# To the Citizens of the City of Detroit: You're idiots.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [November 9, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210 "2005-11-09T15:05:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/1 "2005-11-09T15:05:49Z")
Or at least well over 50% of you are.
You see, after Coleman Young was finally done being mayor of Detroit after about 100 years of race-baiting, corruption, and watching the city go down the toilet, we actually got a decent mayor. Someone who, lord knows why, had wanted to be mayor of Detroit since he was in high school, and actually helped Detroit come back economically.
He did some upoppular things, but he also increased the police presence there, cleaned up the crime a LOT, and got some pretty large businesses to move back downtown (Compuware, General Motors).
Then, after 6 years, he declined to run again. He wanted more time with his family.
In the next race, we got an energetic, charismatic young candidate that everyone thought would be great. Kwame Kilpatrick.
Boy, was everyone wrong. The local newspapers even admitted their mistakes in editorial columns during the recent election. He squandered the city’s money. He gave out contracts to friends and relatives, he harassed the press, refused to comply with requests for information, and cut the police force back (rumored to be because they kept opening up investigations about him). He was awful.
During the recent election, in all the polls leading up to the election, he was trailing by a large margin. In the last week, he somehow managed to make up a lot of ground, and today, I found out he won. We’re back to the days of Coleman Young again. Serious adversity between the city and the 'burbs, allegations of corruption out the wazoo, and nothing but grief until (hopefully) the next election.
Shame on the people of Detroit. You fell for the oldest tricks in the book, AGAIN.
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### Author:  [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/2 "2005-11-09T15:31:35Z")
Ugh. I am SO fucking pissed about this! I could rant but it would be disorganized and incoherent. To make it short: wow, way to make sure that Detroit keeps going down the shitter, assholes. How anyone with 1/4 of a brain could think Kilpatrick actually cares about anyone other than himself is beyond me. I _want_ Detroit to improve so fucking badly, but it isn’t gonna happen when complete IDIOTS vote assholes like Kilpatrick in. :mad:
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/3 "2005-11-09T16:25:16Z")
Honest question. Is Detroit ever going to be anything other than a shithole, no matter who is mayor? I am under the impression that most of Detroit proper, not counting the suburbs, is pretty much too far gone to make any sort of comeback economically viable.
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### Author:  [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/4 "2005-11-09T16:45:01Z")
This is “the hip hop mayor,” right? We’re talking about the guy that used city money to hire strippers and buy champagne for a BET video-worthy party at the mayoral manor?
You re-elected this guy?
How_embarrassing_ for you guys.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/5 "2005-11-09T16:49:28Z")
> [@adam yax](#):
>
> Honest question. Is Detroit ever going to be anything other than a shithole, no matter who is mayor? I am under the impression that most of Detroit proper, not counting the suburbs, is pretty much too far gone to make any sort of comeback economically viable.
I think there’s hope. Granted, it’s not a perfect comparison, but look at New York City in the 70’s. Crime was outrageous, Times Square was full of strip clubs and prono stores, and gangs were huge and wore matching, and sometimes brightly colored costumes (at least that’s the impression I got from watching The Warriors, 😛 )
Seriously, though, NYC was NOT the bright lights glam city it was in the 40s and 50s, or is today. Just compare the blackout of '77 to the one in 2003. The first one was rememberd because of the looting and vandalism. The current one is remembered because of the LACK of those things. It is definetly a different city than it once was. If it can be done to NYC, it can be done to Detroit, but unfortunatly, there are a lot less people who are willing to make Detroit better than there was to make NYC better, it seems.
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### Author:  [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/6 "2005-11-09T16:51:26Z")
> [@adam yax](#):
>
> Honest question. Is Detroit ever going to be anything other than a shithole, no matter who is mayor? I am under the impression that most of Detroit proper, not counting the suburbs, is pretty much too far gone to make any sort of comeback economically viable.
Well, we got it started under Archer. Blew up some buildings, built some new ones, got some new stadiums ( :rolleyes: ), and started attracting housing and companies to move back downtown. Ya gotta understand that it isn’t going to happen in 6 years, or eevn 12, but if the city were able to sustain a good 15 - 20 years of growth, even small growth, I think things would change, honestly I do.
Much of the downtown area IS a complete shithole, with boarded up, abandoned buildings. The right government, though, could get some waterfront development going, and the resulting prosperity could slowly spread to the outlying areas.
But apparently the citizens of Detroit don’t want a prosperous city, they want a really piss-poor city so they can bitch about how the rotten people in the suburbs are keeping them down.
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### Author:  [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/7 "2005-11-09T16:55:40Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#):
>
> You fell for the oldest tricks in the book, AGAIN.
There’s a reason those tricks are still in the book, and there’s a reason they’re on page 1. They _work_! Now if only I could order The Book on Amazon, so I knew exactly how to perform this “oldest trick”…
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/8 "2005-11-09T16:58:00Z")
What Detroit needs is a class 5 hurricane to rip through it so we can start over from scratch.
I also strongly suspect that the extra 3% that beat Kwame’s candidate will be dug up to be found as Dead Voters.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/9 "2005-11-09T17:12:23Z")
It has been proposed. Find the (say) fifty worst blocks _en bloc_ in the city. Bulldoze them. Tear up the streets, turn off the water and surround them in chain link. Take the money you save on streets, police, water, fire protection, and spend it to save the rest of the city.
After twenty years, sell the area to a developer. Make a bundle.
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### Author:  [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/10 "2005-11-09T17:50:01Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest]
What Detroit needs is a class 5 hurricane to rip through it so we can start over from scratch.QUOTE]
It makes you wonder why Kwame offered to let New Orleans evacuees resettle in Detroit, because it sure as hell isn’t any better there! :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/11 "2005-11-09T19:45:19Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#):
>
> …he harassed the press…
Just curious…how did he do this?
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/12 "2005-11-09T20:55:42Z")
The early returns showed Kilpatrick losing by just about the same percentage as the polls indicated. Then, all of a sudden he pulled out a come-from-behind victory.
Methinks that you are unfair in criticizing the intelligence of the voters who reelected him. It’s hard to think rationally after your brain (and the rest of your soft tissue) has returned to the ecosystem.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/13 "2005-11-09T21:37:55Z")
I just spoke with a social worker who works for the city of Detroit last week and she told me that those Katrina victums that relocated to Detroit were screwed. ☹ They may have come from a bad neighborhood before, but it least it was one where they had family. Now they are the new guys in an even worst town.
Detroit is just plain lost and no one thier gives a damn or they wouldn’t have re-elected that self serving gangster. They have been pumping money into the downtown area for the past threes years in preparation for the Super Bowl XL here this season. Once that is over just watch the city nose dive even faster with Kwame and his family at helm.
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### Author:  [@19ForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19ForMe)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/14 "2005-11-09T21:53:45Z")
Kwame Kilpatrick
Is this the guy that had the city buy a high end SUV for his wife? When word got out, he defended the situation on the grounds that his wife needed a car. When the mood turned sour, he parked the car in a city lot and had the police chauffer her around. Is Detroit still paying for that car?
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### Author:  [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/15 "2005-11-09T22:03:30Z")
Now that he has a mandate from the people, I’m sure he’ll let his wife go back to driving that SUV. Detroit will save money, because they won’t have to pay an officer to be a chauffer any more!
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/16 "2005-11-09T22:04:07Z")
> [@19ForMe](#):
>
> Kwame Kilpatrick
>
> Is this the guy that had the city buy a high end SUV for his wife? When word got out, he defended the situation on the grounds that his wife needed a car. When the mood turned sour, he parked the car in a city lot and had the police chauffer her around.
Count your blessings. Folks in Columbus, Ohio [would be grateful](http://www.wbns10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4009353) if the city paid to chauffeur the mayor’s wife around town.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/17 "2005-11-10T00:03:34Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Count your blessings. Folks in Columbus, Ohio [would be grateful](http://www.wbns10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4009353) if the city paid to chauffeur the mayor’s wife around town.
Ohio has a rich history of mayors and drunk drivers. Mayor Tom Moody got busted in the 80s (IIRC, he’d hit the statue of fmr. Gov. James Rhodes in front of the capital **30 feet from the road and up a steep hill** ) for drunk driving. He told the cop who busted him (and I bet _that_ poor bastard’s life was a living hell afterwards), “I’m not drunk. I’m inspecting the city.” It didn’t take a week for that line to show up on bumper stickers all over the place.
According to the [piece on NPR I heard this morning](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005327) there seemed to be some question as to the validity of the absentee votes. Ya don’t suppose he committed fraud, do ya?
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### Author:  [@lonesome\_loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonesome_loser)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/18 "2005-11-10T05:12:22Z")
Let’s see.
You had two guys running.
They both presented their cases to the voters. The voters chose.
Your guy lost.
Sour grapes.
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### Author:  [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2005, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/19 "2005-11-10T05:50:09Z")
Actually, that’s not sour grapes at all. Sour grapes is when you try to get something, fail, and then pretend you didn’t really want it anyway OR that the thing you wanted was really bad anyway so it doesn’t matter.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-citizens-of-the-city-of-detroit-youre-idiots/330210/20 "2005-11-10T06:01:27Z")
> [@lonesome loser](#):
>
> Let’s see.
>
> You had two guys running.
>
> They both presented their cases to the voters. The voters chose.
>
> Your guy lost.
>
> Sour grapes.
So just remember, any time you’re unhappy about anything, keep it to yourself because **lonesome loser** has found the stone-cold perfect reply. Meanwhile, I’m curious to see what happened in Detroit with the dead people voting.
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