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"   Gene Marks, 54 First term Northbrook, Ill. Pop. 34,190 Biggest surprise: No matter what you do, you&amp;#039;re always wrong. Let me give you an example: All we heard for a long time from everybody was, Gee, we&amp;#039;d like sidewalks. But the village never had money. We&amp;#039;d beyond balanced the budget, and we were in the black, so we figured we&amp;#039;d do a sidewalk program. We thought it would be like Paris in 1944 when we liberated France; instead it was Baghdad 2003. Twenty-six different streets came out -- mostly older people -- screaming, We don&amp;#039;t need sidewalks! Here we thought we did a great thing.Political aspiration: Maybe U. S. congressman. But I&amp;#039;m probably not that crazy.   Mark Mallory, 45 First term Cincinnati Pop. 332,252 Biggest surprise: The number of invitations. Everybody wants to know why you&amp;#039;re not at their event. They say, Well, it&amp;#039;s my annual rubber-chicken dinner. Well, there are six other rubber-chicken dinners that night.Can we buy the mayor a beer? Well, the mayor doesn&amp;#039;t drink, but the mayor&amp;#039;s always willing to be bought a Coke or a Sprite. Buy him a root beer and you can get the mayor going. Two-button wool suit ($895) and cotton shirt ($175) by Boss Black; silk tie ($125) by Dunhill.  Francis G. Slay, 52 Second term St. Louis Pop. 347,181 Why he ran: I saw a city in decline. We were losing jobs faster than virtually any other city in America.Best perk: Presenting a key to the city to the owner of the Cardinals after they won the World Series, coming through downtown with four hundred thousand people wearing red.Best thing to do in town: The Arch!  Three-button wool suit ($4,900) by Domenico Vacca; cotton shirt ($215) by Robert Talbott; silk tie ($118) by Hickey; silk pocket square ($85) by Brioni.   Robert Bowser, 71 Third term East Orange, N.J. Pop. 69,824 Greatest challenge: We were in bad financial straits. We had to go through the state and ask for some help.Best thing to do in town: We&amp;#039;re getting into that, looking to create an arts district with restaurants and everything. It&amp;#039;s coming.   Joy Cooper, 47 First term Hallandale Beach, Fla. Pop. 34,282 Biggest issue: Global warming. In south Florida, the drought has opened a level of consciousness.Best perk: When my neighbors tell me, We&amp;#039;re supporting you. When your bosses tell you you&amp;#039;re doing a good job, it makes your day.   Mick Cornett, 49 Second term Oklahoma City Pop. 537,734 Biggest project: We&amp;#039;re rebuilding our entire inner-city school system, seventy-five buildings refurbished or built anew. You do what you can when times are good.Best thing to do in town: Row on the brand-new Oklahoma River. See next page. Return to &amp;quot;Hizzoner&amp;quot; table of contents. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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