Senate ready to give Detroit City Council another chance at Cobo

[Locke09]

This is in short forcing city council's hand - they either take the deal or leave it. If they leave it, kiss support for Cobo goodbye. They might be forced to take it.

If this deal still contains a 5-member authority with each member having veto power, I would still say, "Leave it." even if it means kissing support for Cobo goodbye. I say this as a matter of practicality. How can you possibly make good progress on anything when one person can create a stalemate? This might be okay on an advisory committee, but I can't imagine how it will work on an authority that actually owns assets and controls funds. Is there another authority like this that is not majority rule, where there must be 100% consensus in order to get anything done? Oh yes, and the members with veto power are actually competitors.

I just don't see it being viable. Nor does it make good business sense to give someone veto power over something sitting in your backyard, which might affect you more than it affects them. This legislation is written such that, they could still vote to move the NAIAS outside of Detroit, as long as they maintain Cobo as a convention facility. If Detroit objects and vetos, then there can be a stalemate. But Detroit can do nothing to get Cobo back as long as some convention is being held there.

You don't write good legislation with the hope that people will cooperate. You write it with provisions for remedies if they don't.

Anyway, if Oakland County can take its money, does that mean Detroit and Wayne County can pool theirs? Would that be enough to make Cobo state of the art without a major expansion? There are still things to consider rather than just accepting that this is a "Checkmate."

I know teenagers, not yet out of high school, who see through all the pretense and have come to the conclusion that Michigan [[not Detroit, not the suburbs, but Michigan) is backwards and not a good place to raise a new generation.