Miss Martha Reeves
Posted on 08/11/2005 10:22:10 PM PDT by churchillbuff
*Martha Reeves, the lead voice behind such Martha and the Vandellas classics as "Dancing in the Street," "Heat Wave" and "Nowhere to Run,” has run a successful primary campaign for Detroit City Council and will next compete in the Nov. 8 general election.
"I want to jump around up in here, but we're in the VIP room and everyone is being very sophisticated," Reeves said Wednesday after learning she would advance along with 17 other council candidates.
As of press time, Reeves was in ninth place among the 120 candidates in the running, with 685 of the city’s 720 precincts reporting. Only nine City Council seats are to be filled on Nov. 8.
If elected, one of Reeves’ main objectives is to make sure the city's neighborhoods are adequately policed. She said it has been a challenge to renovate some of the 18 old buildings she's acquired since 1999 due to crime in the neighborhoods.
"Junkies and crackheads have been taking down boards and even held some of the workmen at gunpoint until they ran away," she said, according to Billboard. "The policing needs to be there and it needs to be visible."
She’d also like to reenergize the city’s downtown area with a planned mall to draw businesses and keep shoppers in the heart of the city, a landscape featuring Motown greats and a nightclub devoted to the record label's legendary sound. Those endeavors, she said, "could increase our tourism 100-fold."
"One of my biggest dreams is to put up statues downtown -- statues of Stevie Wonder ... and Smokey Robinson. That would be really great," Reeves said
Well at least she wants more policing to clean up neighborhoods. The idea of some motown attraction might be good for tourism like the rock and roll hall of fame in Clevland, but if crime is rampant large-scale tourism just won't happen.
Please Martha you are good singer MAN don't put any stature of Jacko Please Four Tops Yeah
Temperation YEAH BUT NOT JACKO
She may be about the closest one can come to being "Conservative" in Motown, so I'd vote for her.
Miss Martha Reeves
I think you're right.
A permanent tribute to Motown Music is a very good idea, but it's not strong enough to fix everything else wrong with Detroit.
Some of the stuff downtown is alright. We love going to the Detroit Science Center, but many neighborhoods need to be demolished to the point of removing streets and sewers. Put it back to farmland and start over.
That is physically, financially and politically difficult. But in some areas of the city, that is the only viable option.
About 20 years ago, I worked in the neighborhoods doing weatherization rehab on welfare houses. The homes featured awesome architecture, but were totally neglected. The majority have structural damage too great to remedy and are just hulks of once beautiful homes.
She wants more law and order in a dangerous city, and that sound right.
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