Tag: Cockrel

On the plus side, yesterday saw some decisive action from City Council President (and former Mayor) Ken Cockrel.  After Mrs. Conyers submitted her official resignation he went ahead and began sweeping away the last vestiges of the Democrat's crooked operation, firing Sunceria Garrett, the aunt whom she'd recently given a fat city contract and declining to renew the contracts of four other Conyers staffers.  The Detroit News:

Cockrel said his decision to terminate Garrett wasn't based on her relationship to Conyers, but hinged on cutting the budget.

"Frankly it was an unnecessary position," Cockrel said. "This was not a vacant position. It was filled."

Say what you will about Cockrel, the man has shown a willingness to make some tough personnel decisions (though I suspect these were relatively easy). Before leaving the Mayor's office Cockrel set in motion a budget savings plan that included hundreds of layoffs and reductions in pay for even more of the cities thousands of taxpayer funded bureaucrats.  

Detroit, you'll remember, is currently running a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars while recent gargantuan layoffs in the auto industry have further crippled the tax base (and city "income" projections) for the upcoming fiscal year.  

Alas, the monster financial storm engulfing the city doesn't seem to worry new mayor Dave Bing.  

Read on...

But on the other hand, the Wings got robbed last night.  Robbed.  

I know, as I sit in front of the television at 1AM when any of my teams are out west, that I'm going to regret it in the morning but when they actually win it's a great feeling.  A great, currently absent feeling.  A premature whistle?  Are you serious?  Oh well.  It isn't like these are the Stanley Cup Playoffs or anything.

Besides, good times are back in the D again in spite of NHL referees, after voters hit the polls and elected a brand spanking new mayor.  The Detroit News reports that Dave Bing will be the guy steering the Motor City into the future.  

"What we will bring ... is efficiency, transparency, honesty and integrity back to the mayor's office," (said Bing).

Cockrel, who led in the polls, lost to a first-time politician despite the backing of nearly every powerful union in the city and matching Bing in fundraising in a race that cost more than $2 million. He thanked his staff at a banquet hall in southwest Detroit, pledged his support to Bing and conceded at 11:30 p.m.

"You have not seen the last of me," Cockrel said.

He challenged Bing, who moved last fall from Franklin for the race, to get to know the city.

"Hang out with the brothers in front of the liquor store, drinking 40s out of paper bags. .. Get to know that. Get to understand and know the people you'll be representing."

Or, you know... don't.  I'd actually feel a heck of a lot better about the future of Michigan's biggest city if the Mayor weren't on the street drinking 40s out of paper bags.

Read on...

First and foremost, it is an election day.  If you're reading this, the polls are open and you haven't yet, stop everything you're doing and go vote.  There are tax hike proposals in seemingly every city, township and village in the State and far left extremists running for just about every school board seat available anywhere.  

No, seriously, go vote.  We'll wait...

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Back?  What took you so long?  If you're in Detroit we already know it wasn't long lines, so don't try that excuse.  The Detroit News reports this morning that a measly fifteen percent of the registered voters in the D are expected to cast a ballot today to elect the city's next mayor.  Suppose that's what happens when you get a race between a pair of Democrats who are much more alike than they'd have you believe.  Don't give the voters a choice then don't be surprised when they don't bother showing up to make one.  Not even the 200,000 phantoms on the books.  

Meanwhile, an hour and a half to the west, the Granholm-Cherry administration is set today to unveil their sweeping, shocking, devastating, budget-balancing spending cuts.  Except that they aren't sweeping, they certainly aren't shocking, the Dems' core constituency won't be devastated and they don't balance the budget.  

Other than that, though, the administration is pitching a perfect game.

Read on...

Then again, maybe in a city like Detroit that's all that's left of the people who genuinely care.  The Detroit News:

"It's sad," said City Clerk Janice Winfrey, who had predicted turnout of 10 percent to 15 percent. "Anytime an individual chooses not to express themselves ... chooses not to participate in the Democratic process, it's sad.

"I can't fathom not voting and I don't really understand folks who don't."

The mood among voters vacillated from hope about the future to worry about the present. Some said they hoped to move from the city as soon as possible.

I'm not going to seriously knock anyone in the D for staying home on Election day.  Look at their choices...  You've got Democrat A, Democrat B, Democrats C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N and O and that was just on the Mayoral ballot.  Not a single Republican anywhere to be found.  No choices.  No alternatives.

And the rumor, though I haven't been able to substantiate it, is that the other 85 percent of voters actually stayed home because they'd been assaulted by Democratic Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers in the past four months and didn't want to risk another political "adventure."  

Threats of physical violence may or may not be what got to four of her fellow Council members who yesterday joined her in voting down a nearly $300 million expansion of Cobo Hall, citing worries that too many people from outside the City (crystal clear and unambiguous code for "white," by the way) would have too much of a say in the event-center's future.  Never mind that the bulk of the cash would be coming from those regional folks... can't let equity, equality and common sense get in the way of racial politics.

The Ivory Tower reports:

The legislation, passed by the state Legislature in December and signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm  in January, would have transferred ownership of Cobo Center to a five-member regional authority with representatives from Detroit, the state and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. Each board member has veto power, requiring decisions about Cobo to be reached by unanimous vote.

The stakes, by the way... nothing less than the North American International Auto Show.  Dealers have been pulling out of the show for years, citing space and maintenance concerns around crumbling Cobo Hall, and if you've been there you know it's a pit.  The cash and expansion would have gone a heck of a long way towards solving those problems.

Alas, racism is alive and well in Detroit.  Said Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins:

Detroit should get the stimulus money directly (from the Obama administration), "bypassing the racist extortions of the state of Michigan."

Yep.  I totally see where she's coming from.  The State of Michigan, cash-strapped as it is, managed in a bipartisan fashion to dig up nearly $300 million to give to the City of Detroit to repair a building the City of Detroit has let crumble into utter disrepair for the last twenty years, saving, preserving and enhancing the ability of the City to host large-scale, money making events now and well into the future.  

Racist bastards.