You don’t have to be a regular Haire of the Dog reader or a follower on Twitter to know I’m a hot head. Like former South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, I’m prone to tossing my visor on the ground and throwing jabs at my perceived opponents with little or no thought. Sometimes, I’m right, and other times I’m wrong — way wrong.
Take for instance a recent series of tweets, a succession of WTFs directed at Charleston mayoral candidate Ginny Deerin.
Now, I like Ginny. A lot in fact. She was the first candidate in the race to truly have ideas, good ones. But the fact that she was a long-time Sullivan’s Island resident who moved to West Ashley solely to run for mayor of Charleston, well, that really rubbed me the wrong way. And it still does. Frikkin carpetbagger.
However, I was downright incensed at her after I read the P&C‘s report on last night’s mayoral debate. Robert Behre reports:
Ginny Deerin, founder of WINGS for Kids, criticized state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis for saying that requiring infrastructure to be put in place before development is “crazy” because it would slow development…
Stavrinakis opted not to rebut Deerin’s barb, but he compared himself favorably to Riley.
“We’ve seen how flooding can wreck lives, damage businesses and bring our community to a sudden halt,” he said. “What we need is a mayor like we have now who has shown that he can fund large infrastructure projects, which I have done.”
Wait, what? Ginny thinks development should come before infrastructure. Is that what she really said? And Leon’s standing in the way of development? Like aren’t they supposed to be the exact opposite?
But then I read the sidebar accompanying the story and I saw the error of my ways — but not before sending a series of hasty tweets. Behre adds:
Deerin threw the first punch at Stavrinakis. She said she believes the city must put in place infrastructure before new development. “But Stavrinakis said that was crazy. It would slow development,” Deerin said.
Oy vey. How embarrassing.
So I sent a sincere apology to Ginny, but no more than a few minutes after I sent that, one of Leon’s folks let me know that Rep. Stavrinakis’ stance had been miscategorized by Deerin:
Leon never said that. This is another example of why experience matters.
1. DOT will never fund a road where no one lives.
2. Infrastructure projects where ppl current live always takes priority. Important to know how transportation funding works.
3. Developers should have to help fund infrastructure in areas they want to build. Not just taxpayers.
Further adding to the confusion, Deerin believes that the way to spur more economic development is “by cutting red tape” and accelerating growth in West Ashley and the upper peninsula, but she also believes “our city will require different approaches to growth” for different areas and that infrastructure development, particularly transportation infrastructure, is vitally important.
As for Leon, he’s also for cutting red tape to help business grow and investing in infrastructure.
Wait. So they’re both for the same things?
Now I’m more confused than ever. But instead of writing and then deleting a few tweets, I’ve gone and written an entire post highlighting my stupidity. Cheers.
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