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At times during his four years as mayor, Nelson Harris very easily could have donned a flak jacket as standard gear.

But give the man props for firing a few relevant salvos of his own before leaving the job.

In an "exit interview" published Sunday in this newspaper, Harris served food for thought that Roanokers should chew on.

In a lengthy interview, Roanoke Times reporter Mason Adams asked Harris what the city needs to move forward. Predictably -- and correctly -- the former mayor cited better schools and regional cooperation.

But where Harris made me -- and others -- sit up was his mention of who is absent from the city's governing bodies. Without disparaging the current council members, Harris tactfully noted who isn't there.

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A bank can't be unrobbed.

A grifter can't get away with conning an old woman out of her life savings by claiming it was all a big misunderstanding.

Former Roanoke Councilman Alfred Dowe can't misuse public dollars, pay it back, wipe his hands and say, "All's well that ends well."

Despite Dowe's repayment of nearly $6,000 in restitution, we hold public officials to a higher standard of accountability and trust.

Dowe violated that trust.

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Today, I want to use this space to call for an end to the factors stymieing the future of the Roanoke City Market Building.

Most everyone agrees that downtown's signature marketplace building needs a serious makeover. But the suspicions and the inability to communicate between the people running the building and those making their living in it have stalled the renovation.

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Sherman Lea is poised to be a BMOC, Big Man on Council

Not the BMOC -- that's Mayor-elect David Bowers -- but a voice of leadership.

It's about time.

Since his election four years ago to Roanoke City Council, Lea has been seen as a toady for his running mate and fellow council member Brian Wishneff.

Earlier this year, Lea cut ties with Wishneff and joined ranks with Mayor Nelson Harris as the two sought re-election in last week's municipal election.

Harris didn't retain his seat, but Lea was the highest vote-getter, with 6,562 and will become vice mayor July 1. He will become the longest-serving member on the council. If Lea's runaway victory showed anything, it showed he can stand on his own. Without Wishneff, without Harris.

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The sixth time was the charm for David Bowers.

After defeats in his last five political outings, the former Roanoke mayor and councilman captured the mayor's office in this week's municipal election.

Once considered the Bill Clinton of Roanoke's black community, Bowers became 2008's Comeback Kid on Tuesday night.

Bowers seized on sources of residents' discontent and exploited those to victory.

He rallied to the side of firefighters disgruntled over budget cuts, Forest Park Elementary parents unhappy about the pending closure of the school and dismayed Mill Mountain advocates who are fighting a proposal for a restaurant in the park.

He also pledged to oppose an amphitheater on the old Victory Stadium site.

Candidate Bowers made a slew of promises. But can Mayor Bowers deliver?

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After almost eight months, the mailbag overfloweth on subjects as varied as Jeremiah Wright, Boones Mill, former city Councilman Alfred Dowe, a restaurant on Mill Mountain, the Roanoke police department and parental responsibility.

Before I get to the electronic mail, I'll share a recent voicemail I received from an anonymous caller annoyed by my column citing the need for any restaurant on Mill Mountain to have a view:

Miss Flowers, pack up your rent-to-own furniture and move to Pittsburgh.

I don't rent my furniture, but it's probably time to buy something a little more up-to-date. My basement, with its dated white, overstuffed leather sofa and chair, looks like a throwback to the disco era.

As for a move to Pittsburgh, don't tempt me. It's a very cool city.

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The deed, as we expected, is done.

Forest Park Elementary School will close in June, and its 265 students will be dispersed to three other elementary schools this fall to make room for an overage academy.

Impassioned parents and their advocates condemned the proposal in a show of support for the school during a meeting Wednesday evening at Lucy Addison Middle School. But the next morning, school officials approved the measure. With a divided 4-3 vote, the Roanoke School Board elevated the proposal to policy.

Now, for the sake of the children, let the healing begin.

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For five years, Pam Forrest-Hurt has played tennis several times a week on the city-owned courts at Eureka Park.

And for five years, she has put up with the declining condition and spotty maintenance of the courts in Northwest Roanoke. The wide cracks that can throw off the trajectory of any bouncing ball that lands on one. The hit-or-miss lighting. The overgrown grass along the fence.

All that is bad enough. But what pushed the calm, soft-spoken woman to her breaking point was the response she received three weeks ago when she called the city and asked someone to please come repair a raggedy net.

What Forrest-Hurt found when she returned to play was a plastic clamp -- about the size of the twist-ties used to seal loaves of bread -- holding the net together.

"That was kind of it for me," Forrest-Hurt said Sunday evening.

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There will be columns in which I just go off because I find something so incredibly ridiculous. -- Me, May 3, 2005

In my three years of columnizing, nothing comes to mind as more silly than the exercise in civic absurdity under way in Boones Mill.

Blowing up the democratic process over a speeding ticket?

I don't think that's quite what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he wrote, "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."

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Don't even think about piling onto city school officials because Roanoke has the region's worst dropout rate.

They didn't earn the dubious distinction by themselves.

When a child arrives at school unprepared, unable or unwilling to learn, don't blame the teacher, the principal or the school board.

It's the parents' fault.

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