Bing's Communication Problem

[firstandten]

This seems to be happening a lot with the Bing administration.

On a very basic level the antics of the police officers and some community leaders are bringing more heat than light to the many problems Detroit has. It makes you want to say... typical Detroit community meeting where nothing gets addressed and people vent and pontificate and try to score gotcha points on the mayor.

However I think you need to look beyond the fact that Mayor Bing can't seem to conduct a decent community meeting and I think the reasons are mostly his.

He seems to have a bunker mentality I bet he is somewhat thinskinned and being a business owner who basically hired and fired at will is not use to the type of criticism he gets at the public level.

You get the impression from news reports that he wouldn't be doing this if the charter didn't mandate that he do so.

At this point he needs to connect with the people or he will lose next year to any decent candidate who runs against him.

I fault the mayor for not coming up with more imaginative ways to communicate to the people he is suppose to serve. For example why can't he have an on-line town hall meeting which would discourage the boorish behavior of certain members of the community. For people with no internet access something could be set up at the community centers for them to attend. Now I don't know if that would satisfy the intent of the charter, but at this point in his administration he needs to communicate to the people period why he is doing what he's doing.

That is unless he doesn't intend to run for re-election.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...munity-meeting

[Detroitnerd]

Yeah, I monitored a feed of last night's meeting. Sounded like a disaster for Bing, who walked out before it was over.

Bing simply doesn't connect with the majority of Detroiters. He's a distant figure, in media almost a nonentity.

[Shollin]

Need to bring back Kwame since he's Ya'lls Boi and can relate to the people of Detroit. This is who they really want.

[firstandten]

Need to bring back Kwame since he's Ya'lls Boi and can relate to the people of Detroit. This is who they really want.

Not really but KK could relate to the people better giving them bad news than Bing could with good news.

[rex]

In order to tap state resources and get state help any mayor will have to jump thru state hoops. The basic reasons behind all of the unpopular things he is doing remain the same. City spends more than its taking in. Lots of it probably to interest. Its not to punish residents but invariably that is the outcome. Less police and poor services.
Next mayor isn't going to have a magical bankroll to right all of Detroits wrongs. He/she will be in the same position.
Bing isn't a polished politician. He entered this position as a successful businessman. Makes him more qualified IMO than someone that merely talks the talk. Let the man do his job. Its not his fault the city is struggling. City employees are taking serious hits. Should replace any and all employees who live in the suburbs with Detroiters. That would be a start. They are a drain. A lot of their money leaves city limits and doesn't come back.

[ndavies]

There's a really simple solution to these rowdy meetings. Separate the two groups into different rooms. Connect the rooms by video conference feeds. The city hall group can only hear the person at the mike and the PA system can be cranked up over the shouting. The people would still be allowed their voice orderly at the mike. It would end the shouting down of opinions by the larger group. The shouting down would soon end as it would be useless.

[Danny]

In a way Mayor KING BING deals with under 700,000 angry Detroiters, He will be absolutely finished by the 2013 city election. It comes to show that you all don't hire a businessman to do politics in any city, state or government. Getting into politics is a step by step ladder process. You are going to know how to work, do and provide your principles in the community first.

Detroiters are fed up with the downsizing and state takeovers. They need a leader for the people of Detroit just as Barack Obama is President to the people of the United States. Detroiters don't need more woes, empty promises and plantation politics. They want results, solutions, answers and a rennaisance.

Next time if the city council install their so-called town hall meetings. They will be more woes, yelling and blame to our Detroit City Council and Mayor Bing.


WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Because changing Detroit takes action not meaningless talk for Neda's Sake.

For Guy Fawkes, George Stinney, Trayvon Martin, Rodney King and the rest of the 99 Percenters.


MIKE DUGGAN FOR MAYOR OF DETROIT 2013.

[poobert]

Need to bring back Kwame since he's Ya'lls Boi and can relate to the people of Detroit. This is who they really want.

Is that what you think, smart guy? Or maybe you just think you're a really funny guy? Well, you couldn't be more wrong, which you're probably quite used to by now.

What the vast majority of Detroiters want - from the city government, specifically - is for it to do its job. I think we are all aware we aren't living in Palm Beach. For all the taxes we pay, however, police response is abysmal and city services, outside of garbage collection, are non-existent. 32 people were murdered in 15 days and the silence from city government was deafening. Bing isn't the cause of the city's problems by any means but he ran for office on a platform of change. He has changed nothing. If anything city government is less responsive than ever. Blame it on whatever you want be he came in promising to fix it. Nobody forced him to take this job. He campaigned for it even while it was already past time to take him out back and shoot him.

I'm not a grape-thrower, either. I was at his last State of the City. He laid out no clear vision, in fact, no vision. He promised only to tear down the Brewster Projects [[which is not a priority for most Detroiters) which appears to be just another broken promise.

Now I know you will be quick to turn your finger on Detroiters, saying we need to take care of things ourselves. Well, many of us try. When Bing chides us to be the "eyes and ears" of our community, we need him to back us up with boots on the ground. We're left watching and listening to criminals laugh while the 911 operator makes excuses of why she can't send a car. We can't tear down dangerous buildings ourselves. We are private citizens who pay taxes with the expectation of even a minimal level of return.

The man has serious problems communicating. Even giving a simple speech he rambles like your great uncle. He is simply out of his league when it comes to matters of such gravity.

They should have tarred and feathered him. He got off too easy.

[firstandten]

There's a really simple solution to these rowdy meetings. Separate the two groups into different rooms. Connect the rooms by video conference feeds. The city hall group can only hear the person at the mike and the PA system can be cranked up over the shouting. The people would still be allowed their voice orderly at the mike. It would end the shouting down of opinions by the larger group. The shouting down would soon end as it would be useless.

That certainly would put the onus on the rowdy folks to shut up, rather than the Bing administration for walking out on the meeting. However I think the Bing group needs to be off site or the people will complain about him not wanting to show his face. However he might be able to get away with conducting the meeting from his office... He can tell the people he's taking a break from doing the people's work to talk to the people LOL !!

Makes you angry that Bing couldn't think of something like that, however as I said in the past our mayor has never been a out of the box thinker

[Danny]

You tell them, poobert!

[firstandten]

Is that what you think, smart guy? Or maybe you just think you're a really funny guy? Well, you couldn't be more wrong, which you're probably quite used to by now.

What the vast majority of Detroiters want - from the city government, specifically - is for it to do its job. I think we are all aware we aren't living in Palm Beach. For all the taxes we pay, however, police response is abysmal and city services, outside of garbage collection, are non-existent. 32 people were murdered in 15 days and the silence from city government was deafening. Bing isn't the cause of the city's problems by any means but he ran for office on a platform of change. He has changed nothing. If anything city government is less responsive than ever. Blame it on whatever you want be he came in promising to fix it. Nobody forced him to take this job. He campaigned for it even while it was already past time to take him out back and shoot him.

I'm not a grape-thrower, either. I was at his last State of the City. He laid out no clear vision, in fact, no vision. He promised only to tear down the Brewster Projects [[which is not a priority for most Detroiters) which appears to be just another broken promise.

Now I know you will be quick to turn your finger on Detroiters, saying we need to take care of things ourselves. Well, many of us try. When Bing chides us to be the "eyes and ears" of our community, we need him to back us up with boots on the ground. We're left watching and listening to criminals laugh while the 911 operator makes excuses of why she can't send a car. We can't tear down dangerous buildings ourselves. We are private citizens who pay taxes with the expectation of even a minimal level of return.

The man has serious problems communicating. Even giving a simple speech he rambles like your great uncle. He is simply out of his league when it comes to matters of such gravity.

They should have tarred and feathered him. He got off too easy.

The mayor and his crew should read this post !!!

[Shollin]

Is that what you think, smart guy? Or maybe you just think you're a really funny guy? Well, you couldn't be more wrong, which you're probably quite used to by now.

What the vast majority of Detroiters want - from the city government, specifically - is for it to do its job. I think we are all aware we aren't living in Palm Beach. For all the taxes we pay, however, police response is abysmal and city services, outside of garbage collection, are non-existent. 32 people were murdered in 15 days and the silence from city government was deafening. Bing isn't the cause of the city's problems by any means but he ran for office on a platform of change. He has changed nothing. If anything city government is less responsive than ever. Blame it on whatever you want be he came in promising to fix it. Nobody forced him to take this job. He campaigned for it even while it was already past time to take him out back and shoot him.

I'm not a grape-thrower, either. I was at his last State of the City. He laid out no clear vision, in fact, no vision. He promised only to tear down the Brewster Projects [[which is not a priority for most Detroiters) which appears to be just another broken promise.

Now I know you will be quick to turn your finger on Detroiters, saying we need to take care of things ourselves. Well, many of us try. When Bing chides us to be the "eyes and ears" of our community, we need him to back us up with boots on the ground. We're left watching and listening to criminals laugh while the 911 operator makes excuses of why she can't send a car. We can't tear down dangerous buildings ourselves. We are private citizens who pay taxes with the expectation of even a minimal level of return.

The man has serious problems communicating. Even giving a simple speech he rambles like your great uncle. He is simply out of his league when it comes to matters of such gravity.

They should have tarred and feathered him. He got off too easy.

And yet, Kwame kept winning elections, keeps getting support from Detroit, and a poll done a few years ago, showed Kwame would still win an election in Detroit. Apparently he can relate to Detroiters or else they wouldn't have kept voting him back in.

[313WX]

And yet, Kwame kept winning elections, keeps getting support from Detroit, and a poll done a few years ago, showed Kwame would still win an election in Detroit. Apparently he can relate to Detroiters or else they wouldn't have kept voting him back in.

That's because he was still able to deliver services [[the city was still "bondable") and unlike Bing he actually could relate to people in the neighborhoods.

Then of course he took credit for a lot of the downtown developments with Dan Gilbeft and reaped some of the benefits of the things put in place by Archer [[Compuware, casinos, etc.).

[poobert]

And yet, Kwame kept winning elections, keeps getting support from Detroit, and a poll done a few years ago, showed Kwame would still win an election in Detroit. Apparently he can relate to Detroiters or else they wouldn't have kept voting him back in.

Kwame's mischief was largely undiscovered until into his second term as mayor. He was elected mayor exactly twice, so "kept voting him back in" doesn't make a great deal of sense here.

I don't know what poll you're talking about and never recall hearing of one.

Yet you conveniently ignore the fact that Monica Conyers and Martha Reeves got trounced in the last legislative elections. That is to say nothing of Carolyn Kilpatrick, who was never implicated in any misdeeds and lost her seat in Congress largely due to the backlash against Kwame and anything he touched. Yet despite this you make the insane claim that Detroiters would mysteriously re-elect Kwame.

2008 just called. It wants its tired old bullshit back.

[Hypestyles]

..whatever the deserved criticisms the current administration may be, the overall backdrop of torches & pitchforks at these meetings is another reason I've stayed away from them lately.. lol..

[EastsideAl]

Kwame's mischief was largely undiscovered until into his second term as mayor. He was elected mayor exactly twice, so "kept voting him back in" doesn't make a great deal of sense here.

I don't know what poll you're talking about and never recall hearing of one.

Yet you conveniently ignore the fact that Monica Conyers and Martha Reeves got trounced in the last legislative elections. That is to say nothing of Carolyn Kilpatrick, who was never implicated in any misdeeds and lost her seat in Congress largely due to the backlash against Kwame and anything he touched. Yet despite this you make the insane claim that Detroiters would mysteriously re-elect Kwame.

2008 just called. It wants its tired old bullshit back.

Some people just desperately need to hang onto their racial mythology, even if it means making shit up.

Having said that though, and while I agree with you that most people here don't want him back, the plain fact is as you state, that Kwame got more done for the people of this city than Bing has. I voted for Bing, but he has been an abysmal failure as mayor at nearly every level. There may be a lot of noise made by the usual suspects at these meetings, but the anger and frustration out here is very real, and a lot of it comes from people who started out as Bing supporters.

[Shollin]

Some people just desperately need to hang onto their racial mythology, even if it means making shit up.

Having said that though, and while I agree with you that most people here don't want him back, the plain fact is as you state, that Kwame got more done for the people of this city than Bing has. I voted for Bing, but he has been an abysmal failure as mayor at nearly every level. There may be a lot of noise made by the usual suspects at these meetings, but the anger and frustration out here is very real, and a lot of it comes from people who started out as Bing supporters.

Ah yes everything is racism when it comes to Detroit and everyone is a victim in Detroit. What exactly did Kwame accomplish? Like I said in my original post, Kwame was great at relating to people. He was a great speaker and a smart guy and had a promising political career, yet chose to waste it on scandals

[mikeg19]

He may have a problem communicating with the general public, but when you have people screaming at you every time you try to talk, I would have been fed up and probably left too. All too often you see these meetings, whether city council, school board, PTA, etc, going off the rails as people are screaming at those up on the podium. What's that going to accomplish? Nothing. You're going to frustrate the people trying to speak up front, and your going to be frustrated because they are probably ignoring you 2 seconds after you start. There needs to be a policy in place to combat this. You talk out of turn, you scream, you get violent, you're out. It's sad that a lecture for 5 year old's needs to be used with adults.

[Detroitnerd]

Heh. Bing's "communication problem" is that he doesn't feel the need to communicate at all. He has a top-down management style and couldn't care less about any real community input. It offends people that they don't have input and then when he has these required meetings tries to run them like dog-and-pony shows. So they get -- quite properly -- pissed.

[EastsideAl]

Ah yes everything is racism when it comes to Detroit and everyone is a victim in Detroit. What exactly did Kwame accomplish? Like I said in my original post, Kwame was great at relating to people. He was a great speaker and a smart guy and had a promising political career, yet chose to waste it on scandals

Well, I certainly wouldn't call it un-racial when you choose contribute to the "those crazy folks down in Detroit" mythology by stating things for which you have no evidence, and failing to note the counter-evidence [[as posted by Poobert) that is true. And where that "victim" stuff came from I have no idea, since no one here has said anything about victimization.

As for Kwame, lest I be categorized as some sort of supporter of his, let me just state for the record that I campaigned and voted for Hendrix in his second race [[I wasn't a Detroit resident during his first race), and that I was glad that he resigned and fervently hope that he never comes back.

However, there were some things that did improve here during his administration. Most notably garbage collection and transit. Also, however you feel about it, he certainly did keep his promise to speed up the identification and demolition of vacant buildings in the city.

One thing that was definitely superior to the current administration was interaction between the mayor's office and people active in the neighborhoods. And I'm not speaking here of Kwame's personal appeal, but of the staff his administration had acting as neighborhood liaisons and their openness and reactions to local concerns. As far as I can tell, Bing's staff does almost none of this, and most of his people seem openly hostile to neighborhood people and their concerns.

[detroitsgwenivere]

I believe that the turn out at these shoutfests would be a whole lot bigger if it wasnt for the Detroit Works Project. Ive been going to their meetings and participating in their breakaway sessions. They also have tele-conferences and online meetings. They are basically repetitive conversations about planning and city services.

Even though the DWP is ran and paid for by wealthy foundations, Mayor Bing claimed it as his own two years ago when the process was introduced. Now, you barely hear a peep about Bing from the people who are presenting these meetings. The citizens in attendance, while skeptical, keep a very civil discord. But if Bing was in the room, I think things would be very different.

Now I have some suspicions about this DWP, and I wont get into them in this thread, but I do know that the process is succeeding in separating the participatory Detroit population from city hall, and I think that is kind of the point. Maybe it's a good thing, if you perceive it as separating the people with ideas from the rowdies. But maybe not, if the frustrations of the citizens are being funneled through a scrubbing process that leaves out the direct communication of emotional aspects, like the sheer desperation, the fear, and agony of watching your neighborhood decend into a wasteland of anarchy. I dont mean angry responses, but articulate ones.



Good posts Poobert and Eastside AL, sums it up for me too.

[rex]

yea. Those attending the meetings are not behaving like adults

[Honky Tonk]

"However, there were some things that did improve here during his administration. Most notably garbage collection and transit. Also, however you feel about it, he certainly did keep his promise to speed up the identification and demolition of vacant buildings in the city."

Under The KKK administration, [[King Kwamie Kilpatrick), Bulk pick-up totally ended because it was unaffordable. He did setup dumpsters by the Packard Plant, but those went away after a while too. I don't think garbage pickup ever hummed like it did under the Archer administration, in fact it got so bad in my neighborhood, we hired a private company and submit the contract once a year to the City to have the garbage pick-up portion deducted from our taxes, and we do pay some serious taxes. I don't remember any major initiative to knock down decrepid buildings, except for Super Bowl XL. Racism? It never went away, it's just turned to mumbles and whispers. I hear it and get confronted by it daily. Not from everyone, but enough to make me aware of where I live. Resources were so depleted by the previous administration that Bing, coupled with his incompetentcy, is having a harder time of it. Kilpatrick WAS charismatic, and a schmoozer, so people liked him. I don't have to be kissed to know I'm being screwed.

[socks_mahoney]

We can't tear down dangerous buildings ourselves. We are private citizens who pay taxes with the expectation of even a minimal level of return.

I have to quibble with this...and not to thread jack...this may be worthy of its own threat [["What The Fuck Should We Do With All These Open Houses").

I've been at too many block club clean ups and neighborhood board ups to hear this any more. The people put these together usually with at best a semblance of backing from the city.

There are always intelligent, hardworking, and thrifty people at these sort of events. And they have tools! One thing you can say about Detroiters, call it throw back from our more industrial days, is that they sure have lots of tools.

What I'm saying is why can't we tie a chain to the center of these open and dangerous homes and pull them down. The ones with useful materials can be deconstructed. This needs to happen and the city needs to support it. I would bet that if the city paid any group $500 to tear down an open and vacant building we would see thousands down in a few summer months.

I've heard this refrain at too many block clubs by now: "Too bad we can't just tear the sucker down".

Maybe we should tear those suckers down.

[poobert]

I have to quibble with this...and not to thread jack...this may be worthy of its own threat [["What The Fuck Should We Do With All These Open Houses").

I've been at too many block club clean ups and neighborhood board ups to hear this any more. The people put these together usually with at best a semblance of backing from the city.

There are always intelligent, hardworking, and thrifty people at these sort of events. And they have tools! One thing you can say about Detroiters, call it throw back from our more industrial days, is that they sure have lots of tools.

What I'm saying is why can't we tie a chain to the center of these open and dangerous homes and pull them down. The ones with useful materials can be deconstructed. This needs to happen and the city needs to support it. I would bet that if the city paid any group $500 to tear down an open and vacant building we would see thousands down in a few summer months.

I've heard this refrain at too many block clubs by now: "Too bad we can't just tear the sucker down".

Maybe we should tear those suckers down.

Certainly intriguing. What I worry about is the liability. What happens when Derek down the block meets his maker when a chimney falls on him? This is the kind of creative thinking we need right here in the neighborhoods though, we just need to iron out the wrinkles.