Free Press Ranks Detroit's 5 Best Mayors; Coleman Young Finishes 4th

[Cincinnati_Kid]

The neighborhoods being in shambles is a direct result of the loss of its middle class citizens. Not to mention its tax base, personal and business. That being said, based on population charts I don't see any increase in the rate citizens fleeing the city corresponding to when Coleman took office. Why not blame Cobo, Miriani or Cavanagh?

Because it's too convenient, seeing he was the first black mayor in the city's history. Cobo, Miriani and Cavanagh were the real culprits, history shows that.

[softailrider]

The neighborhoods being in shambles is a direct result of the loss of its middle class citizens. Not to mention its tax base, personal and business. That being said, based on population charts I don't see any increase in the rate citizens fleeing the city corresponding to when Coleman took office. Why not blame Cobo, Miriani or Cavanagh?

I don't doubt the accuracy of your graph. It just doesn't paint an accurate picture of the decline of Detroit's neighborhoods that I witnessed. At the beginning of Young's first term the vast majority were intact. I'm aware that flight had begun decades earlier but the neighborhoods were ok at that point. When he left office the city looked about as bad as it does now. Was he entirely responsible? Of course he wasn't. Was he instrumental in the city's decline? Absolutely.

[FlyOnTheWall]

Ya because nobody ever left Detroit before CAY because they didn't like black people

Ya because nobody ever left Detroit before CAY because they didn't like CRIME.

There, I fixed that for ya!

[FlyOnTheWall]

Do you CAY fiscally responsible propaganda pushers not realize
1) CAY was able to live off the fumes of the Detroit boom in the 70s and 80s a lot easier than it is in the 00s and 10s;
2) Slashing police, ignoring infrastructure for 20 years, stoking race war != responsible;
3) the city's books were so distorted and cooked and CAY put unqualified crony crooks in control of them, so nobody really knows what the hell was going on back then?

We're bankrupt in 2013/14 because the fumes of the boom are long gone and the chickens have come home to roost [[pension obligations, infrastructure updates, etc).

The guy was evil, THE biggest conman a major US city has ever seen, and single handedly ensured the irreversible destruction of Detroit.

WOW! I love how you stated the truth so eloquently. You did good TennisAndMath

[313WX]

I don't doubt the accuracy of your graph. It just doesn't paint an accurate picture of the decline of Detroit's neighborhoods that I witnessed. At the beginning of Young's first term the vast majority were intact. I'm aware that flight had begun decades earlier but the neighborhoods were ok at that point. When he left office the city looked about as bad as it does now. Was he entirely responsible? Of course he wasn't. Was he instrumental in the city's decline? Absolutely.

Well even in the 90s, the neighborhoods where the city workers lived [[parts of NE and NW Detroit) were still *decent.* They really hit rock bottom in the 2000s, in the wake of the real estate bubble and the lifting of the residency requirement.

That said, it is true that the neighborhoods that were heavily impacted by the crack-cocaine epidemic were, more or less, wiped out by the early 90s.

[Zacha341]

^^^Well stated. Add to that, in part, the dissipation of non-discretionary [[sic) moneys flushed down the casino commodes.

[softailrider]

Well even in the 90s, the neighborhoods where the city workers lived [[parts of NE and NW Detroit) were still *decent.* They really hit rock bottom in the 2000s, in the wake of the real estate bubble and the lifting of the residency requirement.

That said, it is true that the neighborhoods that were heavily impacted by the crack-cocaine epidemic were, more or less, wiped out by the early 90s.

Also heavily impacted by a corrupt police department who allowed entire city blocks to become open air drug markets. Don't tell me the decent people living in those areas knew about it and the police didn't