Black Mayors, White Majorities: The Balancing Act of Racial Politics

6 Strong Housing Support and a Weak Mayor

125 CHAPTER 6 Strong Housing Support and a Weak Mayor Rhine McLin’s Efforts for Improved Housing When you talk about all these issues, even though I’m the mayor of color, it’s across the board. There is only in the city, to your constituency, an east and a west, but to me as the mayor, they’re all my constituents. Rhine McLin, interview, June 26, 2008 Having campaigned for improved schools, better neighborhoods, and reduced crime, Rhine McLin was elected mayor of Dayton in November 2001 with 51 percent of the vote, managing to defeat a popular two-term incumbent, Mike Turner. She became the first female mayor and third black mayor of a city with a long and sometimes difficult racial past. McLin herself was knowledgeable about race relations , having once taught college courses on the subject. Her selfidentification as an African American and her familial political lineage also made her especially sensitive to racial issues. Shortly after taking office, McLin organized interracial “friendship lunches” as part of her effort to address the region’s historic racial problems. Nearly three hundred people attended the first lunch, each donating fifteen dollars to a charitable fund she had established. “I wanted to do something a little different and let people have a relaxed atmosphere and have people understand friendship,” McLin said of the lunches.1 While she strongly identified with the black community, her role as mayor was to be the mayor for everyone. Indeed “mayor for everyone” best defined the approach McLin used in her efforts to improve the quality of life of black Daytonians. 126 STRONG HOUSING AND A WEAK MAYOR The McLin Years: Limited Powers and Economic Challenges Dayton’s commission-manager form of government means that the city has a weak mayor. The city charter defines the commission as the city’s “governing body” with the power “to pass ordinances, to adopt regulations, and to appoint a Chief Administrative Officer to be known as the ‘City Manager,’ and exercise all powers hereinafter provided.”2 The city’s mayor has a number of ceremonial duties and is charged with leading the regular meetings of the city commission. Dayton’s city manager, as “the administrative head of the municipal government,” bears responsibility for submitting an annual budget and ensuring “the efficient administration of all departments,” which includes hiring or appointing heads of departments. The city manager oversees sixteen departments, a general fund budget of approximately $170 million, and 2,400 employees. With the exception of making some board appointments, Rhine McLin had no more authority as mayor to implement policy and develop programs than did her fellow commissioners.3 Although McLin did not have the executive authority Ford had in Toledo, she had the ability to wield a great deal of informal influence, which she may have chosen to exercise on behalf of black Daytonians. On the other hand, the extent to which she actively pursued black interests may have been limited by her understanding that as mayor, she was to advocate for the interests of all of Dayton. Unlike her father , she was not the state representative of a majority-black district; rather McLin was the weak mayor of a majority-white city. When she entered office, McLin faced a $16 million shortfall in the budget and a bleak projected regional economic outlook that was symptomatic of the state’s economic condition. Between 2000 and 2007 Ohio had lost nearly 250,000 manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, the poverty rate increased: in 2004 there were 580,021 more Ohioans in poverty than in 1998, an increase of 5 percent. Ohio was one of only seven states in which the poverty rate had increased between 2003 and 2004, and the situation continued to deteriorate. The state’s poverty rate grew by 2.5 percent—or more than 293,000 people—be- STRONG HOUSING AND A WEAK MAYOR 127 tween 2000 and 2008. The number of elementary school students eligible for free lunches in the state, a commonly used measure of poverty, rose by 9 percent between 1993 and 2000. The high school graduation rate was 88.3 percent for whites and 61.9 percent for blacks in 2002. Sixty percent of Ohio’s white students scored at the “proficient” level or higher on third-grade achievement tests in 2003, compared to 27.8 percent of black students. According to a report by Education Week, Ohio’s...