Art by Tula Winton
Election Day is on Tuesday, and incumbent mayor Leonardo Williams is the heavy favorite to win a second term.
Williams’ career began at Southern High School, where he was a band teacher and administrator. He was also elected to Durham’s city council in 2021.
Williams’ wife, Zwelibanzi Williams, opened Zweli’s, widely considered the first Zimbabwean restaurant in the U.S., in 2018. He saw how hard it was for local businesses, especially during COVID and decided that he needed to be a voice for small business owners across the city.
“I just felt that small business owners needed representation as well,” he said during a Sept. 26 interview with The Pirates’ Hook.
His business interests merged with public service in early 2020, when a series of carbon monoxide leaks displaced residents of McDougald Terrace, a public housing complex in south Durham. Zweli’s, along with other local restaurants, helped distribute food to the people forced by the gas leaks to move into hotels.
Williams joined Durham’s City Council in 2021 and was elected mayor in 2023. His platform focused on economic growth and crime reduction.
Two years later, Durham’s crime rate remains above the national average – 48.38 out of 1,000 annually, according to crimegrade.org. Williams sees both progress and room for improvement.
“It’s down 26% in Durham,” he said.
Although every category is trending down, the youth crime rate is still higher than ever, showing a nearly 27% increase over the previous year.
“Young Black men are at a higher participation rate than others,” Williams said.”That’s a problem.”
Williams takes a more holistic approach to reducing crime than many mayors.
“You don’t address crime by addressing crime,” he said. “You address crime by looking at the root cause of it.”
One way he aims to do that is by giving people the opportunity for growth and to contribute to the community.
“When you are increasing positive engagement, you’re also shifting the culture,” he said. “[The youth crime rate] cultural, and policy is a necessary part of it.”
He also looks at environmental factors.
“We may need to look at the water rather than just the fish,” he said. “[Federal housing programs] ultimately ended up incentivizing poverty and separating families.”
Federal housing uses HUD limits, which are income ceilings that are set by the US Department of Housing. If a tenant they are not allowed to stay in public housing.
The specific HUD limit is dependent on a multitude of things, such as family size and the cost of housing in the area. But Williams thinks the gap from living under government assistance to being fully financially independent is too large and has championed many efforts to expand housing options.
“It punishes people for making too much money to remain a quantifiable resident,” he said. “We need all types of housing at every income level.”
