The Secret Power of City Hall

It's 11:15 PM on a Tuesday. The fluorescent lights of the municipal building hum with

a frequency designed to induce fatigue. In the council chamber, a dozen people slump in folding chairs

as the board votes on a zoning variance for a plot of land that has sat empty for three decades.

The motion passes unanimously. No discussion. The gavel strikes. On paper,

this is mundane bureaucracy. Boring, administrative, invisible.

But the decision to sell that land wasn't made in this room, and it wasn't made

tonight. It was decided months ago, in a private study lined with mahogany,

by men whose names will never appear on a ballot. You have felt this before.