Depending on who you believe, either community activist and anti-growth leader Robert Fox used the threat of running for mayor to extract a series of concessions from Mayor Robert Garcia regarding the Land Use Element and rent control, or the eternally off-the-record Garcia and Fox had a pleasant and fruitful conversation and “talked about things.”

Fox’s saber-rattling began on Jan. 11, when he pulled last-minute nominating papers for the mayoral race. The deadline for filing was Jan. 12.

Fox would have been, if not quite a formidable opponent for Garcia, certainly a worrisome one, especially in the city’s eastern 4th and 5th districts, and he implied that he used that power to force a litany of concessions from the mayor in exchange for not entering the race. These include the opportunity for Fox and his followers to alter the proposed LUE maps and create a new General Plan.

“Staff will not be in charge but will be present to WRITE DOWN and RECORD, all recommendations for alterations.

“We will have a new General Plan designed by the people.

“Robert Garcia will also pronounce… his opposition to Rent Control and some reasons for his position.”

Fox, a Realtor who owns 15 apartment buildings, also wrote, “In discussion with Robert today if I did not run for the Mayorship he would pull the LUE off of the February calendar.”

A special affinity for the shift key aside, Fox’s mass email was both triumphant and martyrly in tone. It was followed by an email from Garcia’s office apparently touching, however tangentially, on some of Fox’s points (yes, the mayor said, we’re working on a series of mayor-residents LUE roundtables, and “we don’t believe rent control works or is the right solution”).

There was also a possible stern phone call from the mayor (did we mention that Garcia leads the nation in off-the-record statements?) to Fox that resulted in a considerably less bellicose email from Fox that “clarified” the fact that “I did not make (Garcia) give us something for me not running,” but, rather, “I decided we had agreed on so many things, that I had no need to run for Mayor,” and “We are not making a new general plan. We are adjusting the LUE which has been in the works for year.”

The whole affair has been confusing and weird, with Fox displaying his frequently-exhibited swaggering bluster before making a meek retreat, and Garcia, who could clear much of the matter up by tip-toeing onto the record, employing a prevent defense.

The only thing that’s now clear is that the Land Use Element issue is not going to go away or be settled by the April 10 election day. And more public involvement will only invite more loud and uninformed hollering at community centers. The general plan was expected to get Long Beach to the year 2040. From here, it’s hard to imagine a workable proposal even being in place by then.