Our ideal Mayor for Mobile would be a young, progressive, intelligent, well-educated and energetic black man or woman that would move Mobile forward to become one of the leading cities economically and culturally not only in the state but in the entire country.

Why black? Because the amount of an amino acid derivative in the epidermis has exactly ZERO to do with a person’s ability to lead a city. Yet Mobile is completely fixated on the candidates’ 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid polymers. The “Country Club white trash” is obsessed with “beating the blacks.” And during the debates nonsensical statements by the Mayor were seemingly mindlessly cheered by his supporters – many of whom (experience has led us to believe) are unwilling to support any white candidate. This kind of stupidity will be the ruin of this city.

So we hoped that we could have a black Mayor that would be so amazing that it would be clear from then on that skin pigment has absolutely nothing to do with ability. He or she would make it evident to all Mobilians that we should simply vote for the best and most qualified candidate.

Unfortunately, we will have to continue to dream. Sam Jones is not that person. And the racial divide is greater than ever. Meanwhile, the City has at best stagnated, and at worse began an possibly unrecoverable decline.

To be clear, we have defended Mayor Jones many times. We published Eddie Curran’s critique of the campaign spending allegations against him – pointing out that almost all of our area politicos (including the D.A. herself) have made questionable expenditures.

Jones is not a bad guy. We see no evidence of frank corruption. Many of our area’s white politicians are much worse ethically and administratively. However – the fact is clear to us:

Mobile’s stagnation or decline is primarily due to Sam Jones’ lack of leadership.

This is exemplified by 10 characteristics of his administration:

1. Lack of direction / “just getting by”

If we were a 3 rd grade teacher grading Jones – we would have to give him a C- and comment that “Sam just does the minimum to get through his work. He has no desire to exceed or excel. He has a serious motivation problem.”

grade teacher grading Jones – we would have to give him a C- and comment that “Sam just does the minimum to get through his work. He has no desire to exceed or excel. He has a serious motivation problem.” Mobile has stagnated in multiple areas – population, the economy, Downtown development, etc. etc. while other Southern cities have grown. But Jones appears to be fine with this. We are unaware of any proposals for actual growth – downtown development, population, or otherwise.

There is no better example of this than the proposed “Mardi Gras Park.” That area between Government St., Royal St. across from the Mobile History Museum and Church St. and the Courthouse has sat unused and surrounded with a chain link fence for years. This is an area that almost anyone travelling through downtown Mobile sees. To not have done SOMETHING with this area and leave it chained up for years shows a lack of vision. Heck, just make it a public grassy area. We will get all sorts of excuses, but a real leader would have done SOMETHING.

Our empty cruise terminal is another example of lack of imagination and initiative but an abundance of excuses.

There are plans that the city has paid consultants good money for – the New Plan for Old Mobile among others – that are sitting on shelves. Yes, resources are limited – but the question is do we make progress with what resources we have and encourage private development (by not being an obstruction to development) – or do we let the city stagnate?

2. “It’s not my job” + Blame others.



At the debates, when asked about Mobile’s stagnation Jones blamed it on the national economy – even though the stock market is back to all-time highs and unemployment has dropped steadily. Other cities have flourished. Jones doesn’t have a plan for growing Mobile – he just has excuses and reasons why we should be happy with stagnation. This has been a theme throughout the debates and his term in office.

3. Let’s obstruct small business!

The number of small businesses that have died simply because the City refused to work with them is long – just offhand we can think of Hopjacks, The Bar and the rumored Donald Link restaurant that never opened on Dauphin. Others (i.e. in the non-Entertainment District) luckily survive despite the City’s best efforts to kill them.

We have had personal sub-optimal experiences ourselves with the city bureaucracy. We called them once to see what paperwork (as an internet business) we needed to complete. They said they would investigate it and call us back. Two years later they called and asked why we never filed paperwork. We said we were waiting for an answer as to which paperwork to file. They said “oh, ok we will get back to you on that.” That was two years ago. Kim Hastie has shown at the license bureau that strong leadership CAN change the culture of a bureaucracy. A strong mayor can do this and not make excuses.

4. Financial mismanagement.

Mobile’s debt has gone from $167 million when Jones took office in 2005 to $300 million today. Municipal debt is tolerable if it leads to an overall positive return, but what do we have to show for it? Higher taxes? A bunch of unused facilities that lose millions of dollars every year?

5. Crime “perception.”

The Mayor denies that there is a crime problem and states there is a “perception” of crime, despite the fact that Mobile ranks in the BOTTOM 2% of cities in terms of safety and is significantly above state and national crime rate averages. (www.usa.com)

Police Chief Micheal Williams should have been fired after any number of incidents, foremost of which is the weekend which – by numerous eyewitness reports – downtown police had been instructed to arrest anyone with zero tolerance for the new Entertainment District laws. That is, to use the “incidents” in order to secure more funding from the City Council. They, of course, attempted to arrest a Thyssen Krupp executive, but it could have easily been a visiting tourist – threatening Mobile’s tourism reputation. Brilliant. But this was swept under the rug quickly – although there was never a clear explanation.

Crime misreporting and under-reporting has been extensively documented in other outlets.

As has the Police Explorers scandal.

The already high turnover rate in the police department has been worsening.

All-in-all these add up to a lack of discipline in the police department leadership – and if your police department goes bad you might as well hang it up as a city (cf. NOPD).

6. Environmental Apathy

Waterway pollution in Dog River, Three Mile Creek and elsewhere has been a serious problem for years with minimal effort to correct it – and then only after news reports and public outcry. Kayaker Rob Nykvist has extensively documented the problem and the Mayor’s office apathy towards it.

The Mayor’s office should have been all over the oil pipeline crossing the Big Creek Lake watershed. Needless to say they weren’t. And aren’t.

7. Arrogance

We have never had the Mayor return an email or phone call – except once when his chief-of-staff called to ask why we had never asked him for an interview as we did Mr. Stimpson (we had – multiple times) and why the local media had the gall to think that they should sponsor a debate (what??? ). We can’t even get them to add us to the city’s press release list. And this is despite the fact that we have “stuck up” for Jones many times. Like a lot of “new things” – Jones & his staff just do not get New Media.

It is ironic that the supposedly-populist Jones’ camp is much more elitist than any of the other candidates’. We have been told that you cannot get a meeting with him unless you “know someone.” A local MD told us that after his was hit while riding his bike he tried for months to get a meeting with the Mayor – and it was only after one of the Mayor’s friends called on his behalf that he finally got a response.

8. Lack of transparency

Multiple media sources have noted the difficulty in getting information from the Mayor’s administration.

Members of the Citizen’s Budget and Finance Advisory Committee who were appointed to independently review the city’s finance have said that their efforts have been “thwarted by an unenthusiastic administration.” This was after their report contradicted the Mayor’s contention that the city would face a $29 million shortfall in 2013, justifying the 1% sales tax increase.

Jones should have made the MPD release documents or information as to who went on numerous trips – including ski trips – in conjunction with the Police Explorers program. Instead, Lagniappe has had to sue the department for the records (the deadline for which has conveniently been pushed back to August 30th – hmmmm.)

9. Taking credit for others’ work.

We saw this first hand as citizens’ worked to form a Bike-Pedestrian Advisory Committee in the Mobile MPO, then worked to pass a resolution supporting bicycle-pedestrian facilities on the proposed I-10 river bridge. The mayor had no role in these efforts yet wrote an op-ed in the Press-Register which made it sound like it was all his idea. If only we had a mayor that would make these initiatives instead of just taking credit for them.

We think it’s fair to say that the recruitment of Airbus, TK, and other recent industrial recruits are not primarily the accomplishment of the Mayor’s office. Yet…

10. Failure to promote racial harmony.

We do not recall any efforts by Jones – programs or even speeches – to unify our community in the last eight years. Supporters may point to examples, but as a whole they have not been noticeable. This has been a wasted opportunity.

On the contrary, Jones campaign rhetoric has been divisive – with allusions to Stimpson’s background and stoking fears about being “controlled” at his campaign rallies.

Over the past 8 years he could have constructively promoted diversity throughout his term by recognizing business and individuals to make an effort to hire a diverse workforce based on ability instead of “who you know.” But he hasn’t.

If he is so concerned about people “up on Spring Hill” wanting to control everyone “in the valley,” why has he repeatedly given them (including the families reputed for bringing the last slaves into Mobile) the key to the City on Lundi Gras instead of telling King Felix to hop back on his barge and sail his candy-ass back to the Isle of Joy? At least we would have respected him for that. Too little, too late.

Public works commissioner John Bell should have been fired after he accused Councilman Reggie Copeland of racism when Copeland dared to question the city continuing to give its $500,000 storm water management contract to The Mobile Group (who has mismanaged it for years.) This was a blatant example of promoting racial divisions for political gain and we should have zero tolerance for it.

So clearly, Sam Jones is not the person to lead Mobile forward. But is Sandy Stimpson?

If you would have told us three years ago that we would be supporting an old, rich white guy for Mayor we would have replied that you are crazy. But Stimpson has echoed many of Mod Mobilian’s own ideas for progressive growth (is he a fan?) – a focus on Downtown, promoting the arts, recruiting and keeping educated young entrepreneurs, and has relentlessly advocated for bike paths to the point where even we are saying “Ok! Ok! We get it – you are for bike paths!”

It is ironic that the conservative old white API Spring Hill guy is the one that is most amenable to new ideas – but he is. He gets it – that Mobile needs to modernize to grow – a fact that has completely escaped Jones.

Yes, we think that Stimpson should go the distance and renounce his membership in his all-white Mardi Gras organization – or at least acknowledge his membership and state his desire to integrate it. The supposed “secrecy” of Mardi Gras membership is a joke – but social segregation is not. It is one of the most serious issues Mobile faces. Only in Mobile would anyone think that a Mayor’s membership in a segregated organization is “irrelevant” or “insignificant” or “off-limits.” This is not even a criticism of Stimpson – “everyone here does it!” including the Mayor’s backers. In fact, in 8 years we have never seen Jones show support for Mobile’s only significantly integrated Mardi Gras organization – the Conde Explorers. But if Stimpson is serious about “ONE MOBILE” he will either demand his group integrate or resign.

Stimpson is in a position where he can preach to the Country Club white trash (CCWT) that racism and bigotry are not acceptable and that if Mobile’s “upper class” took an interest in bettering the lives of everyone instead of saying things like “the problem with Mobile is there are too many niggers in it” (actual CCWT quote) then Mobile could be a great city. Stimpson is well aware that the CCWT have run off many educated young transplants. Yes, racism is a problem for all classes and colors – but the CCWT are the ones that come into contact most often with business “outsiders” socially and professionally, and hence are most responsible for Mobile’s image. We believe if Stimpson took this stand he is in a position to change attitudes among Mobilians of all classes that would truly give Mobile the opportunity to get beyond its “perpetual potential.”

You can’t blame Mayor Jones solely for Mobile’s stagnation – as the CCWT’s provincial, antiquated and offensive attitudes run off many entrepreneurs, professionals and businesspeople. The “joke” around the social clubs “Oh, his wife isn’t from Mobile – I give him two years before he leaves” is not very funny.

Ideally, Stimpson would go to the Country Clubs, other private clubs, Mardi Gras organizations and give a speech something like this:

Fellow Mobilians, I come to you today to ask you to change your attitudes and mindsets to help Mobile become the great city we all know it can be. I ask you to look to the future, not to the past. I ask you to think, what can I do to improve the atmosphere in Mobile through my thoughts and deeds? Yes, watching 20-year-olds throwing a ball around is great, as is killing small animals, but what if our college-educated populace spent time discussing how to improve our public education system and eradicating poverty instead? Or if it became socially acceptable to care about pursuits that require thought and knowledge such as the arts and literature? Believe it or not, in “big cities” people actually value thought and knowledge, not hold it in contempt. What if Mobilian’s obsession with turning the city into one big xenophobic 6th grade clique was instead focused on asking what can we do to be more inclusive and attract intelligent outsiders? What if we received the engineer’s wife (or the engineer herself) from New Jersey with open arms and genuine hospitality instead of phoniness and a snickering behind-the back “Bless her heart.” We need to realize that racism is not only morally wrong but also not socially acceptable to most visitors and transplants – before we run them off with our racial condescension and liberal use of the word “nigger.” The number one thing holding back Mobile’s economic growth in something we can change – our attitudes and mindset. Let’s do it.

Regardless if Stimpson goes the distance there are not – we believe that he is the one that will move Mobile forward. We believe that he is genuine about his desire to unify Mobile and that all Mobilians – white and black – will be better off under his administration.

But… if Stimpson is elected and does not live up to his progressive campaign rhetoric and acts in the interest of “Old Mobile” then we will strike with vengeance never before seen in Mobile media – and woe be to any old white guy ever running for Mayor in Mobile again.

We believe Stimpson knows this – and he is too smart to blow it. So we are willing to take a chance with him. Mobile needs a change.

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