Reverend Anthony Randall stepped to the pulpit at Twelve Gates Missionary Baptist Church, a small congregation that meets in a storefront space on West Division in Austin. “The next voice you’ll hear is from someone who’s become a friend of mine,” he said, “and I hope he’s going to become our next mayor.”
Over the last three years Fioretti has emerged as one of the few outspoken critics of Emanuel in the City Council. And the mayor has returned the love: when Emanuel’s allies redrew ward boundaries two years ago, the Second Ward was so altered that Fioretti’s home is no longer in it.
And on Sundays he goes to church—usually several of them, most in black neighborhoods where Emanuel is particularly unpopular.
“Our younger people see the shuttered schools and say, ‘What are they doing to us?’”
Many of Fioretti’s policy ideas are broad and not particularly original. But that doesn’t mean he fails to pay attention to the small stuff. As we drove down Division and then Cicero, he offered a running list of the signs of neglect: illegal signs advertising cheap mortgages and night clubs, litter in vacant lots, trees that are diseased and need to be replaced.
After spending years focused on micro-level issues like parking regulations, weedy lots, and empty storefronts, most aldermen have been simply unable to build the record or name recognition needed for citywide or countywide office.
