Selling from City Hall

Detroit's pudgy Mayor Louis C. Mariani so much resembles New York's former Mayor La Guardia in his unorthodox approach to problems that Detroiters sometimes call Mariani "Our Little Flower." This spring, rather than sit back and bemoan slow auto sales, Mayor Mariani decided to do something about them. Off to 1,379 fellow mayors in cities from Vineland, N.J., to Yakima, Wash., went personal letters, urging them to step up purchases of city-owned cars, trucks and parts that would normally be bought after July 1. If replacements for some of the 80,000 vehicles used in their cities could be bought earlier, explained Louie Mariani, the predicted upturn in the economy might be nudged along. Jokesters soon gave Mayor Mariani's executive offices a new title: "Municipal Motors Sales Inc., Madman Mariani, Prop." But the joke was on them. Last week letters were pouring in to Mariani--and most of them carried promises to do what he asked.

Mayor Samuel Resnic of Holyoke, Mass., wrote that "we are planning to purchase $50,000 worth of motor vehicle equipment for our public works department, six trucks for our water department, six cruisers for our police department and a police patrol wagon." Bridgeport, Conn., promised to purchase new vehicles for its entire police fleet; Stockton, Calif., advanced the date for purchase of 16 police cars; and Port Huron, Mich., ordered three police cars and two trucks. The city manager of Kennewick, Wash., got so carried away by Mariani's plea that he not only issued orders for five new city cars, but went out and bought a new Buick Invicta, talked a neighbor into buying one, too.

The letters were not all straight orders. The mayor of Magnolia, Ark., reported that his city had ordered replacements for its city vehicles back in January. But, he said, Chevrolet has not as yet delivered the cars. "This does not look like they are too perturbed about business, does it?" Many cities, agreeing to support Mariani, asked for business in return. Coral Gables, Fla., hoped that Detroit could send more tourists. The burgess of the borough of Phoenixville, Pa., who also works for a boiler company, sent along boiler literature. Orangeburg, S.C., asked the mayor to "anticipate your need for textiles and make purchases accordingly." If everyone keeps his word, the 300 letters Mayor Mariani has already received represent about $1,000,000 to be spent on city vehicles now rather than later. Encouraged, the mayor plans to send out several hundred more letters.

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