My personal thinking is that Coleman Young was the worst. Nothing much seemed to go right in Detroit during his time in office. He seemed to cover up for a lack of competence by inflammatory rhetoric. He created enemies in city council, the county, neighboring counties, at the state level, the federal level, etc. We just watched Detroit continue to deteriorate without any noticeable concern on his part.

In some ways I did admire him, but not as a leader with a vision and the skill to accomplish parts of the vision. Kwame at least seemed to be able to get along well with suburban leaders and state and federal government. It was sad to see his demise by his own doing. But Young never seemed to show any political skill other than getting himself re-elected.