Sidney Barthelemy

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Sidney Barthelemy bigraphy, stories - American politician

Sidney Barthelemy : biography

March 17, 1942 –

Sidney John Barthelemy (born March 17, 1942) is a former American political figure. The second African American to hold the New Orleans Mayoral chair, he was a member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1974 to 1978 and a member at-large of the New Orleans City Council from 1978 to 1986. He served as Democratic mayor of New Orleans from 1986 to 1994.

Early life and career

Barthelemy was born on March 17, 1942 in New Orleans, LA Sidney 2011, p. 1 and was the third of six children in a Creole family. He grew up in the Seventh Ward, and attended Corpus Christi Elementary School and St. Augustine High School (New Orleans).Sidney 2011, p. 1 From 1960 to 1963, in preparation for entering the priesthood, he studied at Epiphany Apostolic Junior College in Newburgh, New York, and then entered St. Joseph Seminary in Washington, D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and pursued graduate study in Theology. While in seminary, he worked summers as a laborer in a stevedoring company.

In 1967, having made the decision not to enter the priesthood,Perkins 2005, p.6 Barthelemy returned to New Orleans and became an administrative assistant in the office of Total Community Action. In 1968, Barthelemy married Michaele Thibideau.Sidney 2011, p. 1 From 1969 to 1972 he was director of the Parent Child Center of Family Health, Inc. During these years he also completed a Master of Social Work degree at Tulane University in New Orleans, worked part-time for the Urban League of Greater New Orleans and assisted with various political campaigns, joining COUP, a political organization based in the 7th Ward of New Orleans.Perkins 2005, p.7

From 1972 to 1974 Barthelemy was Director of the Department of Welfare under Mayor Moon Landrieu. Backed by COUP, Barthelemy was elected in 1974 to one term in the Louisiana State Senate from District 4;Perkins 2005, p.6 he was the first African-American to serve in that body since Reconstruction. While he served in the Legislature, he also joined Xavier University as assistant director of the Urbinvolve Program and as an instructor in the Department of Sociology and became an adjunct faculty member in the Applied Health Sciences Department, Maternal and Child Health Section, of Tulane University.

In 1978 Barthelemy was elected to an at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council, a position he held for two terms.Perkins 2005, p.9 While in the council, Barthelemy become known for his longstanding rivalry with Mayor Ernest "Dutch" Morial. In 1979, Barthelemy was elected to be in state Senate, beating out a sixteen year, white incumbent Whelan 1991, p.11 He defeated Bill Jefferson in the 1986 mayoral election to succeed Morial. On May 5, 1986, Barthelemy began his first term as mayor of New Orleans.Perkins 2005, p.18

Barthelemy as mayor

First elected in 1986, Barthelemy became the second African American mayor of New Orleans with 58% of the vote.Huey 1990, p.156 Barthelemy’s mayoralty began under difficult circumstances. Federal government revenue sharing to municipalities had been progressively reduced from 1981 onwards, and had ended by the time Barthelemy took office in 1986. A regional economic slump, the so-called Oil Bust added to these budget woes. Many federal and state funds decreased from around forty million dollars to less than six million.Perkins 2005, p.2 Louisiana’s energy-dependent economy, already slowing as the price of oil declined from its 1980 high point, was pummeled in early 1986 by a sudden collapse in price per barrel from over $27 to less than $10. With the economy and this financial crisis, the unemployment rate in the city was over ten percent Johnson 1986, p.121 and the deficit was $30 million.Whelan 1991, p.12 To solve this, Barthelemy worked with the city council and developed a plan to dig the city out of the deficit. This plan involved cutting costs, raising fees, and privatizing operations, in the process of which over 1000 workers lost jobs.Whelan 1991, p.12

Taking a less hands-on approach to economic development than his predecessor, Barthelemy preferred to let the private sector be the primary engine of growth which bothered many people.Perkins 2005, p.26 Though Barthelemy took a pro-business stance, his unfocused, laissez-faire approach to attacking the city’s problems was harmful in the post-Oil Bust period; it was during his and his successor’s mayoralties that New Orleans lost its remaining attractiveness as a center for corporate white collar employment. This shift towards supporting the business community caused a complex racial issue as well, as many blacks began to feel as if Barthelemy was turning his back on them.Johnson 1986, p.121 As recently as the late 1970s and early 1980s, downtown New Orleans had experienced a building boom, with multiple office towers constructed to house the headquarters, or large regional offices, for companies such as Freeport-McMoRan, Pan American Life Insurance, Exxon, Chevron, Gulf Oil, Amoco, Mobil, Murphy Oil and Texaco. In the mid-80s these firms, along with other large employers such as Royal Dutch Shell, Louisiana Land and Exploration and McDermott International, employed thousands of white collar workers downtown, with thousands more employed by others providing services to them. Only Shell and Pan American Life Insurance remain as significant entities in New Orleans today. Though Barthelemy probably couldn’t have averted the consolidation of Big Oil white collar employment to Houston, he was unsuccessful in creating an economic climate sufficiently conducive to the growth of replacement white collar employers downtown, or elsewhere in the city. A big disappointment occurred in 1988, when defense and space contractor Martin Marietta lost its bid to construct the crew modules for NASA’s Space Station Freedom. Martin Marietta would have fabricated the space station hardware at its Michoud Assembly Facility in Eastern New Orleans, already the manufacturing location of the Space Shuttle’s external tank. The contract, won by Boeing, resulted in thousands of jobs created at that company’s chosen assembly site, Huntsville, Alabama. More disappointment followed the creation of the Metrovision regional economic development partnership, as that body largely failed to diversify or attract additional investment to Metro New Orleans’ economy.