Mayoral Mug Shot: The New Face of Detroit

North Star Writers Group ^ | March 31, 2008 | Eric Baerren

[Invisigoth]

For Detroit, news last week that its mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, had been indicted on numerous charges – including the felonies of perjury and obstruction of justice – were the kind of kick to the chest that the city could have done without.

Kilpatrick came to office as the face of youth and energy, a former legislator called the “hip-hop mayor.” It was hoped that he would reinvigorate the city, and restore confidence in her.

Housing, as it did everywhere else, boomed. The city sought out new business and new opportunities. Citizen confidence was restored, and an improbable sense of civic pride was on display during a storybook Super Bowl XL when native son Jerome Bettis returned home with the Pittsburgh Steelers and retired with a championship ring.

[strange1]

,i>I’ve never been to Detroit. But my friend who has been there several times says it looks like East Berlin before the wall came down. It’s a basket case.

pretty much sums up the view from my office. I've mentioned before they filmed a post-apocolypse movie just around the corner form my office. Didn't have to use special effects.

[strange1]

...I think the "Motor City Madman" would be much better.

Met the "Nuge" once, hell-uv-a nice guy, He'd be so much better than KK

[strange1]

Actually, it looks like downtown Benton Harbor... (Michigan folks will understand.)

Sure do,....lots of the same stuff

[toddlintown]

Back in late ‘50s, early ‘60s, we used to stop by Benton Harbor, via the Red Arrow Highway, on our way to Paw-Paw, Michigan. Just turn left drive over the bridge from St. Joe.

I have a summer place up in Michigan City, bought it in 1984. I took a nostalgic ride down the Red Arrow that same week, crossed the bridge at St. Joe for old times sake, and when we got to the over side, I stopped and pulled out the map.

OMG, it was Benton Harbor! All the stores were boarded up, and just like a Twilight Zone program, there were honest-to-God tumbleweeds blowing down the main drag. To this day, it’s just as bad, and I don’t care how you spin it (discrimination, poor-housing, lack of education, etc...all the liberal excuses), when the town was white, it never even looked remotely like it does now. And to prove a point, cross the bridge again and go back to St. Joe.

It’s white and all right. Once upon time, so was Benton Harbor.

[Mac from Cleveland]

“....If you point to something like this with pride, your culture is already broken”.

B-I-N-G-O !

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Benton Harbor is the Michigan standard for “urban blight”; not Detroit.

By the way, the same rules apply...A Democratic stronghold for decades.

[Sooth2222]

I’ve never been to Detroit. But my friend who has been there several times says it looks like East Berlin before the wall came down. It’s a basket case.

My mother was born in Detroit and some 25 years ago she died. I needed an official copy of her birth certificate. I contacted Detroit's department of public records and have never dealt with such incompetent morons in my entire life. The city clerk actually said that the only person who could request the copy was my dead mother. Then it showed up in my mailbox the next day so it was in the mail at the time. 25 years ago Detroit was East Berlin without the public safety. I can't imagine what it is today.