Detroit election highlights

[artds]

And I'm pleased to report that every single individual elected in Livonia is white. And always has been white.

Not a good comparison.

Out of Livonia's roughly 100,000 residents, the number of black residents is in the hundreds.

Detroit, on the other hand, has more white residents than Livonia does [[approximately 20,000 more)

[Mikeg]

Toledo is 70% white, and just elected a black mayor.

And as a result of an Ohio ballot initiative championed by Dan Gilbert that won at the polls yesterday, Toledo will be getting a casino that will undoubtedly siphon traffic from the three Detroit casinos.

[iheartthed]

Not a good comparison.

Out of Livonia's roughly 100,000 residents, the number of black residents is in the hundreds.

Detroit, on the other hand, has more white residents than Livonia does [[approximately 20,000 more)

Are you trying to suggest that the white vote in Detroit is suppressed?

[iheartthed]

And as a result of an Ohio ballot initiative championed by Dan Gilbert that won at the polls yesterday, Toledo will be getting a casino that will undoubtedly siphon traffic from the three Detroit casinos.

Time to install that toll road on I-75.

[Kevgoblue]

Originally Posted by stinkbug
I'm also pleased to report that every single individual elected is black. Screw diversity.


Originally Posted by EastsideAl
And I'm pleased to report that every single individual elected in Livonia is white. And always has been white.

Toledo is 70% white, and just elected a black mayor.

And Atlanta is about 65% black and about to elect a white mayor.

To quote Larry the Cable Guy....."I could do this all day".

[EastsideAl]

Not a good comparison.

Out of Livonia's roughly 100,000 residents, the number of black residents is in the hundreds.

Detroit, on the other hand, has more white residents than Livonia does [[approximately 20,000 more)

Out of , what, 900,000 or so people? So, if every single registered white voter in Detroit could somehow be brought to vote for the same candidate, that person might stand some chance of being elected.

My point above is that it's rather silly to complain that no white people were elected to the City Council in a city with an overwhelmingly black population. Especially since there were no white candidates - save perhaps for Arab-American Mohamed Okdie depending on your definitions - that made it to the final 18, and no viable white candidates with any name recognition or ties to the wider city community who ran in the primary. It is pretty much as stupid as me complaining that there were no black people elected in Livonia or [[substitute name of any 70% or more majority white suburb here).

Now, before you say that's because black voters won't vote for white candidates, you should keep in mind that this will be the first entirely black City Council in the city's history. Long after the city's electorate was mostly black, Maryanne Mahaffey was elected City Council president 3 times, outpolling Dennis Archer and Kwame Kilpatrick in the process. But then she built a political organization and political relationships with wide appeal to all sorts of constituencies, and never ran a racial campaign or as anything like "the white candidate."

[BVos]

As an 8 year resident of the city I for one was very happy with yesterday's elections. Were all the people elected the people I thought were the best? No. Was this the biggest and most positive change in elected officials and policy that I and my neighbors [[many of whom are lifetime residents) can remember? Yes.

You can't expect a City that has essentially been electing abusive partners in for the past several generations to suddenly elect a radically different type of person. I think Kwame going to jail and Conyers going to the federal pen in one year woke up a lot of Detroiters to the type of people they were having relationships with [[to continue with the abuse theme). Residents finally realize that they rise and fall with the leaders they elect and have voted for IMO.

Here's the positives highlights that I see from the past several years of Detroit politics: death of Kay Everett [[sorry, but it's true); ouster of Jackie Currie by voters for her total incompetence; guilty plea of Kwame Kilpatrick; guilty plea of Monica Conyers; voters not voting for incumbent Martha Reeves at a primary; voters not voting for incumbent Alberta Tinsley-Talabi at the general election; election of 5 of 9 non-incumbents for Council [[hasn't happened in decades); election of 8 of 9 competent people for Charter Commission; overwhelming passage of Council by Districts; election of elected officials who by and large agree that business as usual will not work for the future of Detroit [[including shrinking the City).

[leland_palmer]

Did anybody notice that the first four Council members-elect received more votes than Dave Bing did for Mayor?

It is not a valid comparison. The vote for Mayor is a zero-sum contest. A vote for Barrow is a vote against Bing. In the council race, a vote for Raphael Johnson isn't necessarily a vote against Charles Pugh because you can vote for up to 8 candidates. Thus, more votes were available.

[BVos]

Forgot to mention another positive: Barbara Rose-Collins deciding to "retire" from Council

[barnesfoto]

^^^^ What Bvos said. I once had to live with BRC being my congresswoman, which was even more painful than having her on the CC. Even Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick was an improvement over BRC, kind of like how Asthma is a better disease to have than Tuberculosis.


"overwhelming passage of Council by Districts"

That's amazing. That is the best thing that's happened to Detroit in years.

While I agree that Detroit residents made some dumb choices, like voting for some idiot who used to be on TV, despite obvious information that the guy is financially retarded, they simply proved themselves as dumb many of their fellow Americans, who despite having information that the Iraq war was based in lies fed to them by a group of incompetent criminals, [[not to mention a plethora of other issues) reelected the incompetent criminals in the fall of 2004.

Like the country that it is a part of, Detroit has no shortage of dumb people, but even dumb people make a few good electoral decisions once in a while.

[mam2009]

..."voters" who can't read a newspaper... This is what you want, brotha you got it. -- Buy American

...accept the facts for what they are. There is no spewing venom... or ethnic distinctions....the truth is the truth!

Hmm...did you remember what you posted, Buy American?

[mam2009]

Doesn't that just mean that the more thuggish sections of the city will get to elect dirty people like Jai-Lee Deering to City Council while the more respectable sections will get to elect people like Ken Cockrel?

Do thugs vote?

[mam2009]

As an 8 year resident of the city I for one was very happy with yesterday's elections. Were all the people elected the people I thought were the best? No. Was this the biggest and most positive change in elected officials and policy that I and my neighbors [[many of whom are lifetime residents) can remember? Yes.

You can't expect a City that has essentially been electing abusive partners in for the past several generations to suddenly elect a radically different type of person. I think Kwame going to jail and Conyers going to the federal pen in one year woke up a lot of Detroiters to the type of people they were having relationships with [[to continue with the abuse theme). Residents finally realize that they rise and fall with the leaders they elect and have voted for IMO.

Here's the positives highlights that I see from the past several years of Detroit politics: death of Kay Everett [[sorry, but it's true); ouster of Jackie Currie by voters for her total incompetence; guilty plea of Kwame Kilpatrick; guilty plea of Monica Conyers; voters not voting for incumbent Martha Reeves at a primary; voters not voting for incumbent Alberta Tinsley-Talabi at the general election; election of 5 of 9 non-incumbents for Council [[hasn't happened in decades); election of 8 of 9 competent people for Charter Commission; overwhelming passage of Council by Districts; election of elected officials who by and large agree that business as usual will not work for the future of Detroit [[including shrinking the City).

Its so nice to see someone post a POSITIVE and substantive post all at the same time. Ditto on everything, BVos, with the exception of the "non-re-election" of AT-T for all of the reasons on my "Detroiters, Vote for AT-T" thread.