South Bend: Why the city that made Pete Buttigieg could prove to be his downfall

Midwestern mayor leading Iowa polls but support among people of colour is low

Annetter Newbill went to bed expecting to wake and find her son at home.

Eric Logan had told her he would let himself in after making his way over from a nearby apartment block where he frequently spent time with friends. He never arrived.

That Sunday morning, Ms Newbill, 74, who is African American, found the police at her door. They told her her son had been shot and killed by a white officer, allegedly after being confronted trying to break into cars with a knife. “They brought me this picture with all these tubes attached to his face,” she says.

The June shooting of the 54-year-old Logan triggered fierce protests, with the community outraged over the death of yet another black man at the hands of a white police officer. South Bend’s mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is running for president, returned from the campaign trail, to be confronted by demonstrators.

“One thing that I want you to know is that we’re serious about fixing this,” he said, vowing to investigate the shooting by officer Ryan O’Neill, and allegations of systemic racism in the police department.

Yet the Democratic hopeful has been unable to put the incident behind him. Rather, it has focused attention on what critics say has been a repeated failure by the 37-year-old to address issues of concern to the black community during his two terms as mayor.

It has also raised questions about the viability of his bid to become president. While polls suggest he is leading in Iowa and is second in New Hampshire, the predominantly white states that are the first and second to vote, and running fourth nationally, he scores less well in those states with large numbers of people of colour. In South Carolina, one poll found his support with African American voters was close to zero. Political scientists say black voters, especially women, are the most reliable Democratic supporters.

“Mayor Pete” has pitched his entire qualification to run on the skills displayed running a small midwestern city, where he claims he was able to bring people together, improve – or worsen, depending who you speak to – the traffic by the use of roundabouts, kickstart the economy by investing more than $60m (£46.7m) in development, and could thus do the same for the nation. But what if rather than being a springboard, his record in South Bend is his undoing?

“What black folks know about him is not great,” says Christina Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University in New York. “There was the viral video [of him telling a black protester “I’m not asking for your vote”], the demoting of the black police chief, and then the death of a black man.”

Like many midwest cities, South Bend, Indiana, was once a proud hub for industry and manufacturing, focused on the Studebaker car giant, which employed thousands before ceasing operations in 1963. After Buttigieg took office, he put money into a number of city centre projects, including the transformation of the old car plant into a tech and innovation centre. They called it the Renaissance District.

But the city remains a place of different parts. The north of South Bend is dominated by the elegant campus of Notre Dame University, a private, Catholic academic and sporting powerhouse established in 1842, and whose Latin motto Vita Dulcedo Spes, translates as Life, Sweetness and Hope.

The northwest of the city, which has a large African American community , is much more run down. Many streets are broken, a number of homes are abandoned. Shops and services are more sparse. Figures suggest the poverty rate in the city is 25 per cent, compared to a national figure of 12 per cent, and one of 13 per cent in the state of Indiana. Evictions are at the higher level.

Henry Davis, a council member who failed in a 2015 bid to oust Buttigieg as mayor and who was reelected this year, says South Bend’s problems, including those of race relations, go back decades. “Pete has exacerbated many of these issues,” he says, adding that he has not endorsed any of the Democratic candidates but will not back the mayor.

Another black member of the city council, Oliver Davis, recently announced he was supporting Joe Biden, rather than the local candidate. “In times like these, when the political winds are fiercely blowing across our country, it’s important for us to have an experienced leader who has been through the diverse storms of life to guide our country,” Davis said in a statement released by Biden’s campaign.

Another critic, Darren Washington, pastor at the New Hope Missionary Church, says there is nothing Buttigieg can do at this point to make himself more attractive to black voters. He says: “The American voter is not stupid. There is no way he can make good for any of its evils.”

Buttigieg grew up in that part of South Bend without holes in the road. A Harvard graduate, Rhodes scholar, and military veteran, Buttigieg was the only child of college professors. He was educated at the private Saint Joseph High School, and speaks several languages. He spent three years working for the consulting giant, McKinsey and Company.

Buttigieg, who is openly gay, has frequently said there is more to be done in South Bend, and admits he made errors. Last month, he was campaigning in Iowa when he was confronted by a controversy triggered by an article in The Root that recalled comments he made in 2011 when he claimed black students often failed because they did not have sufficient educational role models.

“What I said in that comment before I became mayor does not reflect the totality of my understanding then, and certainly now about the obstacles that students of colour face in our system today,” he told reporters.

Aware of the potential of such criticisms to harm his run, his campaign has stressed his commitment to improving the plight of South Bend’s communities of colour.

These included installing a majority-minority police board, outfitting all patrol officers with body cameras, and establishing his own version of Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, which is claimed to have helped 14,000 youths.

His campaign has defended his demotion of former black police chief Darryl Boykins, who was being investigated by the FBI for secretly recording phone conversations of his own officers. (Those tapes remain unreleased). It also points out he created an office of diversity and inclusion, and studies on how best to improve the city’s racial wealth gap. It says he supports the establishment of a committee to examine reparations for slavery.

“I believe that I am here to make myself useful — that I am part of this political process to make myself useful, but also that I was put on this earth in order to make myself useful to others,” Buttigieg said this month at a black church in North Carolina.

On the streets of South Bend, a Democratic stronghold in a staunchly Republican state, it is not hard to find his supporters. At the recently reopened Howard Park, located next to the St Jospeh River, and which has undergone an $18m (£12m) renovation, Brandy Such was walking with a friend. “I like it. It’s especially good for young people,” says Such, who supports the mayor and think’s he has a good chance of winning the nomination.

Describing herself as a woman of colour, she said the likes of Davis could not speak on behalf of the entire black community.

In a nearby coffee shop, Eileen Mariani says she voted twice for Buttigieg, and would do so in the primary. “I like Pete. He’s progressive, smart and kind, though it’s difficult to say if he’s strong enough to represent the Democrats.”

Eighty-three-year-old Lilly Grady is hurrying inside from the wind with her 86-year-old husband, Spencer. Both are African American. “I will be voting for him. We need someone young. I think he would be a good president.”

Vernado Malone, a friend of Eric Logan, has become an outspoken advocate for reform in South Bend since the shooting, and is trying to help the family secure justice. A special prosecutor is examining the circumstances of the shooting, of which there is no video footage, because the officer who shot Logan had not turned on his body camera.

Malone says he had known Logan for more than 20 years and disputes the police’s claim he was breaking into cars. “He had $300 to buy meat for Father’s Day. I just don’t believe what the police say.”

The family has filed a civil action against the city and the police department, and claims that as mayor, Buttigieg has overseen a pattern of police discrimination against people of colour. Lawyer Brian Coffman says: “We are saying Mr Logan’s constitutional rights were taken from him by being shot. We also allege the city has a [history of] these acts.”

Logan’s mother says she went to see Buttigieg after her son was killed. [A Buttigieg spokesperson says the mayor contacted the family seeking another meeting, but said that meeting was cancelled by the family’s attorney.]

“He did not come to see me. I went to see him,” she says. “I told him ‘You need to take care of me. The city is is going to take care of everything’. I looked at him, and he looked at me.”

Asked about her expectation of getting justice, she says she is “praying and hoping”. She adds: “Mayor Pete doesn’t care…He’s running for president.”