The breaking news from Detroit City is that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will resign from office later this month as part of a plea bargain after admitting he lied under oath. The Detroit Free Press has a good collection of articles and videos that cover this sordid tale (which has many, many chapters) while Salon.com just posted a piece that relates this news to some deeper themes in Detroit and Michigan politics (it’s the place where the term “Reagan Democrat” was born), as well as what it means for the Obama campaign:
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice on Thursday morning. Kilpatrick will forfeit his office and serve 120 days in jail, ending a scandal that began when the Detroit Free Press published raunchy text messages between Kilpatrick and his ex-chief of staff. Messages proving that, in spite of Kilpatrick’s testimony during a civil lawsuit, the pair had, in fact, been knocking boots.
As much as Detroiters are relieved to be rid of their lubricious, dissembling mayor, Barack Obama has to be even more relieved.
Last year, before addressing the Detroit Economic Club, Obama praised Kilpatrick as “a great mayor.” This year, he told the mayor to stay away from the Democratic National Convention. On Wednesday, as Kilpatrick apparently balked at accepting a plea deal, Obama issued a public statement asking him to resign. The longer Kilpatrick stayed in office, the more the Detroit-phobic white voters of Michigan were liable to ask, “If a black Democrat can’t run the city, how can one run the country?”
What do we think of this up here in Toronto? Perhaps first a sense of relief that this once great city, with so many other problems, can now look forward to new leadership soon. Detroit is the kind of place that puts things into perspective. I remember hearing a former mayor of Windsor talk about meeting with Detroit’s late mayor Coleman A Young in the 1980s and being shocked at firepower of his security detail who all kept loaded Uzi’s under their coats. Young also famously installed bullet proof windows at the official mayor’s residence, The Manoogian Mansion, the same place one of Kilpatrick’s sordid chapters unfolded one night in the form of a wild party with exotic dancers (one who eventually was murdered). Kilpatrick and his entourage sailed through his broken city in a fleet of black tinted Cadillac Escalades, and quickly evaporated the excitement generated when he was first elected in 2002 as a young and energetic 31 year old political force with such promise. Known as “the hip hop mayor,” he was reelected in 2005 even as many accusations of corruption were already public.
In Detroit nobody talks about bike lanes or cars parking in parks or tearing down freeways or the effects of gentrification or the look of a particular new condo tower. In fact, most of what we post about on this blog is so far down the hierarchy of concerns in Detroit that I feel a pang of guilt when I look back on what we discuss here. Even though many of us disagree politically on various issues, I think there is a general sense from all sides that most of the characters involved in Toronto’s civic life are generally inherently decent folks, and a regime like Kilpatrick’s is so foreign a concept that it’s nearly impossible to relate.
That guilt changes quickly to a feeling of being grateful to live in Toronto, where we get to care (and celebrate and discuss and argue) the details of city life.
Top photo by CAVE CANEM, lower photo by ffg.
12 comments
It’s A sad day For DETROIT, But it’s all so a good day it’s all over. Let’s move on and find someone to do a better job. Love & Peace my people.
Big thumbs up to (Democrat) Governor Granholm for basically making him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
All you need to know about the decline of Detroit can be summarized with this one fact:
The snow removal budget for Detroit is smaller than it is for Windsor.
Detroit was once one of the most prosperous cities in the world. Now, much of Detroit is in a state of free-standing ruin where you keep your car doors locked. There are a lot of lessons there for a city like Toronto that is trying to be a vibrant multicultural city.
The late great Splinter magazine (edited by Barry Isenor and Kenn Hayes and published out of Toronto for a few years in the early 1990s) had a feature issue on Detroit once. One of the articles called for the artists of Canada to claim Detroit (calling it “the largest American city north of Canada”) (look on a map) and rebuild it the way they’ve traditionally claimed and rebuilt other abandoned places–think Yorkville or Parkdale.
allderblob> I’ve often thought that all the New York artists should leave that terrible city and move to detroit and populate the abandoned 1920s skyscrapers, and be able to make art because they won’t just have to spend all their money on survival. Then I read the Salon article I linked to above that reminds me of the complicated racial politics in Detroit and Michigan, and I start to wonder how that imaginary influx would be received. Maybe wonderfully, maybe not. Not many people live downtown, but some are returning, and momentum is building:
https://spacing.ca/toronto/2005/12/30/dear-detroit/
At any rate, what is this Splinter magazine? Where are the archives that we can page through? Is there a collection somewhere?
yall should of just left him alone.If yall was not all in his buisness all this would not of happen. He should of beat the crap out of every last one of yall who was in his stuff… And as for this new Mayor this man aint gone do nothin for our city…We better off wit our one..all together
“The Big 3 Killed My City”
Anybody who defends this man is one of two things: either of very low character or very low intelligence. In “Brittnee’s case it’s apparently the latter. She obviously never came close to attending any kind a Civics course, which make clear that the “business” of any elected official is the business of his/her constituents. I would love to hear Brittnee explain how it is not our business that, among other things, the mayor misspent millions of our money, committed several felonies, and attempted to ruin the lives of two of our police officers. C’mon Brittnee, judging by the high level of intellect that your last post reveals, I can’t wait for your response!
To shawn –
The crime rate in New York City is WAY lower than Detroit. While the population of Detroit has declined, the population of New York city continues to increase; we are nearly 8.5 million strong now. New York City’s population is projected to reach 10 million by 2012. Your Detroit artists must spend all their $ on security and the market for their art declines with each drop in the population. It’s unfortunate but Detroit has been a crime-infested hell hole for years now. Putting all your eggs in one basket (the automotive industry) is always a mistake. Although NYC has taken a hit in the financial sector lately, we are big enough and diverse enough to weather the storm.
The most money any Detroit artist I know or knew spent on security was to buy The Club for their car.
Archives of the Splinter ought to be around–surely the editors, Ken Hayes and Barry Isenor are big readers of Spacing Wire? Guys? Anyway, Ken was teaching architecture at UToronto and Carlton recently, and Barry’s around–last I heard he was practicing architecture in Toronto. Check with Adrian Blackwell at UToronto etc… Splinter was a great zine–Xerocracy at its highest level.