Will Detroit get a White Mayor.

[mikeg19]

I think the real question is "what is the difference?" What does it matter if the mayor is black, white, latino, yellow or green? As long as the person is a strong leader and is qualified, I don't think Detroit would fare any better or worse given the economic climate.

[detroitsgwenivere]

"If you're reading this, and you're white, and have political ambitions in this city, you've got to get around to the entire city..."

That wont be necessary for council seats after the new charter amendments kick in.

I know a few white people who have tossed running for council around in front of me lately, and they all thought they wouldn't have a prayer before council-by-district turned into reality. Of course, they all want to run in the districts where Corktown and Midtown are [[a lot less work there).

I'm already preparing for the nonsense.

[mwilbert]

This just doesn't seem very important. It will probably happen at some [[possibly distant) point, but the main thing is to have good mayors between now and whenever that might occur. The problem with the people of Detroit isn't that they tend to elect black officials, it is that they tend to elect incompetent and/or corrupt officials, and equally important, don't hold them accountable.

[rjk]

You never hear the question, "will Oakland County ever elect a black County Executive?" or "will Grosse Pointe have a black mayor?" I think Detroit electing a white mayor is more likely than either of those. Black voters have been voting for white candidates since blacks got the right to vote; it's white voters that historically have trouble voting for black candidates.

That's because there's a higher percentage of white candidates on the election ballots as opposed to black candidates. Black people make up somewhere around 15% of the population, of course they're going to be more likely to vote for someone of the other race.

[kraig]

That's because there's a higher percentage of white candidates on the election ballots as opposed to black candidates. Black people make up somewhere around 15% of the population, of course they're going to be more likely to vote for someone of the other race.

But you're overlooking the point that even while the City has been majority black, the residents have not had problems with voting for white candidates. Ficano received more votes out of Detroit than the black candidates in the democratic primary. Even while majority black, Ravitz, Eberhard, Cockrel, and Kelly all were voted in at large. Hell, Maryann Mahaffey served three terms as Council President during a time of the percentage of black residency was growing. And she would have been the first to tell you that she was getting voted in by black residents.

Not to mention Tobocman, Tlaib, both Lelands, some Cavanaughs [[with Chris Cavanaugh winning among black Detroiters while losing among the white voters in the Pointes and Harper Woods, during a Dem primary, while living in the Pointes) and Hansen Clarke.

Black Detroiters are as willing to vote for, who is perceived as good candidates, as much, if not moreso, as anyone else.

[D_Town]

White mayor??? How about the RIGHT mayor.

[internet_pseudopod]

Church going Detroiters weren't supposed to vote for a gay candidate but there one sits on the city council. Cop hating Detroiters weren't supposed to vote for a cop but there one sits on the city council. It really wouldn't be that hard for a white person to win a city council seat or a mayoral election in the city of Detroit. The only thing is that they would have speak to the people with respect and an understanding of the problems that Detroit has.
Since one of prerequisites of being elected in most suburban areas is spewing anti-Detroit bile the stock of qualified individuals is fairly low, but rest assured, when there is power up for grabs someone will most certainly retrieve it.

[Zacha341]

What a concept! Someone coming to the table with their own money instead of "STEALING" for their goods and hooking up family and others, with the rationale that it's ok since everyone else does it!

The next mayor of Detroit needs to be a billionaire who is willing to use some of his billions to help the city out. "Gates, Trumpp, Branson, and Murdock, you guys looking to run for a polical office? Forget the Whitehouse, you can make a bigger dent here in Detroit."

[jtf1972]

Anybody who gives a damn if Detroit will ever have a mayor whose skin is lacking in melanin is lacking something in their own lives much more critical... brain cells.

Detroit needs leadership that truly loves this city and cares about the future of the city and those in it.

[English]

"If you're reading this, and you're white, and have political ambitions in this city, you've got to get around to the entire city..."

That wont be necessary for council seats after the new charter amendments kick in.

I know a few white people who have tossed running for council around in front of me lately, and they all thought they wouldn't have a prayer before council-by-district turned into reality. Of course, they all want to run in the districts where Corktown and Midtown are [[a lot less work there).

I'm already preparing for the nonsense.

Yes, I know. I am too.

I've had those kinds of conversations with a few of my wonderful, idealistic buddies. If they think it's as simple as getting elected from Midtown or Corktown and not dealing with the rest of the city, they've got another think coming. A lot of them want to make the world a better place, but the folks in the Detroit political machine are professionals. Politics and activism are two different things.

[Detroit Stylin]

Anybody who gives a damn if Detroit will ever have a mayor whose skin is lacking in melanin is lacking something in their own lives much more critical... brain cells.

Detroit needs leadership that truly loves this city and cares about the future of the city and those in it.

I agree whole heartedly...

[corktownyuppie]

Detroit needs leadership that truly loves this city and cares about the future of the city and those in it.

Where it gets tricky is when what's good for the city isn't necessarily what's good for the people in it. If Detroit is going to avoid municipal bankruptcy, it needs to attract business capital, highly-educated residents, and entrepreneurs. As you know, Detroit isn't exactly known for its surplus of engineers, MBAs and PhD's running around. Detroit is finally starting to pull in these people, but it's slow and still pretty small There's a noticeably growing group of them running around in midtown and downtown...but it's not like they're filling up apartments at 6 and Gratiot. Compare that to a place like Ann Arbor where there is an entire infrastructure designed to incubate businesses, turn ideas into economic engines, provide start-ups with necessary capital to grow.

[[side note: apparently, back during the heyday of Detroit in the mid-50s through mid-60s, the bank then known as Detroit Bank & Trust was one of the top financial institutions in the country...akin to today's Goldman Sachs & Co. College students from all around the country would compete for internships at DB&T, and cutting your teeth there usually meant you could take your skills anywhere in the US and find a job)

Here's where being mayor gets tough. To attract the highly-educated...to attract that economic engine...the one that creates jobs...the one that pays more in taxes than they use in services... you're probably going to have to sacrifice some of your energy spent on "feeding the masses" in order to "wine and dine the rich".

That has not historically gone over well here in Detroit.

[DetroitPole]

Not in our lifetimes.

I think the Bing election speaks to this. It really isn't a matter of being an "outsider" or from the suburbs. Hell, Bing could not have been any more of an outsider. A suburban millionaire from Franklin fer chrissake! Can't give a speech or connect with people to save his soul. Hasn't lived in the city for decades. Totally unqualified to be dogcatcher, let alone mayor of a major city. He's turned out to be a total failure so far, but guess what?

He's black.

White mayor? Remember Freeman "Helmut" Hendrix? You can't even be half white without catching hell for it!

Now, don't get me wrong. I generally agree with the points that the black voters of this city and this country are more apt to vote for someone of another race than whites. Also, as it has been made clear, in Detroit we've had a ton of white/whatever else officials of other offices. In fact, since Sheila Cockrel didn't run again, we had ZERO truly qualified white candidates for city council out of the hundred some that ran. I'm confident that if she ran again, or if there were more qualified whites, they could have been elected with ease.

However the office of mayor seems to be the impossibility. The racial animosity in this region is too strong, and the office of mayor of the City of Detroit will remain black because it is too powerful and symbolic of a position to be given up by both the common people and the political powers that be.

I do think that for comprising around 10% of the population and around 70k people in the City of Detroit that white people are pitifully represented in city jobs and government, and the majority of those people don't live in Midtown or Downtown, either.

[Detroit Stylin]

You never hear the question, "will Oakland County ever elect a black County Executive?" or "will Grosse Pointe have a black mayor?" I think Detroit electing a white mayor is more likely than either of those. Black voters have been voting for white candidates since blacks got the right to vote; it's white voters that historically have trouble voting for black candidates.

You are telling too much truth bruh...

[English]

I just don't agree with those who say that Detroit won't have a white mayor in our lifetimes. We just may, but people have to understand how many in the black majority see white people. There are white folks, and then there are white folks. The former group are generally viewed with hostility [[as potentially dangerous given historical and contemporary factors), but the latter as having some common ground or common cause... "brothers and sisters from another mother."

It may be difficult to understand if you're not black, to be honest. This may be because to my knowledge, I don't know of many cases of black people being granted honorary whiteness... I figure OJ ruined that for the next century at least...

But black people have always been surprisingly willing to grant honorary blackness to folks. It's not just that Hendrix was biracial; it's because he was seen as a tool of the 'burbs. Bing was [[and is) seen that way, but he was voted in not just because he was black, but because of the specific events of 2008 and 2009.

There are, and there have always been, white people who see black people as just other folks. It's not that they're colorblind [["I don't see color"), but that they're not programmed with the usual tapes on race. Even some very nice, liberal white folks see black people as Other -- they are passionate about social justice in abstract terms, but they really don't feel comfortable in groups that are 99% black, or that are even majority black. You can automatically tell this if you're black. We can tell. You learn very early in life, if you're black and plan to live in the larger world, subtle ways to deflect white anxiety in personal interactions. I remember telling one of my professors at Michigan about it, thinking I was crazy, but he said it was documented. So when you meet a white person for whom this isn't necessary, it's just cool.

A white person who's comfortable around black people would actually do fine in a mayoral campaign in today's Detroit. Not fake comfortable, not liberal in a do-gooder way, but really just cool. You have to remember that no one under 40 remembers the riots, and no one under 65 was an adult. Just as attitudes evolve and change among the rest of the population, they change among African Americans as well.

My litmus test: if I could bring you to my sorority meeting or to my church to campaign, and you're relaxed and interacting just like anybody else, you're ready. If you're looking uncomfortable [[and making us uncomfortable in the process), no, you'll just have to think we're a bunch of insufferable Panthers in '13.

[kraig]

Not in our lifetimes.

I think the Bing election speaks to this. It really isn't a matter of being an "outsider" or from the suburbs. Hell, Bing could not have been any more of an outsider. A suburban millionaire from Franklin fer chrissake! Can't give a speech or connect with people to save his soul. Hasn't lived in the city for decades. Totally unqualified to be dogcatcher, let alone mayor of a major city. He's turned out to be a total failure so far, but guess what?

He's black.

White mayor? Remember Freeman "Helmut" Hendrix? You can't even be half white without catching hell for it!

Now, don't get me wrong. I generally agree with the points that the black voters of this city and this country are more apt to vote for someone of another race than whites. Also, as it has been made clear, in Detroit we've had a ton of white/whatever else officials of other offices. In fact, since Sheila Cockrel didn't run again, we had ZERO truly qualified white candidates for city council out of the hundred some that ran. I'm confident that if she ran again, or if there were more qualified whites, they could have been elected with ease.

However the office of mayor seems to be the impossibility. The racial animosity in this region is too strong, and the office of mayor of the City of Detroit will remain black because it is too powerful and symbolic of a position to be given up by both the common people and the political powers that be.

I do think that for comprising around 10% of the population and around 70k people in the City of Detroit that white people are pitifully represented in city jobs and government, and the majority of those people don't live in Midtown or Downtown, either.

A white candidate with a serious profile would be taken seriously. There just hasn't been a white candidate worth considering since Ravitz ran back in the 70's. Even white people didn't waste time with Chuck Costas.

I also have to disagree with the statement "that white people are pitifully represented in city jobs and government". White people make up well more than 10% of city workers. All one has to do is look at the makeup of the Police, Fire, Water & Sewerage, PLD, EMS, DPW to see the truth there. Which is probably a stark contrast to what you find in the suburbs. While blacks make up over forty percent in Harper Woods, they make up probably less than one percent of the municipal workforce. And let's not even get into Warren, Sterling Heights, Shelby Township or anywhere in Oakland County besides Southfield or Pontiac. If you were to get a dollar for every black municipal employee you would find, you still wouldn't have enough for lunch.

Lastly, as someone who worked on both of Freman Hendrix's campaigns, I can tell you why he really lost. He relied too much on the absentee ballots and had poor election day strategies. He had people knocking on doors looking for people to vote [[as if it were a state or national election instead of a local one) but didn't have people at the polls talking to those that were actually voting, Kwame did. And even then we can't forget about the shenanigans that took place with the election results that night.

[canuck]

There is a double standard in the expectation or wish for a white candidate for mayor. There have been plenty of black mayors in your major cities with varying degrees of success and distinction.
Mayors Dinkins in New York, Washington in Chicago and Bradley in L.A. had pretty good runs. Bradley's term fizzled out amidst the turmoil of the riots in 1992, but he was instrumental in the implementation of light rail in the region.

I think the suburban politicos should extend a hand to Detroit instead of competing for industry and jobs since in the end, the demise of Detroit does not bode well for the suburbs, or Michigan, or the country. What I mean is there is a need for a new metro entity that focuses on promoting the strengths of the region, and rallying around downtown Detroit's revitalization among other things.

Other things would be transit-oriented development, education, security and all the goodies people are wont to expect. The wealth of the region needs to be spread. This does not mean the wealth will be diluted. What goes around comes around; provide leadership for educational and job opportunities for all, recreate a sense of metropolitan dynamism that cannot ignore Detroit's vital central role. Eliminate the basket case factors that drag the region down. Please do that for me.

[stasu1213]

I would rather see a more diverse council, charter commision, and zoning board. I would rather see a mayor who is not completely controlled by the corporation or special interest entities. One of the worst tatic that had hurt Detroit was getting residents to vote the "Black Slate". The candiddates of that slate, when elected, had not done much to keep the black community intact. More liquor or convenience stores, filthy grocery stores,and the out of control crack epidemic had occured during the "Black Slate" elected official's tenure. I would rather have a Mayor of a different ethnicity who doesn't have the credentials such as a masters degree but know how to run a city than to have a black Mayor with an all black council, all who have degrees, who don't know how to run and financially manage a city

[JGrant]

I agree whole heartedly...

I'll second that. Bill Johnson is out of his damned mind. I think he has some issues somehow related to his overabundance of melanin.

[DetroitPlanner]

Danny 4 Mayor!

Wait... I don't know what color he is......

How can I vote for someone if I don't know the color?

[GUSHI]

Obama he's black & got the job.

you never hear the question, "will oakland county ever elect a black county executive?" or "will grosse pointe have a black mayor?" i think detroit electing a white mayor is more likely than either of those. Black voters have been voting for white candidates since blacks got the right to vote; it's white voters that historically have trouble voting for black candidates.

[Al Publican]

How about a non-Baptist mayor for Detroit. Who was the last one, Roman Gribbs. The main thing for me is that a mayor be pro-small business culture, something that Detroit has lacked for decades.

I've been all over East Asia in the last twenty years and every where you go you see a culture of commerce at play, i.e., functioning. Two weeks ago my wife and I revisited my birthplace and place of residence for half a century. As we drove down Gratiot from downtown, I said, "There's no other city like Detroit. They should offer all these vacant buidlings and lots free to illegals and gays and then see what the city looks like in five years..."

The school of social work-types have had decades to do something with Detroit. Let's give capitalism another try in Detroit.

[econ expat]

How about a non-Baptist mayor for Detroit. Who was the last one, Roman Gribbs. The main thing for me is that a mayor be pro-small business culture, something that Detroit has lacked for decades.

.

Dennis Archer is Catholic

[Goose]

how about a republican mayor.... LOLZ......

[Al Publican]

But I still stick to my theory based on being born in Detroit and living in City of for fifty years that Detroit is a dysfunctional southern city. I base that on a take [[not an original of mine) that southerners, white and black, did not bring a culture of small business ownership skills or an intelligentsia other than preachers with them when they moved north.

When the established classes moved out and in effect disinvested in Detroit, the result was a populace with too many lumpen proletarians and not enough producers. I include a number of preachers and political figures like Kwame as being part of the lumpen class.

Dennis Archer is Catholic