Word: detroiters
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...stopped wearing the earring. Nevertheless, in 2005 he became the first incumbent Detroit mayor not to win a primary election. (He placed second in the Democratic primary, which allows the top two finishers to contest the general election.) He bounced back after urging voters to focus on his administration's management, rather than his style, pointing to road and sidewalk improvements and new recreation centers. However, a leader's effectiveness is partly tied to perception, and that's potentially risky in a city whose recovery is so fragile. Given his decision to fight the court award, many in Detroit...
...youngest mayor in the city's history. Cultural icon Russell Simmons crowned him the nation's first "hip-hop mayor" and Kilpatrick, now 37, did not try to avoid a life of excess. His first inauguration was marked with "club crawls" (he said they were intended to galvanize Detroit's disaffected youth); he wore a diamond-studded earring and flashy suits; his wife got use of a Lincoln Navigator that was leased for $25,000 by the police department. The two Detroit cops then charged Kilpatrick's bodyguards with abusing overtime and failing to report accidents involving city vehicles. Overtime...
...this couldn't come at a worse time. Much of Detroit remains an urban war zone, having seen its population more than halved from a 1950s peak of nearly 2 million. Unemployment stands at roughly 14%. About 47% of the city's residents over age 16 are functionally illiterate. Yet, for much of Kilpatrick's tenure, parts of Detroit have experienced an economic turnaround similar to those that have taken place in Chicago and Washington. Million-dollar lofts are being built along the Detroit River. Homicides are down by 17%, and non-fatal shootings have dropped...
...interview with TIME, Kilpatrick blamed some of his "boneheaded" behavior - particularly during his first term - on his youth, and his initial inexperience managing a major city. His image, especially the earring, alienated many of Detroit's black professionals, notably middle-aged women. "They didn't think I had the life skills, or they thought I wasn't like their sons - engineers or doctors," he says...
...view as unseemly for a sitting mayor of a major American city. For many, Kilpatrick's style and his attempts to cast himself as a racial martyr sent the message that, "This is our city now, and the thug life is OK," says Mildred Gaddis, 53 and one of Detroit's most popular black talk-radio personalities. "This hip-hop thing," she observes, "it turned off a lot of people who initially supported him." Gaddis says she was one of them...