seem to believe that chanting the same thing repeatedly renders the statement into reality. Maybe Mayor Palmer thinks that if he keeps saying “I’m a successful public official, I’m worthy of higher office,” then it will be so.

Let’s hope it’s not.