1990 ABC Primetime Special: Detroit's Agony

[313WX]

The more things change, the more things stay the same, eh?

[313WX]

[Toka313]

This is a big reason why people say the crisis is manufactured. We've heard the same story every single year.

I miss CAY big time.

[Danny]

Thanks for nothing, Coleman Young! You turn Detroit into a world's biggest ghetto in 20 years.

[DetroitPlanner]

In 1990 Detroit was in much better shape under Coleman Young's leadership than it is today.

[Wheels]

In 1990 Detroit was in much better shape under Coleman Young's leadership than it is today.

But the path was set and the brick was on the accelerator!!

[softailrider]

In 1990 Detroit was in much better shape under Coleman Young's leadership than it is today.

I was around that entire time either living or working in the city. It's my opinion that at the end of his last term the city looked almost as bad as it does now. There were more police on the street, response time was much better, more rec centers were open, neighborhoods weren't as desolate.

I think CAY totally fucked up the city up, at the beginning of his first administration the city, while recovering from a terrible riot was still a completely livable place. Even Hitler made the trains run on time, so what did that accomplish?

[Toka313]

Bro, you can't say CAY was worse than Hitler. C'mon man.

[Wheels]

Bro, you can't say CAY was worse than Hitler. C'mon man.

Actually I think he is saying that CYA was not as good as Hitler!

[EastsideAl]

I'm no fan of Coleman's generally, but he was a very active mayor in his first couple of terms, even though battling huge waves of hostility that came his way due almost solely to the fact of someone of his race being elected mayor. However, he was definitely done as any sort of effective mayor and was really overstaying his welcome by his last term.

But actually, during the Archer years in the 90's the city improved quite a bit from the state seen in this show. While I didn't like everything Archer did, and he can't get credit for larger national and economic trends, Detroit really did seem to be doing pretty well and even improving by the late '90s. Crime was way down, population loss slowed, all sorts of projects were started, and there was even a real run-up in housing prices, if folks can remember.

Then came the precipice and the abyss...

[aj3647]

In 1990 Detroit was in much better shape under Coleman Young's leadership than it is today.

Just out of curiosity, what percentage of the city's $19 billion in total debt is attributable to CAY's time in office?

[DetroitPlanner]

Just out of curiosity, what percentage of the city's $19 billion in total debt is attributable to CAY's time in office?

Young was proud of having a balanced budget every year. He campainged on it.
http://www.cayf.org/about_person.php

He was downsizing the City to keep it out of Debt.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...s-city-council

[evergreen]

Mayor Young was a very intelligent guy, but he overstayed by about 2 terms. He was very ill and almost never at the City County Building after the mid eighties. This was no secret. This is why the region is fully of McNamara acolytes and very few Coleman Young acolytes. You have to be on the scene to assess talent and Mayor Young was not there; Big Mac was.

The departments were incompetently managed. It just took a while for all the incompetence to ride the city off the rails. Also, his cavalier attitude about violence and the city's declining population was not helpful. You have to view every departing citizen as a lost client. To the extent that he did nothing to stop the decline in the city's taxpaying population, his hand is in this mess today.

The citizens are the city's real jewels and they [[black and white) have been departing for decades.