For the good of the city...

Today's lesson from the Prophet Jeremiah

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

casts a holy glow on today's editorial (2nd page) from Randell Beck

"On a more serious note, I hope all of you who lit up the phones at City Hall last spring with complaints about streets have taken a moment lately to send a note of thanks to our beleaguered public servants for responding.

You'll recall how bad it was as our long winter nightmare finally ended: seemingly endless potholes, fissures and crumbling intersections. Roads in town seemed to be falling apart in front of us - and it became a big issue in the mayoral campaign.
I'll never forget an afternoon in late April as I drove south on Cliff Avenue across 10th Street - one of the worst intersections in the city. Suddenly, a small sedan in the next lane just disappeared - the apparent victim of a really large pothole. Never saw that car again.

A lot of us, me included, whined and griped last spring about the condition of our streets. Then Mike Huether became mayor. Orange cones reproduced like rabbits. For a time, navigating downtown streets was a little like entering one of those corn mazes.

And in the past week, we've begun experiencing the fruits of their labor - and my hat's off to them.

Minnesota Avenue north of 22nd Street, one of the bumpiest stretches in the city a few months ago, is now a pleasure to drive. Ditto for a lot of city streets that now are better prepared for winter.

To be sure, some of the patches are just that - temporary until more money and time is available for full street replacement.

But they'll do for now.

Why not drop a line to Cotter, Huether and the hard workers in public works? City Hall's address is 224 W. Ninth St., and the zip is 57104.
It would be a classy thing to do."

Here's an apt prayer from Compline (the late night service in the Book of Common Prayer),

O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live
in and the life we live: Watch over those, both night and day,
who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never
forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christians are, after all, exiles far from home. What Jeremiah said to Jerusalem's exiles goes for us - pray for our communities and work for their good.