Winners Never Quit But Sometimes Quitters Win

By Betty Jean Grant

Betty Jean Grant

Mayor Brown quitting his job before his term was over leaves a lot of people disappointed, including this writer. The fact that he fought back after losing the Primary and won with a Stamped in campaign makes his leaving before his term was up suspect to those of us who believed he wanted to lead Buffalo to her complete economic renaissance.

Did the Mayor fight so hard, after losing the 2021 Democratic Primary, because political deals had been made and the seat or the order of mayoral succession had been put in place years ago? A few years ago, South District Councilmember Chris Scanlon became President Pro Tempore, or 2nd in leadership, of the Buffalo Common Council. That position allowed him a chance to be elected Council President when the former Ellicott District Councilmember Darius Pridgen threw his political hat out of the ring when he chose not to run for re-election. That left an avenue for anyone to become Council President. If the four minority Councilmembers had stood in unity for our community and voted together, they could have lobbied and negotiated one of the four remaining councilmembers to give them that 5th vote. If that had happened, one of the community councilmembers could have been in the position to be elected Acting Mayor.

During his 5th term as Mayor, Byron Brown has steered Buffalo from the financial, economic and environmental mess it had developed into, over decades of mismanagement and neglect. Even though, over the years, the Mayor and I have not always agree on how he governed the city, I do give him credit for the improvements on the outer harbor, Niagara Medical Campus, the Northland Corridor, Larkinville and certain spots downtown. However, one still cannot buy a pair of shoes or a dress on Main St. and the Eastside of Buffalo remains economically distressed and almost unchanged. Jefferson Ave, the heart and soul of the black community and the site of the 5-14 Massacre, looks as desolate and neglected as it did when thousands of citizens walked on unpaved streets and cracked sidewalks to pay homage to our lost ancestors who were so viciously murdered, two years ago!

We teach our children to stay the course until the job is done. We tell them that winners never quit and quitters never win.

I wish Mayor Brown well and I told him, when he took me to lunch, a few months ago, that I would support him for his 6th term if he would devote the city’s attention and resources to improving the eastside of Buffalo.

However, I am saddened about how he exited the highest political office in Buffalo, after fighting so hard to win the last election – and how he won it.

The Mayor lost the Primary Election fair and square. He went on to win the General Election by enlisting in practices unheard of in today’s political environment – restoring to questionable stamping pads and rubber stampers and throngs of city hall workers blocking the sidewalks with tents and human bully enforcers were a sight to behold.