Why Is Coleman Young so hated???

[oldredfordette]

No, he was pretty good for a while. He was an educated, experienced organizer and a person dedicated to representing his constituency. The history cannot be changed by those on the outside. Rest in peace, motherfucker!

[Lowell]

I can just see him now, smiling that big smile and thanking all you mofo's for remembering him.

He was right for the time even if, in the end, he overstayed his welcome by a term. He faced immense challenges of a city that had lost 500,000 residents, was strapped by a recent riot, legacy pension, infrastructure and other costs and a region in the travails of oil embargoes, rapid de-industrialization and tax-subsidized suburbanization.

The first and most important thing he did was change the attitude toward the police which, post riot, was below zero. That was directly responsible for preventing the 1975 Bolton Bar incident from spinning out of control into another riot. When street gangs terrorized an audience at Cobo, he let them know who was boss and we are no South LA as a result.

He also understood that downtown would never be what it once was and re-visioned its economy toward the entertainment center it has become. The end results are a tax and job-lucrative casino industry and vibrant sports and theater scene.

Was he corrupt? I seriously doubt it. Here is a military veteran who stood up and paid a price for opposing racism in the armed forces. He was hounded by the proto-fascist House Un-American Committee and no doubt J. Edgar Hoover's legions and the Michigan's red squad.

I have heard Coleman Young called many things, but stupid was never one of them. He knew that there were many out to get him and bring him down, watched his every move and that he could never do anything illegal if he wanted to carry out what he did. People never understood that his elixir wasn't money; it was power.

His weaknesses? He didn't know how to kiss ass and he didn't know how to pass the baton.

[1KielsonDrive]

The fact that he was an open racist is probably a good place to start.

Easy thing to say if you have no knowledge of history or didn't bother to pay attention while living through it.

[barnesfoto]

I think most white folks don't realize what a hero he was, and I'm not just talking about being a Union Organizer and Tuskagee Airman, but also, as Lowell mentioned, standing up to Joe McCarthy, the man who invented the modern Republican Party, and insisting that a city with a black majority not be policed by a nearly all white police force.

That said, I see him as the black man's Ronald Reagan, a terrible leader who appointed people based on loyalty rather than talent, and whose blatant misdeeds glided off his back as his cultish admirers praised his invisible clothes. Federal investigations simply made his loyalists more loyal, just as articles showing Ray-guns misdeeds and crimes were dismissed as propaganda from the "liberal media".
By the end of his term, the level of dysfunctionality rivaled a third world country: Just two examples: In the late 1970's, millions of federal dollars were awarded for the rehabbing of Brush Park, Coleman's then-girlfriend Joyce Garret was in charge of the project known as "Woodward East". A few matchstick porches made of 4x4s were tacked onto the facades of several abandoned Brush Park Mansions, and one street was turned into a pedestrian mall, which made a fine gathering place for gentleman with 40 oz bottles of malt liquor. Most of the money was never accounted for, and of course, Brush Park continued to crumble.
Then there was the law department. My neighborhood in Southwest Detroit was plagued by slumlords, many of whom owned multiple rental properties and had not paid city taxes in years.
What was especially enraging to myself and fellow community activists was that we had people who wanted to buy and rehab some of these properties. In any functional city, if you don't pay your taxes for several years, your property is seized and sold to the highest bidder. Not so in Coleman Young's Detroit; instead most of these properties were milked by their tax evading owners until they were falling down; then they were abandoned and eventually demolished at the expense of those of us who were paying our taxes.

While I can see how and why he became what he was due to his experiences, [[imagine, for just one moment, being a teenager about to receive an award on stage; it's an award for your academic achievement, but at the last minute the guy who is going to give you the award realizes that you are "colored" and tears up the award in front of you and everybody there, telling you that your skin color has just invalidated the award) I don't excuse his terrible leadership.
May he rot in hell with Ronald Reagan.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

^^ double post, good assessment though. CAY didn't do anything different that any other politician [[white or black) would do in his circumstances. There's been plenty of corrupt white mayors and politicians through history that have done things just as bad or worse, yet no one's calling them on the carpet. [[anyone remember our honorable Louis Miriani?) I'm not defending him, just pointing things out. He actually was very shrewd and smart considering the times and was one of the first black big-city mayors.

[maxx]

And it went into high gear when that evil SOB took office. He was as bad as bad gets. There are few in this world more despicable than him.

Few in the entire world? How about some examples?

[DetroitPlanner]

Under Coleman Young the garbage was always picked up [[with the exception of the reublican convention garbage strike), the lawns of the playgrounds were mowed, the Cops came if needed, we had special recreation programs like swimmobiles, bookmobiles for underserved neighborhoods, and there were a lot of recreation centers.

It seems to me that what what we are getting here is a lot of opinion without a lot of facts. I don't care what color the cop is that comes when I need him. Many of the people that post here are just repeating the same old crap that thier ignorant parents fed them and never lived or grew-up in the City when he was mayor.
The budget was also always balanced.

[gazhekwe]

^^ That is true. The tax base, however, has continued to erode in a seemingly neverending downward spiral. The services cannot be supported without the money to pay for them.

As for the police, I completely agree that the whole police thing was out of control at the time of CAY's election, and he did wind down some seriously overweening tendencies. STRESS was generally feared and disliked by most, including young people of any race. If you were sitting with your friends in a public park in the evening, chances are it wouldn't be long before some extremely unpleasant fellows in a TMU unit or two or three would show up and scare the bejeebers out of you. There was probably a good side to it, but it wasn't appreciated when it was directed at you. It seemed anyone young, and probably anyone black, "gathering" on street corners or in parks, was suspect of something.

After CAY, in the mid-70s, our neighborhood, we watched while stolen cars were hidden in the alleys and stripped., with no response by the police, I guess they had written off our block. I feel like it wouldn't have happened with STRESS and TMUs around,. but I was glad to see the end of them at the time.

[dookie joe]

Getting rid of STRESS was just a shell game. Those officers moved to the Big Four and they continued driving around the city kicking people's asses for no reason.

CAY was a crook. Anyone who thinks otherwise need only remember two words: Kennth Weiner.

[unclefrank]

Under Coleman Young the garbage was always picked up [[with the exception of the reublican convention garbage strike), the lawns of the playgrounds were mowed, the Cops came if needed, we had special recreation programs like swimmobiles, bookmobiles for underserved neighborhoods, and there were a lot of recreation centers.

It seems to me that what what we are getting here is a lot of opinion without a lot of facts. I don't care what color the cop is that comes when I need him. Many of the people that post here are just repeating the same old crap that thier ignorant parents fed them and never lived or grew-up in the City when he was mayor.
The budget was also always balanced.

Balanced budget! They never even kept books! Coleman was screwing the book keeper. You know, the one that spit out his son.

[Buy American]

Under Coleman Young the garbage was always picked up [[with the exception of the reublican convention garbage strike), the lawns of the playgrounds were mowed, the Cops came if needed, we had special recreation programs like swimmobiles, bookmobiles for underserved neighborhoods, and there were a lot of recreation centers.

It seems to me that what what we are getting here is a lot of opinion without a lot of facts. I don't care what color the cop is that comes when I need him. Many of the people that post here are just repeating the same old crap that thier ignorant parents fed them and never lived or grew-up in the City when he was mayor.
The budget was also always balanced.

Here are some facts that I lived through. I lived in the The Northeast side of Detroit, 7 and Hayes area. Heilman Field was where our children played most of the time. The City didn't cut the grass on a timely basis. Garbage wasn't picked up on a timely basis. I remember many times when 3-4 weeks went by before the garbage trucks came down the alley to pick up garbage. When they changed over to the big rolling garbage containers to be put in the front of the house and closed off the alleys, DPW was seldom on time picking up the garbage. Street lights would go out and to this day I doubt if the bulbs were ever replaced. I do have to say that Police response was good and I believe it's because most of them lived in that area and were very protective of what went on. Many police and fire employees lived in that area.

I lived through Young's administration, worked for the man.....he was a crook, a racist, and, like thug KK, was out to fill his pockets with taxpayers money.

[Detroit Stylin]

I swear I see some of the most vile, disrespectful people on here.....its really telling when certain topics or discussions on certain people come up...

[DetroitPlanner]

Balanced budget! They never even kept books! Coleman was screwing the book keeper. You know, the one that spit out his son.

She was not a book keeper, my dad worked with her at the Western Yard. I severely doubt that the City's accounting department was nestled somewhere between the salt shack and the garbage trucks.

[English]

I swear I see some of the most vile, disrespectful people on here.....its really telling when certain topics or discussions on certain people come up...

Nothing brings out the bile in this region more than Young or Kilpatrick, who were two very different politicians, and the products of very different times.

I see Young and Kilpatrick as complex, wily, but ultimately flawed individuals. I think the fact that Detroit elected mayors like these reflects our perception of the times. It's no coincidence that Young was able to hold on to the city during the Reagan/Bush years when he might have considered retirement... then Archer became mayor during the 1990s, a relatively prosperous time with a Detroit-friendly president at the helm [[NEZs, funds for policing, etc.)... and then, Kwame was elected in the shadow of 9/11 and the growing political divides nationwide.

I doubt you'll see another mayor like Kilpatrick or Young again. Those men were a product of specific ideologies and ways of thinking that still predominate among Detroiters of a certain age, but Kwame's dramatic fall has had a major impact on young Detroit. In early 2008, perhaps what he was going through gave him street cred, but then Obama's rise gave kids a new aspirational role model in politics. If you don't believe me, quiz the average Detroit teen about what they think of Kwame.

[barnesfoto]

I'm sure that the thousands of people who won tens of thousands of dollars from frivolous lawsuits won because the inept CAY-era Law Department staff could be bothered to contest them have nothing but fond memories of the man.

[Detroitej72]

I lived in Northeast Detroit[[7 Mile/ Gratiot) during CAY entire reign and here's my two cents worth. The trash was always picked up except for a garbage strike in the late 70's. When our hood changed to the old dumpsters, our complaints were that the bottoms rusted out after a few years and that lead to a major rat problem. The city finally switched to the roll out "Coleman Cans" that the rest of the city was using.

The few times resident's called the police, they arrived in a timely fashion. As someone stated earlier, we had many cops and firemen living in the neighborhood and that may have played a part. Also, former councilman David Eberhard used to be seen around during rare fires and events. I often hear folks complain about the residency requirement, but they fail to mention that it was enacted about 80 years before Young took office and that most cities had one.

I learned to swim at Heilman Rec Center and played little league for Weishegan-Heilman Athletic Club. For the most part, the fields were cut either weekly or bi-weekly and the swings were hung out every spring and taken down in the fall.

Many of the older, mostly white residents felt Young ignored the working class, majority white neighborhoods in favor of the big ticket, glamorous projects downtown like the Ren Cen, People Mover, Harbortown, and the like. There was some truth to this, as nothing was done, in the late 80's about abandoned houses and the alleys were left to rot once the trash was picked up out front of the homes.

There was a certain perception that he marketed neighborhoods with substantial white populations like Poltown and Jefferson/Connors for new auto plants, but I think this was an unfair criticism. GM picked Poltown because of the railroad access and the closed Dodge Main grounds and Chrysler was already at Jefferson and Connor.

I think he stayed on for 2, maybe 3 terms too many, but I think he was far better for the city than John Nichols would have been. I often wonder what the city would have looked like had Mayor Roman Gribbs run for re-election and served another term.

[Danny]

When Coleman A. Young became mayor of Detroit in 1973. The population was over 1.4 million. [[ As in over 50% white, almost 40% black and 1% Mexicans/Hispanics and 9% Chinese) The entire upper Southwest Side was mostly low-income whites with fewer Mexicans/Yemeni-Arab Muslims. The outskirts of Detroit's Northeast and Northwest side was mostly middle income white with few blacks moving in and more whites moving out the suburbs. The Lower Southwest Side of Detroit were mostly black with few whites. The lower west and east side still moslty low-income black in the brink of becoming a blighted ghettohood. The North Side was mostly black and becoming a instant urban prarie. There are some Chaldeans moving to the neighborhoods north and south of W. 7 Mile Rd. between Woodward Ave. and John R. Rd. Poletown was booming with Polish owned shops. The rest of the upper west and east sides were full blown black both middle and lower income. It was a potential hot spots for violent gang activity like the Errol Flynns, the Black Killers, The Coney Onlies, Zone Eights and Young Boys Inc.


The city council was mostly white. [[Maryann Mahaffey was there in the mid 1970s) The Commitee of the Whole was mostly white. The Detroit Public Schools was over 50% white, 38% black and 8% Chinese, 2% Arab Chaldeans and Yemenis and 1% Mexican/Hispanic. It's was better for white students in their schools but stable for black students and other minorities. The Detroit Public School Board was little bit white with few black administrators. There were more Private and Parochial Schools like St Thomas Aquinas, Saints Peter ans Paul, St Francis De Sales, St. Chrsitopher, St Dominican High School, St Mary's High School, and Gesu School. [[ I Lived by that area and it was loaded with white kids). There are few Jewish Synagogues in the Northwest Side of Detroit. The bigger Synagogue was Temple Israel on 17400 Manderson. There were a lot of wealthy Jewish families in the Palmer Park Homes and Apartments at the time.

The Detroit Police was still mostly white. There are few blacks in the force. STRESS was in control looking for tramps and thieves and suspicious people.


There were lots of mom and pop retail stores all white, Chinese, Mexican, Yemeni Muslim, Chaldean Owned and mixed in every business corridor. The Chinese were the near blighted section of Cass Corridor area near Downtown Detroit operating their Chinatown along Cass and Peterboro from M.L.King St. to Fisher FWY. [[Chin Tiki was a great hot spot to eat.)

Downtown Detroit was booming with people all over along with Hudson's Flagship Store.

The D-DOT busses were middle aged and started to break down fast. People would have to wait up to 2 to 4 hours for a bus. It was so crowded. But the bright side was that the fare was 60 cents. There were no SMART busses running in Detroit streets at the time. You have to catch it in the suburban borders. There was SEMPTA, there were doing ex-urban routes.

Coleman Young wants to step up and undo the what he claims is the 'white problem' having black companions take over certian postitions in all city businesses. That includes hiring Isaiah McKinnion. He wants to have black owners to make investments in Detroit and tell crooks to 'Hit 8 Mile Rd.' He rid of STRESS, fix the D-DOT bus maintenence problems. He took part of the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 and have Poletown destroyed for the Dodge Main Plant.

After he left office in 1993, the population was 1.2 million Detroit become 77% black, 20% white, 4% Hispanic/Mexican, 2% Arab Muslims and 1% Chinese. Most of the middle income white had moved to the suburbs, More city corruption, more violent crime, more vacant and abandon buildings. Detroit Public Schools was in shambles. Most of businesses in Dowtown Detroit is long gone including Hudson's Flagship Store. Most Private and Parochial schools were closing, including various Catholic Churches.The police were more corrupted since the 1960s and more street crime was rampant.


WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Thank you Coleman A. Young for a job well done. A great black hope for a full black city.


Neda, I miss you.

[terryh]

^^ That is true. The tax base, however, has continued to erode in a seemingly neverending downward spiral. The services cannot be supported without the money to pay for them.

As for the police, I completely agree that the whole police thing was out of control at the time of CAY's election, and he did wind down some seriously overweening tendencies. STRESS was generally feared and disliked by most, including young people of any race. If you were sitting with your friends in a public park in the evening, chances are it wouldn't be long before some extremely unpleasant fellows in a TMU unit or two or three would show up and scare the bejeebers out of you. There was probably a good side to it, but it wasn't appreciated when it was directed at you. It seemed anyone young, and probably anyone black, "gathering" on street corners or in parks, was suspect of something.

After CAY, in the mid-70s, our neighborhood, we watched while stolen cars were hidden in the alleys and stripped., with no response by the police, I guess they had written off our block. I feel like it wouldn't have happened with STRESS and TMUs around,. but I was glad to see the end of them at the time.

Just curious where was youre neighborhood? You literally watched as the cars were being stripped?

[gazhekwe]

I didn't watch the actual stripping, as it was in the alleys across or down the street behind the houses. The alleys were closed. We saw the cars in various stages of being stripped. It was behind St. Mary's between Lyndon and Acacia. For some reason, that block seemed to be the hardest hit. Lots of good working neighbors, and a few bad apples that poisoned the whole block. The bad apples were teenagers and young men from two or three households. Many of the other neighbors didn't seem all that surprised. You might even say they tolerated it, or expected it, maybe, but not happily. Like, here we go again... Does it have to be that way?

[terryh]

Coleman Young was feared; fear breeds hatred! From reading his bios he certainly has an impressive history of social activism, serving his fellows, standing up to injustice, fighting for the underdog etc.... He used to cuss out/at reporters who asked questions that he found disagreeable...

[lilpup]

No, Coleman Young was not feared.

[Detroit500]

are there any recordings available of the Bill Bonds/Coleman Young exchanges?

[Buy American]

I swear I see some of the most vile, disrespectful people on here.....its really telling when certain topics or discussions on certain people come up...

...anyone I know?

[Detroit Stylin]

...anyone I know?

Unlike alot of other people I have no problems with telling you that you are indeed one of the primary belligerants....

So to give you a brief hint to your question: YES

[econ expat]

Unlike alot of other people I have no problems with telling you that you are indeed one of the primary belligerants....

So to give you a brief hint to your question: YES

This thread has been interesting reading, but nothing new...

However, as someone said in another thread [[anyone we know?)
"I'm loving it"