"That’s kind of the peril of taking a data-driven approach. "Part of his data-driven approach, and part of the ambitious timelines he set for himself, meant that when things went wrong, they often did harm before things could be fixed," said Nate Levin-Aspenson, a South Bend activist with the local chapter of Indivisible, a national progressive group. In particular, leaders and residents of the west-side neighborhoods whose homes were largely targeted said Buttigieg moved too fast and made the data on which the plan was based the priority over the input of the people affected. They were concentrated in poor and minority neighborhoods.Įveryone in South Bend agreed that, like so many post-industrial cities, it had a real problem with abandoned homes, but many took issue with the way Buttigieg’s administration tackled it. Those shortcomings became most pronounced with Buttigieg's plan to knock down or rehab 1,000 vacant homes in as many days that were not being kept up to code. Decision-making was confined to a small group by the time problems surfaced, it was often too late.
His administration was brash and didn't communicate effectively with key players. Lacked executive experience and a diverse staff. In interviews with NBC News, city leaders and residents assessed "Mayor Pete" in similar terms: He was young. A 2017 study commissioned by the city found that, amid a broad citywide decline in unemployment, the jobless rate among African Americans was still nearly twice as high as it was for white residents, and that 40 percent of the city's black community still lived in poverty.Īnd an inherited scandal - and Buttigieg's bungled response - exposed a racial rift in the city that would haunt his successes. The prosperity that spread through downtown, however, never made its way to the city's low-income neighborhoods. "His team was just being aggressive and proactive, looking at data and looking at new urbanism, the latest and greatest trends in technology, community investment." "He was a young dynamic leader with a young dynamic team in place," said Tim Scott, president of the South Bend Common Council. Underneath the streets were "smart" sewers using electronic sensor technology to prevent overflow into the river.Ī new warehouse and logistics park out by the airport created jobs, while the old Studebaker factory, the epicenter of South Bend's decline when it shut down in 1963, became a hub for data companies looking to tap into nearby fiber optic lines than ran under the train tracks.
New streets - "smart" streets - were redesigned as two-way thoroughfares with slower speed limits to help keep people downtown and boost retail businesses. There was a new minor league ballpark and a farm team for the Chicago Cubs. Some $200 million in investment poured into downtown and new condos, offices, parks, restaurants and cafes sprang up. "It shifted more to, 'How we can get this deal done?'" South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg near new construction at Ignition Park in 2012. "The city had a reputation of telling you why you couldn't do something," said Jeff Rae, president of the South Bend Chamber and a former Republican mayor of neighboring Mishawaka. 100,000) with a skyline dominated by a building whose penthouse once housed a swanky members-only club, but that had long since fallen into despair. Buttigieg went about remaking the creaky 1,400-person bureaucracy and attracting new development to a city (pop.
Good things started happening right away.
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