Schiff in the Political Marketplace

We bumped into City Council Member Gary Schiff Saturday at the Midtown Farmers’ Market and discovered that the 9th Ward politico remains as opinionate as ever. Asked about his colleague Ralph Remington’s prospective run for mayor, Schiff professed some skepticism: “He’s not running for president?”(Ouch.) And fellow CMs Robert Lilligren (6th Ward) and Sandy Colvin Roy (12th Ward) came under particularly harsh criticism for their recent votes against allowing recovering alcoholics and drug users to settle in supportive wards. “Don’t we want sober people in the neighborhoods?” he asked. Schiff wasn’t completely negative, though. He had effusive praise for Little Earth housing director Bill Ziegler, who he said is doing marvelous work for the Phillips neighborhood housing project. Ziegler, he said, is pushing against the low expectations of the Little Earth board, who seem less than concerned by the horrendous drop-out rate among children there (only 3 percent finish high school). “I’ve been quoting Bush a lot lately, Schiff said: “The soft bigotry of low expectations.” Sounds like a mayoral platform, we suggested. Are we going to see a Schiff for Mayor campaign. “I’d be OK with that,” he said.