Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray stopped his Toyota Prius at Shippen and Chester streets to talk to a man working in the corner yard. Gray knows the guy, he explained; there was some trouble with a neighbor and Gray intervened on the man's behalf with city police.

"How's it going?" asked the mayor. The reply: "It's getting better."

The same, Gray suggests, might be said of the city itself.

Gray, a Democrat, is running for re-election this fall against former Mayor Charlie Smithgall, the Republican Gray defeated last time around, in 2005. Then Gray was the challenger, attacking the two-term mayor for lacking vision; Gray promised to improve the city's neighborhoods and boost economic development.

These days it's Smithgall slamming Gray — for losing the city's police contract with Lancaster Township, for streetscape improvements that have dragged on, for not "applying common sense in government."

Gray said all Smithgall does is criticize: "He reminds me of the little old men on 'The Muppet Show' who used to sit up in the balcony and complain," he said.

Sure, Gray admits, there have been missteps. But he said those are far outnumbered by success stories. And he'd like a chance to get even more done.

Contrasting images
The differences between the two candidates, the two men, is profound. Smithgall, a druggist by trade, is big and casual and affable. He drives a huge Chevrolet Suburban and prides himself on his nuts-and-bolts knowledge of the city. Gray, a former defense attorney, is natty in his bow ties, gets 60 mpg in his hybrid and lives along Gallery Row, befitting a man married to an artist.

If Smithgall's a guy from the neighborhood, Gray's more of a technocrat. Smithgall, Gray said, spends his time looking down — seeing things like gum on the sidewalk, and making an issue of it.

Gray, by contrast, prefers to look up. And when he does he sees a city thriving, the envy of other Pennsylvania mayors.

"We spend so much time grousing about how this isn't right or that isn't right, we forget what is right," Gray said, noting a man and woman standing on the market side of Penn Square, taking photos of the monument and the Marriott hotel behind it. "There's a lot going on in the city."

At the center
On a ride through town, Gray cited a list of "success stories," projects that began or have been completed during his time in office.

The list is long and begins, as it must, on Penn Square.

Downtown retailers, he said, are beginning to see the impact of the new hotel and convention center. But he also worries that the 19-story tower is so prominent that it overshadows other positive things that are going on downtown and — equally as important — in the neighborhoods.

Gray rolled past Lancaster Square, where underused and unsightly concrete was demolished to clear a site now awaiting a developer. "The problem is, it's too small," Gray said. "But we're finally getting something done."

Half a block north, the old parking lot at the corner of North Queen and East Chestnut streets has been torn up to make way for an expanded Red Rose Transit Authority bus station, a 395-space parking garage, an expanded Lancaster Museum of Art and a 38-unit condominium tower that could rise to 16 stories.

The North Museum is also studying the feasibility of building a new science and education center just across the street, on the western corner of the intersection.

The 300 block of North Queen Street, one of the artsiest spots in the city, continues to thrive, Gray said, with several new shops opening in recent years.

Continuing north, Gray's Prius rolled past the Amtrak station, where ground was finally broken last summer on an $8.5 million renovation project that will revitalize one of the city's underappreciated architectural gems. Gray made his way to the old Lancaster Stockyards site, now leveled as plans to construct a new office park proceed, and he stopped.

The site, he noted, had been a major eyesore. "You had people who were obviously living in here," he said. Mosquitoes with West Nile virus bred in the rubble. So last summer Gray threatened to raze the site: "I said [to the owners] you either tear it down or we will," he said. The city, owners and the New York developers who had an option on the site reached an agreement a few months later.

Meanwhile, Gray said, he resisted efforts to redevelop the site with a Walmart or Target store; big-box retail, he said, wasn't what the city needed. Good-paying jobs were. And he said his persistence paid off: When TCH Development produced plans for a business park — in which at least one tenant will employ "green" technology, such as solar roof panels — "we said, 'That's a home run, that's exactly what we wanted,' " Gray said.

Smaller successes
Still, he said, while big issues like the Stockyards make headlines, he takes as much satisfaction from smaller, less-obvious initiatives that save tax dollars through greater efficiency, and make the city a better place to live.

He's particularly proud of the way the city has cracked down on problem landlords. "We've prosecuted and prosecuted," he said, noting that there had been a law on the books requiring "systematic inspections" of all rental properties in the city. Yet prior to his time in office, he said, the city had no record of how many rental units there actually were in town.

The same problem cropped up when the city, under Gray, went to a single trash hauler. "We didn't know how many customers there were," he said. Now every rental unit and every trash customer is registered, he said. Gray thinks that's made neighborhoods better, cleaner places to live.

Gray's also made a major commitment to improve city parks. At Sixth Ward Park, for example, Gray talked of how the basketball court will be moved and the wading pool fixed so kids can use it again. "We have initiatives in place for all our parks, to make them more usable than they are now," he said.

On a ride down South Plum Street, past "The Porches at Plum," a new 11-home development constructed by SACA Development Corp.'s Lancaster Homeownership Choice Program, Gray noted nearby homes that have been painted, yards weeded. "You fix up a place in a neighborhood and people can actually change their behavior pattern," Gray said. "You see people doing this all around the city."

Another thing you see all over the city are signs for Gray's opponent.

Gray said his own campaign had run out of signs and had to order more, but in many areas Smithgall signs outnumber Gray's two to one, at least.

Gray would rather talk about his accomplishments than his opponent. But he clearly gets annoyed when the subject of Smithgall's criticism of the "bulb-outs" at city intersections comes up.

"That was his screw-up and we had to fix it," Gray said, noting that the city was sued in 2005 because its curbs and sidewalks didn't comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. "We had experts come out and tell us what is and isn't compliant; it wasn't our choice.

"If he's got a problem with it, he should go look in the mirror," Gray said.

And Gray said that while Smithgall boasts about how he's always accessible, "he's not accessible when you want to debate him."

"He can run but he can't hide," Gray said.

Smithgall responded that he'll face Gray Thursday night, when both candidates appear at a question-and-answer session at Ray's Temple Community Church of God in Christ, at South Ann Street and East End Avenue. The event, which beging at 7 p.m. and is free to the public, will feature four clergy members from the area and two community members asking questions of the two candidates; neither candidate will be permitted to question the other.

"I'm interested in taking questions from the general public," Smithgall said, noting that a back-and-forth with Gray doesn't necessarily answer the real questions city residents might have.

As for Gray's assertion that he does nothing but criticize, Smithgall said "that will change this week. I'm laying out my own plan.

"I wanted to lay out what was wrong before I started talking about what could be right," Smithgall said.

"He's blowing his own horn," Smithgall said, "but you gotta watch what he's blowing — a lot of the stuff he's taking credit for, we started."

Policing the city
Crime could loom large in the election, but Gray said that statistically, "it's about flat." Type 2 crimes — vandalism, assault, drug offenses, prostitution — are up, he conceded. "But one of the reasons is enforcement," he said. "When you enforce quality-of-life crimes" arrest rates go up, but it doesn't necessarily mean that more crimes are being committed.

On one of the hottest topics in recent weeks — the loss of the police contract with Lancaster Township — Gray held his ground, continuing to insist that the city is better off without the added burden of policing the township.

Moreover, he noted a newspaper article last week about a proposed new contract between Mountville Borough and Manor Township Police Department, which patrols Mountville, that would cost $107 per resident. That's actually more than the $102 per resident the city contract would have cost Lancaster Township.

If re-elected, Gray wants the city he leads to resemble the car he drives. "I want to see a 'greener' city," he said. "We've done energy audits" of city buildings, he said; he'd like to see more.

The city could use federal stimulus funds to buy and rehabilitate condemned buildings, he said. Other goals include funding and completing streetscape improvements around town and completing development of the Sunnyside peninsula.

Gray, on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania League of Cities, has been campaigning door to door in recent weeks. And while he hears the inevitable complaints, he said that "generally, [people are] pretty positive. They talk about how good things are" in Lancaster.

And he thinks he's got the organization to turn out voters on Election Day, which could tip the contest.

His opponent "wants to be mayor, but he doesn't want to do mayor," Gray said. "We think good things are happening in the city. And we want to keep it going."