Detroit Mayor Bing Uses NBA Drive to Fight Withering of City

[begingri]

Eleven stories above the city that shrinks beneath him, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing chops at the conference table with his right hand, extending his fingers to emphasize his point that Detroit can be saved, if only people would listen to him.

“People don’t like to hear the truth if it’s not what they want to hear,” Bing said in an interview this month, sounding like the auto-parts company CEO he once was. “They’re not receptive to change.”

Bing’s formula to fend off the state: cut spending, turn over some services to private operators and squeeze living space from 139 square miles to 70. Detroit’s population is spread across an expanse the size of San Francisco, Boston and Buffalo combined. Bing wants to lure people from shrinking neighborhoods to more populous areas, offering better services as an incentive.

“People should live where they want to live,” said Charles Williams, a caterer who was barbecuing ribs and hotdogs along East Warren Avenue. “Nobody took him from his house and put him someplace else.”

Left unanswered is what would happen to the 70 square miles once it is cleared out. While there’s been talk of urban farming on the east side, Bing said he is not convinced the idea can pay off economically.

Bing has given the city’s 48 public employee unions until Sept. 1 to agree to pension and health-care concessions that would save the city an estimated $120 million annually. If they don’t agree, Bing said, the state will appoint an emergency manager.

That is the consistent message from Bing, who is at work by 7 a.m. and rarely home before 9 p.m., he says. He hasn’t played basketball in 25 years and said he doesn’t miss the cheers.

“This administration has the responsibility and the backbone to tell people the truth because I’m not worried about getting re-elected,” Bing said, gesturing between the memorabilia from another life and time -- a framed Detroit Pistons jersey and the ball he shot to score his 18,000th point.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...g-of-city.html

[Fnemecek]

“People don’t like to hear the truth if it’s not what they want to hear,” Bing said in an interview this month, sounding like the auto-parts company CEO he once was. “They’re not receptive to change.”

It's ironic that the person who has done the least amount of listening, is complaining about people not listening to him.