FLIPSIDE - Mayor of my City

In a city where the lights seem to be dimming slowly and shells of what used to be homes creep the vacant lots at night, we have three men who fight urgently to take over the reigns to the out of control beast we call Detroit. Three candidates, yet hardly either one of them hardly prove to me to be capable of pulling our steadily sinking city from its own simmering quicksand.

On the one hand you have Ken Cockrel Jr. He is advertising himself as an honest politician with nothing but the best intentions for our struggling city and promises it will not be anymore "Pay to Play" politics going on in the city. Sounds great, but as city council president, he sat through an administration that he claims ran the city wrong. If others were taking bribes and mishandling city money, he as president should have been aware and put a stop to some things. Or was he aware and took no action? Whatever the case, he waits until its election time and the entire Kilpatrick debacle to separate himself from the people who may have dirtied themselves with the the muck of he city and its downtrodden ways of governing and proposes a "change" for the city. How can we expect change from the president of a council who has been involved with the same politics that he now deems inadequate?

On the other hand you have Freman Hendrix, the former deputy mayor under Dennis Archer. Hendrix also claims to be bringing change to the office. He touts the records of Archer's administration and how he is great at balancing budgets. Balancing budgets is a hefty coat to hang on today's diminishing coat rack of an economy. Will Hendrix's balancing expertise work in an economically dreadful administration with more homes being foreclosed than seniors graduating from high school?

Finally, throwing himself into the middle of the mix is Dave Bing. of course, Bing is a great businessman, however business is not the only thing that our city needs to get it's one leg out of the grave and stop the other from slipping on a banana peel. With the down turn of the automotive industry, this city, this region, has to find an alternative direction to focus its workforce or Detroit - like many Midwestern cities - will finally become an afterthought in the minds of the rest of the world.

To turn this city around, two things are mandatory. The first thing is the production of new jobs unrelated to the automotive industry and the second is the resurrection of quality public schooling. One can't exist without the other if a new Detroit is to become the end result. If jobs are created people will travel to Detroit to work. If jobs are created and the school system is productive people will not only come to Detroit to work, but they will feel confident in raising there family here as well. Catch ya' on the FLIPSIDE.