Survey of Best and Worst Mayors

[Count]

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/holli-mayor.html

I stumbled on this interesting historical survey of mayors- hadn't heard of most of them. Frank Murphy, ranked the 7th best mayor, later became a Supreme Court Justice and wrote a vehement dissent in the Korematsu case. It's way too long to post the whole thing but it's a good read. Here are the best and worst:

Who were the best mayors? Our experts picked leaders who spanned the entire 173-year period of the modern office of mayor (Table 1). The winners range from Boston's "Great Mayor," Josiah Quincy (1823-28), the quintessential WASP, to New York's ethnic Fiorello La Guardia. Selected first by the survey on the all-time best list is La Guardia (1934-45), a Republican fusionist reformer of New York City. A stouthearted fireplug of a man who built modern New York, La Guardia also fought "Murder Incorporated," read the comics to children over the air during a newspaper strike, and was a symbol of ethnic probity and honesty—an antidote to the widespread public view that ethnic politicians and crooked politicians were one and the same and part of the problem of big cities. Known as the "Little Flower," he was judged by many contemporaries and later scholars to be "the most outstanding mayor in United States history." A significant number of our present-day experts agree: thirty-eight of the sixty-one who voted for La Guardia ranked Gotham's chief executive as number one....

    Taking the first-worst prize is Chicago's Mayor William H. "Big Bill" Thompson (1915-23, 1927-31), one of the most colorful if not most corrupt mayors in the city's history. Big Bill, who received campaign funds from such gangsters as Al Capone, won the sobriquet "Kaiser Bill" during World War I for his pro-German stand, and he earned more notoriety in the 1920s for his "America First" program, his campaign to censor school textbooks, and his threat to punch King George "in the snoot." Perhaps Big Bill's first-worst designation is a small price to pay for the $1.5 million that may have been ill-gotten booty that turned up in his safe-deposit box after his death. The experts ranked Big Bill a solid and undisputed first place; he led the pack in the times-ranked-first column and also in the number of experts (forty-five) who put his leadership in the mayoral hall of shame.

[Neil]

Dissent in the Korematsu case is a bad thing.

[MadImmortalMan]

Daley #6.




Boss Hogg didn't make the list I guess.

[CountDeMoney]

Interesting.  Oh man, Frank Rizzo in Philly was a real piece of work 

I have to disagree with LA's Bradley, though;

Ranked ninth is the survey's most recent mayor, Los Angeles' Tom Bradley (1973-93). To rank ninth in a field of more than 700 "noteworthy and newsworthy" mayors is clearly a mark of distinction and more than a mere consolation prize. Elected five times by a predominantly white and Hispanic electorate, Bradley possessed diplomatic and conciliatory political skills that served him and his city well. When first elected, Bradley was almost sui generis among big-city black mayors—a calm and moderate voice of reason in an age of revolutionary rhetoric and red-hot Black Power politics. Yet even his deliberative style was not enough to calm the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which hastened the end of the Bradley era. Although receiving no "times ranked first" or "times ranked second" votes from our experts, Bradley did garner enough affirmative votes to secure ninth place statistically.

Every Mayor's stewardship is ultimately connected to the successes or failures of his police force, and it was within this time frame the LAPD devolved into one of the worst agencies regarding civil rights, race relations, corruption and internal strife.  During his time, it went from 1 Adam 12 to Rodney King.  He gets a failing grade from me for that.