Mayoral race: The issues

Despite common ground, Bing and Cockrel disagree on solutions

Darren A. Nichols and Leonard N. Fleming / The Detroit News

Detroit's issues are well-known and vast: a crime rate that's tops in the nation, a $300-million deficit, a failing school system and abandoned buildings that are so plentiful there's talk of consolidating entire neighborhoods.

But solutions aren't easy. In fact, nearly every mayoral election for the past three decades has focused on many of the same issues.

Heading into Tuesday's election, Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and businessman Dave Bing have plenty of common ground: Both want more cops, more efficient services and regional cooperation on mass transit.

But the two also have significant disagreements. Bing wants to tackle blight by clearing land near and around schools, churches and senior citizens complexes. He also will embrace the city-within-a-city concept of mixed-use developments to lure middle class residents back to Detroit. Cockrel has called for a creative downsizing task force that will examine giving city residents incentives to move into concentrated corners of the city to address a population decline from about 1.85 million in 1950 to about 840,000 today.

The nuances in their platforms may make a difference when voters head to the polls on Tuesday. About 24 percent of city voters are still undecided, according to a Detroit News/WXYZ Channel 7 poll. Voter turnout is expected to be about 15 percent, deputy elections director Daniel Baxter has said.

The Detroit News is highlighting the positions of both on four key issues: crime, education, business and blight.

Business

One of the biggest criticisms about City Hall in Detroit is that it dispenses too much red tape that stymies the progress of businesses. The city also has been dogged by accusations of a pay-to-play culture in City Hall under former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's administration. City Hall contracts are the subject of an ongoing, long-ranging FBI investigation. Both issues have hampered efforts to bolster economic growth.

Cockrel's solution: The mayor has talked about ways to make Detroit easier to do business with and has called for the end to red tape. Cockrel seeks to diversify the city's economy by calling for leveraging the resources of Detroit's universities and businesses to help experienced auto company employees become entrepreneurs. Cockrel created an Office of Energy and Sustainability to promote Detroit's commercial and industrial building stock and promote "green-oriented investors." Cockrel has called for reinvestment in new infrastructure. The mayor says he's "restored professionalism" to the Workforce Development department by ridding it of political hires.

Bing's solution: Bing is the owner of the Bing Group, an automotive supplier, and repeatedly has pointed to his experience as a businessman. He's developed real estate to rebuild neighborhoods around steel plants. He's bemoaned the bureaucracy at City Hall and vowed his administration would reduce it immediately. Bing, whose companies employ about 500 workers, has promised to create a Cabinet level "jobs czar" to run Workforce Development and report directly to the mayor. That person, he said, would be an entrepreneur with no government experience. Bing also said he'd promote green jobs and would explore re-using steel or materials from abandoned buildings to create jobs.

Blight

Blight could be the most nettlesome daily issue for Detroiters. It's progressed as the city's population has fallen in half, from a peak of 1.85 million in 1950, leaving the city with as many as 80,000 abandoned buildings and vast areas of depopulation. Some blocks in neighborhoods including Delray and Brightmoor have only one or two houses standing. Detroit also is among the leaders in the nation in foreclosures. But because of finances and bureaucracy, the city demolishes fewer than 3,000 buildings each year.

Cockrel's solution: The mayor has been an enthusiastic advocate of farming, exploring a deal to convert thousands of acres into a large-scale agricultural operation. Cockrel also has directed the city's Planning and Development director, Robert Davis, to lead a task force to study downsizing neighborhoods -- and is warming to the idea of giving residents incentives to move into more populated neighborhoods. Still, the mayor is proposing job layoffs as part of his plan to balance the budget, which would leave fewer inspectors to condemn abandoned buildings. Cockrel has introduced the Clean 365 program that seeks to team community groups, corporations and city departments to clean the city.

Bing's solution: Bing is often critical of the city's appearance and is vowing to direct more resources to clean neighborhoods. He said he'd direct the building department to create an "early intervention protocol" to prevent viable houses from becoming dilapidated. He's open to partnerships with community groups that would make abandoned houses look inhabited. Bing said he'd also seek federal funds to demolish more buildings and has said he wants to encourage residents in lightly populated neighborhoods to move.

Crime

Last week, Forbes magazine called Detroit the "Most Dangerous City in America." Basing the ranking on the city's rate of 1,200 violent crimes per 100,000 people and other violent crime statistics from the FBI, Forbes found that Detroit leads Memphis and Miami on the list.

But violent crimes dropped 10.2 percent to 8,443 in the first six months of 2008 from 9,404 in the first half of 2007, the FBI reported. Murders in Detroit were also down, to 136 in the first half of 2008, from 182 in the first half of 2007, the agency reported. City police manpower has dropped from 4,300 a decade ago to 2,900 -- and a cost-cutting switch a few years ago to policing the city through six districts has prompted complaints about response times.

Cockrel's solution: Cockrel said plans are under way to improve police response time. Since taking office, Cockrel has reopened the 10th precinct, opened six mini-stations and a mobile station. He also says he's doubled the size of the Scrap Metal Taskforce, which targets copper thefts. He said the city has applied for economic stimulus funding to hire 100-300 officers.

"There are a number of issues," Cockrel said. "We don't have enough officers on the street. We have come up with a plan to reduce police response time and what we can to do maximize the officers on the street. We're experimenting with the idea, if we can make the numbers work, a full-blown transition back to a precinct model of policing."

Bing's solution: Bing calls public safety the city's second-most important issue, behind jobs. He supports Police Chief James Barren, but said more officers need to be shifted from downtown and into neighborhoods to walk a beat. Bing also wants to put a team together to provide police extra equipment and resources and fix federally mandated issues that arose from a consent decree to end abuses in the force.

"We have to focus on public safety so folks do feel safe in the city, in their homes and neighborhoods. I don't want to cut anything in that area," Bing said. "Until people feel safe, you're going to have an exodus from the city and there's no way you can convince people they can come back."

Schools

The Detroit Public Schools is among the nation's worst districts. It faces a deficit that soared to nearly $300 million and is under the watch of emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, who assumed control over the district after years of financial mismanagement. It is considered high-risk nationally. The district, which has about 96,000 students, has been losing about 10,000 students a year since 2001. A state report has said the district's graduation rate is 68 percent, but outside educational experts have pegged the rate to be as low as 25 percent.

Cockrel's solution: As the campaign has progressed, he's grown increasingly supportive of mayoral control over the schools.

"The process (Bobb's) engaged in right now has to be allowed to be played out, and we have to get our act together," Cockrel said. "But as those things come to closure (mayoral control of the schools) is something I am very much open to."

Bing's solution: Bing said he's a supporter of all educational options for children and parents. He doesn't care about the setting in which children are educated. He added the mayor should have control over the district.

Bing was a supporter of Robert Thompson's $200-million plan to bring more charter schools to the city. But Bing's blessing of the plan caused a backlash with some city residents, particularly teachers who argue charter schools drain money from the Detroit Public Schools.

"I will support schools that are going to educate our children," Bing said. "It doesn't matter to me which model it is. Parents deserve the choice (and) children deserve the opportunity to maximize their potential. I don't think our city can survive, get healthy and stay healthy without a strong public school curriculum and foundation. It's not going to be what it was, but that's a plus because that was not working."