Future of Motown

I want to believe in Detroit. I want to think its not too late. And there are all kinds of positive signs around, from improving crime figures to outside development, downtown rehabilitation of Campus Martius and work on the Detroit Riverwalk, repaving and landscaping of major streets, major events (on top of old standards like the Thanksgiving Day Parade, Freedom Festival, and International Auto Show, new entries like the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, and big one-time events like the All-Star game and Superbowl), and new businesses moving downtown, there really are some things to be positive about.

But all that doesn't change the fact that Detroit is in a real crisis, and the solution has to come sooner than later, if there even is a solution. Without radical action, and soon, the city will be bankrupt and under federal or state control. And that transfer of control will likely result in selling off most of the city's assets, leaving the Motor City a city in name only. The DIA, most city services, the water department, Hart Plaza, Belle Isle, and even many neighborhoods will be on the block. (Disclosure: This would probably benefit me, as my house is toward the border in a desirable area, and the neighborhood could very likely be annexed by Grosse Pointe Park, likely doubling my property values overnight.) And such a culling would undoubtedly leave the city leaner and stronger. But it would cause a lot of pain in the meantime and the City would lose some of the things that make it great, despite the fact that it doesn't have the strength to support them.

But this spring I had resigned myself on the inevitability of receivership. And as a result, there was only one mayoral candidate I could support: Kwame Kilpatrick. Because if a banruptcy and takeover is inevitable, there's no benefit to delaying it, and there's no other candidate (though his corruption, mismanagement, and incompetency) that could get the city to bankruptcy faster than Kwame Kilpatrick.

But, I want to believe that there is an easier and gentler way. I want to belive that we don't have to destroy the city to save it. And I think that even if I don't believe it, I have to support trying, because resigning yourself to lowest expectations leads to the path of descent, and a deflation of everything worth doing.

It is for this reason that I am endorsing Freman Hendrix as candidate for Mayor of Detroit. Its still beyond me why anyone would really want a job as difficult as Mayor of Detroit. But Hendrix, as deputy in Mayor Archer's Administration was there the last time the city seemed to be working toward sanity. And even with the famously contentious relationship with the council (resulting in Archer becoming so fed up that he didn't seek re-election, despite widespread popularity), Hendrix wants back in. He can have no illusions about how difficult it will be, having already experienced City Council's "Stuck in '66" psychotic braking of progress.

I have no idea whether he can actually pull it off. So far, I think he's saying a lot of the right things. He's talking about very major changes and an end to the business as usual climate. He's talking about severely trimming the behemoth that is the Detroit Public Schools administration. He's discussing getting more surburban support, and intelligent approaches to mass transit. Of course all of these things are much easier to say than to do, but at least its the right approach.

There are two huge challenges I see facing the city. 1) Avoiding bankruptcy and 2) rebuilding the neighborhoods. A lot of efforts have been made to bring in downtown development, and these should continue, but without fixing the two problems above, further development is meaningless.

1) Even with the additional money coming in from downtown business development, the budget is in crisis. A city that still ranks high in crime figures is talking about laying off 600 police officers (while a former officer of the year is being paid to chaffeur the City Clerk). The Aquarium on Belle Isle was closed due to lack of funding, although the yearly expense (~$500K) could have been covered by not repairing a police helicopter that the police department can't afford pilots for. Over $2M a year has been spent on providing cars for dozens of city employees (including those making over $140,000/yr.), but the Aquarium and its $500,000 was cut first before cutting this these perks (which just occured last week). The city government has functioned as a jobs program, and an incredibly corrupt patronge system for nearly 20 years. In this environment, the revenue from the Superbowl just goes to pay for more corruption and inefficiency.

2) The development only does so much if the neighborhoods aren't a place that people want to live. There are many very nice neighborhoods in Detroit. Most people refuse to believe me about this until I actually take them for a drive and show them in person. But they are still a rarity, and there is a lot of work to do. And until the neighborhoods can be rebuilt (and in parallel the school system fixed), Detroit will remain a commuter city, which people may visit for a sporting event or a trip to the casino or a conference, but where few will actually want to live.

There are many challenges remaining, and I can't say that I really do believe the city can be saved without destroying it first. But I feel I owe it to the city and Freman Hendrix to get a chance to do their best.

Notes:

A note on the other candidates.

Sharon McPhail is a councilwoman, and as such is completely insane. The majority of her campaign right now is "Hey, forget about all those stupid and insane things I did when I was on the council. When I'm mayor I won't be crazy anymore." To be honest, this might be a reasonable defense, as so far almost everyone who has served on the Detroit City Council has acted like a complete lunatic. So maybe its the council making people crazy and not just crazy people serving on the council. Either way, I don't consider it a good reason to vote for her.

And what can I really say about Kwame? He has done some positive things for the neighborhoods, which I considered his most important mandate. But he's also been incredibly corrupt, even for a Detroit mayor. I could even forgive this, if he had been efficient, like the Daleys in Chicago or many an old-school pol in Boston. But there is no excuse for being corrupt *and* incompetent. And Kwame has both spent money lavishly and done very little to avert the budget crisis or business-as-usual climate. And worse, he has a sort of entitlement attitude, like people don't have a right to question his crookedness. The media is out to get him, he says, even though it wasn't Steve Wilson buying $7,000 dinners on the city's dime. Sex scandals, money scandals, bribery scandals, patronage scandals, but its the media? Right. Good Riddance to bad rubbish.

Hansen Clarke I like quite a bit, actually. He's energetic, intelligent, has a great story, and has the appropriate degree of moral outrage at what's been done to this city, that the other candidates lack. But I'm not so much a starry-eyed idealist that I think that's enough. Where Hendrix beats him over and over is political connections. Who's better able to reach out to suburban business interests than a man who golfs with them weekly, who is partnered with people like McNamara, and who has 20 years of history in the state political machine. I do hope Clarke keeps running. He's brilliant and motivated and an outstanding public servant. This just isn't his time.

I spoke of Steve Wilson above. I generally find him a bit of an egomaniac and many of his self-serving "gotcha" investigative reports are pretty foul. But then the issue is the story, not so much my distaste for the man, and he has done a lot to break many of the stories coming from the mayor, with an intensity that the subject required. So I'm glad "The Investigators" exist, even if most of the time they're just blowing smoke. Here's a recent report from Wilson (who probably has an excellent research staff at Channel 7 not listed here) that digs into just the latest.

Also, here's the Free Press's coverage of Hendrix. Linked from here are also reports they did on the other candidates, as well as links to the candidate's websites.

Also, here is a Q&A from the Metro Times with the candidates, as well as the MT endorsement. (They agree with me, mostly, but I didn't read it until after I finished mine.)