What East Lansing's first elected Black council members want for their city

Earlier this month, politicians Ron Bacon and Dana Watson made history in East Lansing's municipal elections as the first Black people elected to city council.

A week later, Bacon made history again when his colleagues appointed him mayor, making him the first Black person to hold the office in East Lansing's 114-year history.

Both Bacon and Watson had served on city council since August 2020, after being appointed to fill seats vacated by Mark Meadows and former Mayor Ruth Beier. They ran as incumbents in November.

Bacon and Watson are the first Black people to serve on East Lansing City Council since Thelma Evans, the first ever, who was appointed in 1973 to finish George Colburn's unexpired term.

More: East Lansing City Council appoints first Black members in decades to fill vacant spots

More: East Lansing council elects first Black mayor in city's history

"We are a diverse community and are accepting, but I think that hadn't translated to full participation (in local government)," Bacon said. "So I'm glad at this point, it looks like it has. Hopefully that's what happens going forward with candidates of all different ilks."

Bacon had seen himself on city council for years, having served on East Lansing's Human Rights Commission; Watson also served on the same body.

Bacon and Watson's election to city council comes nearly 60 years after civil rights leaders fought to end housing policies that effectively barred Black people from owning property in East Lansing.

More: East Lansing residents honor Robert Green, the man who helped integrate their town

Honoring Green: Robert Green, who beat racist East Lansing housing policies, to be honored Friday

MLK to MSU: King called students to service in 1965 speech at MSU

In their first elected terms in East Lansing, Bacon and Watson hope to continue the city's climb toward equity. Bacon in particular wants to bring more diverse decision-makers into policy conversations in hopes of identifying the city's blindspots.

"Any type of diversification provides strength," Bacon said. "So that diversity of ideas — male, female, ethnic, racial, sexuality, whatever ... I have particular blind spots on certain things, and other people from different populations or backgrounds are not going to have those same blind spots."

Watson also said she hopes to bolster East Lansing's reputation as a "welcoming city." Momentum is on her side: The Human Rights Campaign recently gave the college town a highest possible score of 100 points on its Municipal Equity Index.

Here's what else Bacon and Watson hope to tackle in the coming years.

Diversify housing, address flooding

Watson, a health educator for Ingham County and a Michigan State University graduate, has dealt with looking for a home in East Lansing as both a student and a single mom. She knows firsthand about the scarcity of affordable housing in the city, she said.

Currently, East Lansing's housing stock consists overwhelmingly of dwellings geared toward MSU students and more established families, according to a recent study. There's not much to "fill the middle area" and keep young professionals in the city long-term, Watson said.

More: Student housing is outpacing MSU enrollment. What East Lansing wants to do about it

Added Bacon: "I don't think there's a great entry point right now into the market in order for people who leave Michigan State to stick around for a bit and get started."

Complicating matters, some of East Lansing's more affordable options have borne the brunt of extreme weather in recent years. This summer, heavy storms flooded parking lots and student rentals in East Lansing, including The Quarters, making some streets impassable. Watson said the flooding left many with sewage in their basements, and some students with water in garden-level units.

Watson wants to introduce green infrastructure to East Lansing — partly in the form of flood relief — and expand greenery and green space near downtown.

"Now when it rains or seems like it's raining too much, it's about what's going on for people," she said. "Is the flood happening again? Is the sewage backing up?"

Improve public safety and police-community relations

Over the past year, Bacon and Watson have had front-row seats to East Lansing's efforts to reform its police department.

Both were members of the study committee for East Lansing's police oversight board, which solicited feedback from residents and policing experts about how East Lansing Police Department could better serve the city. That board in turn made recommendations city council about the oversight board it voted into existence earlier this year.

Now, that commission is expected to name Watson and Bacon co-chairs, Watson said.

"In 2015, (the Human Rights Commission was) at a point where we'd get reports from the police on people that complain, and there was so much opportunity to tell the full story in there and to not see patterns," Watson said.

She added that stop data collected during the past year's exploratory period showed Black and brown people were pulled over at higher rates in East Lansing, and that fears of being mistreated by police were common among Black people of all ages. She hopes the new commission can resolve those fears.

Bacon has a background in youth counseling and juvenile courts, which he hopes to use to spur community policing initiatives and to approach the budget through an antiracist lens, he said.

That includes improving city council's relations with MSU students. He hopes students see their local government as a place to enact change.

He said part of the solution is attaching deadlines to every city project in East Lansing, including those that impact campus. Government moves slow, Bacon said, and he wants to speed it up as best he can to improve accountability.

"I'm really hoping that we're fair in how we budget and where we declare East Lansing as an antiracist city," Bacon said. "That our budgetary decisions and things reflect that almost without thinking about it."

Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at (517) 267-1344 or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: What East Lansing's first elected Black council members want for city