DETROIT (WWJ) – Detroit Mayor Dave Bing appeared before City Council to ask council members for their support to address public safety, a public lighting authority, and to retain a turnaround firm that will work with the Auditor General’s office.
Bing said he believes the city must embrace these reforms for the city to survive.
“Since I have taken office as mayor, this city has been under financial stress, clearly, it is now time to act with a renewed sense of urgency,” said Bing.
Council President Charles Pugh was receptive to working with the Mayor and said that the council understands its role in moving these reforms forward.
Bing noted that in just a matter of days, the Detroit Tigers will be playing in the World Series in Detroit, the city named the most violent by Forbes Magazine and said a public safety plan will be place.
Although Bing told WWJ’s Beth Fisher that he won’t talk about what the safety plan is but says the Forbes article talked about a lot of the violence being in the neighborhoods.
“Our police department is very good at what they do around big events, and if you go back in history, and think about any of our big events there have been plans that have been put in place, we’ve really had little or no incidents and I don’t believe that’s going to happen this time around also,” said Bing.
“We are very pleased and proud (about) what the Tigers have accomplished and we want to make sure that our city is seen in a good light,” said Bing.
Bing noted that much of the violence in the city described by Forbes is among people who know each other and not in the downtown area.
Bing said it shouldn’t just be about this event but something that they need to work on day in and day out. The mayor said a major focus will be on safety in the neighborhoods for the rest of his administration.
https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/10/22/bing/
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