Did you feel that the initial reaction to Chuck Reed’s State of the city address was, shall we say, somewhat lacking in enthusiasm? I did.
The comments said it was a pretty good speech, but I seemed to detect a subtle echo of what we heard from Reed's opponents during the recent election campaign. Reed was an okay guy, the critics said, but he lacked vision, lacked new ideas.
And that’s what I extracted from some reactions to the speech-- including those on the editorial page of the Mercury News. They stressed the point that the speech included no really new ideas.
Fortunately, the Mercury News editorial board seems to have settled on a much more positive view. Last Sunday’s editorial page was dedicated chiefly to support of the State of the City speech and to its stress on making San Jose a great city by concentrating on efforts to keep us from spending more money than we take in.
It's good to see that support. After all, fiscal responsibility -- finally! -- is a pretty good idea all by itself. That's why I liked the speech.
This is Robert Kieve, and that's a personal opinion.
