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Glen

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Whenever I read stories like this about Detroit, I sort of feel like they deserve what they get. On one hand it's a shame that what was once a decent City has imploded on its self, on the other hand I can't really find a more idiotic confluence of race politics, corruption, and over regulation anywhere else on the continent. Hopefully real estate values will continue to drop to the point where nobody has anything invested in the City and can move to Cities not governed like an HBO show.

Detroit --A long-secret cost of Detroit elections -- paying for endorsements -- is generating controversy in the City Council election, even though most candidates defend the expense.

To many, it's a simple investment, part of what candidate Jai-Lee Dearing calls Detroit's "culture." To others, it smacks of pay to play. Either way, candidates who want three or four endorsements from prominent groups in the Nov. 3 election may have to shell out about $5,000.

It's a system virtually unheard of in U.S. politics -- where groups traditionally give money to candidates they like, not vice versa -- and it's providing fodder during council debates.

Candidate Shelley Foy on Thursday complained she was approached this summer by an unnamed group interested in endorsing her. The cost: $2,000.

"I told them I didn't have any money ... I never heard from them again," said Foy, a retired police lieutenant.

Leaders of mainstream political groups, such as the Original Eastside Slate, the Community Coalition and Fannie Lou Hamer PAC, acknowledge they accept money from candidates. But they say they do so to offset costs of mass-mailing thousands of pieces of campaign literature and to send hundreds of voters to canvass polls on Election Day.

Original Eastside Slate leader LaMar Lemmons complained the number of groups accepting money from candidates has swelled to a dozen or more. That's partly because of the unprecedented cycle of four elections this year necessitated by Kwame Kilpatrick's resignation as mayor, he said.

"There are a few shady characters out there who try to promise more than they can deliver," said council candidate Fred Elliott Hall last week.

Hall and several other candidates defend older, more established groups that interview candidates for potential endorsements and then ask for money to underwrite expenses. Hall called the system "good American politics" that helps lesser-known candidates get out their message for a low cost.

Ernest Johnson, leader of the Community Coalition that seeks $1,000 from council candidates, said no one is forced to pay.
'Just part of the process'

He noted that Mayor Dave Bing didn't donate after his group endorsed him in the Aug. 4 primary. The group isn't endorsing a mayoral candidate in November.

"We tell candidates we need their help getting the word out," Johnson said. "This is just part of the process."

The Michigan Spanish Speaking Democrats, in a June 10 letter, asked for $550 from endorsed candidates because distributing ads to 10,000 residents with Hispanic surnames is "increasingly expensive."

The Original Eastside Slate, co-founded by Lemmons and county Commissioner Jewel Ware, charges $500 to charter commission candidates and $2,000 to council candidates.

Lemmons said the slate's nod is free -- but candidates need to write checks if they want more than their names on campaign literature.

The fees are charged to utilize the slate's 200 Election Day workers, print mailings and sometimes go door-to-door in targeted neighborhoods.

"We don't have much money, and the services we provide cost money," Lemmons said.

"We can get out the vote on the east side."

One of the best-known groups, Fannie Lou Hamer PAC, asks for money to help pay for poll workers and slate cards, said Yvette McElroy, its field director. If candidates can't pay, the PAC's board "takes it up on a case-by-case basis," she said.

"We are very good at what we do," said McElroy, noting that 94 percent of candidates on the group's primary slate advanced.

Even so, paying groups after endorsements undermines their integrity, said Vince Keenan, who founded publius.org, a nonprofit information clearinghouse for Detroit voters.

"If there is compensation, there should be some sort of disclaimers or a notice," he said. "People should know what is behind an endorsement."
A one-party city

Political consultant Eric Foster said the process thrives in Detroit because it's a one-party city.

The last Republican mayor was Louis Miriani in 1957, so Foster said candidates are desperate to distinguish themselves by aligning themselves with powerful groups. Foster said he knows of no other city with the practice.

"In other places, you'd have a candidate trying to appeal to a certain group or certain agenda, but here everyone is a Democrat," said Foster, of Urban Consulting of Detroit, which manages political campaigns.

"Sometimes it can be a good investment, sometimes it may not."

Johnson said his Community Coalition is a wise investment, sweating details to maximize impact on Election Day. Mass mailings go to at least 25,000 likely voters, and the group pays 200 workers $85 a day to canvass polls. "We are at the polls from 6:45 a.m. until they close at 8 p.m.," he said, and "we don't rely on any homeless people. None of our people are drunk."
A common ancestor

The oldest and most recognized groups -- Black Slate, Fannie Lou Hamer, the Original Eastside Slate and Community Coalition -- share a common genesis: Shrine of the Black Madonna.

The church on Linwood near Grand seeks to "create oppositional institutions that are independent of the white power structure," according to a 2001 Wayne State University study.

The Black Slate, an offshoot of the church, formed as a political action committee in 1977 to give black Detroiters a bigger voice in politics.

It focused mainly on the center city, according to Lemmons, who described himself as a "missionary" for the church. He founded the Original Eastside Slate with Ware in the 1980s to focus on that part of the city.

The Fannie Lou Hamer PAC, named for a civil rights leader, also was founded in the 1980s with the help of former members of the Shrine who now attend the Rev. Wendell Anthony's Fellowship Chapel in northwest Detroit. Anthony is president of the Detroit Branch NAACP.

Johnson also belonged to the Shrine. The debate over ownership of casinos in the late 1990s prompted him to form the Community Coalition.

"There is a certain way things get done in Detroit," said Dearing, a businessman making his third run for the council. "And this is part of that political process. It is part of our culture."
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I'm not trying to be bigoted, but marginalized, primarily African American cities in the US have some of the worst municipal politicians imaginable. This is not because they're black, of course, but because most people who live there have sadly become used to corruption and government neglect, and lack the education, financial and social capital to challenge the entrenched incumbents.

The movie Street Fight which chronicles Cory Booker's depressing campaign to become the mayor of Newark is very illustrative of this point: Booker's supporters faced voter intimidation, his campaign posters were vandalized and the 20-year incumbent ran a smear campaign accusing Booker of not being "black enough".
 
The decay in downtown Detroit has been there since the major race riots in 1967. These happened in a number of cities besides Detroit, but most of the other cities managed to rebuild, to some extent at least. Detroit never did. Those who could afford it at all moved to the burbs, and only crackheads and the like remain in the central city, with a very few small pockets being the exception.

It's too bad; at one time in the first half of the century Detroit was apparently one of the truly great cities, up there with Chicago and some others. You can still see some signs of good architecture, formerly impressive office buildings, etc.
 
So, I'm thinking we should take up a collection here at UT, say $100 a member, that's got a get well into six figures, then we'll just buy what's left of the place as a fixer-upper. :p

****

Seriously, Detroit's fall is almost certainly the worst in modern North America, at least for a City of its (former) size.

While the initial causes are obvious (race riots, suburbanization in general, American neglect of inner cities at large etc.) .

Detroit was victimized an additional series of dumb decisions one after the other for decades.

From the failure to amalgamate, creating one of the most ridiculously unequal municipal wealth-bases ever seen (I count more than 20 municipalities in what I would consider urban Detroit (including 2 Within the City limits)

Add on the decision to abandon the grand old train station (very much Detroit's chief landmark of urban decay); the decision never to build a real public transit system (the people mover does not count); the failure to retail their pro football team for a period (moved to Pontiac Michigan); the failure to address their waterfront; and the allowing of a entire gated suburb, not merely a subdivision, one which even has gated parks! :mad:

One decision after the other, teaching a text book of what not to do. All that a City with no economic diversification at all.

(which btw, got really clobbered, fascinatingly by the Auto Pact) during which several former Detroit Factories were closed, as the jobs relocated to Canada); at roughly the same time as the race riots.

Its sad to see the place so let go and neglected; :( though it does remind me that every time I bitch about Toronto, I need to grateful for all that I don't have to complain about.
 
hbl33 said:
What in the world are these?
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I don't understand the question. What in the world are what?

I did a GoggleEarth tour of Detroit a while ago, and the amount of decay is truly astounding. It has been completely gutted. Entire neighbourhoods are gone, torn down to prevent arson and drug use. Apparently wildlife is making a comeback, with deer, coyote and other animals taking up permanent residence. It's incredibly sad. For humans, that is, not the wildlife.
 
Therion said:
I don't understand the question. What in the world are what?

I did a GoggleEarth tour of Detroit a while ago, and the amount of decay is truly astounding. It has been completely gutted. Entire neighbourhoods are gone, torn down to prevent arson and drug use. Apparently wildlife is making a comeback, with deer, coyote and other animals taking up permanent residence. It's incredibly sad. For humans, that is, not the wildlife.
Click to expand...
It's actually pretty cool, if you ask me :rolleyes:

I wonder if Windsor should be jumping on this opportunity...
 
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