NYT: The Democratic Mayor Who Thinks Cities Are Handling Trump Wrong

Quotes from the article about your effete mayor:

John Whitmire is not like most big city Democratic mayors. The 76-year-old, first-term mayor of Houston avoids confrontations with President Trump, courts Republican state leaders and saves his biggest complaints for his own party.

“Sometimes the louder you get, the less people listen to you,” he said of his fellow Democrats. “I don’t respond to Trump — that could be counterproductive. Do I have personal views? Sure, and they’re strong, but why do you want to challenge him?”

With rhetoric escalating over immigration raids and National Guard troop deployments, Mayor Whitmire is betting that the best way to govern a large American city right now is to keep your head down.

“Most major cities are in turmoil,” Mr. Whitmire said. “We’re not.”

Mr. Whitmire, in a series of interviews with The New York Times, faulted other Democratic mayors such as Brandon Johnson in Chicago and Karen Bass in Los Angeles for loud public challenges to the president over immigration enforcement and other issues that have only deepened divisions. He had particularly choice words for Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner to be the next mayor of New York, for what he said was “a horrible record of bringing people together.”

“He’s saying he’s going to arrest the prime minister of Israel? You think that’s how you bring people together? He and me are in different universes,” he said.

The mayor is aware of all that, but after five decades in public service, he knows what he likes: repaved roads, municipal public safety unions, baked potatoes and late night ride-alongs with his police chief.

He also knows what he without-a-doubt does not like: sidewalk scooters, crime, bike lanes, and, perhaps most of all, noisy partying near residential neighborhoods.

“Too loud, too loud, too loud!” he called out from the passenger window of a police S.U.V. while passing by booming bars on a recent Saturday night ride, with the city’s police chief, J. Noe Diaz, at the wheel. “People live right here, can you imagine that?

He prides himself on standing apart. In his City Hall office is a picture of Mr. Whitmire walking up a flight of stairs in the Texas Capitol in 2003 — when, as a state senator, he broke with fellow Democrats and returned to Austin to end the party’s first major walkout over redistricting.

“I saved the Democrats from losing all their influence,” he said, seated at his desk.

Mr. Whitmire said his focus was on improving city services, such as garbage pickup. His administration conducted an audit of spending and reduced the city work force, largely with voluntary retirement incentives. The goal, he said, was to show Republican leaders eager to starve Texas cities of revenue that Houston is deserving of more money.

“I’ve told Austin, we’re all in this together,” he said. “How Houston goes is how the state of Texas goes, and that’s just a fact.”