It’s all about Doug

Douglas Wilder’s most recent antics on Friday only confirm Richmond’s mayor has a narcissistic personality – i.e., he sees the city as simply a reflection of himself and his uses (and abuses) of his office. He is absolutely unable to put the community’s interests above his personal needs wield power.

This is Michael Williams on Mayor Wilder’s attempted extrajudicial eviction of the administrative offices of the city’s school system from City Hall on Friday night:

… no one is saying the school administration, the School Board and the City Council are blameless in this sorry state of affairs. But Wilder, who has an almost pathological need to bully, has consistently eschewed collaboration in favor of over-the-top confrontation. It's a mystifying approach to governance, given the considerable charms at his disposal.It's also a strange tactic for a mayor purportedly concerned about saving taxpayers money. His feuding with the school system has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal and consulting fees, not to mention an estimated $250,000 to $450,000 thrown away as a result of Friday's abortive eviction.

The mayor has insisted on treating 900 E. Broad St. as part of his real estate portfolio, not unlike his riverfront home in Charles City County. But City Hall is the people's building, owned by Richmond taxpayers. Police should not be used to shield the public and media from public business.

Friday night's chaos should strip the bark off an administration that has expended too much energy marshaling authority and too little advancing a coherent agenda. Or as George Orwell wrote, "Power is not a means, it is an end.

The post-Wilder era cannot come too soon for Richmond.