Transcripts

BILL WILSON: Things have changed. Conditions have changed. Resources to get things done in cities have changed. I think we're stronger in some areas. For example, in the area of housing, we're much stronger now than we were at the beginning of 1980 when I came aboard. I think our economic development strategy is clearer and more focused now than it was then.

The city has changed in different ways. There's been a tremendous change in the population of the residents of the city of St. Paul. There's been certainly a large immigration of refugees from around the world, most notably the Southeast Asian community. So the city is changing, but I think we are a better city for all of the change that's happened.

GARY EICHTEN: Even with the crime and everything?

BILL WILSON: I think to separate out crime from the city, we must look at crime as a worldwide problem, not simply a problem of St. Paul. And that's why I say things have changed. And so the city is not a better or worse city. From my perspective, it is a city that's different.

Crime has certainly had a negative impact on communities across this country. I think St. Paul is doing a better job of responding to crime and dealing with crime than many other cities. There are certainly a lot more to do, but I think our approach to rooting out, getting to the root causes of crime, and having a police department that's focused on building community, community-based policing is key.

GARY EICHTEN: What about downtown St. Paul? Have we moved past the day when downtown St. Paul should be thought of as a main retail center, as a competitor with downtown Minneapolis moving into-- becoming something else?

BILL WILSON: I think it is. Our downtown is becoming something different, and that's part of change. Much more focused on services and on retail per se. There's certainly a strong retail base in downtown St. Paul. But if we look at St. Paul as the capital city, capital city with seat of-- for many governments.

We have five levels of government that operate right here in St. Paul, from the federal to state, County local, and your Metropolitan level governments. That is a resource that we need to continue to build on, is the service provided by the city of St. Paul through government.

Our retail base is certainly shifting and changing. That's going to happen regardless. There's not-- there are things that we can do to strengthen the retail base. And I think our economic development strategy focuses on that, bringing new businesses in and trying to retain businesses.

But as a practical matter, when you start-- when suburbs start building up around cities, first and second ring suburbs, strengthening their markets, and the city of Minneapolis, that's to the West of St. Paul and that's just a growth area, we should look at ourselves not as competing so much with those markets, but how to coordinate, collaborate with those markets to strengthen our service base.

GARY EICHTEN: Was it a special burden or opportunity to be the first African-American on the St. Paul City Council, the only African-American to serve on the council?

BILL WILSON: That's correct. I saw it, and I still see it. I think of it as an opportunity. There is absolutely no reason that a person should not be able to serve in government or serve anywhere because of race, and so we must then work to break through those kind of barriers. It kind of reminds me of an interesting experience I had when I was running my first election, when you ask that question.

One of the-- you get many advisors in elections. And one gentleman who knew politics fairly well in St. Paul says, look, now, this is going to be a difficult race for you to win. So now, we can't make-- let race become an issue. And so what you need to do is take a low profile as you go into your campaign. He said, because regardless of what you say, people can smile on your face, but you get in that booth.

He says, I know bigots when I've seen them. And this was a White gentleman. And he said, so don't-- you have to be awfully careful. And I started thinking, how in the world do you run a campaign taking a low profile? And at the same time, we were going through a polling process, and we were asking people a lot of questions about how they would respond to various issues, et cetera.

One of the questions we asked them in our poll, and I'll never forget this, asked them, would you blow-- would you vote for a Black candidate for city council? And their response was, if qualified. And that was a very important response. As we went through our data, we turned that up.

And with about three weeks before the primary, and we were ranked-- we were running at about a 10% level of being recognized, 10% of recognition level in the polls, and we had a primary in about three weeks, what we did was turned our attention to running very prominent ads with Bill Wilson's face with his Afro, as it was then in the ad and saying, vote for the most qualified candidate.

And essentially, we tapped into that goodwill that people had, that sure, we can get beyond color, but we're going to focus on merit and qualifications. And that-- in my way of thinking, that one strategy turned it, because we won the primary, we went on to win the general election. In three weeks, we went from being around 10% or 12% recognized in the polls to being the majority recognized in the poll.

GARY EICHTEN: Do you think progress is being made in race relations in St. Paul specifically, Twin Cities in general, and Minnesota in general?

BILL WILSON: I think, again, changes are occurring, but there are cross-currents that are also occurring in our society. And from my way of thinking, Gary, it comes from the 12 years of neglect that has happened, that happened under the Bush and Reagan administration on issues of progress and civil rights, issues of social agendas, to move forward. We can't make progress in areas of race relations unless we also strengthen the base upon which people can stand. That's the economic base, the job base, the education base.

When it costs more to get an education, then-- when it's increasingly costs more to get an education, and fewer people get an education. When it's increasingly difficult to get a job, you're going to get more people on public assistance. We get increasingly more difficult to buy a home of your choice, then you're going to get more segregation and separation based on economics and on race. So the economic conditions that's moving in our society is contributing greatly to the division that's occurring.

So separately, if we just took race and set it aside and ask people whether they're more progressive, more open, more understanding, they would say, yes, on issues of diversity, I'm more understanding, but you'll always get but. And the but is the shortcoming that the shortage of resources and opportunities from my way of thinking, from the federal government that essentially took the rungs out of the Civil Rights ladder that was so important to keep the progress going in our cities and in this country.

GARY EICHTEN: Now, are you all done with politics at this point?

BILL WILSON: I am done as of Friday. How done? Well, you can't stick a fork in me. I'm going to stay involved. I'm going to stay involved in our city. I love St. Paul, and I made a lot of good friends over these years. And so I'm going to stay involved one way or the other.

I started my own business, a consulting business. It's called the Wilson Group, and it's a family business. It involved my wife, my son and daughter and myself. And there are areas in which we're going to do work. One of the areas is in the areas of economic development, some in diversity work, some international trade and development. So some really interesting areas we're going to pursue. But I haven't gone too far. I'm still around.

GARY EICHTEN: So you might run again.

BILL WILSON: I didn't say that. This question of running-- I just changed my pace a little bit. I've been running for office for 13 years. I just want to walk a little bit right now.