The Board of Aldermen must approve Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone’s plan for Assembly Square Mall development at their meeting April 8.

The mayor was elected on a platform of active leadership to jumpstart the stalled project and he has delivered a vision of a vibrant new neighborhood that balances economic activity with smart growth.

It is always interesting to us when government officials and politicians demand truth in advertising from business. Another day we can dwell on that standard being applied to government officials and politicians. Here and now, we have a mayor who delivered exactly what he promised the voters in November.

The mayor’s plan is a reasonable approach that balances business, social and economic concerns to create a new neighborhood community.

Given the choice between the mayor’s plan and Paradise, the mayor’s plan would lose. But, to the opponents of the mayor’s plan we must plead that it is time to live in this world and not the next.

What do you say to people who expect shoppers to carry couches and bookcases home on the subway or on their bike handle bars?

What do you say to people who oppose the mayor’s plan because it endorses the exploitation of the workers in the Third World?

What do you to people who with the flick of the wrist dismiss the pleadings of the taxpayers, who are being crushed by a fiscal perfect storm?

The answer is: you vote against them.

The aldermen must approve the mayor’s plan. Putting aside the tedious and mind-numbing arguments of the opposition, the aldermen have a chance to make a positive statement about the city’s future.