Herenton sent a letter on March 19, 2008 stating that he was resigning his position as of July 31, 2008. No reason was given in the letter, other than he "heard another call" and is "duty bound to respond." As it turns out, he was talking about the vacant Memphis City Schools superintandant position, a position he has held before. Time progressed and the story changed. Herenton now is saying that he will only resign if he wins the superintendant position, but if he loses, he will remain the mayor of Memphis. That's Willie Herenton looking out for Willie Herenton. But it gets better. He later retracts his bid for the position, stating that the MEDIA had compromised his intent for the position. When asked about the letter of resignation that he sent on the 19th of March, he said that he never said he was resigning. Really? Read the actual report here and tell me if that's the case.
One big thing that the city has to improve on is the amount of crime that happens here. Now, I know that Memphis is a dangerous city, and it will take a lot of time to clean it up, if it ever happens. But when you are in power in a city that is listed as one of the most violent cities in America, what would you do to help the crime situation? Would you CUT the police budget? He sure wanted to. How much sense does that make? NONE. Herenton supporters ate it up.
During the strong storm that came through on June 12th, otherwise known as Hurricane Priscilla, almost 150,000 Memphis Light Gas and Water customers were without power, trees went down, and homes were destroyed. Where was the mayor? Yea, I don't know either. Neither does ANYONE. When WREG News Channel 3's Mike Matthews spoke with Herenton's spokeswoman, she said that he was "In the hardest hit areas of the city." When Matthews asked where that was, she said that she would get back to him on that. She never did. As of the writing of this blog, we still have no clue where he was.
But we know where he is now. He's busy trying to take Steve Cohen's position in congress. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? This guy doesn't even care enough about the city of Memphis to come out, address his citizens and comfort uneasy nerves in their time of need not only once, but TWICE. (The first time referring to his disappearance to Little Rock after another strong storm, Hurricane Elvis, caused widespread destructive damage throughout the city.) Now, you're telling me that he wants to help run the entire state? Yea, right. If he does get to the point where there will be an election between himself and Cohen, I really hope that the citizens of Tennessee do their research on Herenton before making their decision.
Now I've been called a racist by a few people because of how I feel about this man. Race is never, EVER an issue when it comes to me. If there were a white mayor in his position doing the same things, I'd be writing the exact same message with a different picture at the top. I am in no way against having a black man as the mayor of my city.
So what are your thoughts about this whole thing? I want your opinion. Respond with a comment below and let everyone know just how you feel, or post your thoughts on Twitter with the hash-tag #Herenton.
UPDATE: As of 11:30AM on June 25,2009, Willie Herenton publicly announced that he will resign his position beginning on July 10th, 2009 to pursue local interests, and to run for the 9th Congressional District.
ANOTHER UPDATE: After a topsy turvey ordeal, Willie Herenton finally resigned effective July 30th, 2009. He pushed his retirement date back so that he could take care of a few issues before he left office.
I can't stand Herenton and anything he stands for. He's the worst this city has seen in a long time. I don't like Steve Cohen at all, but I like him tons more then Herenton. Herenton will most likely say something along the lines that black people need a black leader and out Cohen will go without even so much another thought about it. The people that stand up for this man are stupid ignorant people. That's the type of people Herenton preys on. (oh I'm sorry I meant to say that's the type of people that support Herenton) The stupid and ignorant. If you think Herenton has done a good job here make sure you don't fall into either category. We need more cops patrolling the streets, not a slashed law enforcement budget, but I'm not even sure that's the answer.