Optimism in Detroit?

Posted By Josh Goodman | December 22, 2009

In the holiday season, it would be cruel to deny any place of its hopes for a better future. So, it's appropriate that even long-suffering Detroit has cause for optimism. The New York Times looks at the city's new Council members:

Now, as the five winners prepare to take office in a few weeks, expectations are growing that this beleaguered city will see its first significant shift in governance in many years.

The sense of optimism in some corners is based in part on the new members' relationship with Mayor Dave Bing, a no-nonsense businessman and former basketball star who won a full term as mayor last month. The five Council winners -- among them, a former television news anchor, a pastor and a former deputy police chief -- emphasized the need in their campaigns to work cooperatively with one another and with Mr. Bing, who in his short tenure in office has taken a tough-love approach to the city's many problems.

...

"In the city of Detroit, no one is wildly optimistic about the future at this time, but there is a sense that the politics that will take place will not be the politics that had been taking place prior to this election," said Lawrence A. Dubin, a law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy Law School. "They have expressed a sincere desire to put the city's interests first, which will be refreshing."

I was going to declare a Christmas miracle until I got to the part about "a local unemployment rate widely considered underestimated at 27 percent."

Josh Goodman

Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..

E-mail: mailbox@governing.com
Twitter: @governing

Comments