The New Yorker profile of Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson can now be read for free.
Its publication in January ignited a furor because of comments Patterson was reported to have made that denigrated Detroit. Patterson, of course, has criticized the city, its leaders and residents for decades, but rarely on such a prestigious platform as one of the nation's most acclaimed magazines.
The article by Paige Williams originally was posted behind the New Yorker paywall, so nonsubscribers had to buy a print copy to read it.
The story depicted Patterson as a highly effective manager of Oakland County and listed many of his achievements. But he spent weeks apologizing and making excuses after local publications reported his caustic comments.
Patterson even took time from reciting an impressive list of initiatives and accomplishments in his state of the county speech Feb. 12 to dredge up the controversy.
In his speech, Patterson attacked the award-winning Williams, calling her a "dilettante" and saying Williams "pulled the old bait-and-switch, selling me on one idea of writing a positive story about Oakland County’s success in creating jobs and stimulating new economic development and attracting capital investment, but instead fabricating a sensational and titillating story that she knew would attract the interest of her editors at the New Yorker and give her the national recognition that she so obviously craves."
Following the speech, the New Yorker replied through a spokesperson:
"Paige Williams's heavily reported piece drew on extended interviews with Patterson in the fall of 2013. The notion that any of these quotes are fabricated, or presented out of context, is ludicrous."
L. Brooks Patterson: "“I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said 'What we're gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian redervation.' "
One of Patterson's chief complaints has focused on his comparison of Detroit to an Indian reservation, which angered both Detroiters and Native Americans. In February's address, he charged Williams "drudged up old, stale and worn-out statements from decades ago and presented them as they if they were fresh quotes."
In reality, it was Patterson who reached back in time for one the many controversial comments he has made about Detroit going back to the 1970s.
An excerpt, which includes the reservation quote:
Before becoming the county executive, Patterson, a Republican, served for sixteen years as the county prosecutor. He banned plea bargains to the extent that, as he tells it, criminals knew to avoid Oakland County, because the chief law-enforcement officer was a “crazy motherfucker” who did not make deals. He went after strip clubs and porn shops so zealously that a judge ordered him to stop “Eliot Ness-style raids.” His government career has spanned the terms of seven Detroit mayors; the eighth, Mike Duggan, was inaugurated on January 1st. Patterson is known for being a shrewd tactician who has introduced creative initiatives to keep Oakland County solvent. Oakland is one of only several dozen counties in the U.S. that Standard & Poor’s has given a triple-A bond rating, the highest possible credit score; Patterson maintained the distinction even during the recession, and even as Detroit’s recent collapse into bankruptcy has threatened to destabilize the regional economy. In 2013, an S. & P. analyst said that, if counties were color-coded, Oakland would be platinum.
Since the 2008 Wall Street crash, Oakland County has struggled with a sluggishly rebounding housing market and a high unemployment rate, but its budget is balanced through 2017 and, as Detroit contends with eighteen billion dollars in debt, Oakland has a surplus of more than two hundred million dollars. In October, Governing, a nonpartisan magazine in Washington, D.C., named Patterson one of nine public officials of the year, citing his pioneering use of a three-year rolling budget, which allows the county to plan ahead for problems rather than be forced to triage them in a crisis. One of the magazine’s editors told the Detroit Free Press that Patterson represents the kind of farsighted fiscal management that “should be a model for counties and cities and states everywhere.”
Still, he is best known for his big mouth. When a black Detroit city councilwoman alleged racism during a business dispute, Patterson publicly declared that he’d “rather own a 1947 Buick than own” her. After accusing Detroit of trying to save itself by poaching Oakland County companies, he said, “I don’t see how moving furniture around on the deck of the Titanic helps this region grow.” In 2012, Robert Ficano, the executive of Wayne County, which includes Detroit, became the subject of a federal investigation; when Patterson was asked what advice he’d give Ficano, he joked, “Go in the garage, pull the door down, leave the engine running.” Patterson once compared road reforms to rape. He marked the death of Coleman Young—Detroit’s first black mayor and a former nemesis—by calling him singly responsible for the city’s demise. This past fall, during a political talk show, Patterson obliquely compared Michigan’s Speaker of the House to Hitler, then produced a black pocket comb and pressed it to his upper lip.
Once, he helped host a mock roast that featured a man in a Coleman Young mask and people speaking in what one reporter called a “guttural black dialect.” The Reverend Wendell Anthony, the president of the Detroit chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., complained that the media too often excused Patterson’s “divisive racist antics.” He added, “Mr. Patterson’s failure is rooted in his limited capacity to understand that God’s grace shines on more than one county and on more than one type of human being.” Patterson is opposed to a regional subway system, and Brenda Lawrence—a former political rival frustrated with his refusal to compromise on this position, and with his apparent favoritism toward affluent whites—has referred to him as “an island.” When I asked him how Detroit might fix its financial problems, he said, “I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and corn.’ ”
Click on the New Yorker link below for the full article.
