What would be the outcome of the Kilpatrick Corruption Trial?

**rb336** · February-14-13, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by 313hero

Try talking to some Detroiters that's under 40 and lived here our entire lives. Try it. You going off of your circle. People all over the country still love him and support him.

and that is a sad statement about our country

**corktownyuppie** · February-15-13, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

and that is a sad statement about our country

I would universally say I wish I had the means to help pay for every Detroiter under 40 to spend 1 year in Atlanta, DC, or New York.

Maybe it's they who need to "get out of their circle" and see how much better life could be with real leadership, education, and cooperation.

[[and it's not just Detroiters under 40. I'd send lots of suburbanites on my "exchange student" experiment, too.)

**313hero** · February-15-13, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by corktownyuppie

I would universally say I wish I had the means to help pay for every Detroiter under 40 to spend 1 year in Atlanta, DC, or New York.

Maybe it's they who need to "get out of their circle" and see how much better life could be with real leadership, education, and cooperation.

[[and it's not just Detroiters under 40. I'd send lots of suburbanites on my "exchange student" experiment, too.)

LOL I've spent plenty of time in all of those locations above and its like comparing apples to oranges. Atlanta is going down, DC is getting better, NY is NY cant compare. MOST of Detroits problems are far beyond the reach of ANY elected official. Now granted the CC has been a thorn in this city for over a decade however you cant say or act as if ALL of these problems are a direct result of failed leadership.

**corktownyuppie** · February-15-13, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by 313hero

LOL I've spent plenty of time in all of those locations above and its like comparing apples to oranges. Atlanta is going down, DC is getting better, NY is NY cant compare. MOST of Detroits problems are far beyond the reach of ANY elected official. Now granted the CC has been a thorn in this city for over a decade however you cant say or act as if ALL of these problems are a direct result of failed leadership.

Perhaps you are confusing me with someone else. I am not and was not blaming Kwame or CC or any one single entity on where we are right now.

But for those people who think that "Kwame was just doing his job" once you leave the City of Detroit, his supporters dwindle and all but disappear.

There's a reason why Sharpton, Jackson, and company aren't out here trying to assert that Kwame is getting screwed.

**313hero** · February-15-13, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by corktownyuppie

But for those people who think that "Kwame was just doing his job" once you leave the City of Detroit, his supporters dwindle and all but disappear.

There's a reason why Sharpton, Jackson, and company aren't out here trying to assert that Kwame is getting screwed.

Yes his supporters dwindle OUTSIDE the CITY because they are OUTSIDE the CITY. They DONT LIVE Here so all they go off is what the TV tells them. I would hate KMK too if all I was going off was what the media said. But life in the D was better and progressing under KMK

**Meddle** · February-15-13, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by 313hero

But life in the D was better and progressing under KMK

Progressing towards oblivion.

**313hero** · February-15-13, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Progressing towards oblivion.

LMAO soooo Typical

**corktownyuppie** · February-16-13, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by 313hero

But life in the D was better and progressing under KMK

It may appear that way to the masses. What you didn't see was that life was getting better because Kwame [[and all of city government, for that matter) was doing it on borrowed money, running up the credit card bills to fund all of this quality of life stuff.

I don't want to get into tons of economic analysis on this because it's thick, heady, and boring. Here are the Cliff Notes:

When Kwame was in office, we had access to credit, housing prices were stable, and revenue at the state level was flush, and so was the amount they shared with the cities. Not just Detroit... all over.

The Wall Street disaster with securitized mortgages destroyed us in 2008 and 2009, after Kwame was gone. This wasn't our fault, but we sure paid like hell for it. And the state needed to correct its books....one way they did it was by cutting off the spigot to the cities. All cities.

Whether you think Bing is doing a good or bad job in all of this isn't really the point. The point is that the Kwame was keeping the ship afloat using solutions that were like band-aids over a gushing wound. He was in negotiations to sell the Detroit/Windsor tunnel. They were funding deficits with bonds. [[Deficits they inherited, btw...I'm not pinning all of this on Kwame.) If there was economic growth, then we could pay off the loans with future income.

But alas, not only did the economic growth fail to come, a tidal wave of economic disaster pummeled us left and right. I'm not saying Bing made the right moves, but I will say that he was elected Captain of a ship that was already sinking and headed toward disaster.

The argument that "Things were getting better under Kwame" is like analysis at 7-year-old child's level. Who were they getting better for? Why were they getting better?

This is like the whole Cobo Hall deal. You'll hear people say, "Well once the Cobo Authority took over, all the black-owned business were told to leave."

That's true. And that's very painful. But guess what? Cobo was 24 months away from totally going out of business. So all those black-owned businesses were going to have to leave anyway.

I'm not saying Kwame caused all the problems. But corruption drives away the one real solution that Detroit needs above all: Economic Growth. So although he didn't cause the problems...he made some big bets to cover his political behind...try to reduce suffering along the way, keep quality of life high on borrowed money, in hopes that a boom of businesses would be able to keep it all afloat.

It never came. And now we're paying off the gambling debt along with loss of credit, character assassination, political credibility, etc.

Those things aren't as sexy as "quality of life". But in the long run, you can't compromise that stuff and still expect the money to keep flowing.

**Meddle** · February-15-13, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by corktownyuppie

There's a reason why Sharpton, Jackson, and company aren't out here ........

Jesse's got his own problems. Apparently both Jr. and his wife are facing corruption charges.

**rb336** · February-15-13, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by corktownyuppie

Maybe it's they who need to "get out of their circle" and see how much better life could be with real leadership, education, and cooperation.

There do seem to be a lot of people in the Detroit area that live in little bubbles - like the Republicans in their Fox News/talk radio bubble. We have the suburban "i'm scared of Detroit" bubble, the Detroit "anyone who says they want to help the city just want to steal its jewels" bubble, the "Kwame is being set up by the people who want to steal Detroit's jewels" bubble, etc.