Datasets:

mteb
/

sts22-crosslingual-sts

+ {"source_url": "https://web.archive.org", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20191231184159id_/https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2019/12/30/republican-mayor-oakland-county-pushes-bipartisan-change/2768163001/", "title": "Republican mayor in Rochester Hills pushes for bipartisan change", "top_image": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/29/PDTF/539ac60f-92d1-49e4-9c33-8ec9e15e726f-IMG_2270.jpg?crop=4031,2268,x0,y0&width=3200&height=1680&fit=bounds", "meta_img": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/29/PDTF/539ac60f-92d1-49e4-9c33-8ec9e15e726f-IMG_2270.jpg?crop=4031,2268,x0,y0&width=3200&height=1680&fit=bounds", "images": ["https://www.gannett-cdn.com/uxstatic/freep/uscp-web-static-4523.28.0/images/partner/footer-partner-logos/[email protected]", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/d3c496a268b462de21021ea65441d94b65d0af76/c=95-0-385-290/local/-/media/2017/12/31/DetroitFreeP/DetroitFreePress/636503335928540218-IMG-Otto-the-dog-2-1-BCHF2S-copy.jpg?width=80&height=80&fit=crop", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/27/PDTF/aad59d36-e47c-42a4-a6f5-594334f82bfc-24f5e51c-dfa2-4a37-9972-69a5ffd089a9-IMG-3096.jpeg?crop=2169,2169,x489,y0&width=80&height=80&fit=bounds", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/27/PDTF/4970c00c-f7d5-4840-817b-86bbd8bad15d-warren_mug.jpg?crop=159,159,x0,y19&width=80&height=80&fit=bounds", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/19/PDTF/93640de5-7c01-4847-863c-3123bee24d0c-120919_garden_city_inve2_1.jpg?crop=1600,1600,x399,y0&width=80&height=80&fit=bounds", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/uxstatic/freep/uscp-web-static-4523.28.0/images/sprites/icon_close.png", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/28/PDTF/e7680c30-b3c8-477e-8491-2cd812c57654-GettyImages-1063277566.jpg?crop=482,482,x0,y0&width=80&height=80&fit=bounds", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/sites/freep/images/[email protected]", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/sites/freep/images/[email protected]", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/sites/freep/images/[email protected]", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/uxstatic/freep/uscp-web-static-4523.28.0/images/partner/footer-partner-logos/[email protected]", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/uxstatic/freep/uscp-web-static-4523.28.0/images/partner/footer-partner-logos/[email protected]", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/29/PDTF/539ac60f-92d1-49e4-9c33-8ec9e15e726f-IMG_2270.jpg?crop=4031,2268,x0,y0&width=3200&height=1680&fit=bounds", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/uxstatic/freep/uscp-web-static-4523.28.0/images/partner/footer-partner-logos/[email protected]", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/29/PDTF/539ac60f-92d1-49e4-9c33-8ec9e15e726f-IMG_2270.jpg?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/uxstatic/freep/uscp-web-static-4523.28.0/images/indicators/facebook-loading.gif", "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2018/08/02/PPHX/adf8dd5e-0c30-46b0-9760-c94b10c70567-Dominos_Pizza.jpg?crop=414,414,x66,y0&width=80&height=80&fit=bounds"], "movies": [], "text": "CLOSE\n\nEverywhere Americans look, government seems broken.\n\nLansing can\u2019t fix the damn roads \u2014 still. Other state capitals are stuck too.\n\nIn Washington, the two parties are girding for a war of impeachment. The bad-news beat gets louder, day by day.\n\nBut a different kind of drummer is keeping time for the nation\u2019s mayors. He\u2019s a Republican who runs a leafy rural kingdom in Oakland County. Yet, he makes regular phone calls to the Democratic mayors of the nation\u2019s biggest cities, referring to one after another as \u201cmy very good friend.\u201d\n\nRochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett has long brimmed with good humor and charisma. He\u2019s well-known in his own town for sporting zany socks, well-known at City Hall for wearing an outlandish red-and-white Christmas suit for the annual holiday party, and well-known in Oakland County as one of the area\u2019s most popular politicians.\n\nRochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett, in Christmas attire for City Hall's annual holiday party, speaks on the phone to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Dec. 10. (Photo: Bill Laitner)\n\nThis year, Barnett gained a national platform. As he spreads his optimism as the new leader of the nation\u2019s mayors, he insists there is good news about American government.\n\nIt\u2019s our local units, he says \u2014 from big cities like Detroit to growing towns like his suburb of 75,000 residents \u2014 that are running well, offering fresh solutions to big problems, and picking up the slack left by gridlocked state and federal lawmakers.\n\n\u201cSo many good things are happening in America\u2019s cities \u2013 most of the job creation, most of the innovation,\u201d Barnett says, adding: \u201cI think we\u2019re going to see, more and more, that local elected leaders are America\u2019s best hope for real change.\u201d\n\nBarnett was just re-elected to a fourth term as full-time mayor of his suburb 15 miles north of Detroit, drawing 83.6% of the votes. But he also spent recent months ramping up his one-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, elected by his peers to head the nation\u2019s most prestigious group of local government leaders.\n\nThe group \u2014 founded in 1933 by then Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy when the nation was mired in the Great Depression \u2014 has about 1,000 active mayors, all from cities of at least 30,000 residents. Barnett\u2019s leadership has put Detroit and Oakland County at front and center in national discussions of urban problem-solving. And it has him pushing a radically positive idea to any disillusioned voter and taxpayer who\u2019ll listen.\n\nHis mantra? Forget the big shots in Washington for a moment. Forget those in your state capital, too. Your local government is getting the job done.\n\nOn a side table in the waiting area of the Rochester Hills mayor\u2019s office sits a stack of scholarly books on cities, including one whose title neatly echoes Barnett\u2019s urban boosterism: \u201cIf Mayors Ruled the World \u2013 Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities,\u201d by Benjamin Barber, founder of something called the Global Parliament of Mayors.\n\nWaiting for Barnett, a visitor picks it up. Moments later, the mayor notices and remarks, as he offers an outstretched hand.\n\n\u201cA real shame \u2013 Dr. Barber passed away recently \u2013 but I\u2019ve participated in the Global Parliament and they\u2019re doing good work,\u201d he says.\n\nMore: Candice Miller blasts state, federal agencies on green ooze cleanup\n\nIn aspiring to rule the world, or at least to improve it, Barnett and other leading U.S. mayors have held recent meetings across the country but also in Europe and Africa where, Barnett says, \u201cthey have some of the same problems we have.\u201d By that he means not just the same symptoms, like poverty and pollution, but also the same root causes, including central governments that move like molasses while cities, swept by change, need fast reaction times.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re in an era where central governments are not responding at the level and speed that cities need. And that\u2019s not partisan. That\u2019s both parties, not acting when cities need to act,\u201d he says.\n\nBarnett rattles off examples like it\u2019s a stump speech he\u2019s given a dozen times, which he has: infrastructure, immigration, gun control, transportation and more.\n\nOn infrastructure: \u201cThe Democrats had a $750-million plan (under Obama). We never saw a penny. Trump had a trillion-dollar plan (touted during his campaign). Again, nothing. There\u2019s been zero in terms of anything passed\u201d by Congress, he says.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats had a $750-million plan (under Obama). We never saw a penny. Trump had a trillion-dollar plan (touted during his campaign). Again, nothing. There\u2019s been zero in terms of anything passed\u201d by Congress, he says. On gun control: A banner hangs high in Rochester Hills City Hall that proclaims,\u201cSafest City in Michigan.\u201d Barnett\u2019s a Republican, in a party that usually has its feet in concrete over gun control, and he knows a lot of gun owners. Still, he favors stiffer background checks. He says he sees no conflict, and not even much connection, between that and Second Amendment rights. He says he's been moved by visiting some of the communities where mass shootings took place. \"This isn't an attack on gun ownership. This is 'we want to be safe.' \"\n\nOn transit: It\u2019s easy to think that big cities would get no support from this mayor, in a city of subdivisions and wide-open spaces, where the City Hall is surrounded by a 100-acre woodland and backs up to a trout stream. And where SMART buses don\u2019t run, and daily life is impossible to envision without a car. Even so, this ex-urban mayor seeks common ground and the big picture. \"From a national perspective, transportation is one of the great challenges to income disparity and equal opportunity. Many of my colleagues have pockets of their cities where people can\u2019t get to jobs. I, personally, Mayor Barnett, am a proponent of mass transit systems. I\u2019ve seen how they re-energize regions all over the world,\u201d he says. But here's his qualifier, in a comment that those seeking a mass-transit millage in Oakland County ought to note. \u201cI will also say we\u2019ve had many groups come to us and say they want our help on transit in Oakland County but they\u2019re not offering much to my city. I\u2019ve heard they would send one bus up Rochester Road and have people walk to it and ride to Troy and take buses from there,\u201d he says, casting a quizzical look, as if to say, imagine that! \u201cThese groups have to respect my city\u2019s needs and wants,\u201d he goes on, suggesting that \u201can adaptation of Uber would make more sense out here.\u201d He points to a story in the December issue of AARP Bulletin that touts just such a system, blending bus service with Uber. It\u2019s being tested in West Sacramento, Calif., another city whose mayor is \u201cmy very good friend,\u201d Barnett adds earnestly.\n\nKey urban issues such as these and others are built into the written agenda of the group Barnett now leads. That agenda is called \u201cMayors\u2019 Vision for America: A 2020 Call to Action.\u201d The 28-page document has Barnett\u2019s name at the top. It\u2019s goals embrace a spectrum of issues top-most in the minds of the nation\u2019s most respected mayors, bridging both political parties. . . from \u201cProtect and Advance Human and Civil Rights\u201d to \u201cInvest in America\u2019s Water and Wastewater Systems,\u201d from \u201cJoin with Mayors and Police Chiefs to Support Public Safety for all\u201d to \u201cFix Our Broken Immigration System.\u201d The mayors\u2019 next move, led by Barnett, is to make waves with the \u201cMayors\u2019 Vision\u201d statement at the group\u2019s annual winter meeting next month in Washington, D.C., Jan. 22-24.\n\n\u201cWe want all the legislators in Washington to know, this is what we\u2019re talking about. And we really want the candidates for president to be speaking to the problems of cities and to our platform,\u201d Barnett says. Here\u2019s where he preaches a creed that sounds very old-fashioned: government that works, with leaders who compromise. Bipartisan debate followed by compromise. It can happen, he insists.\n\nIn Washington, D.C., next month, \u201cWe should have 250 mayors there, from across the country. You\u2019ll have 250 Democrats and Republicans standing side by side. We don\u2019t focus on the 20% of stuff that we don\u2019t agree on. We focus on the 80% that we do agree on.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s hard to be bipartisan these days, and downright unfashionable in many quarters. Yet, \u201cBarnett is holding the bipartisan flag high,\u201d says Tom Cochran, executive director and CEO of the mayors\u2019 group. Cochran has been with the U.S. Conference of Mayors for half a century, since 1969. He\u2019s seen hordes of mayors come and go, including former Detroit mayor Coleman Young, during Young\u2019s one-year stint as the Conference president.\n\nMore: We take on tough stories because we're committed to spurring change\n\n\u201cBarnett empathizes very much with the big-city mayors,\u201d Cochran says, calling him \u201cvery close\u201d to mayors Bill de Blasio of New York City and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles.\n\n\u201cHe understands that they differ with him on a lot of policies but he\u2019s always seeking common ground. He\u2019s got a very strong, gregarious personality, and that\u2019s a lot of what leadership is,\u201d Cochran says.\n\nBarnett still speaks of his \u201cRepublican principles of smaller government and fiscal responsibility.\" But he\u2019s been active in the Conference for several years, working his way through various committees while clearly gaining respect for many Democrats who lead the biggest U.S. cities. Conservative talk-show hosts frequently excoriate Democrats for having run the nation\u2019s big urban centers into a liberal rut, blaming them for crime, poverty, bad schools, joblessness and. . . rats.\n\nSaid nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin, whose show is carried on weeknights in metro Detroit by WJR (760 AM), on a recent show: \u201cDemocrats haven't just turned Baltimore into a rat-infested place. The same goes for other big cities they run. They\u2019re all a mess.\u201d Others on the conservative talk-show circuit repeat the same sentiment, often. Barnett says he rejects the premise.\n\n\u201cIf you heard a bunch of big-city mayors in my conference, they could explain how a lot of their approaches are working. The talk-show hosts have a particular point of view. But I can tell you unequivocally that neither Democrats or Republicans have a patent on good ideas,\u201d he says.\n\nIn the elite company of mayors with household names, Barnett, 43, has hustled to make himself and Rochester Hills known. Early on, as he got active in the mayors group, some of his peers from other states and their staffs immediately mentioned having a friend at the Mayo Clinic.\n\nMore: Michigan lawmaker: \"I made a stupid mistake.\"\n\n\u201cI\u2019d say, \u2018No, no, not Rochester, Minnesota \u2014 Michigan,\u2019\u201d he says, chuckling. Or they\u2019d think of New York State, where Rochester is the third-largest city. Helping to clarify things, Barnett recently hosted more than 50 mayors from across the country at a Conference of Mayors meeting in Rochester Hills.\n\n\u201cThey got to see what I\u2019m so proud about,\u201d he says, including the nation\u2019s leading city for designing and building robots for manufacturing. They also got to meet Rochester Hills\u2019 first lady, Corinn Barnett, and take home her CD of Christmas songs. Barnett\u2019s wife, mother of two, has her own career as leader of the Corrin Barnett Band.\n\nAll of that is raising the profile of Rochester Hills nationally, drawing praise from Wayne State University political scientist Marjorie Sarbaugh Thompson.\n\nIt's an unexpected plus to have a suburban-Detroit Republican speaking on a national stage for the progress that metro Detroit is making, Sarbaugh Thompson said.\n\n\"And it's great that mayors can reach across the aisle,\" to show that bipartisan consensus is attainable even on big, seemingly intractable issues, she said.\n\nUnlike the legendary Republican L. Brooks Patterson, who led Oakland County for decades and who was vigorously partisan while often finding fault with Detroit, Barnett wears his conservative principles lightly. And he\u2019s quick to compliment his peer south of 8 Mile.\n\n\u201cMayor Duggan and his team have done some really good things for Detroit. They\u2019ve got a long way to go, you could say. I choose to focus on how far they\u2019ve come,\u201d Barnett says.\n\nThen he adds a signature upbeat note. It's a welcome thought for anyone dreading the new year's political conflict and government gridlock:\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of perspective. I choose to be an optimist about America\u2019s cities.\u201d\n\nContact: [email protected]. Todd Spangler, Washington correspondent for the Detroit Free Press, contributed to this report.\n\nRead or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2019/12/30/republican-mayor-oakland-county-pushes-bipartisan-change/2768163001/", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": ["Bill Laitner", "Published A.M. Et Dec."], "publish_date": "Mon Dec 30 00:00:00 2019", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "A Republican mayor from a semi-rural city in Oakland County is becoming a bipartisan change agent in a nationwide mayors' group.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/sites/freep/images/favicon.png", "meta_data": {"Content-Type": "text/html; charset=UTF-8", "google": "notranslate", "apple-itunes-app": "app-id=904023476", "description": "A Republican mayor from a semi-rural city in Oakland County is becoming a bipartisan change agent in a nationwide mayors' group.", "fb": {"app_id": 185931034751252, "pages": "6271782579,6566864515,6581478870,7197664863,7850621533,8031989578,9812439851,10482066215,11277320498,13642915529,13652355666,14073085963,16511263815,17540977705,18884137648,19125738813,23332504801,25003338948,31185662683,36808884697,37412800032,41044579289,42128399297,43612894510,46050757230,47020221001,47692649063,48490808881,48958576760,48976713989,49060990988,49607602899,49680588265,49896855793,50095226239,50978409031,52929678682,54660221594,55529405081,56434454301,56732457944,62464848082,62811590881,63475094632,63475094632,63582312713,65299040658,66049156099,66281684861,68903794473,69357466992,70423731350,70657021294,71807382333,72088679443,72139486384,73736978810,74475819815,76240820015,76276576343,77475586904,79333461561,79437403137,80117331717,80335432797,81086717085,81320873283,81668556783,81917682064,82415033847,83300095936,83563566820,87171906471,87448932499,87448932499,88584644204,90329609573,94480694479,94700656192,95712466848,95926318753,97657252278,99020906334,100825602361,101112717264,103261740968,103678546758,104331357951,104935809704,105714200321,105814368912,105878288262,106644919984,107327575587,108555442934,109146355881,109686244216,109793107867,110252103235,110404119877,110527555449,115611960606,115967868757,117907407522,118427210363,121866005065,122786733297,124755637015,125551044242,126226324691,129236178055,132159529312,132779306963,133049345480,134076752154,134394490084,136737914809,138770030135,141962110815,146089950343,148668982786,152774630192,153308622465,158094820767,164935760159,168684165430,173007618420,182922701188,188894693348,189867939238,190632318566,201996980631,227627281180,231239152914,242752084180,250325640686,264717798098,274620738925,275678631915,312966181232,314817944972,319611510288,323213251787,329923389135,338437548341,347221378913,362300531934,363363051861,371547464003,385926141498,427414745045,488720200095,100855786673970,105233922869839,105347532857165,105550656158763,106451856091222,106819879363130,107117249323169,108029922557289,108981615791456,109280192597421,109280192597421,109652569058713,110311752340743,110471702456365,110743725611909,110936258937026,111203872270080,112875149052352,113056925415668,113544088682099,113819202011100,115535341805950,115612465136194,117941352212869,119027288135308,119794264705307,119941731380546,120356424669462,121160355264720,121227371225765,121242251236815,121422567927897,124075397608772,124307640925620,124528254305153,127729820590459,128075747844406,129752560371732,130211193676772,130407246974813,130934216964240,136941796341905,137098406340114,137341919636249,137698179626815,137935586280481,138064052876960,138170199553897,140615052641118,140616965982144,141822679203700,142195472502819,143851392316295,145525478832716,146112055409819,146137498764266,146315142126130,146798045922062,147760805252234,148251148521543,149641051719383,152527031492851,152785861474173,153525871324757,154425934607982,154443518023678,155874144456588,156345381090801,157305941529632,157456661011568,158095147555989,159385590790009,160735830621443,161639923860040,165912253479205,167334979948476,167487199962004,169254356561132,169571899725267,169908223021026,176115302489104,176983469019018,177037772444433,177938742707529,180004588791896,183850168300771,183882195384562,184094471609920,184741935370451,185457134911754,187466604613310,187899791275353,190953458083653,192069610842446,196267627213508,197490563626275,205576782811630,207319989616043,209524799494208,212808112063652,220757414638542,222348701505747,224163964346315,225067797622802,225571757789261,225618707473378,231988790171331,235484153604672,236655713446291,236665340121443,241091022598958,243031846042424,251228454889939,261119230567728,263714980315631,279914708715884,281030418652036,281331052320274,285377081517877,288382484929799,288570077828603,295018040526596,297522096960113,305068052985746,307826419595702,310942265948388,315461641910509,315942225236045,315942225236045,320453738073595,321223331243188,327249521057460,330565860307724,332382433821098,334297859927211,339575256116022,351359635259904,353404615129492,368424599844024,373087836097009,399493863726488,401783903349050,405292372992577,410195352524708,412113499123835,420941268096348,421255071314156,422375144525783,426754640812333,438452439879553,458808827485318,469694573429026,471891632935599,477690595750196,480464022311783,487732368292520,510151039081225,535045576657973,535551216797440,556150611109468,562348203875693,566432520196581,569900189687627,581529871999163,592673674105043,593739520831583,611437275717153,637561026326153,642020402627050,677476185677499,686958778091339,704313986314492,717947288315597,756473301219510,757336147711096,813218208713830,850378298431411,872296879526971,877111212410602,911836215623184,917342785050040,927427260614748,945986872102221,1561238324154800,1822461518079800,1889753241275160,1003311406396687,1007667299356254,1095671673874517,1111939365618797,1170250869768985,1199725526840512,1203830176364044,1224613924286312,1244424538911767,1260369167415906,1282648301845288,1413320388972813,1422299337837954,1425793144356745,1432665186743737,1443524575938047,1473996709497771,1504884589584087,1525148737812812,1526198127405784,1583851541911383,1588113081458198,1596218533974035,1602646926431957,1603698749645413,1621466394844549,1627621717510471,1667234726635829,1725861847686522,1747180218844657,1759005871036426,1774393409526131,1797367867256626,1847787168808886,1878073225844519,1946209538938897,1972936962947967,2047091012096533"}, "og": {"site_name": "Detroit Free Press", "image": {"identifier": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/29/PDTF/539ac60f-92d1-49e4-9c33-8ec9e15e726f-IMG_2270.jpg?crop=4031,2268,x0,y0&width=3200&height=1680&fit=bounds", "width": 3200, "height": 1680}, "title": "Republican mayor in Rochester Hills pushes for bipartisan change", "description": "A Republican mayor from a semi-rural city in Oakland County is becoming a bipartisan change agent in a nationwide mayors' group.", "url": "https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2019/12/30/republican-mayor-oakland-county-pushes-bipartisan-change/2768163001/", "type": "article"}, "ROBOTS": "NOODP, NOYDIR", "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "image": "https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/12/29/PDTF/539ac60f-92d1-49e4-9c33-8ec9e15e726f-IMG_2270.jpg?crop=4031,2268,x0,y0&width=1600&height=800&fit=bounds", "site": "@freep", "creator": "@freep", "title": "Republican mayor in Rochester Hills pushes for bipartisan change", "description": "A Republican mayor from a semi-rural city in Oakland County is becoming a bipartisan change agent in a nationwide mayors' group."}, "article": {"opinion": "false", "content_tier": "free", "author": "Bill Laitner"}, "viewport": "width=1070"}, "canonical_link": "https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2019/12/30/republican-mayor-oakland-county-pushes-bipartisan-change/2768163001/"}