Taking stock of her first 100 days in office, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon admits she is walking a fine line. Her ambition to transform the city is tempered by the realities of precious little time before the next election.
While she touts increased tree planting and extra trash recycling, reductions in police overtime and a decrease in homicides as evidence she is getting things done, there are some things she says will have to wait.
“I?m a do-it-now type of person,” Dixon said in an interview to mark the purely numerical milestone, “but this is a transition period.”
The serious work, the nuts and bolts of overhauling parts of the city government? such as the city?s department of public works, which she believes needs to be fixed from the bottom up ? might have to wait until the residents of the city re-elect the city?s first black female mayor.
“We need to eliminate supervisors and put more folks on the ground,” she said of the department that handles the city?s trash. “But it?s too soon.”
Still, Dixon, who is serving out the balance of the term of her predecessor, now-Gov. Martin O?Malley, has impressed political pundits with her energetic first three months and her ability to handle crises.
“She appears to be a very, very active mayor, and historically polls show she will benefit from the activity and her energy in the upcoming election,” said Richard Vatz, a professor of political science at Towson University. “I think [former U.S. Rep.] Kweisi Mfume will tend to be careful to enter a race with an active mayor. If she were keeping a low profile, he might be more inclined.”
“I think she surprised everybody,” said Johns Hopkins University political science professor Matthew Crenson.
“She?s hardly made a single misstep,” he said. “When problems have arisen, she has handled them deftly ?from the little boy who got arrested to helping break up the logjam of the superblock by effectively brokering a deal.”
Crenson agreed with Vatz that Dixon?s job performance appears to be keeping Mfume on the sidelines.
Despite the pressures of getting things done in light of a looming campaign, the mayor sees herself as an effective composite of the strengths of her predecessors. “I have a little piece of each,” she said, including her aforementioned desire to get things done sooner rather than later, like former Mayor William Donald Schaefer. “I think I also have [former] Mayor Martin O?Malley?s passion for the city,” she said, “except I have more energy than he does.”
