by Tom Shields
May 16, 2009

Just when we thought the dark cloud draping Detroit was permanent.

When Kwame-gate was followed by the city council circus, a never-ending series of government gaffes, Cobo calamities, and pension fund frauds.

When it seemed possible a statue of Monica Conyers would replace the Spirit of Detroit — lo and behold, Detroiters went and did the unexpected.

Detroiters finally looked themselves in the mirror, didn’t like what they saw, and decided enough was enough.

Maybe it was the election of Obama. Or maybe it was being sick and tired of being sick and tired. Whatever the start, the winds of change seem to be blowing the dark cloud away.

The election of Dave Bing as mayor signals a new direction for Detroit.

Hopefully, it’s also a time when leadership quits fighting over the steering wheel of the Titanic and goes to work keeping it afloat.

If Mayor Bing’s first week in office is a good indicator of what’s to come, Detroit is in for better days.

Dave Bing appears to be all business. No celebration parties, parades, or platitudes. He picks three good and talented people to head his advisory committee and names his turn-around team — without a single relative on the payroll.

Dave Bing was a great point guard and is a good businessman. Every expectation and hope is he’ll be a great mayor.

Some credit for Bing’s upset victory goes to Freman Hendrix. Hendrix humbly put his own political ambitions aside to endorse Bing in the last week of the campaign. That endorsement helped propel Bing to upset the predictions of every pollster in town. For the first time that I can remember, a Detroit candidate actually lost the absentee vote and won it all on election day.

The good news didn’t stop there.

Detroiters also agreed to create a commission to rewrite the city charter. The city can use the opportunity to fix the problems they faced replacing Kilpatrick, and to also make the city council more accountable to the citizens they represent.

Ken Cockrel’s return to city council is certainly an addition by subtraction of Conyers as council president.

Cockrel’s service as mayor gave the city time to recover from the Kwame scandal in the same way Jerry Ford’s service gave our nation time to heal following Nixon’s Watergate scandal. He was the right guy at the right time. Cockrel’s decision not to run for mayor later this year shows his genuine commitment to putting the city first. Hopefully, the voters of Detroit return him as council president in November.

And credit Sheila Cockrel. She’s one of the council members you’d hope would run again. But, she has had a front row seat to the need for new blood on the council. She resigned her seat to set the pace. Hopefully, there is a place for her in the Bing administration, if she wants it.

And while the city is getting its act together, one can’t help but notice the job Robert Bobb is doing to structurally change the Detroit school system.

Closing dozens of obsolete schools, restructuring based on performance and need, and opening doors to new and innovative ways for learning are giving the Detroit schools a chance to survive.

Bobb’s efforts have not gone unnoticed by the Obama administration. But you have to question Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s notion of turning the school district over to the new mayor. Bing’s plate is pretty full. Let’s hope the effort to rebuild Detroit’s schools continues without overloading the mayor.

Time will only tell whether the winds of change keep blowing in Detroit.

Can there be agreement on a new deal to expand Cobo Hall? Will the teachers union give up the status quo to put students first, or will they strike in September? Will the voters in August and November return the same old problems to office, or welcome a breath of fresh air to a city that needs it now more than ever?

Let’s hope the winds are strong enough.

Tom Shields is founder and president of Marketing Resource Group (MRG), a Lansing-based political marketing and public relations firm.