For those not aware, 4 years ago the City of Detroit emerged from bankruptcy and elected the first white mayor since Coleman Young Sr. The current mayor is being challenged by Coleman A Young Jr. It appears the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. See the information below, tomorrow we see how smart Detroit is... or isn't. Detroit has rebounded under Mayor Duggan, blight is being knocked down, business is moving back, new businesses are starting.

For reference, a snip from Coleman Young's Wikipedia page:
Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 1974 to 1994. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit. Although Young had emerged from the far left element in Detroit, he moved to the right after his election as mayor. He called an ideological truce and gained widespread support from the city's business leaders.

The new mayor was energetic in the construction of the Joe Louis Arena, and upgrading the city's mediocre mass transit system. Highly controversial was his assistance to General Motors to build its new "Poletown" plant at the site of the former Dodge Main plant, which involved evicting many long-time residents. It has been argued that he pulled money out of the neighborhood to rehabilitate the downtown business district, because "there were no other options."

Young's tenure as mayor has been blamed in part for the city's ills, especially the exodus of middle class taxpayers to the suburbs, the emergence of powerful drug-dealing gangs, and the rising crime rate. Political scientist James Q. Wilson wrote that, "In Detroit, Mayor Coleman Young rejected the integrationist goal in favor of a flamboyant, black-power style that won him loyal followers, but he left the city a fiscal and social wreck."

A news story with interesting video of both candidates at the polls:
https://www.clickondetroit.com...gan-general-election

Remember to get Pookie and Ray-Ray out to the polls and vote COLEMAN A YOUNG!

But... Coleman gave us the Mugger Mover

I remember when Detroit was a great place to live/work/play. . . oops, wrong thread.

Perhaps the City of Detroit is getting smarter, with 89% of the precincts reporting, Duggan has been declared the winner with 71% of the vote over Coleman Young II.

Only thing I can say is that if CAY Jr. had won the motto of his term as Mayor would have been "Moving Detroit Backwards".

During the debate Junior stated that "we need to take the motherland back", implying that black residents were going to lose their city if Mayor Duggan was re-elected. No horse in the race here, I'm fifty miles outside of the city.

Crime is still high, vacant and crumbling housing all over the city.Lack of good paying jobs, shopping, lousy schools, all contribute to poor quality of life for it's residents. Sure there is a lot of emphasis on the Downtown and Midtown and not much on the outlying areas, have to start somewhere when the city has been pillaged and plundered by the likes of Young Sr. and King Kwame over the last 44 years. And plundered they did. Mayors Dennis Archer, Ken Cockrel and Dave Bing all tried but could not accomplish what Mayor Duggan has in the short time he has been in office.

Jr. had "great" ideas such as Skytran,a two seater electromagnetic pods system funded by grants (a.k.a the People Mover, his daddy's dream that the whole state funded. I still remember that the tri-county area funded the study for the Mover by increased vehicle titling and registration fees for a number of years. Revitalize the schools that also declined during his father's mayoral terms. Fight crime, yep, that too increased during daddy's years. In short, Michigan and Federal Governments and taxpayers, empty your wallets at the city limits but don't come here to live, it's our motherland.

Sorry to sound so bitter but I get tired of listening to how it's all the fault of the suburbs, it's white flight, it's racism, it's gentrification pushing the poor out. It's easier to blame others than to accept blame for our (or their own) actions.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
Perhaps the City of Detroit is getting smarter, with 89% of the precincts reporting, Duggan has been declared the winner with 71% of the vote over Coleman Young II.

Hey yo, pimpin' ain't easy.