Proud of my hometown

Yesterday was a great day for many native Detroiters. I’m not referring to the backers of the baseball Tigers, who hammered the Twins 9-0 the night before. For every one of those games, there is a loss by a similar score waiting in the wings.

No, it was a terrific day for my hometown for a different reason. Dave Bing, a guy who came to Detroit 40 years ago to play basketball and then stayed in town as a businessman, was elected the city’s new mayor.

Granted, this is only a temporary gig. He is only filling the seat until the end of the year and must run again in an August primary and a November election. To this native, however, Bing’s election gives hopes that a city that has taken a pounding in recent years can hold its head high again.

Consider what has happened to my hometown in recent years.

1) The previously elected mayor – Kwame Kilpatrick – committed a serious of acts so stupid that he ended up going to jail. The list is too long to enumerate here. But it includes a pair of whistleblower settlements that cost the city roughly $16 million. In addition, there were allegations of a wild party with strippers held at the mayor’s mansion (one of the dancers later was found dead by suspicious means) and rumors of an extra-marital affair between the mayor and his chief of staff. The latter case really exploded with the revelation of some 14,000 text messages between the mayor and the woman in question that led to another trial for, among other things, perjury. While that trial was going on, Kilpatrick managed to acquire more charges of assault, obstruction and, in a particularly silly move, committed a bail violation by going across the border to Windsor, Ontario without asking permission. When all was said and done, Kilpatrick was forced to resign and ended up in jail for four months.

2) The auto industry problems. Is there much that needs to be added to this story? Let’s put it this way: How would folks around here like it if country western singer John Rich went on national TV and sang, “Let’s shut down St. Paul" or "Let's Shut Down New York?"

3) The Detroit Lions going 0-16 in 2008. You may have noticed Brett Favre didn’t ask for a secret meeting with them.

You get the idea. The city has had some very tough times lately.

Enter Bing. He had a reputation of being an honest, hardworking player during a 12-year career with the NBA Pistons, Bullets and Celtics. When his playing days ended, Bing returned to Detroit as a businessman. He had his dissenters (who of us doesn’t?). Generally, however, Bing was held in high esteem around town, reminding folks of Jimmy Cannon’s famous quote regarding another Detroiter, Joe Louis: “He was a credit to his race – the human race.”

In the election, Bing was matched against Ken Cockrel, Jr., who moved up from City Council president to mayor when Kilpatrick left for a new home. As usual, there were missteps along the way. In the February primary, both candidates were cited for being too close to polling sites. Bing exaggerated his academic credentials from Syracuse. Cockrel wore a campaign T-shirt inside his voting booth, a possible violation.

The race was intense but surprisingly free of the usual political mudslinging. Most folks expected Cockrel, a longtime political fixture on the Detroit scene, to win a close race. But Bing, who left his gated suburban community to move into Detroit and ran as the candidate of change, won by four points. Whether he can achieve some of that change remains to be seen. Cobo Exposition Center, where Bing plied his trade as a NBA player, is more than 50 years old and is in drastic need of a facelift or it may lose the auto shows and conventions that has been its lifeblood. And that is just one of many financial issues facing the city.

But a city that drew headlines for mayoral misconduct and one of its main industries needing federal bailout help needed something positive to happen. Talk radio might not think so but you can only beat up people so long before they eventually lose their will to compete. For now, Detroiters – those who live there and those of us who were born there – can smile.

I know little of Bing’s overall politics. I don’t even know if he is going to run in the primary or the main election. If he does run, I don’t know if he would be the best person for the job.

It may turn out that, after a month or two in the job, he may decide there are better ways for a 66-year old to spend his time. It may turn out that he isn’t very good at the job. We’ll find that out in due time.

But I know this: my hometown has been the butt of too many jokes – many of them snide – in recent years. It has hurt to hear them. But Detroiters have good reason to feel good today. They decided on their political leader the way we used to do it – with a hard-fought, clean election based on the issues and the candidates.

Wouldn’t it be a kick if Detroit started another American trend?