Three Cheers for Kwame
More good news for Detroiters: Detroit’s Kilpatrick makes Time’s worst-mayor list (Detroit Free Press)
Time Magazine has taken notice of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick—and it’s not for its Person of the Year award.
Kilpatrick was named one of the nation’s worst big-city mayors in the newsweekly’s survey of 29 municipal executives. The magazine, which hits newsstands today, said it consulted with urban experts, at least one of whom zinged the mayor for spending $24,995 of city money to lease his family a Lincoln Navigator that was as red as the ink on the city’s balance sheet.
Time quoted Governing Magazine Executive Editor Alan Ehrenhalt as saying Kilpatrick had “a tin ear for symbolism.”
I saw Kwame’s face on our local news a few nights ago and got excited. I wondered what could spread the hip-hop mayor’s visage into too-white Portland television screens. Then I heard the news.
Yeesh.
Is it my mistaken impression that while Mayor Archer was in the cockpit, things seemed to be getting much better for Detroit? Or was it because it was the “Clinton Years” when everyone’s lives just seemed more prosperous and that life was getting better in Detroit? Maybe a little of both? Perhaps none?
Yeah, hizzoner is really making a name for himself. Sadly, my recollection of the Archer years is completely lost. I recall having a love-hate attitude towards his policies (but, doesn’t this happen with every politician?). I’m somewhat excited about Freman Hendrix’s candidacy for mayor. He served as Deputy Mayor for Archer, and appears to have a genuine concern for transforming Detroit. In fact, he’s the first candidate (at least that I can recall) to assemble urban planners, architects, preservationists, and other citizens to discuss new strategies for the built environment. K-dawg looks like he’s going to have quite a fight…