Ex-Mayor Dave Bing (Photo: Wikimedia commons)
Former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is irked that he doesn't get credit for helping the streets lights get turned back on in Detroit.
In a Crain's Detroit Business blog post, Chad Livengood writes:
In the 16 months since Detroit completed the citywide installation of 65,000 streetlights, a national narrative has taken root that this was the sole accomplishment of Mayor Mike Duggan — and it's simply revisionist history.
In 2012, then-Mayor Dave Bing got the Legislature to create the Public Lighting Authority of Detroit and dedicate utility and income tax revenue to pay off $185 million in bonds.
The next year, as Detroit was careening toward a financial meltdown, Bing installed the first lighting authority board that signed the contract with DTE Energy to carry out the massive public works project, which began in early 2014 after Duggan took office under a shared-power role with Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr in charge.
Livengood notes that Mayor Mike Duggan hasn't discouraged the public narrative that he turned the lights back on in Detroit.
"There's no doubt that all of that started with my administration," Bing tells Livengood in an interview. "There's nothing negative toward Duggan and his staff, but they shouldn't get credit for things that somebody else did."
