The Ruins of Trenton

Public relations efforts undertaken by those in the local media who have become overly friendly with the Trenton establishment reported this week that a surprised Mayor Douglas H. Palmer was diligently working to stave off the looming closures of some of the city’s important, free branch libraries, due to fiscal pressures.

But with more reading and thinking it becomes clear - based on this and other policy gaffes and their handling - that Mayor Palmer and his cronies think the good people of Trenton are nothing more than a community of 83,000 idiots.

That’s evident because any rational person would see that it is rather difficult for a mayor to be surprised about a plan to close what is a valuable city asset when not only did the mayor push the plan into motion through his own budget decisions, but he also handpicked the group of individuals occupying seats on the library Board of Trustees that made the decision to close the libraries in the first place.

Additionally, it has been written that this group of individuals informed the mayor of the consequences of his budget decisions, in potentially forcing the library leadership to close branches, prior to the budget decisions being made.

So when newspapers have the mayor out and about, contacting corporate entities for donations and organizing fundraising efforts out of a sense of surprise and a serious desire to keep the branches open, it’s really just a bunch of malarkey.

Mayor Palmer is totally and utterly responsible for the potential closures, both directly through his questionable budgetary decisions and indirectly through his choices of people for the library Board of Trustees. These pieces of what is clearly questionable decision-making now threaten to suck more social and educational capital out of areas of the city that have suffered the worst under the mayor’s five consecutive terms.

Any reports of surprise or genuine efforts being made to stave off the closure of the libraries and the layoffs of dozens of employees and city residents on the part of the mayor are nothing more than public relations spin meant to throw opponents and those who would stop the closures off balance, and pave the way for the plan to become effective, this Nov. 1.

And remember Trenton, the arrogance of these efforts prove that Mayor Palmer thinks the city is nothing but 7.7 square-miles of densely-packed fools.