DALLAS — With Election Day Saturday in Dallas, nine candidates are busy campaigning to becomes the city’s next mayor.
Meanwhile, Mayor Mike Rawlings is counting down his days as the city's leader and reflecting.
“Dallas is a place where hundreds of thousands of people have moved from all over the United States to raise their families and grow old here," Rawlings said during a stroll along the esplanade in Fair Park.
Rawlings said he's anxious to start his summer.
"This city is so good,” Rawlings said. “It's so dynamic and I'm so proud of what we have done."
Rawlings said he's spent some time looking back at the past eight years, the growth the city has experienced and the impact he’s seen in and around southern Dallas.
"I like the progress we're on," he said. "But boy do we have a lot further to go."
The City has seen a boost in economic development and growth across southern Dallas, partly through of its "Grow South" marketing and business initiative. Land values are up 60 percent. Warehouses and businesses are bringing more jobs to the region.
"Southern Dallas is going to be different,” Rawlings projected. “It's going to be different."
But the mayor also admitted there's room to grow when it comes to city services and its equity and access, which continues to be a challenge in some communities. Rawlings said he believes there needs to be a shock and awe campaign to get things done.
"I asked that request, and it still hasn't been done yet," he said. "And so I'm disappointed in that, and I think it will."
The mayor wouldn't say what's made him most proud during his time at Dallas City Hall. However, he did mention what he loves most.
"The passion in this city to make it a special place at all levels," he said. "The people out there."
The mayor said it's that passion that’s helped him and his team tackle some big and controversial issues in Dallas. Among them, debates over the future of Fair Park, equity across southern Dallas, going after a company like Amazon, and how city leaders would represent themselves during a time when officers were killed in the streets during protests about race and policing.
“Those are tough issues,” Rawlings said.
The mayor said he had two deep wishes during his tenure in office. Neither of those wishes came true. Rawlings said one of those wishes was to get through a term without a political scandal and someone sent to prison. The second was that no officers were killed during his tenure in office.
Rawlings described learning to attack life like a football coach. Telling it like it is, with a bit of zen, is part of his practice.
"It helped my leadership style,” Rawlings said. “And really understanding this notion that people do want to know you care, as much as they want to know what you are going to do for them."
Now, his days leading Dallas are coming to an end. A new cast of candidates wants to take over the seat at City Hall. Yet, there are no clear front-runners among the group.
"It's a large group, OK, and no one has differentiated themselves in a different fashion that's relevant because they are all focused on the same issues that everybody cares about," he said.
The mayor said he remains optimistic about the city’s future, yet, intellectually honest about its problems.
"There's a special spirit here,” he explained. “There's a fresh newness about our city."
Rawlings said he now plans to rest and figure out how to give back in the future, once he leaves office.
So, will politics be part of Rawlings’ future plans?
"It's been an honor being mayor," he said. "But I'm looking forward to spending some time with my wife at home.”
Rawlings said potentially. But, for now, he doesn’t think so.
