Shades of leadership

Mayor Mark Kruzan’s favorite movie is Koyaanisqatsi, a silent film based on the Hopi Indian word for “life out of balance.” The film, compiled between 1975 and 1982, is a series of diametrically opposed depictions of urban life and the environment and the beautiful struggle for balance between the two.\nFor a politician whose career background includes 16 years as one of 100 state representatives in the Indiana State Legislature, balance is a running theme in his life. \n“I take more of a collaborative approach,” Kruzan said of his leadership style. \nPassion carries over to politics. Kruzan avidly loves mountain biking and has made major pushes to promote bicyclist safety this year by reserving full lanes on Walnut Street and College Avenue. \nKruzan said this balance and how it carries over to his economic development philosophy for downtown and students is the biggest difference between him and his opponent in this year’s mayoral race.\nLooking out of his greenhouse-like corner office, plants lining the window sills absorbing twilight, Kruzan said 1,500 students have moved downtown since he’s been in office.\n“We have to work together to find out what is offered for people who want to be here,”Kruzan said. \nThe differences between Kruzan and his opponent’s lifestyles are more than just political.\nDavid Sabbagh gets up every morning at 5 a.m. He has coffee with his wife before 6 a.m., at which point they are both at the Highland Avenue YMCA. \n“I believe in professionalism,” Sabbagh said.\nHis tight-laced attitude and even tighter scheduling helped him run his own business for years. More than his experience as an adjunct professor at Ivy Tech, he said his business experience has affected his leadership style.\n“I don’t micromanage,” Sabbagh said. “That’s not the way to run a $60 million corporation (like Bloomington).”\nBut teaching math to part-time students has given him the impression that students aren’t getting what they need out of Bloomington’s job market. Not only does this concern Sabbagh when he spends time with students at IU College Republicans, but it bothers him because he his children and grandchildren have moved to other states.\nIf you work hard to raise your family and provide opportunities to make them successful, you shouldn’t be rewarded by them moving away, Sabbagh said.\n“Our vision of Bloomington 30 years in the future cannot be what it was 50 years ago,” Sabbagh said. \nSabbagh said this, his openness to business and support to bring skilled job positions to downtown Bloomington, is the wedge between him and Kruzan.