Posted on 05/14/2013 11:26:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, the 69-year-old former NBA star and Hall of Famer, says he will not seek another term in office. Instead, he will explore a bid for Wayne County executive.
His decision not to seek re-election is not a huge surprise, given that the struggling city is currently being run by a state-appointed emergency financial manager who is considering a municipal bankruptcy. The announcement leaves former Detroit Medical Center chief Mike Duggan and Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon as the two frontrunners for the four-year term. Five other candidates are in the running. The top two vote-getters on Aug. 5 advance to the Nov. 6 general election.
Bing was elected mayor in May 2009 to complete the remaining months of disgraced ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s second term. Voters re-elected him to a full term that November. Bing had bold ideas for fixing the city, but proved to be ineffective as mayor, often clashing with city unions and the City Council.
Bing was featured in a Forbes cover story, “City of Hope”, in June 2011, and talked candidly about the city’s troubles. “Right now it’s all about survival,” he said at the time. “I believe this city has a future—otherwise I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, because it’s a thankless job.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Lots of lovely stuff there, mostly in ruins, though.
Have they changed the laws that drove business out? What are they doing to encourage industry? How much of the population actually wants jobs?
I been to Detroit several times and stopped going about 7 years ago as the city became a place of chaos, the damage is already done as whole neighborhoods have been bulldozed, property values have collapsed and the remaining residents are fighting over what little resources are left. The city is corpse of its former self and Bing was give a impossible task(s) by the voters.
They're still shoveling the dirt on Philadelphia..It's just a matter of time before it's buried
As a side note, you ever hear of the company called The Budd Company? What ever happened to their plants in Philadelphia and Red Lion? Last I heard the Red Lion plant property was converted to a golf course and the Philadelphia plant was just plain shut down back around 2002.........
And what's the Philadelphia unemployment rate again?
Oh really? How about giving us Michiganders your itinerary on where you arrived in Michigan and where you traveled to? More importantly, what was your purpose in flying here?
Excuse me for sounding sceptical but your alleged accounts of Detroit appear to be taken straight from the statements of the Detroit haters on this site who have never visited Detroit, let alone Michigan........
I guess what I'm trying to say is, PROVE IT!
I visited Detroit as a boy at its height in 1950 for the Hudson’s store Thanksgiving day parade. Enjoyed hot Vernor’s Ginger Ale from the Vernor’s store on the parade route. It was a nice city with a big-city feel, its population then at 1.8 million. It’s shrunken to a blighted shell of its former self with less than half (700,000) of its previous population.
Been to Wayne County and Downtown Detroit(as well as Windsor) several times in the past and I love the state of Michigan(first girl I ever liked moved there when I was 8). I at one time wanted to buy a second home in Detroit back in the 1990’s, I am more pissed to see what Detroit was once and how 60 years of Democrat rule turned it into. You can’t save what has been on life support for more that 6 decades with one party rule of corrupt politicians and union thugs.
“Conservatives” sneered at us when we said we could regain control of the state, they sneered at us again when we said we would make Michigan a right to work state, and now we’re just going to prove them wrong one more time.
But look at Jersey City. It went close to 9 decades with Democrat rule and was rapidly deteriorating when they elected a Republican Mayor (Bret Schundler) and he turned it around and the population grew on his watch. It is possible to tun around decayed cities with the right leadership. Detroit is badly decayed, but by investing efforts in the parts that can be revitalized (such as the central downtown, as was cited) and letting go of what can't, it can be turned around over time. It won't be that city of 2 million that existed until the early '60s, but we might be able to get it to be a leaner and fit and productive city of around a half-million over the next 20 years. I think it's shortsighted to begrudge our friends in Michigan attempting to try to do just that.
Well, you fellas have my support in Tennessee. Can’t wait to see what you can do with a successful and revitalized Detroit for the 21st century.
The unions are falling apart from within so things will get better based on that fact alone.
I love when unions fall apart.
Just the other day the court of appeals ruled that taxpayers don’t have to pay for union dues collection for school unions. The unions will have to go from member to member to collect.
‘tis heartbreaking. At this rate, they won’t be able to afford goons to go out to collect.
Philly is no place I go or would...as mentioned in another post..I ‘had’ to go there for meetings and couldn’t wait to leave. I have no interest in Philly...they could let it slide into the ocean and it wouldn’t affect me at all.
And BTW...I’m not bragging about any city... but everyone knows Detroit is done...short of another bailout they’ll go under and it will take years before they even get the condemned buildings torn down. They have no money even for that!
And if your’re going to compare the city closest to me then you’d be looking at Pittsburgh. Sheesh!
Do you see any life there in the heart of the city????
Downtown Detroit...March 23, 2013...Sat. noon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lelCnpC12Qo
...”The same houses reported to the city as such but the city did nothing”....
The city can’t afford fire departments or police...let alone have funding for delapitaed housing.
There’s a reason people keep moving out...crime, major drug issues...and a mentality that says your house is our house. ...you leve we’ll squat there.
The fact those people knew long ago the city was falling apart....before they became elderly....this has been going on in Detroit for decades, why didn’t they leave and sell their house sooner?.... Did they think someone was going to “rescue them”. Of course they did...it’s been a Democratic City for decades and they’re used to having handouts...well that’s gone now...there’s nothing left.
The people were given time to make other arrangements.....and rather than take care of business they spent valuable time fighting the city.
No doubt he's learned to pick up a turd by the clean end, and he's the first honest democrat mayor of a large city in the last 40 years. In fact he must be a regular saint the way the droolers here rush to attack anyone who suspects that you can't roll in the feedlot and get up without crap on your clothes. Funny how it's always the same cast of nimrods here who are willing to libel their fellow freepers
Maybe it's a touch of racism toobut run to defend a democrat. One can't help wonder what their DU handles are. Oh and BTW I'm not your "bro"
It's easy for people to pound on Detroit and be dismissive of what it has going for it. I really can't stand when someone has a go at Bing without knowing a damn thing about the man.
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