Who were the best and worst Mayors in Detroit History/

**EMG** · November-17-10, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

That's the consensus of a younger cohort. The oldsters remember STRESS and how FINALLY a mayor reformed the police. Young would have been a great two-term mayor, if he'd decided to just ... let go.

Um...no.

Coleman Young's so-called "reform" meant criminals could now get away with murder - literally. He "fixed" STRESS by rendering the police department worthless and impotent. [[And the corruption which followed within the department under Young's tenure is legendary).

Young's term was the turning point beween the days when Detroit was actually a good livable city and when it became what it is today.

**softailrider** · November-17-10, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by EMG

Um...no.

Coleman Young's so-called "reform" meant criminals could now get away with murder - literally. He "fixed" STRESS by rendering the police department worthless and impotent. [[And the corruption which followed within the department under Young's tenure is legendary).

Young's term was the turning point beween the days when Detroit was actually a good livable city and when it became what it is today.

I absolutely agree with the above, Young's tenure destroyed the city.

**Fnemecek** · November-17-10, 10:10 PM

Best
Hazen Pingree

Worst
Dave Bing

**Gistok** · November-17-10, 11:22 PM

Originally Posted by Fnemecek

Best
Hazen Pingree

Worst
Dave Bing

Let me guess... Ken Cockrel Jr. was your 2nd worst....

**Detroitej72** · November-18-10, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Let me guess... Ken Cockrel Jr. was your 2nd worst....

Gistok, I see a pattern here.

On a side note, I feel Detroit's First,[[and only Polish Mayor) has gotten screwed!!!

Here lies the racist tendencies of Detroiter's[[both black and white)!

It's not a case of black and white, they seem to hate Polish folks!

**Fnemecek** · November-18-10, 12:39 AM

Gistok knows me well.

**mikefmich** · November-17-10, 11:06 PM

Originally Posted by softailrider

I absolutely agree with the above, Young's tenure destroyed the city.

I am no fan of CAY, but that's a broad brush. The city started imploding years before he came along, though in earlier years it was hard for most folks to see.
But he did squat for the cake that was already baking except to put the icing on it.

**softailrider** · November-18-10, 04:34 AM

Originally Posted by mikefmich

I am no fan of CAY, but that's a broad brush. The city started imploding years before he came along, though in earlier years it was hard for most folks to see.
But he did squat for the cake that was already baking except to put the icing on it.

I'll agree that the problems started way before Young was elected for his first term. However, there's no denying that by the end of his run we had lost almost the entire middle class tax base.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · November-18-10, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by softailrider

I'll agree that the problems started way before Young was elected for his first term. However, there's no denying that by the end of his run we had lost almost the entire middle class tax base.

So that's all his fault that the businesses left? I would think it was a combination of things.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · November-18-10, 03:05 AM

Originally Posted by EMG

Um...no.

Coleman Young's so-called "reform" meant criminals could now get away with murder - literally. He "fixed" STRESS by rendering the police department worthless and impotent. [[And the corruption which followed within the department under Young's tenure is legendary).

Young's term was the turning point beween the days when Detroit was actually a good livable city and when it became what it is today.

I disagree. Something had to be done with a police force that was 95% white and racist. How do you think the riots of 67 got started?. Whites were leaving the city before Young got in office. A young black person couldn't even walk to the store without being intimidated by the "Big Four" and STRESS. " Where you goin Boy" ? I'm not blaming everything bad that happened to Detroit on Young. Detroit was starting to decline when Jerome Cavanagh was Mayor.

**mikefmich** · November-18-10, 05:00 AM

Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid

I disagree. Something had to be done with a police force that was 95% white and racist. How do you think the riots of 67 got started?. Whites were leaving the city before Young got in office. A young black person couldn't even walk to the store without being intimidated by the "Big Four" and STRESS. " Where you goin Boy" ? I'm not blaming everything bad that happened to Detroit on Young. Detroit was starting to decline when Jerome Cavanagh was Mayor.

Perhaps Cobo & Miriani? After the war years, the automakers started building a ton of new auto plants in s.e. Michigan....at least 20 or more. Not one of them were built in Detroit. Couple that with the freeway construction that cut a wide swath thru PV, and the redlining of blacks vis a vis the housing/mortgage industry, IMHO the death rattle started in the early 1950's....but few if any realized it at the time.

While the riots accelerated the white flight to the burbs, it was well under way in the mid to late1950's when Oakland & Macomb started sprouting housing developments like weeds.

I thought Cavanaugh wasn't a bad mayor....perhaps his biggest mistake was a half-hearted attempt at fixing the budget with the income tax. Well meant, but it wasn't the fix he hoped for. I was coming of age in that era, and I full well remember many resident taxpayers who were friends, relatives, fellow church goers say screw this noise, I'm outta here.

He also embraced the emerging civil rights movement, which I thought was ballsy on his part. Others wouldn't have touched that with a ten foot pole in that era.

Pretty personable guy, I met him a couple of times when my dad was on the New Detroit Committee for a couple of years after the riots. I think he gave it his best shot.

Seriously by the time he arrived in office in the early 60's, I don't think anyone could've slowed down what was the chugging locomotive that was the fall of Detroit.

**Danny** · November-18-10, 10:58 AM

Charles Bowles was aTERRIBLE Detroit Mayor! His support with the KKK and other political corruption made Detroiters very upset that recall notice has happen.

**Detroitnerd** · November-18-10, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by EMG

Um...no.

Coleman Young's so-called "reform" meant criminals could now get away with murder - literally. He "fixed" STRESS by rendering the police department worthless and impotent. [[And the corruption which followed within the department under Young's tenure is legendary).

Young's term was the turning point beween the days when Detroit was actually a good livable city and when it became what it is today.

That is a minority view, and those who cling to it are usually old, racist police. Perhaps you should read "The Algiers Motel Incident," and consider if you would like to be a black person with Detroit police such as those covered in the book?

**Ray1936** · November-18-10, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

That is a minority view, and those who cling to it are usually old, racist police.

Yeah, that's me, if it will make you happy.

**Detroitnerd** · November-18-10, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

Yeah, that's me, if it will make you happy.

We've had this out before, Ray, and I understand your sensitivity to the issue, but I think it's pretty clear that when I say defenders of STRESS are usually old, racist police, it does not mean that all old police are racist, yes? You've never been anything but decent on this board, and your own words speak to a character that is far removed from that sort of ugliness.

My dad was a cop, and joined the force out of a genuine desire to help people, so I know it ain't all Buford T. Justice out there.