From HuffingtonPost.com:
Dave Bing, NBA Great, Elected Detroit's Mayor
DETROIT — Basketball legend Dave Bing was elected Tuesday as Detroit's mayor through the end of the year, sweeping the incumbent from office in the city with myriad problems.
"The real work starts now," Bing said to loud cheers during his victory speech.
"What we will bring ... is efficiency, transparency, honesty and integrity back to the mayor's office," he said.
With all but two of 629 precincts reporting, Bing had 52.3 percent of the vote, or 48,951 votes, to 47.7 percent, or 44,703 votes, for Ken Cockrel Jr. Both are Democrats.
Bing, 65, will be mayor through 2009, serving the balance of the term that belonged to Democrat Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned in September and went to jail after admitting he lied during a civil trial to cover up an affair with his chief of staff.
Bing must run again in the regular Aug. 4 nonpartisan primary and win the Nov. 3 general election to hold the mayor's seat for a full four years.
The founder of steel manufacturer The Bing Group announced his run for mayor the day after Kilpatrick stepped down as part of pleas to two criminal cases.
Cockrel, 43, was City Council president before Kilpatrick's departure automatically promoted him to the mayor's office. He'll go back to that job now.
May the city heal from the exploits of the Trifling, Hip-Hop Mayor.
Congratulations, Mr. Bing.
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2 comments:
I'm skeptical of Black leadership in Blue Collar urban cities like Detroit. They have failed too many times. While it was largely White flight that ran these cities into the ground....the Black political corruption and mismanagement that followed in the decades after made sure that these cities remained buried.
Perhaps Bing has what it takes... but if history is a guide, he will just be another Black figurehead who won't bring any fundamental change. It may be too late for places like Detroit anyway... When you have plant closures and your tax base is wiped out, there isn't much that can be done, at least not in the short term. These cities need a tax base to operate. Meanwhile the crime will continue to be out of control.... it's hard to attract new businesses and new residents when crime is rampant and you have abandoned buildings and vacant lots everywhere and property values in the toilet, and your schools are unattractive. Yet it's hard to fight crime when there is not enough of a tax base from new businesses... so it's an endless cycle that at some point begins to perpetually fuel itself. St. Louis is very similar.
White flight has been like an economic nuclear bomb for these cities.... Some cities have been able to recover (at least partially)... through gentrification & attracting new industries... while other cities have yet to recover. The large concentrated areas of the Black and poor that have been left behind have been disasters for these cities.
Sure, it's a tough job, but at least he's spent his time making actual business decisions in the real world, and wants to give back.
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