Remain In Light

“Let’s go off the record”.  A fourth estater stops by the office with questions.  The door’s open, no appointment necessary.  Question.  Answer / smile.  Negative question.  Answer / smile.  Slightly more negative question.  Answer / smile.  Even more negative question.  Answer / I can do this smile all day long.  He (not me) asks to go off the record and describes all the ways Seaside is, was and always will be wrong.  What say you, city manager, off the record?

Seaside’s the largest, most inclusive city on the peninsula coast, with the greatest opportunity before it, not just for itself, but for the region.  That’s on the record, as is everything else I say.  

But they’re big projects.  Too big for Seaside, he goes on.  The biggest is half the size of a project I did as a twenty-something.  But there’s no planning staff.  I appreciate your perspective, but you’re wrong.  Does the City Council know you talk like this?  They didn’t hire me by accident.  That’s on the record too.  Largest, most-inclusive city, with the greatest opportunity.  Happy to be here.   By the way, I’m a certified planner.  By the way, your focus on a single project or single developer misses the point.  Largest, most inclusive city on the peninsula, with the greatest opportunity before it, not just for itself, but for the region.  Looking for a story?  Tell that one.        

The “let’s go off the record” tango is always a little out of step.  If you don’t mean it or want it attributed to you, here's a tip - don’t say it.  When the press asks to go off the record, it’s all the more clumsy.  Excuse me, but you’re the one with the printing press / antenna, not me.  And I didn’t take a seat in your office, you took a seat in mine.  Come with a plan that includes me not answering the question the way you prefer I do.   

Same tired expectations.  Same as it ever was.  Same tired eyes.  Same as it ever was. 

A bit of déjà vu with the press request to go off the record.  Not the Herald, and not the Weekly, so that’s good news.  They’ve asked straight up questions and I’ve delivered straight up answers including (ah, new guy) “I don’t know”. 

Here’s what I do know; life’s socially constructed.  The roles and rote of social interaction and expectation get worn into our soul as indelibly as they get codified into everything from polite party conversation to legacy college admissions to exclusionary zoning. 

Supposed to be.  Same as it ever was.  

My office door is supposed to be closed.  The press is supposed to ask questions so tough I’m supposed to ask to go off the record.  Seaside is supposed to believe it’s not the largest city on the peninsula coast with the greatest opportunity.  The Cubs are supposed to lose.

“Supposed to” creates ample opportunity to achieve what makes many of us most easily happy.  Which is … have the outcomes match our expectations.  That’s the comfortable, unthinking way to go at it, but it leaves so much possibility out of the equation.

On the record, looking back at it, the advances occur when something different from what we expect is suggested, then actually happens.  

Bonus helpful hint !

Next time you're singing along with the Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime", substitute "Many good" for "Letting the" in the "days go by" chorus.  It's a much better song that way.