The City's Big Dance

a peek at a bracket...

The Downtown News has a two-page March madness styled "tournament" pitting 64 civic entities against each other, including results. The piece, a collaboration between exec ed/conceptualizer Jon Regardie and artist Doug Davis (whose style reminds me very much of the great Herald Ex cartoonist of long ago, Karl Hubbenthal), is intended as humor, and delivers that, especially when you look at it matchup by matchup.

But I think the piece could also serve as a superb educational tool for civics discussions in local high schools, junior colleges, and colleges, and local adult learning discussion groups. Who is Planning Director Gail Goldberg? Why do you think she "loses" in the first round? Who is Jose Huizar and why is he facing playing tenants? Why is the Mayor with City Lobbyists in the final?

You can find the large (over 1 meg) pdf here if you click that link. But I recommend picking up a copy at a newsstand, and pouring over it for a while. The issue has hit the stands; ye who follow city politics so closely won't be disappointed, and those who don't will get a quick education, seeing the City in a way they haven't before.