Posted on 05/14/2013 11:26:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, the 69-year-old former NBA star and Hall of Famer, says he will not seek another term in office. Instead, he will explore a bid for Wayne County executive.
His decision not to seek re-election is not a huge surprise, given that the struggling city is currently being run by a state-appointed emergency financial manager who is considering a municipal bankruptcy. The announcement leaves former Detroit Medical Center chief Mike Duggan and Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon as the two frontrunners for the four-year term. Five other candidates are in the running. The top two vote-getters on Aug. 5 advance to the Nov. 6 general election.
Bing was elected mayor in May 2009 to complete the remaining months of disgraced ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s second term. Voters re-elected him to a full term that November. Bing had bold ideas for fixing the city, but proved to be ineffective as mayor, often clashing with city unions and the City Council.
Bing was featured in a Forbes cover story, “City of Hope”, in June 2011, and talked candidly about the city’s troubles. “Right now it’s all about survival,” he said at the time. “I believe this city has a future—otherwise I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, because it’s a thankless job.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Knowing about, yes. You'd have to be a complete moron to live in the mitten and not be aware of Detroit's "peculiarities." But there have been no allegations of any kind of wrongdoing on Bing's part during his tenure as Mayor of a failing city. He has done the best that he could in a disastrous situation, better than most would have done. His departure is another blow to Detroit.
I've given up trying.
Sorry bro but Dave Bing does not deserve such an ignorant comment from you or anyone else. He is a man of integrity and honesty and made his fortune thru hard work, he doesn't have to "loot" from anyone. He may be a Democrat but he deserves respect for all he's accomplished on his own, for all he's given back to the community and he definitely gets it from me.
"Aged 22 with an NBA contract worth $15,000, Bing was rebuffed by the National Bank of Detroit on getting a mortgage to finance a home. This led Bing to work at the bank during the offseason, holding jobs in the teller, customer relations and mortgage departments.
Immediately after retiring, he worked at a warehouse of the steel processing company Paragon Steel and was paid $35,000. He left after two years, after stints in the company's shipping and sales operations.
In 1980, Bing opened Bing Steel with four employees in a rented warehouse from $250,000 in loans and $80,000 of his own money. Losing all his money in six months, the company shied away from manufacturing to focus on being a middleman.
With General Motors as their first major client, the company turned a profit in its second year on revenues of $4.2 million. By 1984, Bing was awarded by President Ronald Reagan the National Minority Small Business Person Of The Year. By 1985, Bing Steel had expanded to two plants with 63 employees posting revenues of $40 million.
Bing Steel would transform itself to the Bing Group, a conglomerate with headquarters located in Detroit's North End. The company, among other things, supplies metal stampings to the automobile industry.
At the 1990 NBA All-Star Game, Bing received the Schick Achievement Award for his work after his NBA career."
Ignorance and the unwillingness to look up Bing's biography.....Maybe it's a touch of racism too but I can't verify that.
Even more so if the Atrim Shale Formation is under the City and we could Frack it to death after they go Chapter 11 and clean up the processes and books...
I agree CC, I wish the folks here @ FR could see some of the old magnificent homes that could be restored still, man what a city it was, what a shame as to what happened, but what a Phoenix ready to rise from the Ashes..
LOL !!!
Hell I don’t even like cities but I’m smart enough to know that its a whole lot cheaper to fix them than let them fall to decay. In the case of Detroit, its the second busiest landlocked port city on the continent after Laredo (and laredo doesn’t lead by much)
If you combine the land borne freight with the water borne freight, Detroit probably surpasses Laredo by a mile.
You might want to check a map before you acknowledge making that statement........
As a side note, you also might want to examine Dave Bing's personal history should you ever decide to criticize him.....
My fireman gnome in Detwaa tells of him coming to the firehouse to talk to the troops knowing what was broke and what needed to be done and some talk of getting rid of the toad they have for a commander. He ran out of time, money and that health scare he had didn't help. My fireman friend has a BS detector and Bing passed, he is the real deal, nice guy to boot.
If I could wave a magic wand and suplant Obozo with Bing I'd do it in a heartbeat....
“At least he isn’t prison bound.”
High praise indeed for a Detroit politician.
Another ignorant poster who is completely clueless on who Dave Bing is and what he has accomplished on his own.....
Kid Rock, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent and even Eminem are stepping up to help Detroit in a free market fashion.
Sorry Detroit died years ago and I know about Bing as he had a impossible task of clean up 60 years of mismanagement and waste, the unions and corrupt Democrats sucked the life out of the city just as they are doing in Philly, Baltimore East St. Louis, the list goes on and on. So I go it wrong on which Lake is closest to the city, does not change my point, you can’t breath life back into a corpse, which Detroit is and has become over the years!
Did anyone tell Duggan and Napolean there is no more money to steal?
>>>>you can’t breath life back into a corpse, which Detroit is and has become over the years!<<<<<
Exactly...and you bury it.
That's not true. The people having "kissy fits" are the lifetime residents of the neighborhoods that deterioriated around them and which they had nothing to do with.
Elderly people who grew up in their neighborhoods, worked until retirement and took care of their own. People trying to survive in their homes who are law abiding but don't have the finances to sell their now worthless home and move out.
The very same people who were likely responsible for setting fire to the abandoned houses in their neighborhoods that were taken over by druggies and prostitutes. The same houses reported to the city as such but the city did nothing.......
Their houses aren't condemned.......
Where have I heard that screech before?
Just curious CAWW, how is the unemployment and crime rate in your own state city of Philadelphia? Latest report shows that Philadelphia had 329 people murdered in 2012 and the February 2013 unemployment rate was at 10.5%.......
Is that a statistic you wish to brag about?
Remember when they said Michigan would never ever be a right to work state?
Michigan conservatives are a lot tougher than we’re given credit for.
I'm sorry but you're wrong. The rejuvination is starting within the downtown city itself, and clearly evidenced if you were ever down there.
Translation: I can’t find anything left to loot.
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