Why I probably will vote for Patrick Mara in the DC City Council election (even though he is the candidate of "big business")

His background is in renewable energy and transportation.

He's committed to transit expansion in DC, including streetcars.

He has, on many occasions, read my writings.

Now granted, the latter shouldn't matter much. But I can't imagine many of the other at-large candidates are likely to read the neighborhood e-lists, themail e-newsletter, (Sam Smith's City Desk), or this particular blog, and frankly these are some of the only real sources of critique, critical analysis and vision (not just my writings) for a better Washington, DC as a place to live.

He's intelligent.

I figure maybe it's worth having more intelligent people on City Council than we have currently, even if I don't always agree with him (or his supporters).

[I just started reading The Emancipatory City, edited by Loretta Lees, which focuses on the city as a place for emancipation--spaces of diversity, difference, celebration, and change--and it occurs to me that perhaps DC is a meaner place, more parochial than the kind of thinking and doing that is the foundation of the city as a utopian, visionary space, a "city on the hill."]