Real accomplishments, transparent government, gives credit to lots of others, great things in the works...all without much fanfare. You don't need the dog or pony. You can see it and feel it. Given the cards he was dealt, a fabulous job so far.

And for the future this quote...

I think you get in trouble when you spend your time thinking about what you’re going to do next instead of being mayor, and there’s plenty to keep me occupied.

Some other mayors would have done well to follow such advice.

The political future of Mayor Haslam is surely bright.

Mayor Haslam's humility and desire to succeed comes across perfectly in this article; we are very lucky to have him serving us. Further, I applaud the quality of the team that he has assembled.

As to a couple of issues he raised, I've been lead to believe that there wasn't much that our current Mayor could have done to alter TDOT plans in any meaningful way but Mayor Haslam points out the lack of room for growth of the CBID. I'm particularly disappointed with the unneeded James White Parkway which I see as redundant to a more useful Hall of Fame Drive.

The Mayor also mentions the contiguous neighborhoods to the CBID; obviously, he has heard a great deal (from myself included) about the social burden placed upon some of these neighborhoods by the egregious overconcentration of social service agencies in what has commonly come to be known as "The Mission District". Unfortunately, this appears irreversible but there are other civic endeavors which would prove very beneficial to these neighborhoods; some of these include:

a. Schools...while the City may not be in the school business, it needs to take a leadership role in answering the concerns of its core neighborhoods whilst working with the School Board and our County government.

b. Codes...My grandfather always said to "take care of the little things and the big things take care of themselves"; love him or hate him, Guiliani proved that this works in NYC. After due process, blighted buildings should be taken by the city via eminent domain and transferred to responsible tax-revenue producing owners.

c. The core neighborhoods need infrastructure improvements...personally, I think the idea of burying utilities and installing improvements such as more historic and/or decorative street signage and lighting would have been a much better investment than a convention center.

The above are just a few ideas which could eliminate the "leap of faith" required by many before investing in Knoxville's core neighborhoods.

Mayor Bill Haslam is a straight shooting fellow thats really doing a GREAT job.