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It's time for Dave Bing to resign.
Seriously, what's left for the man?
Aside from the fact that a state-appointed emergency manager would render the mayor powerless anyway, Bing has no political vision. He doesn't fight. He can't govern. He won't lead. And if you believe the early mayoral polls done by the same people who once had Mitt Romney in a dead heat with Barack Obama in Michigan, he has less than 10 percent of support from likely Detroit voters.
In short, he's likely done.
So why not make it official and call it a mayoralty altogether? Just beat it already.
I know there are those who apparently think the man still retains some value, who want to cast Bing's cowardly paralysis in the face of the fight over a state-appointed emergency manager for Detroit as leadership and maturity.
The Detroit Free Press, for instance, hailed Bing's decision to not challenge Rick Snyder's plan as "the right move."
The appointment of an emergency financial manager is all but inevitable, something Bing acknowledges. Working with the EFM, the mayor notes, is a better way to ensure that initiatives that improve public service and quality of life move forward.It’s the right play.
Sure it is, if standing still while events overtake and bypass you can be considered a play. I mean, even if you agree with Snyder's call, why give Bing props? He hasn't done jack.
It's the same old song
How much leadership does it take, really, to sit mute in the margins, evade direct questions about your intentions for as long as possible and then come forward, at the 11th hour and 59th minute, with some water-weak concession to Snyder's anti-democratic agenda?
And when Bing talks about initiatives to improve the city, what is he talking about? What programmatic ideas has the state put forward to make anyone think that "working with the EFM" is the ideal route to take? What guarantees are there that an emergency manager in Detroit will be any more successful than Robert Bobb or Joe Harris or any of the other failed EMs who've already been unleashed on Michigan municipalities and school districts the past few years?
Bad enough that we're playing fast and loose with democracy through all this. We know Snyder's grand plan amounts to a giant middle finger to the state's black voters, more than half of whom will be without any say in the direction of their communities thanks to EMs and consent agreements. And we know that, although voters all over the state shot down previous EM legislation -- in Detroit, 82 percent voted against Public Act 4 -- Snyder and his GOP buddies in Lansing forced it down our throats.
However, just as significant a concern as the value of the vote is evidence that suggests that these managers don't improve the quality of life in cities and, in most instances, don't even right the budget. So why should anyone, let alone the man whose supposed to be leading the city, just accept this on face value? Why should we think that an EM is somehow better than, say, a managed municipal bankruptcy, which seems unavoidable no matter what?
Nah, I don't see leadership in Bing's deference to Snyder's program. I just see a 69-year-old, rich ex-jock who's tired. Tired of working. Tired of criticism. Tired of trying to think of ways out of the city's morass. Tired of trying to negotiate with unions and the City Council. Tired of having to go before the boisterous, dissatisfied, impatient voters who put him in office to explain himself, his fuzzy plans and his perpetual ineffectiveness.
Ducking leadership's burdens
Bing urges us to "stop BS-ing ourselves." He says that an EM is inevitable and that continued fighting will only hurt Detroiters. But he says this while giving no clear reason for why his decision not to fight will leave Detroit better off.
Mind you, despite his acquiescence on Wednesday, Bing has said previously that he doesn't want an emergency manager and he doesn't think the city needs one. He's said he too questions some of the reports from the financial review team that has given Snyder the pretext for his draconian takeover of the state's largest city. He claims that he believes Snyder is making the wrong decision.
But he's good with that because it means he doesn't have to battle anyone anymore.
Seems to me that what Dave Bing really doesn't want -- has never really wanted -- are the burdens of leadership.
If that's the case, I see no reason why he should continue to pretend otherwise. Indeed, Mr. Mayor: Let's stop BS-ing ourselves.
