Leadership Vacuums in Detroit & New Orleans

Detroit and New Orleans: Two struggling African-American cities with proud pasts and deeply uncertain futures.  Now, in addition to their on-going challenges of high poverty and inequality and uneven economic development, both face mayoral contests.  In Detroit, it seems no one cares.  In New Orleans, most black residents and practically all white residents crow at Mayor Ray Nagin, "Good riddance!"

What's interesting about these two races is how questions of meeting the daily needs of residents matches up against the need for a guiding vision for the future of these two cities.

Detroit's interim mayor, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr.

emphasizes that he has begun to put Detroit back on the right track. He has reopened neighborhood police stations and developed a plan to eliminate a $300 million budget gap, but he concedes the difficulty of reviving a city with pervasive poverty and unemployment.

On Nagin in post-Katrina New Orleans:

“The mayor is not a hands-on administrator,” [pollster] Dr. Renwick said. “He’s more a big-picture guy. And fixing streetlights is small picture. There’s a bit of a disconnect there.”

Nagin tried to lead the city with a rebuilding vision shortly after the storm.  He convened a Commission of business leaders, white and black, and enlisted the help of planning groups like the Urban Land Institute.  But the Commission's proposal to let certain neighborhoods in New Orleans "return" to "nature," conceived without neighborhood input, set off an outcry and neighborhood mobilization that ultimately led to Nagin's retreat from the plan and little leadership on recovery from that point forward.  He was re-elected in a close race by rallying African-Americans to cover his loss of white support, and IMO he won partly due to the "devil you know" mentality for many still reeling from the after effects of the storm.

NOLA is whiter and wealthier than it used to be - a change reflected in its City Council.  It's had thirty years of uninterrupted black leadership, a source of pride for the city, especially its Creole community.  Recovery has also been driven by the private sector, including non-profits and community organizations, so it's unclear to me what kind of stewardship the next mayor will provide at this point on this issue.  Residents want post-racial leadership, if such a thing exists.  Mostly they'd like to move out of the Bush years alongside the rest of the country.

As for Detroit, with expectations of 15% turnout, who knows what residents want from their Mayor.  The candidates can't seem to agree on whether or not the city is in "crisis."  Businessman Dave Bing is the challenger to Cockrel, who's served in public office for 14 years.  This looks so much like the theme of the '08 Presidential elections: out with the old and in with the new?  It's going to take a lot more than just a strong Mayor to plan for Detroit's future, but strong local leadership certainly helps.  Both these cities are long overdue on that.

(Photo by Cave Canem)