As Buttigieg's national profile rises amid his underdog bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, a closer look at his record as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, reveals vulnerabilities he might face among the party's black and minority voters.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – C.J. Neely, a black 16-year-old who has lived here all his life, thinks it's pretty cool that Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of this small city of about 100,000 people, is running for president.
"This s--- looks the same, every time I walk through here," Neely assessed somberly. Though he acknowledged that the mayor was"trying," the teenager delivered a blunt conclusion:"He's improved s---." The skepticism has dogged him on the campaign trail, too. Buttigieg has struggled to attract diverse audiences at rallies so far in his campaign. It is an issue Buttigieg has said he is"very intent" on fixing. His performance among poor and minority voters has weighed on him in some early national polls, too, particularly as his economic record in South Bend comes into greater focus.
While many say they are glad the abandoned houses came down, they lament the lack of a plan for what would fill their place. And, they say, the project led to a number of unintended consequences, some involving health scares, that persist to this day and reflect a lack of attention to their impoverished parts of town.
Meagher pointed to"Mayor's Night Out" events that Buttigieg has hosted monthly or bimonthly in neighborhoods across South Bend, and noted recent projects on the city's west side, including the $4 million expansion of a community center and the city's funding of a business resource center tailored to entrepreneurs from minority backgrounds.
"We made sure that our neighborhoods were improved, because the issue of blight and vacant and abandoned properties was harming neighbors especially in minority neighborhoods," Buttigieg said."People didn't think it could be done, but we dealt with 1,000 houses in 1,000 days by marshaling resources, concentrating them and working to fix the problem."
Years later, much of the grass is cut, but problems remain. The empty lots sit undeveloped, economic opportunity remains minimal and crime rates are up from 2012. Shootings, on the mind of many, have not decreased. "But there was a systematic approach from the Buttigieg administration to right size the homes, look at the data and see where we are," he said."To me, we are really in phase two. After all these years, we are in phase two."
But as as demolitions continue, residents say the program is hardly in the rearview mirror. Most worrisome, they say, are the clouds of dust that sometimes return at demolition sites, despite the city's promise of further precautions. Scott, the council president, responded in an email saying that he asked the head of code enforcement to look into the problem. After his intervention, a city truck arrived and sprayed the demolition site with water, according to the emails.
Buttigieg said in March that the city secured more than $3 million to remediate homes that were at risk of lead contamination, and that the city had"worked to deliver free lead testing for all primary school students in South Bend Community School." Buttigieg's campaign said that more than 440,000 feet of curbs and sidewalks were added or replaced between 2012 and 2018.
"I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to have a chance to run for president," Bey clarified."But he's got to take care of here first."
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