Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992 TAG: 9202140136
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY FROM MAYOR NOEL TAYLOR?
Musser: "I would be a little more outspoken on some issues. I would fall somewhere between Roy Webber [a former Democratic mayor] and Taylor in trying to work behind the scenes to get things done. The mayor has a conciliatory style, but I would be more outspoken. But I would not be a radical because, as mayor you have to walk down the middle. You can't be a one- or two-issue person. As mayor, you have to consider labor, the business community, the taxpayers and others. I would be less outspoken than [Bowers]. My opponent has used council as a forum for politics."\ Bowers: "Noel is a minister. People may not altogether understand this but there's a lot of ministerial work to being a lawyer, a lot of conferences, consultations, advice, things like that. It's not just pleading a case.
"Noel has been a great mayor. But I sometimes think over the last several years - and this isn't just a criticism of Noel Taylor, this is a criticism of City Council, and the power establishment - I think we've tried to make too many projects a priority.
"Every idea that comes down the pike is not a great idea, and every idea ought not be a project. I think Roanoke over the last several years has tried to do too many things and perhaps not done a lot of things well. My focus would be to prioritize a little better.
"That was one of my first criticisms of Explore [the proposed living-history state park in Roanoke County]. I thought instead of taking all that emphasis of the community and all that money from the commonwealth and sending it down the river to Explore, we should have put it in downtown Roanoke. So my priority would have been the downtown Transportation Museum, and Center in the Square and improvements in the Market, putting brick pavement on the Market. And now with the Rescue Museum, and Henry Street and the Hotel Roanoke.
"Secondly, with all due respect to Noel Taylor, I'm going to be 40 this year. My perspective on things is different. I was a child of the '50s and '60s and in college in the '70s and a young lawyer and politician in the '80s. So my perspective is different. It's more up-to-date, more contemporary."
Keywords:
POLITICS