UIC Poll Ranks Best, Worst U.S. Big-City Mayors Since 1960

Chicago's Richard J. Daley was the best American big-city mayor since 1960 and Philadelphia's Frank Rizzo was the worst, according to a nationwide poll of 69 urban historians and political scientists conducted by a history professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Melvin Holli, an expert on urban and ethnic history and politics, has published the findings of the poll in the spring issue of Social Science Quarterly. The results are part of a larger study, to be finished in the fall, that will rank all American big-city mayors since 1820.

The poll is the first survey of urban experts and scholars to try to assess the relative performance of the men and women who have held what Holli calls "the third-most important job in America, behind president and governor."

"We have a clear sense about who the great presidents are," as well as the worst, via surveys such as those conducted by Arthur Schlesinger Sr. and his son, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. But mayors have "escaped the kinds of rankings that evaluate the presidency," Holli adds.

Holli says he chose 1960 as the beginning point for the survey of the "modern mayoralty" because the 1960s were the decade in which women and members of minority groups began to get elected as mayors of large cities. "By contrast," he writes in Social Science Quarterly, "the pre-1960 period is almost a wasteland when it comes to minorities and women occupying the mayor's seat."

The study ranked mayors in four categories: best, worst, minority/female best and minority/female worst. "The interpretation of 'best' and 'worst' was left to each respondent," Holli says.

In each category, experts were asked to rank, on a scale of 1 to 10, mayors of 15 large cities who had served between 1960 and 1993. A total of 44 mayors received at least one "best" vote.

Daley, mayor of Chicago from 1955 to 1976, was ranked in the top five by 33 respondents, including 14 first-place votes. He edged out Henry Cisneros of San Antonio (1981-89), who got seven first-place votes and 13 for second place.

After Cisneros came Tom Bradley of Los Angeles (1973-93), Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco (1978-87) and Andrew Young of Atlanta (1982-90).

"These five mayors are clearly marked as the premier group by our experts," Holli says.

Daley's son, Richard M. Daley of Chicago (since 1991), was not ranked by the experts because he hadn't been in office long enough prior to the poll's cutoff date, Holli says.

In the "worst" category, Rizzo (1972-79) was the overwhelming choice, receiving 25 first-place votes and 12 for second place and was named in the bottom five by 58 of the 69 experts polled. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland (1977-79) was a distant second with 12 first-place and 10 second-place votes.

Third-worst was Sam Yorty of Los Angeles (1961-73), followed by Jane Byrne of Chicago (1979-83), who received 37 votes for the bottom five, including seven for second-worst. Rounding out the bottom five was Philadelphia's Wilson Goode (1983-91). Twenty-eight different mayors received at least one "worst" vote.

Cisneros topped the "best minority/female" category, appearing in the top five on 54 experts' ballots. Feinstein came in second, Young was third, Bradley came in fourth and fifth-best went to Atlanta's Maynard Jackson (1974-82 and 1990-94), who nosed out Chicago's Harold Washington (1983-87). Washington also closely trailed Young for fifth-best overall. Twenty-three mayors received at least one vote in this category.

Receiving 10 first-place and 16 second-place votes for "worst minority/female" mayor, Byrne topped Goode, who was the choice of 13 voters for worst and 11 for second-worst.

Detroit's Coleman Young (1973-93) came in third, followed by Marion Barry of Washington, D.C., (1979-91 and since 1995) and Cleveland's Carl Stokes (1967-71). Nineteen mayors received at least one vote in this category.

Cities whose mayors were eligible for the poll were Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and St. Louis.

Holli says he hopes this poll "establishes a benchmark for future measures and stimulates comparative research on big-city mayors."