Politics
Ritter decided to run for the Jacksonville City Council in early 1951, but was refused when he tried to file his intention with the clerk of the court, as he had been at school in Gainesville and not physically living in Duval County. He filed suit to challenge the residency requirement and prevailed less than two weeks before the first primary. The publicity from the court challenge helped him win the election, and at 23, he became the youngest city councilman in Jacksonville's history. Two years later, Ritter was elected by his fellow councilmen as Council President. He was elected as Commissioner of Highways, Sewers & Airports in 1955 and served for nearly 10 years. Ritter initiated the planning and pushed for the current Jacksonville International Airport. Construction began in 1965 and the facility opened in October, 1968. He implemented a building code which required and enforced minimum housing standards. Ritter also began a master sewer plan for the city. In 1960, Ritter helped run John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in Florida.
Read more about this topic: Lou Ritter
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“All politics takes place on a slippery slope. The most important four words in politics are “up to a point.””
—George F. Will (b. 1941)
“The real grounds of difference upon important political questions no longer correspond with party lines.... Politics is no longer the topic of this country. Its important questions are settled... Great minds hereafter are to be employed on other matters.... Government no longer has its ancient importance.... The people’s progress, progress of every sort, no longer depends on government. But enough of politics. Henceforth I am out more than ever.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)