By Ann-Marie Adams
HARTFORD — Michael Peters was a jolly good fellow.
He knew almost everyone in the city. And everyone knew him, so much so that they called him Mayor Mike long before he officially became the city’s mayor in an historic election in 1993. He had a big smile, a boisterous belly laugh and a big heart.
Mayor Mike died Sunday at age 60 after a long fight with liver disease. He had underwent surgery for cirrhosis and had a liver transplant in October. He then suffered other complications thereafter.
To honor him, about 100 of Hartford’s luminaries on Monday packed a tiny bar adjoining the dining quarters at Mayor Mike’s Restaurant on Asylum Street. They came to pay tribute to and share memories of a “lovable” guy–even when he was navigating the treacherous political minefield in a city divided by race and ethnicity. Some recognizable faces from Mayor Mike’s administration were seen in the place: Hartford’s former City Manager Saundra Kee Bourges; former Board of Education member Ted Carroll, City Clerk Dan Carey; former city council member, Marilyn Rossetti and many more.
They remembered Mayor Mike as the biggest cheerleader Hartford has ever seen.
“The city has never seen a mayor like Mike. He brought optimism, dignity and respect back to the city,” Kevin Vega, 37, of Hartford said. “He did a great job for the city.”
Mayor Mike Peters was born in Hartford to Paul and Christine Peters. After working in various jobs and then as a fire fighter, he was elected to the office in 1993. He overcame three-term Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry, the first and only Black female mayor of Hartford. It was a contentious election season with Perry charging racism, the insidiously covert kind of “soft racism” that permeates New England, sources said. She was ignored.
Peters, and ex-firefighter, never looked back. He got to work by building alliances across the city in each neighborhood and had several successes, including ridding Hartford’s North End of blighted and abandoned buildings, attacking crime and cleaning up graffiti. He also founded the Hooker Day Parade to celebrate Hartford’s founder, Thomas Hooker; and he founded the Mayor Mike’s Companies for Kids, a nonprofit organization to ensure after-school activities for Hartford’s children. And he did all this as a ceremonial mayor.
In addition, Peters with his flushed cheeks, silver streaked hair and rotund frame, garnered national acclaim and brought positive attention to a bleak city riddled with crime in 1996. He was named one of the top 10 public officials in the nation by Governing magazine. Voters approved their cheerleader and re-elected him by landslides in 1995, 1997, and 1999.
Peters built alliances even at the state capitol with then Gov. John Rowland, who in a statement issued to the press on Monday said: ” His can-do attitude gave the city a boost when crime was high and finances were in trouble. Despite the then weak mayor form of government, Peters accomplished change by the sheer will of his personality.”
Peter’s personality helped him forge a relationship with Republicans, too. According to Republican Town Committee Chairman Mike McGarry, Peters approached Republicans and made a deal when he lost the Democratic primary to Carrie Saxon Perry. McGarry said the Republicans offered to support him during the general election and Peters won.
“He was a good Democrat and I was a good Republican,” McGarry said. “We did good together.”
Peters made good on his promise to help revitalize the city and reached out to all neighborhoods, said Kee Bourges. She said Peters’ most significant revitalization to the city was the “Six Pillars.” These six pillars was Rowland’s effort at revitalizing the city by reopening G. Fox Building and building new ones to draw people to the city. They included the Science Center and the Marriott Hotel.
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Michael Peters
Peters also worked for each neighborhood, not just certain neighborhoods, she said. “He had a comprehensive approach to the city,” she said. “And he had just an overpowering personality that made you wanted to work with him to get things done.”
A lot was left undone, though. During Peters’ terms in office, Hartford’s population decreased dramatically, many stores, including G. Fox, closed and the state took over Hartford’s school system.
But Peters remained upbeat about the city’s future. He went on to forge a relationship with the current mayor, Eddie Perez, then a community organizer. According to Perez, Peters was a tenacious fighter.
“He’d be fighting while having fun,” Perez said. “He liked telling a joke. And he loved Hartford.”
Perez also credited Peters for being a crucial player in his personal and political ascent. He said Peters would always ask him to run on his slate. But Perez had a bigger ambition; he wanted to be mayor. He, however, never wanted to run against Peters. This conversation, Perez said, went on for six months. Then Peters decided not to run for another term. And Perez ran for mayor in 2001.
“There was a lot of people pushing me,” Perez said Monday at Mayor Mike’s Restaurant. “But Mike opened the door for me.”
Shortly before the memorial at the restaurant, Perez announced that Hartford Engine 15, the firehouse at the corner of Fairfield and New Britain Avenues where Peters worked as a fire fighter for 22 years, would be named in Mayor Mike’s honor.
Funeral arrangements for former Mayor Mike are below:
Calling hours will be held from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7th, at the D’Esop Funeral Chapel, 277 Folly Brook Boulevard in Wethersfield.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, Jan. 8th at 10 a.m. at St. Augustine Church, 10 Campfield Avenue, and burial will be at Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Ave. in Hartford’s South End.
