Sunday, July 15, 2007

Turning Our Attention To Finding A Great Mayor

Every city is one great mayor away from being a great city.

It’s a mantra that we repeat often in cities where we work on issues that affect their competitiveness in a highly competitive global economy. We say it because time after time, we’ve seen it play out in city after city that has been transformed by inspired and inspiring leadership.

Because this is so, we think the pressing question to ask as we look at the announced major candidates, “Which one of these has the potential to be the great mayor needed so desperately in Memphis?”

Sadly, when we ask the question, our answer ends up being: “None of them.”

Because of it, the most pressing priority for Memphis right now is to identify, develop, nurture, and motivate a new breed of candidates poised to enter the mayor’s race in four years.

We are encouraged by the examples found in mayors’ offices across the U.S., and we are particularly inspired by the most exciting models of all – the many nontraditional candidates who have come forward, been elected and captured the imagination of their citizens.

It’s hard for us not to think immediately of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and how we need to find his counterpart here. A geologist and a restaurateur, he went from a candidate with name recognition of less than five percent to a mayor who has now united the entire Denver region behind visionary plans for the future.

It illustrates the power that a new political leader with new ideas can have. Absent the unlikely entry of Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton into the city mayor’s race, Memphis is about to launch the fourth term of the Herenton Administration.

If the past eight years are any indication, the next four years of a Herenton mayoralty will be an era of marking time, and at the end of it, Memphis will have problems that will have reached catastrophic proportions - all the more reason to start now to find the kind of candidates who can be immediate impact players in 2012.

As we think about this issue, we reprint a post from one year ago this month. It was also previously published in the City Journal column of Memphis magazine.

This is the golden age of great city mayors.

In Chicago, Richard Daley transformed “Beirut on the Lake” into one of the world’s great cities - sophisticated, vibrant, seedbed for an astonishing array of enlightened “green” programs.

In Denver and San Francisco, two restaurateurs – respectively John Hickenlooper and Gavin Newsom – transplanted their customer service credo into city services and designed revolutionary programs for the homeless. Also, Hickenlooper’s determined regional fence-mending produced a 70 percent approval rating in the metro area, and he in turn used this reservoir of good will to lead seven counties and 31 cities to pass a sales tax increase to pay for 119 miles of new light rail and commuter trains costing $5 billion.

In Atlanta, Shirley Franklin slashed 1,000 jobs as well as her own salary, convinced 75 companies to analyze city government at no cost and began a 22-mile linear park connecting 45 neighborhoods. Through force of personality, Jerry Abramson convinced Louisville citizens to approve the largest government consolidation in 40 years; New York’s Michael Bloomberg turned a projected $6.5 billion deficit into a $3 billion surplus; Baltimore’s Martin O’Malley developed a unique computerized complaint system making city departments more accountable; Miami’s Manny Diaz moved the city bond rating from junk to A+ while rolling out a six-year program to rebuild the infrastructure; and Washington Mayor Anthony Williams delivered something thought impossible – stability.

Rebirth

In other words, cities are in an epic period of rebirth, and great mayors are the reason.

Memphis has had great managers, great motivators and great speakers. But there’s no argument that Memphis has had a mayor who measures up to the standards of today’s great mayors.

Mayor Willie W. Herenton, contrary to critics who tend to blame him for everything from the economic downturn to global warming, flirted with a “Nixon to China” brand of greatness, but in the end, it was not to be and now seems as elusive as his being cheered at halfcourt at FedExForum.

In truth, the concept of Willie Herenton has always been more compelling than the reality of Willie Herenton. To his political base, he has special status as the city’s first African-American mayor, and the voter loyalty attached to that milestone will not be replicated again.

With civic leaders, explanations for support have frequently begun with the sentence, “He’s better than….”

Outstripping Reality

When a political brand outstrips personal reality, it’s often a good thing for the politician. The formidable image silences critics, drives public opinion and overwhelms public discussions.

In Herenton’s case though, it’s no longer fair to him, and it’s not now fair to the city, because it has mutated into a mythology that polarizes every issue he touches. The seminal example took place just over year ago when he convened a meeting to consider his innovative proposal for merger of the two local school systems. On that day, he made the best researched and most detailed analysis by a public official of the $1 billion spent locally each year for schools, and he did it all without mentioning once that Memphis is the only major metro area in Tennessee where schools aren’t already consolidated.

And yet, none of the statistics, none of the projections and none of the historical trends were reported. Instead, the media fixated on the fact that the chairs of the city and county school boards – respectively, Wanda Halbert and David Pickler - were petulant no-shows at the meeting.

Losing The Pulpit

It was a defining moment in the Herenton Era, because it was at that moment that it became unambiguously obvious that his personality, not his positions or programs, would be the overriding factor defining the news from then on. In this way, it no longer mattered if he was right, because he was robbed of his bully pulpit.The sad truth of Memphis politics – and it is sad whether you like Herenton or not – is that the mayor no longer has the potential to be great, because the ultimate prisoner of the Herenton myth is now Willie Herenton himself.

Because of it, he’s denied the chance to emulate great U.S. mayors who are creating bigger dreams for their cities that every one sees themselves being part of, reaching across political and racial boundaries and inspiring all of their citizens with the confidence to move ahead together.

11 comments:

fearlessvk said...

In Denver and San Francisco, two restaurateurs – respectively John Hickenlooper and Gavin Newsom – transplanted their customer service credo into city services and designed revolutionary programs for the homeless.

i'm (more than) a little wary of including gavin newsom in the list of visionary mayors, especially for his homelessness policy. although this article is a bit old, it offers a still-relevant critique of newsom's homelessness policy.

i haven't been in memphis long enough to really have a good grasp on local politics or on herenton's legacy, but when i hear people say that herenton is basically in the pocket of developers...well, that describes newsom, too, without question.

Anonymous said...

Having returned home to Memphis after 12 years, I was impressed by how much the city had changed. That was four years ago. In the meantime I have watched with dismay as our mayor has become an increasingly polarizing figure. My first and still lasting impression of Wharton was the same as my initial impression of Super. Johnson: If I were a few years younger, he could inspire me to public service. Neither was like any of the public figures that I remembered from my years growing up here. Johnson is leaving and Wharton may well decide to stay put. That really saddens me because Memphis is in desperate need of an optimistic, capable unifying leader. Four years is a very long time to wait for sunshine. And by the way, from whence would new leadership come? It does not appear that the mayor has been cultivating any new leaders. From where I sit, the next mayoral election is likely to be another ugly, disheartening affair.

city watch said...

After 30 years of Leadership Memphis why hasn’t a well versed, progressive leader emerged to run for Mayor? We are not talking about a politician but rather a civic leader who has shown the ability to coalesce groups toward a great civic endeavor. It seems that all we ever get are egocentric individuals who manage to tie themselves to special interests.

By the way we don’t think that WW Herenton is in the pocket of developers. Quite the contrary, his current troubles may be related to the fact that the developers can’t control him like they do in the County.

Save This MG said...

When the mayor's personality becomes the issue or the problem then it IS time for the mayor to go. We all know that one never overcomes that. Willie started out doing good things then something happened. His personality changed. The city has lost ground and he hasn't seemed to care. In fact, he even told folks to leave. Not smart. Not forward thinking. Not community building.

I'm not sure who signs your paycheck Smart City but based on what you write, I'd say it's Willie.

Anonymous said...

Right on City Watch. It is not Mayor Herenton, he is true to his convictions, believe it or not, But don't overlook Aviotti's friends; they control.

Has anyone ever check A C's contributors???? By the way don't Bobby Lanier and Pete Aviotti run in the same circes?

And, I keep wondering, what happened to all that Smart Growth rhetoric???

Smart City Consulting said...

Great discussion, although we're just not sure how save this mg got to his conclusion.

Save This MG said...

Save This MG is a she. Not sure which conclusion your talking about. I don't believe that Herenton can steer this city any longer. It's common knowledge that people tend to remember things that have happened in the recent past as opposed to those that happened several terms ago. What is sticking in their minds is how Herenton has become erratic. He is no longer a good mayor.

As for what we need now, I'm not sure we need a good politician as much as we need someone to begin healing this city. We'll never accomplish anything as long as we're too busy fighting with each other and calling each other names. I'm sorry but Nigger and Cracker just aren't conducive to concensus or team building and like it or not, one community can't save this city at the exclusion of another. Last time I checked, heart muscle is the same color no matter the color of the skin and it's going to take a lot of heart muscle to repair this city.

Save This MG said...

Dang...that should be you're not your.

Smart City Consulting said...

Thanks for the explanation. We thought that somehow you had reached the conclusion that we thought Mayor Herenton is the best to lead the city for four more years.

And we agree with you that we need a healer. Now where do we find that person? And can we at least make sure we have him/her ready in four years, because there will be even more need for it by then.

Save This MG said...

We'll have a new mayor in a few months. I know who I'm voting for and why. I don't think we can wait 4 more years for a change.

If we keep telling ourselves that Herenton is going to win then do we set up a self fulfilling prophesy? I believe we start saying that we WILL be beaten and go from there.

Sheetal Soni said...

Every citizen has a role to play in the upbringing of the society and identifying the key civic issues being faced by the local people. It is duty of every person to help in the upliftment of the downtrodden ones.