Posted on 01/27/2005 9:32:09 AM PST by harpu
Waiting for a bus on a slushy downtown corner earlier this week, 33-year-old Rhonee Williams made a vow. If a certain cherry-red 2005 Lincoln Navigator SUV happened to stop there, "I'm getting in it!"
Like many angry Detroiters, the clothing-store cashier feels entitled to a ride. She's upset because, at a time when Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is planning big budget cuts -- including cuts in bus service -- the city recently leased a luxury Navigator for the mayor's family using taxpayers' money.
It isn't surprising that in this beleaguered city built on the auto industry, such a vehicle has come to symbolize the community's frustration and outrage. People here know a status symbol when they see one. And they also know that many in this poor city can't afford cars at all.
That's why people huddled at the bus stop here viewed the "Navigate" scandal in the most basic terms. A bus ride costs $1.50, "and if you're short a quarter, you're turned off the bus," said Ms. Williams. The wait between buses can be hours here, and quarters mean something to people, so "it's ludicrous that the mayor would sell us on all these cuts and then get a car like that for his family," said Nadirah Muhammad, a 56-year-old office receptionist.
Earlier this month, Mr. Kilpatrick, who is 34, asked citizens to make great sacrifices. Given Detroit's $230 million budget deficit, he announced plans not only to cut services but also to lay off 700 city employees. "We've reached a dire moment in the history of our city," he said.
Then the local media learned of the fully accessorized Navigator. For days, the mayor and his spokespeople denied that the car was meant for the mayor's wife and three young sons. Then a mayoral bodyguard slammed local TV reporter Steve Wilson into a wall for asking too many questions about the car -- a scene aired repeatedly on Detroit's WXYZ-TV. Finally last Saturday, at a highly charged news conference, the mayor admitted the car had indeed been leased for his family.
Mr. Kilpatrick presides over a city that desperately needs a better profile as it plans to play host to the 2006 Super Bowl. The city's murder rate rose in 2004, with 384 killings, while most major cities showed declines. Detroit's downtown is full of abandoned buildings, and its schools are in shambles. Black middle-class flight is expected to leave just 100,000 students in the schools by 2008, down from 200,000 in 1999. Meanwhile, an exodus at the current rate of 10,000 residents a year has left the city's population at about 900,000, down a million people since 1950.
"These are extremely difficult times, and we need a mayor who will rise to the challenge," says Edgar Vann Jr., pastor of Detroit's Second Ebenezer Baptist Church. He hopes the Navigator incident "will be a wake-up call to him that we need stable leadership with integrity."
Mr. Kilpatrick, a 6-foot-4 former college football player, is a gifted speaker and big-picture thinker who has been a charismatic, optimistic presence in Detroit neighborhoods. He took office in 2002 promising a massive emergency cleanup of dilapidated properties, technological upgrades of city services and a tough but fair relationship with labor unions. He has made some inroads in these efforts.
In an interview yesterday, he said he has learned from the Navigator incident, which he termed a "communication" problem. He said he had told his police chief in December that his family wouldn't need the Navigator, and thought that was the end of it. The miscommunications to the media in recent weeks were "my fault," he said. "I did it. I didn't take it seriously enough. It will never happen again."
Yet he also said he finds it "amazing" that so many people feel entitled to talk about what kind of car is appropriate for him. In this town full of car experts, many ask why he didn't just get a far less expensive minivan.
"It's interesting that people want to tell me how to move my family around," he said. His plan now: "My wife can get whatever car she wants. And I will pay for it." He pointed out that his wife drove a Navigator before he was mayor.
On Tuesday, a local TV news crew followed his wife as she visited a Chevrolet dealership. The mayor said he doesn't want his family to be harassed, and "to remove them from the city conversation," he plans to buy them a car this week. (Detroit city government has no policy regarding autos for a mayor's family; as a courtesy, Mr. Kilpatrick's family has been driven by police in city cars.)
Well before the Navigator issue came up, Mr. Kilpatrick has faced embarrassing, highly publicized allegations about lurid partying. He's been sued by six former Detroit police officers in complaints ranging from wrongful dismissal to slander. Among other things, the complaints or related depositions contend that the mayor had bodyguards accompany him on unseemly after-hours escapades, or that the mayor tried to suppress allegations that he was involved in extramarital activities. The various suits are all pending, and Mr. Kilpatrick denies all charges. "We have elected officials around here who are sloppy drunk," he said in yesterday's interview. "I don't drink, smoke or cheat on my wife."
Known as "the hip-hop mayor," Mr. Kilpatrick says he's a victim of racial stereotyping because people assume a young black male who is a snappy dresser can't be a faithful family man. But many in town argue that he's merely a victim of his own immaturity and bad judgment.
In a city that is 83% African-American, Mr. Kilpatrick milks his image as "a young black guy with an earring," says city-council member Sharon McPhail, who is also African-American and plans to run against him in the nonpartisan mayoral election later this year. She has long railed against the mayor.
"The guy is a thug," she says, calling the Navigator debacle an example of the mayor's "arrogance." If elected, she says, she won't let the city pay for a family car.
The mayor has lost the support of many on Detroit's police force. When one of his allies charged last week that police were conspiring against the mayor, Detroit Police Officers Association President Marty Bandemer sent Mr. Kilpatrick a letter saying: "Respectfully, sir, you are quite capable of ruination without our help."
"Navigate" resonates with citizens in various ways. Ron Walker, 35, says he has called the city 45 times in recent months to get a streetlight fixed on his block. "The money spent on that SUV could have bought a streetlight, and books and computers for our neighborhood library," says Mr. Walker.
The Navigator was leased at Bob Maxey's Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Detroit. Mr. Maxey says a police representative came to his showroom in December, explaining that he had a budget of $24,995 for leasing a car. Local newspaper editorials and City Hall regulars charge that the amount was chosen because any expense over $25,000 requires city-council approval. The mayor denies that. He says the dealership came up with the price and that the city got a two-year lease. (Though Mr. Maxey says he will not take back the car -- "once it's titled, it's titled" -- other dealers say the deal could be "unwound" if Mr. Maxey were willing to endure the paperwork.)
The Detroit Free Press this week held a competition asking readers to recommend better car deals for the mayor. One said he ought to drive a snowplow, so he could hit city streets that were ignored after recent storms. Many suggested he and his family take the bus.
For now, the notorious Navigator sits in an undisclosed location. Because the city doesn't actually own it, it can't be auctioned on eBay. "I wish we could," says the mayor. "It's so famous. I think people in the city would love an opportunity to ride in it or buy it."
The city's police chief had hoped the car could be used for undercover work. But since the whole town is on the lookout for it, police say that possibility has been "compromised."
"Just another socialist laboratory in trouble - oh well, please past me the sports section."
Inter city; big mid-eastern, eastern city, what's your best guess? A dem of course.
Yes, he's a liberal-demokkkRAT-progressive-socialist-commie-nazi-fascist, left-wing wacko.
Well then lease your own damned car with your own damned money.
Does it have spinners?
Is this guy related to DC's ex-Mayor Marion Barry?
Say what you want about the "Original Slick Willie," but he was a character and it sounds like this guy in Detroit is as well.
This is typical. Do AS I SAY, not as I do. I live in a very small town of 4300 people and the head of the water department drives around in a Ford Excursion. Right after he got the truck they raised our rates. Why could he not drive around in an Explorer or a smaller truck???
Roger that. You can figure that 99.99999% of the time, mayors in large or medium large cities are democrats. Most folks with any change in their bank accounts are not going to be living in a stinking city run by democrats. Only the homeless voters, felon voters, illegal voters, live in the intercity. Oh, and of course, all those poor. You know, those high school drop outs with 15 kids, a drug addiction or an alcohol problem, with no education, no job training, no skills whatsoever, that are poor, and need our 100% support to take care of them since they have absolutely no idea how to prepare themselves for life in the real world. They live in the Intercity Democratic Plantation.
Why, that’s outrageous! These people should be able to ride for free and not have to wait more than 5 minutes in a heated, enclosed bus-stop.
Outrageous I say!
If he comes through with this promise, he can drive a Porsche for all I care.
Any pictures of the Mayor in his vehicle?
"It's interesting that people want to tell me how to move my family around," he said. His plan now: "My wife can get whatever car she wants. And I will pay for it.
Um, that was the problem you moron. You weren't paying for the first one, which is why folks think they're entitled to tell you what you can drive. BECAUSE THEY'RE PAYING FOR IT!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.