Do we like any Mayor?

**Strong** · October-05-12, 08:22 AM

All that I hear is negative comments about our Mayor, its like he personally wants to put people out of work or leave trash or not protect the citizens.

I remember when Mayor Bing first decided to run to and how many people thought that he would do a great job and be a fresh breath of air after Mayor Kwame. When now one and half terms later, people want to fire him and try somebody else.

I don't think that any one person, a regular human being who puts his/her pants on one leg at a time can solve this problem and make everybody happy. The hole is just too deep.

Now its probably true, that Mayor Bing has had some mishaps some bad decisions and some bad moves by people in his administration [[Police chiefs)

On the other hand, some people in the know, understand that there are some hard decisions that have to be made and that Mayor Bing is probably doing his best.

Well, I'm a positive thinker so here's the positive slant, if not Mayor Bing then who. Plus I think that there's a lot of great things happening in spite of. Now I am not positioning this as a I support the Mayor commentary, just a lets be real and supportive.

Some didn't like Mayor Archer, Mayor Kwame, Mayor Crockrell, and now Mayor Bing. God can't be Mayor and if he could he would have to make some decisions that somebody wouldn't like and then what?

Check out my website www.strongdetroit.net for information about my documentary "The Great Detroit?"

**trotwood** · October-05-12, 11:26 AM

"Do we like any Mayor?"

^^^^^Yes

**firstandten** · October-05-12, 11:47 AM

The big issue with Mayor Bing is that he over promised and under delivered and as a politican you can't do that. Not getting into the big issues take a small one in my mind like not taking a salary or not living in the mansion. Now neither of those were deal breakers in my mind but it gives you a window of his personality. For the record I liked most of the mayor's we've had. Now they are going to make some decisions the people aren't going to like that's just part of the job. But overall with the exception of one they had the best interest of the city at heart and did the best they could.

I don't personally dislike Bing I just don't think he's up to the challenge of running a city in this bad of shape.

**313WX** · October-05-12, 11:53 AM

Coleman Young was probably the last mayor I think Detroiters truly felt in tuned with.

While some may not have liked Young's style, he certainly didn't let anyone walk over him like Bing and Archer. He always made sure at least some of his demands and the demands of his citizens were met, the city's budget was at least balanced and city services were at least functional.

Detroiters liked Kwame for a second [[during his first term), but any approval the majority of Detroiters had for him the first 4 years was completely wiped out by the shenanigans in his 2nd term.

**313WX** · October-05-12, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by firstandten

The big issue with Mayor Bing is that he over promised and under delivered and as a politican you can't do that. Not getting into the big issues take a small one in my mind like not taking a salary or not living in the mansion. Now neither of those were deal breakers in my mind but it gives you a window of his personality. For the record I liked most of the mayor's we've had. Now they are going to make some decisions the people aren't going to like that's just part of the job. But overall with the exception of one they had the best interest of the city at heart and did the best they could.

I don't personally dislike Bing I just don't think he's up to the challenge of running a city in this bad of shape.

I think another problem did bring up a good point too, Bing lacks communication skills.

I think Detroiters will accept SOME bad news and SOME bad decisions if you can assure some of their demands are being heard and taken into consideration. That's really all the citizens want.

Instead, Bing has taken the "shove whatever I want down their throats" approach.

**firstandten** · October-05-12, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Bing lacks communication skills.
Bing has taken the "shove whatever I want down their throats" approach.

Sometimes I think he thinks the citizens of Detroit are only an extension of the employees who use to work for him in his companies.

**EastsideAl** · October-05-12, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

I think another problem did bring up a good point too, Bing lacks communication skills.

I think Detroiters will accept SOME bad news and SOME bad decisions if you can assure some of their demands are being heard and taken into consideration. That's really all the citizens want.

Instead, Bing has taken the "shove whatever I want down their throats" approach.

This is exactly it. The fact can't be ignored that many of the people who are angry with Bing are the same people who voted for him.

When Bing came into office, everyone knew that he was facing huge challenges, that his hands were tied in many ways by financial circumstance, and that some deep cuts would have to be made. No one was under the illusion that the city could keep going under 'business as usual.' But we also expected some action, decisiveness, responsiveness, openness, and communication from someone who had been in business and public life for so long.

Instead, what we got is someone who seems almost inert at times, showing very little active engagement with his role. And when he does make a decision, he does it in the most "top down" way possible.

It was hoped that, as a businessman, he would at least make the appearance of treating the citizens as stakeholders in the city's future and fighting for their interests. Instead it is almost as if we, the actual citizens out here, don't exist to him, or are at best a nuisance. He has a tendency to treat our expressed concerns as one would treat the complaints of a whiny employee. And when it comes to communication, and at least acknowledging citizen input and interests, he's worse than bad, with an aloofness that generally comes off as arrogance and condescension.

In short, he's been a failure. As someone who was never a public office-holder before, he was a mystery package who came wrapped in enticingly attractive paper promising great things inside. Well, he's been fully unwrapped now, and what was under the paper turned out be an empty box.

**Gannon** · October-05-12, 12:44 PM

Pingree was pretty cool.

He remains in the top ten popular mayors of all time, from what I've heard. Never bothered to check that, it would be a fun fact if true.

I'm all about bringing back his patches in a major way...even more than they are already with our Urban Agriculturists!

**Detroitnerd** · October-05-12, 01:09 PM

Strong, you seem like a nice guy. But urging a Detroit electorate largely fed up with a mayor they see as unresponsive to "be real and supportive" strikes an odd note. I mean, it's democracy. Nobody ever said democracy was pretty.

**mikefmich** · October-05-12, 01:13 PM

Gannon beat me to my response. Hats off to you sir.

**poobert** · October-05-12, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by Strong

Mayor Bing is probably doing his best.

That may be correct, but being that we're not in elementary school anymore, I think we as adults and citizens can recognize that someone "doing their best" doesn't give our elected officials a pass for failure.

Sometimes I think we've gone soft. Sometimes your best sucks. The world needs ditch diggers, too. In Bing's case, basketball players.

**Motor City Sam** · October-05-12, 02:42 PM

I liked Archer. He did some good things, kept a balanced budget, actually negotiated a tax decrease, and pretty much stayed free of scandal. He tried to forge better relationships with the State and the burbs, and had a very good relationship with the Clinton administration. Got the Empowerment zone, got the Super Bowl and MLB all star game. Compuware moved downtown on his watch. He was not perfect, but it's telling that he was re-elected with over 80% of the vote when he ran for office the second time. At no point did I think he was in office only to enrich himself and his family.

I thought Cockrel was doing a decent job in the short time he was there. I loved his choice for Police Chief and thought he made a good move bringing in Saul Green.

I can't think of a single thing I can say Bing has been good at. I have no idea what justification he will try to give if he runs for a second term.

313X and firstandten point out two major flaws with Bing. He also seems to have no connection with the residents or employees of Detroit. And worse yet, he has not seemed interested in trying to make a connection.

**Al Publican** · October-05-12, 03:34 PM

What years did Louis Mairani[[sp) serve as Detroit mayor, what was his felony conviction for, and how much time, if any, did he serve in prison?

**Wild** · October-05-12, 04:28 PM

I liked Dennis Archer. I think that he was moving the city in the right direction.

**trotwood** · October-05-12, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by poobert

That may be correct, but being that we're not in elementary school anymore, I think we as adults and citizens can recognize that someone "doing their best" doesn't give our elected officials a pass for failure.

Sometimes I think we've gone soft. Sometimes your best sucks. The world needs ditch diggers, too. In Bing's case, basketball players.

I like this.

**douglasm** · October-05-12, 05:27 PM

I have wondered aloud if Bing came into a no win situation, one similar to that of the President. The hole Detroit was/is in is so deep, no one can be expected to fix it in the length of 1 term, and anyone who expects otherwise is a fool. I don't live in the Detroit area anymore so I can't speak to the issue of how good a job he's doing, but when you expect miracles and they don't happen, the current administration gets blamed.

Someone asked about Louis Miriani. He became mayor when Cobo died [[1957?), and served until defeated by Jerry Cavanaugh in the 1961 election. Miriani was convicted of federaltax evasion in '69, I think and served 10 months in prison.

**firstandten** · October-05-12, 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by douglasm

I have wondered aloud if Bing came into a no win situation, one similar to that of the President. The hole Detroit was/is in is so deep, no one can be expected to fix it in the length of 1 term, and anyone who expects otherwise is a fool. I don't live in the Detroit area anymore so I can't speak to the issue of how good a job he's doing, but when you expect miracles and they don't happen, the current administration gets blamed.

Here's the problem we didn't expect miracles he told us he would make the critical changes that needed to be made to get the city on the right foot. Knowing these changes would be unpopular he said he would be a one-term mayor. In other words he said he would give us the miracles and when he didn't, we got business as usual. Rather than come clean to the people and try to explain himself he created this communication gap that others on this board so adequately spoke about.

The people didn't tell him he shouldn't take a salary or live in the mansion. That was him giving us promises he shouldn't have.

A tough decision he just walked away from was the process to downsize the city. He didn't want to deal with it because he wanted to run for another term and he didn't want to piss too many people and groups off.

So while I agree with you that the hole the city is in is deep and it will take more than one term to fix it. Mayor Bing in my opinion is doing very little to bridge the gap between his over promises and under performances in either deed or speech.

**Hypestyles** · October-06-12, 12:14 AM

as long as there's a threadbare tax base, severely limited options for unskilled/semi-skilled employment, scattershot competency in the school systems, and legislative hostility internal and external, I'm not sure what can be progressively achieved by any current or future mayor.. They inevitably have to deal with city services hobbled by financial scarcity and recurringly incompetent facilitation.
I'm not pleased that a certain demographic within Detroit openly pine for the ghost of Coleman Young to come back and start running things... but thus far the city has yet to see a compelling successor that produces [[generally positive) results..

**Crumbled_pavement** · October-06-12, 05:06 AM

We need a mayor that will just let the city hit rock bottom. Once the city hits rock bottom it can rebuild. Problem is we have mayor after mayor that try to slow up the falling, but only cause the city to fall faster. To mitigate that they lower the bottom so the city never hits that. As long as there is another level lower that Detroit can fall to, it will.

We just need to accept at this point Detroit is one big gigantic FAILURE. It's failed, it's done, there's no fixing it. This is a situation that needs to be started over from scratch. I have no hope that this city outside of a few neighborhoods will ever stablize or rebound in my lifetime.

**Honky Tonk** · October-06-12, 07:01 AM

"We need a mayor that will just let the city hit rock bottom"

Then I recommend we wholeheartedly back Charles PU. He's well versed in these matters.

**313WX** · October-06-12, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by Crumbled_pavement

We need a mayor that will just let the city hit rock bottom. Once the city hits rock bottom it can rebuild. Problem is we have mayor after mayor that try to slow up the falling, but only cause the city to fall faster. To mitigate that they lower the bottom so the city never hits that. As long as there is another level lower that Detroit can fall to, it will.

We just need to accept at this point Detroit is one big gigantic FAILURE. It's failed, it's done, there's no fixing it. This is a situation that needs to be started over from scratch. I have no hope that this city outside of a few neighborhoods will ever stablize or rebound in my lifetime.

What's the bottom?

I'm thinking 300,000. Mostly in Downtown/Midtown.

All of the east side's too far gone, you can forget it.

SW Detroit and the non-historic neighborhoods of the west side probably aren't too far away from not being salvageable either.

At this point, what the city and state needs to do is amend the Hole Rule Cities Act and include a clause that would allow the citizens in certain parts of Detroit to vote on whether or not they would like to secede from Detroit.

After all, the city leaders have more or less admitted they can't service most of the remaining neighborhoods and won't. Why should I have to pay taxes to that city then?

**Honky Tonk** · October-06-12, 10:58 AM

"I'm thinking 300,000. Mostly in Downtown/Midtown"

I agree. Let's let this new breed of yupsters start paying taxes and carrying the City like the rest of us have been doing for years.

**softailrider** · October-06-12, 08:26 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Coleman Young was probably the last mayor I think Detroiters truly felt in tuned with.

While some may not have liked Young's style, he certainly didn't let anyone walk over him like Bing and Archer. He always made sure at least some of his demands and the demands of his citizens were met, the city's budget was at least balanced and city services were at least functional.

Detroiters liked Kwame for a second [[during his first term), but any approval the majority of Detroiters had for him the first 4 years was completely wiped out by the shenanigans in his 2nd term.

The City of Detroit went further downhill during CAY's terms in office then any of the mayors who were elected after him. When young first took office, the city was still fully functional and livable. When he finally left office this city looked pretty much as it does now.

Don't tell me that any of the above sentences aren't true. I saw it all happen right in front of my eyes.

**mikefmich** · October-06-12, 11:02 PM

I liked Archer....and was happy for his election. What I won't forgive Archer for is his about face stance on supporting the casinos, and gutting the riverfront area that I ran and adored for decades.

**firstandten** · October-07-12, 12:35 AM

Originally Posted by softailrider

The City of Detroit went further downhill during CAY's terms in office then any of the mayors who were elected after him. When young first took office, the city was still fully functional and livable. When he finally left office this city looked pretty much as it does now.

Don't tell me that any of the above sentences aren't true. I saw it all happen right in front of my eyes.

While what you say is true I think you fail to put what was happening in Detroit at the time in its proper context. There were many things happening in Detroit at the time that impacted the city negatively that CAY had little to do with. We were seven years past the riots and white flight was still going strong, blockbusting and redlining in the neighborhoods. Drugs all of the sudden became plentiful in most major cities including Detroit. As far as the city being functional and liveable, much of that depended on your point of view, the neighborhood you lived in and your skin color. Could CAY have slowed the progress of the city's decline. I kind of doubt it. The disinvestment in the city's neighborhoods was already too great.