I sort of half mentioned before in a diary about Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) what a mentally unstable and dangerously reckless woman his wife is. The unfortunate part of her insanity is that when former Detroit embarrassment, Kwami Kilpatrick was run out of town on a rail, then Council President Ken Cockrel became Mayor. That's not the bad part, he's great. He's been honest, diligent, hard working.
The bad part is that this half crazed psychopath who is a fairly decent Congressman's wife took over for Cockrel as Council President, and has been making a mockery of herself and the city ever since. And today, she won a victory. Today she, and her 4 or 5 equally dim witted cohorts managed to succeed in sealing Detroit's fate as being the biggest laughing stock the automotive world has ever known. And it's all because of this building.
Cobo Hall Convention and Business Center
Cobo is the home to the world's largest automotive show on the planet, the North American International Auto show. Detroit, duh. Of course. There was a time it was the only auto show. But since the business of auto shows has become a world wide fascination, taking over the largest one in the Northern Hemisphere of the Western World has had other American Cities licking their chops for nearly a decade. Los Angeles, Chicago and others have made handsome overtures to the powers that be with the NAIAS beaurocracy to no avail. And that has been because up to now, the City of Detroit - dwindling in its population, suffocating in its unemployment, withering on the cultural vine - has received unyeilding support from the other counties that make up "Southeast Michigan" aka the Greater Detroit Area.
Detroit, love it or not, is the Metro Hub of the State of Michigan. And leaders like Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson have always known what side of the toast their bread was buttered on. But that source of support, Detroit's final life saver in keeping and maintaining the NAIAS, may have just run out.
Several leaders, county authorities, and State officials all came together and for the past 5 years slogged through the tough negotiating process to save Cobo, and thus the auto show. Cobo is an eyesore. It's a dying old facility as hazardous and filthy as the city itself. It needed a make over. And the outlying counties were prepared to help pay for it. Negotiations stretched all the way back to the beginning of the failed Kilpatrick administration and culminated in an agreement that gave all parties a guarantee on their investments. But that meant ownerships and rights.
But Monica Conyers, batshit crazy sheriekazoid mentally-ill-housewife-somehow-turned-boss-of-the-city and her pack of city nuts pulled out and sued to stop the agreement that went down under Cockrel's watch. She was having none of it. Nevermind that other facilities like The Detroit Zoo have been successfully jointly owned for decades.
Of late, you can pretty much stop by the City of Detroit, day or night, and hear the latest jaw-dropping stupid thing Conyer's has said to a reporter. Click on a video and watch her calling petty, childish names to her co-workers. Marvel at her accusations of "racism" to people who have worked with her, side by side since she was still a nutjob in a downstairs office. Listen to her equate people trying to help the city and save Cobo with "European Land Snatchers" as if the Detroit City Council somehow represented some great, noble tribe that has had claim to the land on the Detroit River since the Jurrasic period. Hiring ex-con relatives on the sly, cutting backroom deals, and conducting business like the city was some kind of Speak Easy. One crazy woman who caucuses with the Conyers pack was given a fake tiara for a birthday a year or so ago forgot to take it off ... and has been forgettng to take it off ever since. Still another struck up a strain of "Onward Christian Soldiers" with the TV cameras rolling to show where the City Council gets their strength and authority. Or read about her telling a respected Council Member who also happens to be a widow - that her problem is that she "needs to find a man."
I am not kidding ... read all about her and them for yourself. One council member is attempting to censure Conyers just to get her to shut up because it's the only recourse there seems to be. The City Charter seems to have been written so that Napolean Bonaparte could become the City Council President and just start beheading everyone, and you could do nothing but wait until another election.
And today, Conyers got her wish. A Circuit Judge helped her to overturn the agreement completely pissing off every person who ever tried to help.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Isidore Torres said the talks had failed.
"For whatever reason it didn’t happen, and that’s fine," he said.
Torres then handed out a written copy of his ruling to each side, and Council President Monica Conyers’ reaction left no doubt about the result.
"Yes! We won!" she said, slapping a nearby table exultantly.
Meanwhile, glum city attorneys filed out of the courtroom.
Conyers said she hoped Gov. Jennifer Granholm would reopen negotiations on how Cobo should be governed.
"All we’re asking is just to be brought to the table," she told reporters. "The citizens of Detroit will get to keep their jewel."
Oh yeah. Its a "jewel" allright, Conyers. A jewel that as of today has ZERO VALUE, and furthermore even if it were a brand new building, you couldn't PAY investors from this point forward to even stand in the same room with your narcissistic, psychotic self let alone enter into any new agreements. Have it. Take it. Choke on it for all the entire State of Michigan cares. You've proven what your goal is. To keep the City of Detroit a birthright of the 1960s riots era to the exclusion of all growth and evolution. And until such time that you are removed by election or you are committed to an insane asylum we are powerless to do a thing about it.
Oakland Exec Patterson is now saying he will pursue ways of taking the NAIAS out of the city and up into some northern county venue ... and I support him even though he's a friggin' republican. Tell me where and when, and I will be there with my wallet in hand to buy tickets. Maybe it's time to start calling some other city "Michigan's Metropolitan City." Someplace that attracts business instead of causes it to stand back clicking it's tongue in pity.
This has gone beyond party politics. This is about sheer, unmitigated, unmedicated insanity in power. And it's not just a sad day for the City of Detroit. In some ways - it's the last day.