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By Reuven Fenton and Bruce Golding
\nNew York Post<\/p>\n
SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2014 When residents of this city\u2019s impoverished West Side reflect on Pete Buttigieg\u2019s two terms as mayor, a few things come to mind:<\/p>\n
A spike in violent crime, development that largely ignored the African American community and how their only well-lit street is the one that leads to Notre Dame University.<\/p>\n
So how, they wonder, can Buttigieg possibly be trusted to run the country?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he\u2019s the next president, I fear for our country. He couldn\u2019t run our city. How can he run the United States?,\u201d said Michelle Burger, 42, a stay-at-home mom who lives in South Bend\u2019s impoverished and predominantly black West Side.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at all the crime \u2014 he didn\u2019t do anything about it. Look at our quality of life. If he becomes president, the United States will become one big South Bend \u2014 a giant sinkhole. We\u2019ll be in a new depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another West Side resident, Cornish Miller, 62, said of Buttigieg, \u201cRating him 1 to 10, I\u2019d give him a 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cButtigieg talked about all the improvements he made, but he hardly made a dent,\u201d said Miller, who works for a military supply company.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe West Side is the most neglected part of town. The street I live on is the only street around here that has lights. That\u2019s because we\u2019re a gateway to Notre Dame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buttigieg\u2019s young age \u2014 38 \u2014 along with his Rust Belt childhood, elite education and moderate liberalism have drawn comparisons with French President Emmanuel Macron, who\u00a0was elected in 2017<\/a>\u00a0at age 39.<\/p>\n On the stump, Buttigieg comes off as cool, calm and cerebral, with a deeper-than-expected voice, given his boyish appearance. He typically gives speeches wearing a white shirt and tie, with his sleeves rolled up.<\/p>\n Buttigieg\u2019s White House dreams were encouraged by his\u00a0victory in the bungled Iowa Democratic caucus<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0strong, second-place finish<\/a>\u00a0last week in New Hampshire\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n But some in South Bend describe Buttigieg\u2019s mayoralty as a nightmare during which FBI data show that violent crimes surged from 622 in 2012, his first year, to 1,088 in 2018, the latest for which statistics are available.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a record number of homicides during his time as mayor, and it didn\u2019t seem like he was feeling the people\u2019s psychological, emotional and spiritual needs,\u201d said the Rev. Sylvester Williams Jr. of the Interfaith Christian Union.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seemed like he was focused on creating a progressive city, that he was above tending to those basic needs.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Buttigieg\u2019s fiercest critics, Councilman Henry Davis Jr., said that Buttigieg was \u201cinept\u201d as mayor and \u201calways had one foot out the door.\u201d<\/p>\n He cited Buttigieg\u2019s six-month deployment to Afghanistan in 2014 as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer, as well as his failed, 2017 attempt to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then he came back and takes off again and wants to be president of the United States,\u201d said Davis, who unsuccessfully challenged Buttigieg in South Bend\u2019s 2015 Democratic mayoral primary.<\/p>\n \u201cSo he really has never been here and committed to the growth and the functionally of this community. It\u2019s always been a gateway to something that he believed was larger.\u201d<\/p>\n Buttigieg was born in South Bend and grew up in the Northshore Triangle neighborhood near Notre Dame University, where his late father, Joseph Buttigieg, and mother, Anne Montgomery, both taught English.<\/p>\n An only child, he graduated in 2004 from Harvard University, where he majored in history and literature, then won a Rhodes Scholarship to study philosophy, politics and economics at England\u2019s Oxford University.<\/p>\n He was hired as an associate at the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm in 2007 and\u00a0worked out of its Chicago office<\/a>\u00a0for clients that included Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Best Buy, the US Department of Defense and the US Postal Service.<\/p>\n Buttigieg took a leave of absence in the late summer and fall of 2008 to work on the failed Indiana gubernatorial campaign of former Democratic US Rep. Jill Long Thompson, then returned to McKinsey and in 2009 was awarded a direct commission in the US Navy Reserve.<\/p>\n He quit McKinsey in 2010 to run for Indiana treasurer as a Democrat, losing that race by nearly 25 percentage points.<\/p>\n Two months later, he declared his candidacy for mayor of South Bend, which is about the same size as the Bronx but has just 7 percent of its population.<\/p>\n Most people in the South Bend area work in the manufacturing, healthcare, education, retail and hospitality industries, according to the US Census. The region\u2019s biggest employers are the University of Notre Dame, Beacon Health System and South Bend Community School Corp., according to the 2015 South Bend Region Economic Development report.<\/p>\n Buttigieg beat four opponents to win Democratic primary with 55 percent of the vote and was elected in November with 74 percent of the vote. He was just 29 when he took office.<\/p>\n But while the overwhelmingly Democratic city has more than 71,000 registered voters, Buttigieg was swept into office with just 10,991 votes and 2015 re-election bid garnered even fewer \u2014 8,515 \u2014 even while winning 80 percent of the ballots cast.<\/p>\n Buttigieg came out publicly as gay in an op-ed\u00a0published by the South Bend Tribune<\/a>\u00a0on June 16, 2015, amid his reelection campaign, and he told Oprah Magazine last year that the decision followed his return from Afghanistan, when he became \u201csuddenly urgently aware that you only get one life.\u201d<\/p>\n The following September, he began dating Chasten Glezman, a junior high school teacher in neighboring Mishawaka, after they met on the Hinge dating app, and they\u00a0got married<\/a>\u00a0at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. James in South Bend on June 16, 2018.<\/p>\n They live with two dogs, Truman and Buddy, in a four-bedroom, 1903 neoclassical home in the Northshore Triangle that Buttigieg bought for $125,000 in 2009, during the depths of the Great Recession, after the former owner lost it to foreclosure.<\/p>\n The three-story house \u2014 which has imposing columns, a front porch and balconies \u2014 is just a block away from where Buttigieg\u2019s mom lives, meaning that he doesn\u2019t have to hop into his Lordstown, Ohio-built Chevy Cruze to visit.<\/p>\n Buttigieg and his supporters say his major successes as mayor include the development of new hotels, restaurants and apartments that have boosted both employment and the tax base of Indiana\u2019s fourth-largest city, while critics say he is taking credit for the success of others.<\/p>\n Buttigieg also improved the city\u2019s parks and revamped traffic with a $21 million, pedestrian-friendly \u201cSmart Streets\u201d plan that reduced speed limits, made one-way streets two-way, created roundabout intersections, planted sidewalk trees and installed decorative brick sidewalk pavers in the downtown.<\/p>\n And during the city\u2019s 150th birthday celebration in 2015, he flipped the switch to inaugurate the \u201cRiver Lights\u201d display, which illuminates the St. Joseph River, the Jefferson Boulevard Bridge and a waterfront, modern-art sculpture called \u201cKeepers of the Fire\u201d with changing colors every night.<\/p>\n Further plans call for a dramatic revitalization of South Bend\u2019s downtown by turning its former Studebaker auto factory into a 1.3 million-square-foot \u201ctechnology campus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in downtown South Bend and you see all these young people moving in \u2014 they graduated from Notre Dame and they stay in South Bend because of Mayor Pete,\u201d said Jody Freid, 72, a lifelong resident and community activist.<\/p>\n But Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer countered that while Buttigieg \u201ccertainly had a few economic development wins,\u201d he actually had \u201clittle, if anything, to do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI found it ironic that when he\u00a0announced his presidential run<\/a>, he did it in front of Studebaker Building 84, which had sat vacant since 1963,\u201d Hupfer said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it was $3.5 million from then-Gov. Mike Pence\u2019s Regional Cities Initiative that made that project go.\u201d<\/p>\n Hupfer said increased employment in the area covering South Bend \u2014 where the unemployment rate dropped from 9.3 percent in 2012 to 3.6 percent in 2018 \u2014 was largely a function of \u201cstatewide economic strength under Republican leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Hupfer also noted the results of South Bend\u2019s official 2018 Community Survey, in which only 29 percent of respondents agreed that the city had a \u201cstrong, inclusive economy\u201d and 51 percent were neutral or dissatisfied with the \u201cfeeling of safety\u201d in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t feel safe and secure, it\u2019s hard to get people to move there, it\u2019s hard to get people to live there, and it\u2019s hard to get jobs to grow there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI know I would much rather have 10 fewer homicides than a light display.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Buttigieg\u2019s signature programs was an anti-blight effort dubbed \u201c1,000 Homes in 1,000 Days,\u201d which ultimately targeted 1,122 abandoned houses, repairing about 40 percent and razing the rest,\u00a0according to the South Bend Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dan Kelley, an engineer who lives on a West Side block that was part of the program, said it hadn\u2019t really helped his neighborhood, unlike the gentrifying area \u201cacross the river near Notre Dame.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMayor Pete talks a big game, but in streets like this, it\u2019s hard to see those changes. The urbanness has sort of gone to seed and you have houses spaced every two or three properties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Compounding the problem, Kelley said, are the recent closures of the local hardware store \u2014 forcing him to drive 30 minutes to a Lowe\u2019s for supplies to fix up his house \u2014 and the only grocery store in the area.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty much a complete food desert, other than the Family Dollar and the gas station,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Buttigieg has long been at odds with much of South Bend\u2019s African American community, which accounts for 26 percent of the population and has a median income about half that of the city\u2019s white residents, according to a 2017 report by the \u201cProsperity Now\u201d non-profit.<\/p>\n Shortly after taking office, Buttigieg fired the city\u2019s first black police chief, Darryl Boykins, over allegations Boykins secretly recorded the phone calls of high-ranking white cops suspected of using racist language against him and others.<\/p>\n From 2012 to 2018, the number of black cops fell by almost half \u2014 from 29 to 15, compared to more than 200 whites \u2014 and in June, the city was rocked when a white police sergeant shot and killed 54-year-old Eric Logan, who was black, while responding to a report of someone breaking into cars.<\/p>\n Buttigieg\u00a0canceled a campaign trip to California<\/a>\u00a0to return to South Bend and hold a news conference about the incident, during which Sgt. Ryan O\u2019Neill, who has since resigned, claims Logan refused orders to drop an eight-inch hunting knife.<\/p>\n \u201cNot one time did he [Buttigieg] try to bring some level of compassion or sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0–\u00a0Rev. Sylvester Williams Jr.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n A special prosecutor is investigating the case and could upend Buttigieg\u2019s campaign again when the probe wraps up, possibly later this month.<\/p>\n The South Bend Board of Public Safety held eight community meetings to address the controversy, but Buttigieg only attended one, in September, a day after Black Lives Matter activists publicly complained about his response to the killing.<\/p>\n Williams, who hosts a local radio show called \u201cReal Talk,\u201d pointed to another June shooting outside a bar called Kelly\u2019s Pub that left one man dead and 10 people injured, all of whom were black.<\/p>\n The incident sparked so much community outrage that it forced a lockdown at a local hospital when more than 100 \u201cangry and upset citizens\u201d showed up there, the sheriff said at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cNot one time did he try to bring some level of compassion or sympathy,\u201d Williams said of Buttigieg.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a Rhodes scholar. He\u2019s a polished politician. He\u2019s been to a lot of schools of prominence. But there\u2019s one school he omitted \u2014 and that\u2019s the school of grief.\u201d<\/p>\n During the Dec. 7 Democratic debate in New Hampshire, Buttigieg largely sidestepped a question about black people being arrested for pot possession in South Bend at a rate four times higher than whites.<\/p>\n Councilman Davis later tweeted that the ex-mayor \u201clooked like a deer in headlights last night when talking about systemic racism in the South Bend Police.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Reverend](\"https:\/\/thenypost.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/02\/reverend-sylvester-williams.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=300)
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