Laura Maczka Wants Businesses to Come to Richardson

A week late, Neighborsgo has the story that Laura Maczka is running for mayor of Richardson. Taylor Adams quotes Maczka:

"As the mayor, my biggest job is to encourage businesses to continue to come to Richardson. I have a responsibility to bring what is most important to the taxpayer. My goal is to balance the quality of life and the amenities our city has come to enjoy," she said.

Plans also include development of the remaining green space in the city, she said.

Source: Neighborsgo.

After the jump, unpacking Maczka's words.

---

Maczka says her biggest job is to encourage businesses to come to Richardson. Fair enough. The mission statement of the city begins by saying, "The City pledges to enhance and expand our business base, ..." It's a good sign that Maczka appears to be in sync with the city's own mission statement.

Then Maczka says, "I have a responsibility to bring what is most important to the taxpayer." This is meaningless filler. Hopefully, Maczka will get better at providing specifics. Just what does she think is most important to the taxpayer?

Then she says, "My goal is to balance the quality of life and the amenities our city has come to enjoy." Huh? Why do these need balancing? Balance businesses and neighborhoods, maybe. That would be in keeping with that mission statement. Or balance city services with property taxes. There are all sorts of things you can balance, but quality of life and amenities don't need balance.

Finally, Neighborsgo says that "plans also include development of the remaining green space in the city." Richardson has plenty of "green space" (e.g., Breckinridge Park, Spring Creek Nature Area). I assume that isn't what Maczka means. I assume she's using "green space" like a real estate developer might, not like a parks person would. I assume by "green space" Maczka means vacant land that has never been developed. And I assume by "development" she doesn't preclude the possibility of extending our park space. But I'm not 100% sure.

Maybe Neighborsgo did a poor job capturing Maczka's words. Or maybe Maczka is still getting her sea legs in this campaign. In any case, while there are no egregious mistakes in her remarks, Maczka doesn't crisply lay out the case for her to be mayor, either. Based on the quotes in Neighborsgo, my guess is that her campaign will focus on a goal of attracting businesses to Richardson. If so, I'll be listening to learn how she plans to do that.