The Problems With Mayor Pete for President

When Pete Buttigieg announced he was running for president, I thought it was a joke. Locals went crazy (and are still going crazy)--"We know him!!!" 

Now, I certainly wasn't excited when Pence was given the vice-presidency. I felt he had ridden the wave of his predecessor and he also was weak on some things that he should not have been. Nothing irritates me more than a wishy-washy leader. 

But now we have "Mayor Pete" making a bid for the presidency and that boarders on ludicrous. I remember when Mayor Buttigieg was first elected (make no mistake, he wasn't "Mayor Pete" until his run for the presidency). It was 2011, the middle of the Recession, and he announced everyone on the city council was going to get a raise. My husband hadn't had a raise in several years and the city council of South Bend was getting one. The city GDP had already started an upward trend after the depths of 2009, but after Mayor Pete was elected, it dipped again. Now it is up, but nowhere near pre-recession rates and it isn't set to get back there any time soon. "Mayor Pete" has continued to give his inner circle raises, though with the most going to potential supporters.

He also hired people to do his job. He didn't feel he should personally talk with the head of the police department so a liaison did that for him. With so much support, it was no wonder he was able to serve active duty as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan. The city was already running itself. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that South Bend statistics are usually combined with those of Mishawaka. South Bend is the 4th largest city in Indiana, but Mishawaka is the 2nd largest retail center (and South Bend is not even close to being first). Mishawaka has a bad section, but that is comparable to some of the decent sections of South Bend. Mishawaka and its surrounding town/communities improve South Bend's statistics, but should not be attributed to Mayor Buttigieg since each has its own government.

How safe has Mayor Pete made South Bend (keep in mind it is barely large enough to be a city with only a little over 100,000 people). Well, it is safer than 3% of other cities. There are 10 violent crimes  and almost 50 property crimes per every 1000 people. For comparison, Mishawaka has 2 violent crimes per 1000 people. As you can see on the map in the link, most of those violent crimes occur on or near the South Bend/Mishawaka border. If we look at other cities that have almost the exact same population (+/- 1000 people) across the US, Renton WA, Vista CA, Las Cruces NM, Woodbridge NJ, Davenport IA, Edison NJ, and Lakewood NJ, South Bend has more violent crime than all of them, in most cases South Bend's violent crime is double that of these cities. South Bend's violent crime rate is equal to that of Chicago and their property damage rate is higher than that of Chicago. 

But everybody agrees "Mayor Pete" made some visible changes to the city. For example, he decided to slow down the streets of South Bend. He stated that people passing through town who are forced to go slower will now stop and visit shops. In my opinion, most people traveling will simply take the bypass around the city. The South Bend Tribune did a nice before and after drive-thru showing the change to the streets only added about 5 minutes drive time one way. However, they did this comparison at a time when there was practically no traffic. People who live here now avoid downtown South Bend like the plague because it is bumper to bumper traffic during the rush (and no passing lanes to get around the crush). In many cases you are making left hand turns at your own risk. Prior to the change we had 3 lanes of traffic going one direction for every 2 lanes we now have. The mayor called this return to old-fashioned two-way streets with landscaped dividers "Smart streets." I will give the mayor this--people avoid downtown so much that it is now easy to find a parking spot. He may counter, "But I added parking spots!" However, he added parking spots just before entering the main downtown area and those are always abandoned. If I wanted to go to the county-city building and get a close spot before the street change, it could take up to 10 minutes of circling the block. Now, I don't even have to go around once despite the same number of parking spots there.

What has Mayor Buttigieg done for South Bend? I give him full credit for bringing expensive apartment housing complexes into the city. Prior to Mayor Buttigieg, no one would have picked downtown South Bend as an ideal place for gentrification. South Bend already has several expensive neighborhoods in the heart of the city. Many are bohemian historical neighborhoods. Living there means you will be subject to more crime, but the neighborhoods are exclusive. Mayor Buttigieg took this idea and ran with it- he was able to attract several real estate investment companies to the area. Downtown South Bend storefronts are still mostly abandoned, but there are also several upscale restaurants there now. Most of the apartments that have already been built are still not full even though it has been a couple years and it meant selling off city property, but they are there. Who knows what will happen in the next 5 -10 years? But there certainly hasn't been a dramatic turnaround that everyone seems to be bragging about and attributing to a mayor was given the best chance of success since he took office during a worldwide recovery from recession.

Mayor Pete follows the standard Democrat platform-there is nothing new or interesting about him. He is running on the platform of "I am a LGB... tolerant Mike Pence." I am sure his presidential bid is actually a dream to be vice president since he seems to be targeting barbs at Pence more than Trump. But as one homosexual friend said, "Being homosexual doesn't make you a good president" (or vice-president). To make matters worse, he is playing on the "gay gene" "I was born this way" platform. There is no gay gene. Period. In 1993, "research" was published that a male gay gene was found on the X chromosome. This research was later debunked. In 15 years, not only has that "research" been debunked, but also no other gene has been proposed to cause homosexuality even male homosexuality. In fact, twin studies show we are more likely to find a "divorce" gene than a "homosexual" gene. If you are homosexual-that is your choice. I don't tell people about my sex life and I don't want to know about yours. If Mayor Pete wants to run on a homosexual platform, why not explain why everyone should be allowed to have consensual sex with any adult they want instead of saying he couldn't help the way he is?

Mayor Buttigieg is not Mike Pence. Mike Pence fell into his position and rode its wave. I don't think he had any higher aspirations than governor--he might not have even aspired that high. he is perfectly happy to remain in Trump's shadow. Pete Buttigieg has extremely high aspirations. Little changes in Indiana- after Mayor Buttigieg's first term, it was no surprise he was re-elected. Only after homosexual marriage became the popular thing when it was before the Supreme Court did he came out publicly, find a partner (he was single before that time), and marry his new partner. Mayor Buttigieg states that as he was growing up he wished there was a "pill" to take away his homosexual desires. Well, there are plenty of unofficial treatment programs for people who don't want to be LGB... anymore. But I think Mayor Buttigieg does want to be homosexual right now. That is the one thing that he is betting will get him into the White House- that and is evangelical "conversion."

So what of that conversion? Well, having lived in the area during Mayor Buttigieg's political reign, I have not heard anything about his religion or religious views in the media until he made his bid for president. Now, he is claiming he was raised Catholic, but is currently an evangelical Christian--a member of the Episcopal Church. His religious influences are "the early St. Augustine, James Martin, and Garry Willis." But, "Mayor Pete" is not very well versed in his religion apparently. First, the Episcopal Church is not evangelical. Granted, the leap from Catholic to Episcopalian is easy since there is little difference between the two. That is probably why Mayor Buttigieg made the change--people can ask him questions about his faith and he will probably get the right answer, but he needed to move a little father from his comfort zone if he wanted to be evangelical. The other problem is his religious influences... they are all Catholic. St. Augustine of Canterbury is the Episcopal saint (i.e. not the "early" one, St. Augustine of Hippo who wrote "Confessions"). I suppose he could say that was a misprint by the Washington Post, but why name two other catholic writers: a Jesuit priest and a Catholic historian? There is nothing wrong with being Catholic, but when you are a Catholic claiming to be an evangelical Christian simply to get the nomination, there is a serious problem. Where is Thomas Beckett? Or William Tyndale? Or even Julian of Norwich or any of the other lesser known Episcopalian saints? If you are going to be running on the platform that your faith is better than someone else's, you should know what your faith is.