Sounds like Mayor Bing Genuinely Cares About Detroit

**Johnnie Sue Bridges** · April-23-10, 02:33 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...01203#36598364

Wow, this is great. It sounds to me like the Mayor Bing cares and is trying to restore Detroit. I appreciated all he had to say. He has my support! Go Mayor Bing.

**RickBeall** · April-23-10, 03:20 PM

I really liked the interview. Mayor Bing came across as "real", and he came across as being practical and honest.

**cman710** · April-23-10, 09:30 PM

I really liked the interview, too. I was a bit taken aback and surprised by his comment that there are certain parts of Detroit that even he will not go to. Even if he actually thinks that, it would have been better if he had not shared that in the interview. Fortunately, it does not seem like any media outlets have picked up on that quote. I could imagine the headlines on Yahoo!: "Detroit Mayor: I Won't Go To Certain Parts of the City."

**n7hn** · April-23-10, 11:20 PM

By the time the press gets it it will be "detroit mayor afraid to leave office without bodyguards"

**ct_alum** · April-24-10, 11:18 AM

He is - He claimed that he would give up his EPU, but that the "DPD recommended against it" - Sound familiar? Can you say "Red Navigator"? Bing cares about Detroit about as much as Kwame does.

**Johnnie Sue Bridges** · April-26-10, 08:34 AM

I thought the interview was very informative and I truly believe the Mayor has a good plan. However, the one thing I thought interesting was about the mention of relocating folks in the neighborhood. To me, that certainly was a bit much to swallow. I was raised in Detroit on 35th Street 3 blocks from Michigan Avenue. Every now and then I go there to see what is happening. Even though it really does look like a bomb blast cleared the areas where many houses and my Ellis Elementary School once stood, it is very clean and appears to be ready for rebuilding. However, there are plenty of folks living in the area. Their yards are very well kept, and quite frankly, it is beginning to look up around there. I cannot imagine asking those folks to uproot and leave.

Does anyone know where the area is that the Mayor is speaking about relocating folks?

**professorscott** · April-26-10, 09:10 AM

That "relocating folks" is a very old business, the concept has been around since at least the mid 1980s when it was proposed by the late Marie Farrell Donaldson, who was City Ombudsperson at the time.

Without getting specific, the concept is simple and based on two brutal facts:

1. There are neighborhoods in which almost nobody lives anymore

2. It costs as much to serve a nearly-empty block as it does a completely full block [[in terms of streetlights, trash pickup, emergency services, road maintenance).

Based on that, the idea is to select the neighborhoods in which almost nobody lives, and convert them to neighborhoods in which absolutely nobody lives. Then you have several options for what to do with that land. Short term, you can fence it off and absolutely stop providing services, which is why the option exists at all; it will save money. Longer term, you can create new parks, or allow for large-scale urban agriculture, or redevelop the land in myriad other ways.

The part that makes it ticklish, of course, is the ham-handedness of moving people out of their homes involuntarily. But what great options has the City right now? This is at least worth discussing IMO.

**Detroitnerd** · April-26-10, 09:15 AM

Bing is losing credibility, despite his expert capabilities as a spokesperson.

He was going to be a one-term mayor. Now he says he's open to more terms.

He was going to get rid of the EPU. Conveniently, the DPD advised him to keep it.

He said he didn't like the incinerator. May 1 is the deadline and now he's talking about using scarce Detroit tax dollars to buy a piece of it to run it into the future.

Look under Bing's coat-tails and you will find the same merry band of Detroit administrators. And I believe they are going to ride this figurehead for all he's worth.

**Johnnie Sue Bridges** · April-26-10, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Bing is losing credibility, despite his expert capabilities as a spokesperson.

He was going to be a one-term mayor. Now he says he's open to more terms.

He was going to get rid of the EPU. Conveniently, the DPD advised him to keep it.

He said he didn't like the incinerator. May 1 is the deadline and now he's talking about using scarce Detroit tax dollars to buy a piece of it to run it into the future.

Look under Bing's coat-tails and you will find the same merry band of Detroit administrators. And I believe they are going to ride this figurehead for all he's worth.

I sure hope you are wrong. What do I know, other than what I hear them say? One thing I do know is this: I could always feel an undercurrent about Kwami from the get go. I want to hope in someone that has a genuine love for Detroit and wants to make it better.

When I lived in the city, it was good to be there and even now, I love going back home. I do not deny that it has changed, but it is still home and we all need to chin up and do what we can to make it a better place to live.