Quote Originally Posted by Honky Tonk View Post
Very concise summary of the candidate's position, the political theatre in Detroit, and results of such a position. The only thing I would like to add is originally, the Belle Isle agreement with the State was for the State to "run" Belle Isle for 30 years [[?) I believe. In other words, "Let the State, [[DNR), take over the daily operations and maintenance of Belle Isle, and we'll pick up the $6 mil yearly tab to do so". Somehow that has gotten turned around to "selling" off Belle Isle to the State. Not true.

One of the most frustrating aspects of Napoleon's position [[other than the sheer insanity of it) is how badly out of step it is with the majority opinion of Detroiters:

More than 66 percent of Detroit residents favor a deal by Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to turn Belle Isle into a state park, according to a Detroit News poll.
Despite heated criticism of the proposal at City Council meetings, nearly 51 percent of 800 Detroiters polled said they strongly approve of a deal to lease the island to the state, with the city retaining ownership. Another 15.5 percent said they somewhat approved the deal.
The endorsement comes despite low marks for Snyder and Bing's handling of the city's fiscal crisis overall. More than 74 percent oppose Snyder's handling of Detroit's fiscal problems, and 81 percent don't want Bing to seek re-election, the poll shows. But respondents said they see value in state involvement in Belle Isle.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2V3K5EPtU
Detroit politicians have a bad habit of kowtowing to a small minority of outspoken rabble-rousers while ignoring the wishes of the relatively silent majority.

The widespread support of specific reform proposals, coupled with the very low approval ratings of the governor, mayor, and city council, captures the zeitgeist of Detroiters. We overwhelmingly support reform initiatives and proposals, and we are very disappointed that our elected leaders have not implemented them.

The failure of city council to approve the Belle Isle lease has been their most brazen and publicized opposition to structural reform, and their terrible approval ratings in the most recent polls reflect how strongly out of step they are with the citizens of Detroit:

Mayor Dave Bing and Gov. Rick Snyder are held in equal disregard, with 80% of Detroit voters giving both men negative assessments of just fair or poor, the poll found. But their disapproval ratings were topped by the City Council, which scored 89% negative by voters in the poll.

Despite dislike of Snyder, Detroit voters are not overwhelmingly opposed to his appointment of Kevyn Orr as emergency manager, and, in fact, were fairly evenly split, with 49% of respondents disapproving of the appointment, 44% supporting it and 7% undecided.

http://www.freep.com/article/2013052...vice-kevyn-orr
When 66% of Detroiters support the Belle Isle lease, and 44% support the appointment of an EM, while only 11% support the city council, it is very obvious that our elected city leaders are not doing what we elected them to do.

Benny Napoleon needs to stop pandering to the 11% of Detroiters who support the status quo, and start listening to the other 89% of us.