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We're eight years into the 21st century, and quite a few of the useful items the TV-cartoon Jetson family used to make its life easier have come to fruition — video-conferencing, robot vacuum cleaners, instant breakfasts, futuristic cameras replacing police, clicking and ticketing away, among other things.

Who should we thank for this — Bill Gates?

We do have a little something the Jetsons didn't: a $400 million train to address New Mexicans' overwhelming — sure! — need to commute from Bernalillo to Belen. However, we don't have flying cars that fold into brief cases. Heck, we don't even have flying cars that don't fold into brief cases.

All of this and more must be kept in mind when we consider Mayor Martin Chavez' move to become mayor-for-life. Just kidding about the "for-life" thing. But as he maneuvers to change term-limit laws and run for the city's top job again, we need to weigh the pros and cons not only of his past deeds, but also of where we'll be another four years down the road. Or, more to the point: what life west of the Rio Grande will be like 48 months from now.

There are a host of reasons not to rally 'round the mayor. His overwhelming need, along with certain council members, to legislate behavior is his greatest annoyance. From smoking bans — and I'm not a smoker — to those questionable red-light ATMs — er, cameras — the mayor's mark on the city is too often a red circle with a slash across it.

In many of these cases — take the smoking ban, for instance — his so-called progressivism is tied to his Democratic roots.

Still, in a political environment in which it's all or nothing, most city liberals routinely refer to Chavez as a DINO — Democrat in Name Only. For many, his endorsement of Republican Sen. Pete Domenici in 2002 was inexcusable.

But I have to believe it is his recognition of the concerns of people west of the Rio Grande that galls his fellow Democrats more than anything. This same fact, however, is probably the single, greatest reason voters across the city should welcome his return.

Chavez, unlike Gov. Bill Richardson, say, seems to understand that helping the citizens of the state's second-largest city — Albuquerque's West Side — not merely to survive but to thrive is integral to the well-being of the state's largest city.

It was easy for Richardson to feather his political cap by promoting the N.M. Rail Runner Express. But moving people north and south along I-25 is far less challenging than moving 20,000 to 30,000 West Siders east into the city and back home again.

Previous administrations have been more interested in making the West Side a bumper-sticker issue to get votes from around the University of New Mexico or Nob Hill than in stepping into the 21st century and accepting that we need more and wider bridges. Chavez gets it.

He also knows we won't have flying cars for some time to come.