As the perennial council critic and long-shot mayoral candidate himself often says: Can you believe it?

City officials can — barely. Because now, when they need part of that land for major road upgrades, they’ll likely face a more friendly negotiator than the man who always warned aldermen to use more “common sense.”

“We knew there wasn’t any possibility of dealing with him when we needed (the land),” Ald. Jim Stevenson said Monday.