As If GM Didn’t Have Enough Problems… I guess C…
admin August 10th, 2006
As If GM Didn’t Have Enough Problems…
I guess Chevy is too pedestrian to drive the Motor City these days. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been given a Cadillac Escalade on loan from GM for his 24/7 “official” use. Here is the article.
I have so many problems with this, I am not sure where to begin. How about we start with what is expressly mentioned in the article, that out of the mayors of 13 major cities (of which Detroit is ranked 11th, thank you very much), only one (San Antonio) has a comparable vehicle, and that mayor does not have 24/7 access to his vehicle. Mayor Bloomberg of New York, who could afford a whole fleet of Escalades, rides the subway. New York is (a) incontrovertibly a world-class city, (b) at least as dangerous as Detroit, thank you very much, and (c) Bloomberg is a much less physically imposing presence than Kilpatrick.
My next issue is that this has echoes of the infamous Navigator. For anyone who doesn’t know how badly Detroit’s officials pick the taxpayers’ pockets, Mayor Kilpatrick asked the police department to lease a vehicle (on City money) for his wife’s personal use. They leased a fully-loaded Lincoln Navigator (at an exorbitant price, if memory serves). Then the story broke; the public was outraged; and the vehicle sat in a police garage until the lease expired. (At least we can be pretty sure that they didn’t go over the mileage allowance…)
Now let’s consider this quote from the article: “This is a very tough job,” Kilpatrick said Wednesday, recounting how at times he has asked to be driven to crime scenes at 3 a.m.
Excuse me?
I recognize there’s not a lot of context there, and there may be a perfectly good explanation for that. But if, in fact, the mayor of Detroit needs to be present at a crime scene at 3 a.m. (mind you, he’s not a former cop or anything, so it’s not like his expertise is needed), it seems to me that he can drive himself there!
In fairness, it’s not so much that I object to the mayor having a driver. (However, I think Mayor Bloomberg’s approach is much more sensible, and I also think that if Mayor Kilpatrick were half the people’s mayor he pretends to be he would ride the bus once in a while. Maybe then he’d realize that people actually need to take buses at odd times – like 3 a.m. – and that he shouldn’t be cutting our already-pathetic bus service! But I digress…) My objections, I suppose, come down to the following:
- The mayor of the City of Detroit, however much I love this city, does not merit a luxury SUV and a 24/7 driver. It is not standard for mayors of comparable (or even larger) cities; the driving staff must be expensive; and even if the SUV is free, it sends a terrible message when the city is on the brink of receivership. Not only does it send the message that the mayor doesn’t care and that he thinks he’s better than the city he is supposed to serve (note: public SERVANT, not public BENEFICIARY), but it also sends the message to people that they “deserve” luxuries even if they can’t afford them.
You, I, Mayor Kilpatrick, and the citizens of Detroit and of the world all deserve habitable housing. We all deserve nutritious food to eat, however it is provided. We all deserve to live in relative safety, without the fear of being gunned down in our homes. These are basic human rights, as far as I’m concerned. However, we do not deserve Cadillacs (or even cars). We do not deserve McMansions. We do not deserve to eat out every day.
- GM, like Detroit, is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. I recognize that one Escalade is a drop in the bucket for GM, and that they regard it as a promotional opportunity. However, putting aside the negative PR associated with this particular promotion (for the above-mentioned reasons and probably more), this doesn’t make me want to buy a GM product. It says nothing about their quality, which is my first concern in buying a car. It does nothing to enhance GM’s reputation for me. If anything, it makes me angry because GM is continuing to actively promote SUVs. I firmly believe (though I can’t prove this) that half of the people who drive big honking gas-guzzlers like that can’t even really afford to pay for their lease/loan, insurance and upkeep, much less keep them filled up with $3/gallon gas. >:O
- Detroit’s officials think altogether too much of themselves. Our former City Clerk, Jackie Currie, had 24-hour police protection. The cop was carrying her dry cleaning, for pete’s sake! How much danger can you be in if your bodyguard has his hands full of your dry cleaning?!
Being an elected official does not – I repeat, does not – make you more important than the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are paying your salary. The President of the United States merits 24-hour protection; unless there is an active threat, a city clerk (no matter for what city) does not.
Grrr!
