The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was KEEP. Herostratus 07:55, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Paul A. Brown (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) - (View log)

Non-notable. Mayor of city with less than 20,000 Bellhalla 17:22, 15 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete per nomination, notability is not established per WP:BIO. As written the article edges into memorializing a somewhat tragic and unexpected end, an affliction shared by the Minden, Louisiana article itself, which is full of obituary-type information for politicians and soldiers. See also the (arguably notable) Harmon Drew, Jr. and R. Harmon Drew, Sr. articles, the probably notable Tom Colten article, and the very iffy also-nominated-for-deletion Bill Robertson article, with essentially the same claim to notability (Minden Mayor) without even the tragic death. --Dhartung | Talk 19:54, 15 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • These are all essentially the work of Billy Hathorn (talk · contribs), just to be clear. --Dhartung | Talk 19:59, 15 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a rule that mayors on Wikipedia must be from a city of more than 20,000? I had not heard of this 20,000 number until Jan. 15. Isn't any elected official notable in is locality? Is the test for notability in the person's local area, rather than statewide or national? It seems to me that each article has merit on its own and that there should not be some kind of rule about 20,000 population.

Billy Hathorn 05:39, 16 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep - mayors are notable. A hard and fast population rule has no basis in Wikipedia policy and if it existed would create more "presentism" bias (i.e. cities have more people now than they did in the past). Savidan 05:53, 16 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep -- Camptown 11:25, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mr. Brown had an unusual life story. He was mayor for only a year. The way his career ended may be as important as his career. This is local history, and there is a place for local history on Wikipedia.

Billy Hathorn 18:35, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep. Just because he was mayor of a smallish town is no reason to delete his article. Mayors should be considered notable in almost all cases, in my opinion. — BrianSmithson 07:39, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Weak keep - the references are from reasonable enough local newspapers and I'm not aware of a WP:MAYOR guideline that advises the population has to be over 20,000... Addhoc 19:01, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.