I am very pleased that Dave Bing has received another term as mayor of Detroit so he can continue to drag the city out of its financial hole. Voter turnout was low and I feared city unions would garner enough voters to vote Bing out but it appears that many votes were by absentee ballot and those votes were mostly from older Detroiters who were not swayed by union demands and voted for the man they felt could finally make a difference in city government.
As far as the city council is concerned I mentioned before that I liked the fact that many candidates were young, smart and eager to bring change to the city but then I was dismayed that many of those candidates had personal financial problems like foreclosures and many were delinquent in paying their taxes. I reasoned that if they could not manage their own money, how would they find the know-how to manage the finances of a large city?
A member of the old city council who got caught under-paying her property taxes laughed at it and said - did you want me to call the city and tell them that I am way under-paying my taxes? This from a council member that castigated businesses and individuals for not paying their fair share of taxes – shall we call her a hypocrite?
I have shared my musings about a Detroit black political and probably social culture in many previous blogs. I was seeing how “sticking it to the man” (government) was actually applauded with our former mayor Kilpatrick being the biggest practitioner of that culture even though HE WAS THE MAN. So we may say he was sticking it to the taxpayers who kept re-electing him even though they knew he was sticking it to them.
In the nearby city of Ecorse, black mayor Herbert was re-elected even though he was arrested by the FBI for conspiracy, bribery and fraud together with his comptroller Hollonquest.
Barbara Braceful a deputy corporation counsel of Detroit under then Mayor Kilpatrick owes $198,000 in delinquent state, federal and property taxes. She continues to work for the City of Detroit under a different title and job.
I realize that many, many white people and people of different races are delinquent in paying taxes and are out and out crooks all you have to do is look at New Jersey, the center of white corruption and there are many mostly black cities like Atlanta that scoff at Detroit and its residents. I am merely trying to get a handle on why Detroit is Detroit and why it keeps digging a deeper and deeper hole for itself.
The first thing the new president of the Detroit City Council did was to go to payroll and get an affidavit from them that he will be making a salary. He will take that information to his bank just in time to stop foreclosure on his condo in the city. A man that desperate for money has to make a perfect target for bribery – do you think?
On the other hand our totally corrupt and incompetent Detroit Public School Board saw its members re-elected even though the newspapers have documented what a bunch of crooks they are and how they steal from the children they are elected to serve.
The same voters approved another $500 million bond sale for the school system after these same board members basically squandered the previous bond fund’s millions on themselves and their friends. How can voters knowingly vote this way? Don’t they care about their children’s future or are they getting a kick-back?
It’s hard to figure out Detroiters and what is on their minds and why they vote like they do but I do see a ray of hope. One smart thing they voted for was to change how the members of the city council are elected. So far, they are elected as “at large” candidates which meant they all can live in the same apartment building. The new way would be by wards or districts which would force candidates to actually represent a specific area of the city. This will bring in Latinos, Muslims and others that form blocks in the city.
I don’t think it’s the race of the individual that will matter but the fact that the candidate will have responsibility for a very specific area and a very specific group of people as well as the city of Detroit as a whole.
Overall, I am hopefully optimistic for the city especially with Dave Bing as mayor. Lets see what happens next as he kicks union butt…
No comments:
Post a Comment