BlackLiberalBoomer

The Beginning…

In November 2001, Kwame Malik Kilpatrick became the youngest person ever elected to be Mayor of the City of Detroit. At the time, although he was only 31 years old, he had been a successful member of the Michigan State House of Representatives. Elected to as a state representative in 1996 to fill the seat left vacant by his mother, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick for her successful run for the United States Congress, Kwame Kilpatrick was selected by his legislative peers to be the first African-American to hold a leadership position as head of the Democratic Caucus. Mr. Kilpatrick’s political star continued to rise, being elected vice-president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors and as such, a “Super Delegate” to the Democratic National Committee. He even had a brief speaking appearance at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

As he stated in his first inaugural speech in 2002, Kwame Kilpatrick was a “son of the City of Detroit”, attending Pelham Middle School and Cass Technical High School. He graduated from Florida A&M University, where he was captain of the football team; but returned to Detroit to teach in the Detroit Public Schools and later earn a Juris Doctor degree from the Detroit College of Law (now named the Michigan State University College of Law).

The End…

Photo Credit: Detroit Free Press

In 2005, after a hard-fought campaign, Kilpatrick narrowly won re-election for another four-year term as Mayor of Detroit. But the scandals and rumors of scandals continued. Two demoted Detroit Police Officers who were investigating some of these rumors sued Kilpatrick and the City for unlawful firing; and during the 2007 trial, Kilpatrick and his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, testified under oath that they did not unjustly fire the police officers, and that they did not have an affair. The trial ended with the police officers winning their case and being awarded over $9 million. But in January, 2008, the Detroit Free Press uncovered text messages sent back and forth on city-owned pagers that contradicted everything Kilpatrick and Beatty said on the witness stand. That was the beginning of an eight-month process, including indictments for perjury and obstruction of justice that concluded, on September 3, 2008, with Mayor Kilpatrick’s admission of guilt, a plea deal that includes jail time, and finally his resignation from office. The governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, had already started holding hearings at the behest of the Detroit City Council to remove Mr. Kilpatrick from office; those hearings were indefinitely put on hold at 11:15 a.m. on September 3, 2008…when Kwame Malik Kilpatrick accepted that plea deal and resigned from office effective September 18 2008.

The Beginning?

Photo Credit: Detroit Free Press

On Thursday evening, flanked by his wife Carlita (whose orange-print dress matched her husband’s tie), his mother Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, his father Bernard Kilpatrick (himself a target of an FBI investigation), and other family members and friends, soon-to-be former Mayor Kilpatrick delivered his “swansong“. The almost ebullient Mr.Kilpatrick enumerated the accomplishments of his administration, took “responsibility” for his actions, and intimated that the City of Detroit did him a favor, saying: “…Detroit, you done set me up for a comeback.” Although as part of his plea deal, he cannot run for elected office for five years, Kwame Kilpatrick may by channeling former Washington D.C. mayor Marion Berry. We’ll see; but for now…

Shameless Plug: please read my husband’s blog The “D” Spot…

If you enjoyed this post, please share it and subscribe to updates!

In this week’s post about shopping in Detroit we’re going back to a couple of the “old-school” department stores many of us remember.

In a previous post, I briefly mentioned probably everyone’s favorite: Hudson’s; of course I will dedicate an entire post to the JL Hudson Department Store. If you went downtown to Hudson’s, then you certainly remember Kern’s and Crowley’s.

Kern’s Department store was started back in 1883 as the Ernst Kern Dry Good Company. A fire in 1886 caused the store to be rebuilt on the corner of Randolph and Monroe streets, but as business grew, the store moved again in 1900 to its last location on Woodward and Gratiot. It continued to grow and develop into Detroit’s third largest department store by the 1950s. At that time, the Kern Family, who owned a home in my neighborhood, the Boston-Edison Historic District, sold the store to a corporation in New York state which finally closed the doors on Kern’s on December 23, 1959. The corporate headquarters of Compuware was built where Kern’s was located; and the redesigned “Kern’s Clock” stands guard at the corner of Woodward and Gratiot.

Besides the famous clock, what I remember most about Kern’s is the escalator: it was completely made of wood, not metal. What do you remember?

Crowley’s Department store lasted longer than Kern’s; the last store, which was located in New Center One, closed in 1999. “Crowley’s” was actually the Crowley-Milner Company, which began in 1909 when the Crowley Brothers of Detroit, Joseph, William, and Daniel, merged with the W.L. Milner store in Toledo Ohio. Although Milner was killed in an automobile accident in 1923 and his family sold his shares in the department store’s chain, the Crowley family kept the official name. Throughout the decades, and in spite of the Great Depression and several top management changes, Crowley’s continued to grow and expand throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It had stores in the enclosed malls around Detroit, as well as Lansing and Flint; as well as the flagship store in downtown Detroit, which finally closed in 1977.

Although Crowley’s struggled to maintain its original upscale image, by 1995, three of its last stores were bought by the company that owns Value City, and the store were named “Crowley’s Value City”. The Crowley’s name was eventually dropped; Value City off-price retail stores still exist. However, many of us prefer to remember the Crowley’s of the 1950s and 1960s, which along with Hudson’s had the most beautiful holiday displays and high-brow shopping experiences in town. Our mothers actually dressed in white gloves, high heels, and hats to go shopping!

Shameless Plug: Please read my husband’s blog, The “D” Spot…

The celebration of Labor Day originated in Canada in the 1800s when a parade of support for the Typographical Union was held in Toronto in 1872. The union was striking for a 58-hour work week. Several support strikes followed, and in 1873, the Canadian Parliament passed the Trade Union Act which was designed to repeal anti-union laws. Celebrations originally were held in the spring, coinciding with May Day Workers Celebrations held in other parts of the world.

In July of 1882, the Toronto Trades and Labour Council invited the president of the American Federation of Labor, Peter J. McGuire, to speak at a labor festival. In September of 1882, McGuire and the Knights of Labor organized a similar parade in New York City, the first “Labor Day Parade” in the United States. Although anti-union, United States President Grover Cleveland was forced into making Labor Day a holiday
in 1894 after several strikes in the United States; notably the Pullman Railroad Workers Strike in Chicago which halted mail delivery. In June of that year, Congress passed a bill that made the first Monday of
September a National Labor Day Holiday. The holiday has historically been celebrated with a parade followed by picnics. Over the years, labor and political leaders were the featured speakers. In the 1930s
and through World War II, the labor movement strengthened, especially in Detroit Michigan, where Walter Reuther helped negotiate benefits such as paid vacation time and sick leave.

From the 1940s through the 1960s, it became a tradition for Democratic Party candidates to officially launch their general election campaigns in Detroit, boosted by strong union support. But throughout the 1970s,
the clout of the union leaders dwindled, and the dwindling attendance at the Detroit parades caused their cancellation until 1981.

Meanwhile, the Labor Day march across the Mackinac Bridge, led by the governor of Michigan, became the new tradition. Today, both parades/marches are simultaneously held, and the Democratic candidates
participate. Labor Day Weekend is also celebrated as the “last weekend of summer”, and the picnics and festivals still abound; a recognition of the Canadian and American workers and the better working conditions
and benefits for which they negotiated and fought.

Shameless Plug: please read my husband’s blog The “D” Spot…

Update: Barack and Michelle Obama and Joe and Jill Biden will be in Detroit on Monday at Hart Plaza! 11 am at the end of the Annual Labor Day Parade! See ya there

Last week, I promised that I would find a connection between Democratic Vice-Presidential Candidate Joe Biden and Detroit. Betcha didn’t know that Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) is one of the staunchest supporters of the development and growth of mass transit options for America!

Here in Detroit, the Motor City, it has been decades since mass transit was a really viable and reliable option. As people moved further and further away from the City Center, highways were built and cars became almost indispensible–except a lot of people don’t have cars. The absence of a modern mass transit system has been a detriment to the development of a truly regional metroplex. In 1919, Detroit voted for a bond issue to finance a subway system, but it was vetoed by Mayor James Couzens.

Along the east coast of the United States, especially between the Washington, D.C. area and points north and west, Amtrak has continued to run commuter trains used by millions daily. Senator Biden has for years taken the “train” daily to and from his home in Delaware, and has sponsored several bills to strengthen the funding for Amtrak.

Back here at home, the non-profit group Transportation Riders United (TRU) has been in the forefront to bring back good mass transportation to Detroit, including working with different government organizations and community groups on the two primary plans for light-rail service in Detroit: the publicly -funded DDOT 5-year Plan and the privately-funded Woodward Catalyst Project.

There is also an excellent and complete history of mass transit in Detroit from 1863 to the present on the TRU Website.

On Sunday, Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden, along with their wives, Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, will be campaigning in Michigan. Hopefully we’ll hear about future mass transit plans for Detroit and Michigan.

Shameless Plug: please read my husband’s blog The “D” Spot…

It’s Wednesday, and we are on Step 8 of the 12 Steps of Healing for Detroit! As you may know, each week we have been looking at ways that we, as people who live and/or work in our beloved and beleaguered City. We know that we are the ones we have been waiting for, and that we are better than our current leadership.

The whole point of this blog is to teach some, and remind others of the wonderful things about Detroit, the Detroit Metroplex, and especially the Detroit people. In the process, I will also point out what I believe is wrong with our current leaders (and, when appropriate, what is right), and I hope to hear your ideas in the comments section.

“Step 8″, loosely based on the AA 12-step Program, admonishes those who follow the program to make a list of all persons harmed and be willing to make amends to them all. Well, Kwame Kilpatrick, Mr. Mayor, this step seems tailor-made for you!

Mr. Mayor, you have hurt the entire City of Detroit, you have hurt the entire region of southeastern Michigan and southwestern Ontario and northwestern Ohio, you have hurt the entire State of Michigan, you have hurt the entire Democratic Party and the candidacy of Barack Obama, you have hurt your family, including your wife, your sons, and your mother, you have hurt the police department, you have hurt businesses small and large that stayed in Detroit and/or came back to Detroit.

Mr. Mayor, you have hurt families, you have hurt children, you have hurt the national and international image and reputation of Detroit; you have certainly hurt the budget of the City of Detroit, which is OUR money.

It’s time for you to make amends, Kwame Kilpatrick. It is time for you to realize that the world does NOT revolve around you, and that Detroit can and will survive and even thrive without you. You owe us even more than that $9 million…especially those of us who supported you while you lied to us and the world. You have no credibility left, and you cannot effectively conduct the business of the City anymore, and that is supposed to be your job. The fact that you even thought for a minute that you “should” have gone to the Democratic Convention and taken even a smidgen of a chance that your ruined image would badly reflect on our Presidential Candidate shows your arrogance and inconsiderate nature. You are (were) a Superdelegate; their votes aren’t even necessary at this point. Believe me, no one even notices your absence.

The people who live in Detroit, work in Detroit, and love Detroit will pick up the pieces and carry on and work hard to repair the damage you have done; but it’s time for you to go. It’s time for you to make your list of all you have harmed and start to make amends (from far away from Detroit) to them all. It was/is not about “racism” at this point; it is/was about you and your wrongdoings. The sooner you grow up and realize that and move yourself out of the picture, the sooner Detroit can heal and move on.

Shameless Plug: please read my husband’s blog, The “D” Spot…

 
Terry’s Enchanted Garden, one of the oldest and most respected woman-owned businesses in Detroit, is much more than just a “flower shop”. Owned by Mable and Sunne Terry, “Terry’s”, as it is affectionately called, is a flower shop, a corporate florist, and a “unique boutique” of limited-edition apparel, jewelry, and home accents.

Terry’s Enchanted Garden did start as a small flower shop in 1980. Today, Terry’s is capable of custom floral designing for your corporate or private event, has beautiful floral arrangements for any and all occasions including funeral arrangements, provides gourmet baskets and live plants, and is a one-stop shopping experience for clothing and collectibles. From the store’s website, even e-shopping is available! Terry’s is located in the University Commons Shopping District, formerly known as “The Avenue of Fashion”, near Livernois and Seven Mile Road.

Mable Terry, Chairman
Sunne Terry, Manager
19338 Livernois Ave.
Detroit, MI 48221
(800) 342-4408 (Toll-Free)
(313) 342-3758
Fax: (313) 342-2333
E-mail: terrys@terrysenchantedgarden.com

Shameless Plug, please visit my husband’s blog The “D” Spot…