His inaugural remarks highlighted themes of open government, dialogue and partnership. He invited the entire community to join him and the City Council in talk and action. By naming all seven City Council members in the third paragraph of his remarks, he signaled that he intends this to be a collaborative government.

Comparisons with his predecessor, the combative Rocky Anderson, are inevitable. Anderson battled the City Council, often bitterly. Becker signaled that his administration would be different.

Becker also offered olive branches to other groups that Anderson antagonized, mentioning, among his goals that Salt Lake City must "work with our neighboring communities and the State." We took this to be a peace offering to the Legislature, as well as to Davis County, whom Anderson had battled over the Legacy Highway. Rocky was right about the highway, but wrong about the need to insult neighboring commuters for polluting the city's air.

We understand, of course, that nice words are cheap and that collegiality can be forgotten quickly when cities and other communities of interest are competing for money or opposing policy philosophies.

But Becker has long experience as a minority leader in the Legislature, where he has worked with many of the Republican leaders with whom Rocky Anderson locked horns. We believe that if anyone can build consensus over contentious issues, Becker can.

His brief remarks did not detail policies. We assume that will come with his State of the City address Jan. 15. But he did lay out his priorities, including first-class public education, protecting natural resources, making downtown the "vibrant core of our state," ensuring quality living spaces for all income groups and addressing air quality and global warming.

That's a worthy list. We assume that his attempt to safeguard neighborhoods includes the implicit promise to revamp the city's troubled planning department.

The only obvious addition we would have made would be to replace the city's crumbling Public Safety Building, which must be a top priority.

Anderson was prone to be prolix. Becker chose brevity.

It is a refreshing change.