The councilwoman in question is one JoAnn Wilson, who wants Barack Obama to bailout the city of Detroit. The quote in question?
“After the election of Jimmy Carter, the honorable Coleman Alexander Young, he went to Washington, D.C. and came home with some bacon,” said Watson. “That’s what you do.”
…For those unfamiliar with Mr. Young; he was mayor of Detroit from 1974 to 1993. In the beginning of his tenure Detroit was a mildly struggling Rust Belt city trying to deal with an economic slump; by its end Detroit was deemed to be the perfect setting for Robocop. It is a measure of just how bad things have gotten since that Mr. Young’s administration is seen as a Golden Age, but not as much as the one that Robocop now looks quaint.
Via AoSHQ.
Waiting for ’em to decide whether to dissolve Detroit altogether and throw the whole burden onto Wayne County.
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That ought to buy the Detroit grasshoppers another couple years of fodder…
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Mew
“mildly struggling Rust Belt city”
Thats not the way I would describe those times. The riots had already happened and white flight was in full force. Young was a classic black rascist demagogue that drove deeper divisons between the city and burbs. Much like California today, Detroit was able to continue on the wealth and goodwill of its forefathers, now that wealth and infrastructure is gone and the city is starting its final descent.
In the time I lived in Detroit (for my sins, apparently), it struck me how EVERYTHING was blamed on the “suburbs”. Detroit didn’t maintain or expand its water treatment system? Suburbs. Detroit “repairing” potholes in overpasses by placing plywood sheets over them? Suburbs.
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I’m convinced they gave up “Devil’s Night” because they’d run out of things to burn, not because anyone came to their senses.
By “quaint” do you mean “optimistic”?