Stephen J. Luecke
Indiana Senate, First Regular Session, 117th General Assembly (2011). (born 1950) is an American politician who served as the 31st
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
South Bend, Indiana
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
from 1997 to 2012.
A member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, he was the longest-serving mayor in the city's history.
Early life and education
Luecke grew up in of
Freeport, Illinois
Freeport is the county seat and largest city of Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 23,973 at the 2020 census, and the mayor of Freeport is Jodi Miller, elected in 2017. Freeport is known for hosting the second Linc ...
.
Luecke attended the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
and graduated from
Fordham University
Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
.
[Austin Murphy, ''Saturday Rules: A Season with Trojans and Domers (and Gators and Buckeyes and Wolverines)'' (Harper, 2007), p. 19.]
During the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, Luecke had been a
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
.
Early career
Before entering politics, Luecke worked first as a carpenter apprentice for four years.
After this he worked as a partner in the Old Building Reycling Co., which restored holder homes.
After this he worked at the South Bend Heritage Foundation, a foundation focusing on
affordable housing
Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...
and other local issues.
Elected in 1987, Luecke served as a member of the South Bend Common Council for nine years, serving as the councilman for the 1st District in the city's northwest.
Mayoralty
In January 1997, Luecke became mayor of South Bend, filling the vacancy created by the departure of Mayor
Joe E. Kernan, who had become
lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
.
He was endorsed by Kernan to be his successor, and was thereafter appointed unanimously by the Common Council to fill the vacancy.
[ Luecke remained mayor until 2011.] A Democrat, he was the city's longest-serving mayor. Luecke was first reelected in 1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
, being subsequently reelected in 2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
and 2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
.
Highlights of Luecke's tenure as mayor included a reduction in crime in the city, urban redevelopment efforts, and the renovation of the Morris Performing Arts Center.
During Luecke's tenure South Bend received a number of positive accolades, such as being named an All-American City
The All-America City Award is a community recognition program in the United States given by the National Civic League. The award recognizes the work of communities in using inclusive civic engagement to address critical issues and create stronge ...
by the National Civic League
The National Civic League is an American nonpartisan, non-profit organization founded in 1894 with a mission to advance civic engagement to create equitable, thriving communities. The League envisions a country where the full diversity of communi ...
in 2011 and receiving the National League of Cities
The National League of Cities (NLC) is an advocacy organization in the United States that represents the country's 19,495 cities, towns, and villages along with 49 state municipal leagues. Created in 1924, it has evolved into a leading membership ...
Gold Award for Municipal Excellence in both 2002 and 2010. However, it also received some negative accolades, being listed by Newsweek in a January 2011 article as one of "America's Dying Cities".
Luecke opted against running for what would have been a fourth full (and fifth overall) term as mayor, making the 2011 South Bend mayoral election
The 2011 South Bend, Indiana mayoral election was held on November 8, 2011.
After serving for fourteen years, incumbent mayor Steve Luecke announced that he would not seek reelection. Luecke's decision not to run for reelection made the 2011 ...
an open race to succeed him, and the first open mayoral election in South Bend in 24 years. Luecke abstained from endorsing any candidate ahead of the Democratic primary. The race to succeed Luecke was ultimately won by Pete Buttigieg
Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg ( ; ; Sometimes pronounced or , but not by Buttigieg himself. born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former military officer who is currently serving as the United States secretary of transp ...
.
Arts and culture
As mayor, Luecke envisioned South Bend as a regional center for arts and culture. He took actions which had generated a growth in the offerings of entertainment and dining in the city's downtown.[
The Morris Performing Arts Center was renovated in 2000 under his mayoralty.] Two studies conducted around 2007 had demonstrated that these efforts by Luecke were allowing the city to enjoy millions in economic spending.[ One of these, a study by Saint Mary's College, showed that the city-owned Morris Performing Arts Center would generate a $5.9 annual indirect economic impact, excluding its own ticket sales.][
]
Development and private investment
A major new development that the city saw during Luecke's tenure was the beginning of the first phase of Eddy Street Commons.[ Leucke had supported Eddy Street Commons in the approval stage. Other projects included redevelopment along West Washington Street.][
The city saw the construction of a The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center during Luecke's mayoralty.][
Luecke is credited for having strengthened the relationship between the City of South Bend and the nearby University of Notre Dame.][
Under Luecke, the city made the decision that the former ]Studebaker
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...
plant buildings would be demolished for new use. The city put together TIF funds and federal funding to clear the site, which later became the site of the Innovation Park and Ignition Park
Ignition Park is a technology park under development in South Bend, Indiana, United States on roughly of land south of the city's downtown that were formerly the site of the Studebaker manufacturing complex. Though originally the park was only ar ...
tech parks.[ Innovation Park broke ground in September 2008.
By 2007, Luecke was proclaiming that the city had seen $1.3 billion in investments during his tenure.]
Environment
Luecke took some actions regarding the reducing city's harm to the environment.
In 2008, Luecke signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.
In April 2009, Luecke launched the Green Ribbon Commission to issue recommendations regarding the city's environmental impact. In 2010, he established the Municipal Energy Office, which prioritizes environmental concerns such as energy efficiency
Energy efficiency may refer to:
* Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process
** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed
** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
, renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
, transportation efficiency and innovation, municipal regulation, and recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
and waste management
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...
.[
Among the infrastructure efforts undertaken during his tenure was a "smart sewer" program. On his last day in office, Leucke's administration, on behalf of the city, signed a consent decree with the ]Environmental Protection Agency
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
that the City of South Bend would make sewer improvements by 2031 that were projected to cost, altogether, $713 million. The "smart sewer" program was subsequently built upon substantially by his successor Buttigieg.
Parks and recreation
Under Luecke, the city made a number of improvements to its parks and established new bike and pedestrian paths.
Transportation
In 1998, the South Street Station
The South Street Station (formerly known as The Narragansett Electric Company Power Station or Narragansett Electric Lighting Company Power Station and rebranded in 2017 as South Street Landing) is an historic electrical power generation station ...
, a bus center, opened in downtown South Bend.[ The effort to build the station had begun planning in the mayoralty of Luecke's predecessor Joe Kernan.] It opened without an originally-planned Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
station component.[ Luecke sought to have the Amtrak component constructed,][ but was unsuccessful.][
In 2006, Luecke opposed a private group's plan to create ]short line railroad
:''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.''
A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...
named the South Bend Railway by acquiring and refurbishing a former Norfolk Southern
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...
rail line running through the city's west side. The plan would have seen the railway utilize the track for freight service, with the potential of having passenger services utilize it in the future to transport football spectators directly to the campus of Notre Dame University. Luecke cited safety and quality-of-life concerns for residents that live near the tracks in his opposition.
Other
Luecke worked to reduce the size of the city's government through staff reductions.
In 2005, when it appeared that the South Bend Silver Hawks
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...
were potentially leaving the city, Luecke pledged to make strong effort to keep minor league baseball in South Bend. Ultimately, a leadership group led by Joe Kernan stepped up to buy the team and keep it in the city.
In August 2009, Luecke announced an alliance between the city's five largest medical providers.
Luecke appointed many ethnic minorities
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
to offices, including having African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
appointees all heading the largest city departments during part of his tenure.
Post-mayoralty
From 2013 until his retirement in 2017, Luecke was the executive director of the South Bend Alumni Association, which raises money to benefit South Bend schools. After retiring as executive director, he was named the association's board of trustees.
Luecke participated in developing the Near Northwest Neighborhood Quality of Life Plan in 2013 for Near Northwest Neighborhood, Inc.
In July 2014, Luecke joined his mayoral predecessor Joe Kernan and other South Bend community leaders in holding a press conference condemning the conduct of the South Bend Common Council.
Luecke serves as a commissioner on the Housing Authority of South Bend board. During part of his tenure on the board, he has served as its vice president.
In the 2019 South Bend mayoral election, Luecke endorsed his former special assistant Lynn Coleman in his, ultimately unsuccessful, bid for the Democratic nomination.
In November 2022, the City of South Bend added Luecke's name to the names of Brownfield Park and the Coal Line Trail, which were rededicated after him. Luecke is only the fourth mayor in the city to have a park named after him.
Electoral history
Common Council
Mayoral
;1999
;2003
;2007
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luecke, Steve
Mayors of South Bend, Indiana
Indiana Democrats
Living people
20th-century American politicians
21st-century American politicians
People from Freeport, Illinois
Fordham University alumni
1950 births