MAKE ME AN OFFER
By CON BLOMBERG
Illustrated by DILLON
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction August 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Fellow City Mgrs., only you can help me—progress
has made "Go Fight City Hall" a battle cry!
TO: ALL CITY MANAGERS
FROM: ROSS RO,
NEW YORK CITY MANAGER
SUBJECT: GELATIN MOLDS
Well, boys, this is going to be rather an informal communicationbecause I think there's a serious lesson for you in a situation wehad here recently. I might as well be the first to tell you about it.You'll hear about it soon enough anyway. Frankly, I'm hoping you'llhave a heart and lend a brother City Manager a hand.
As you boys know, I was re-elected last April to my post as CityManager for another four years and I felt pretty good about it. So goodthat I was looking around for something to do which would sort of letthe voters of little old New York know how I felt about them. Mostof you have met my political assistant Charlie Tight—or, rather, myex-political assistant. Charlie was looking around, too, and he came upwith the idea of covering over Central Park.
We have never covered over Central Park with the perma-plast roof likethe rest of the city because it is a fairly large area and there wasn'tany public demand for it. So naturally it rains and snows there and wespend a lot of dough keeping the grass cut and what have you. It's apopular spot with a lot of folks.
Charlie figured—and I must admit that I agreed with him—that coveringover Central Park was quite an idea. Controlled conditions would letthe grass grow only so much and the temperature would remain constant.No rain or snow except from 1 A.M. to 3 A.M., when we would put in alittle artificial precipitation to keep the greenery going. Plenty ofnice air-conditioned air. Eternal spring. Really up-to-date.
We put it through the computer down at the Civic Machine and figuredit would cost only about 25 hundred million. It looked real good.You see, we recently got a new addition to the Civic Machine and themanufacturer gave us a deal on a new model Projector for the wholecity. It makes constant forecasts on practically everything we needfrom moment to moment. It doesn't wait for a Tech to run the data thruit. Saves a lot of time because it's directly connected with Supply.
This Projector is so good that we have been able to cut down onexpenses about 20 hundred million in only two years. I figured thiswould easily pay for the perma-plast roof over good old Central Park.
To make a long story short, I went before the people on TV and toldthe whole story. Charlie had the TV Techs mock up a scene of what itwould look like and we had models posed in family scenes and the like.Should have gone over like a shot—and it would have, except for thisscrewball Hatty Dakkon.
It wasn't an hour after I had made my broadcast that my secretaryannounced this Mrs. Hatty Dakkon. She proved to be a young matron typewith pretty good legs and a chip on her shoulder. She was againstroofing Central Park.
Well, you boys know how it goes. Always some crank who doesn't likethings changed, and after they have blown off steam, they quiet downand yo