Apparently Charlie Luken was the last person in Cincinnati to figure out he wasn't up for being mayor anymore.

His Aug. 2 announcement that he wouldn't seek re-election next year might have shocked because of its timing. But his lack of enthusiasm for the job had to qualify as the city's worst-kept secret.

Luken's sad sack act -- featuring his belief that the biggest problem facing Cincinnati is citizens complaining too much -- will not be missed. It shouldn't have been allowed to continue this long.

Yet, despite his voluntary lame duck status, Luken still can deal aggressively with tough issues facing the city during the remainder of his term. If, you know, he feels like it. (For more on the subject, see this week's cover story, "Life After Luken," on page 21.)

In fact, in several interviews since his big announcement, Luken says he understands the golden opportunity available to him as a politician not needing to suck up to voters again. Perhaps he thinks CityBeat has been too hard on him over the years, particularly since the riots in April 2001. Perhaps, in retrospect, we haven't been hard enough on him.

One of Luken's key remarks following the riots was, "We've got to make some fundamental changes." In a later interview with CityBeat, he stressed, "Things are radically going to change here and expectations are going to be raised."

We've held the mayor to his word, and like many Cincinnati citizens we've been disappointed at the lack of fundamental change he's delivered. Luken is the city's leader -- the first directly elected leader in generations -- and he's accountable for his words and actions.

I went back through the paper's archives to see what I wrote about Luken's performance over the years, to see if I'd been duly or unduly harsh. Here are a few excerpts:

· August 2001: "Witness Mayor Luken's first campaign commercial, which has offered something he's lacked throughout his term: a theme. But what an unfortunate theme it is. Having pondered the city's civil-rights crisis, the best Luken could come up with is, 'It's time to say no.'

"It would be hard to find a better illustration of what's wrong in Cincinnati. Not enough for Luken to reject the boycott; he has also to demonize its advocates. Their agenda, he says, is nothing less than to 'tear down our city.' In a city recently traumatized by rioting, could any description be more damning?"

· October 2001: "The real test when considering an incumbent's record, as articulated in presidential races, has become this: Are you better off today than you were X years ago? So answer honestly: Is Cincinnati better off today than it was two years ago when Charlie Luken became mayor? The answer, of course, is no. What else needs to be said?

"No one has better ideas for leading Cincinnati than (Courtis) Fuller, and no one else has his sincere enthusiasm for carrying this city on his back to a better place. There's really no choice for Cincinnati but to elect Fuller."

· November 2001: "Black Cincinnatians live in a city that convicts two men for photographing dead people while acquitting a police officer whose own lawyer said punched a dead black man in custody. A city in which the same judge convicts a black man for disrupting a Luken speech and acquits an officer for shooting an unarmed black man.

"Does Luken understand or appreciate this depressing situation? Better yet, does he have answers for those problems? We'll see.

"But with the pitiful turnout on Nov. 6 -- only 40 percent of registered voters in the city bothered to participate -- and the re-election of all seven incumbent council members, Luken certainly has no public mandate for change. We can only hope he'll be guided by his campaign promises and by his well-articulated love for his hometown."

· March 2002: "As much as I've criticized Luken for his inaction and lack of leadership over the past year and before, I applaud him for his own dedication to this community. ... As the elected leader of this city, however, Luken should break the ice by stepping up and recognizing the boycott leaders for their own desire and dedication."

· August 2003: "According to Richard Florida, one of a city's most attractive components for the creative class is its authenticity. Young creative people love authentic places with real architecture, geography and culture -- attributes that Cincinnati actually has, which is good.

"It's also bad news for politicians who like to attend creative class parties but won't back a creative class vision for turning Cincinnati around. The creative class can smell a phony a mile away, and it sure stinks at City Hall."

Luken told The Cincinnati Post he thought Cincinnatians seem to be perpetually locked in a glass-is-half-empty mindset. The reality, as most of us recognize, is that the glass here is way more than half full, that this community is our home and our future, that we're not going to put up with malaise any longer.

The mayor's office has been quite empty for some time -- but Luken still has 16 months to fulfill his and Cincinnati's promise.