Nolan Finley summed it up pretty well in this past Sunday’s Detroit News. Finley’s column this week discussed a subject that is far from original but one that still manages to stir some good emotion.

I know right here on this blog, I’ve talked several times about why I love Detroit and why I choose to blog about it and promote it and I know I’m not the first and definitely won’t be the last.

Finley borrowed a line from one of my favorite authors William Faulkner in his attempt to describe his love with the city.

William Faulkner wrote of the South, you don’t love it because, you love it despite.

And ain’t that the truth. We love Detroit even when Detroit doesn’t love itself, even when it seems like every force imaginable is working against it there are still plenty of people out there who’s love affair with the city continues. We just continue to stick it out.

So maybe we love Detroit because it needs us so much.

Or maybe it’s enough to just say there’s a lid for every pot, and we’re Detroit’s.

Read Finley’s full column here.

Nolan Finley of the Detroit News had great column Sunday discussing the possibilities of an alliance between Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Michigan’s Governor-elect Rick Snyder in the wake of a congratulatory letter Bing recently sent to Snyder.

Going forward, Finley cites that a partnership between these two men is something that can only help bridge the divisive divide that has, for too long, separated the city of Detroit from the rest of the state.

Bing has said several times over that Michigan will not succeed unless Detroit succeeds. During his gubernatorial campaign Snyder shared similar sentiments about the city and what it’s future success would mean to the entire state.

Bing says of Snyder, “I expect us to be partners in turning around the state. And the state won’t get better without Detroit.”

In the letter, Bing approaches Snyder as a partner, not a supplicant, offering his help in applying “business principles to the operations of city and state government.”

Nowhere in the note does Bing ask for a hand-out.

I’m extremely optimistic (what else is new), but for good reason. Rick Snyder and Dave Bing represent what I truly believe to be post-partisan politics. Snyder, who is a moderate and Bing, who has very little if any ties or loyalties to the Democrats are Michigan and Detroit’s best bet going forward. 

I’ll be anxiously watching and waiting and hoping. Read the entire column here.

Michigan Governor-elect Rick Snyder                          Detroit Mayor Dave Bing

All this talk recently of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg donating $100 million to Newark, NJ public schools got me thinking about how great an opportunity that would’ve been for Detroit Public Schools to capitalize on had we been offered a gift like that.

So, how appropriate was it then that I came across this Nolan Finley piece today in the Detroit News discussing that very situation?  Detroit, was in fact, offered a great deal of money (two times as much as what Zuckerberg donated) back during the rule of Kwame some six years ago and it was turned down.

Who was this generous figure you ask? Apparently, a man by the name of Bob Thompson who worked as a road builder in Plymouth wanted to donate half is wealth after retirement to build 15 state-of-the-art, high-performance charter schools in the city.

Instead of grabbing the money and doing a happy dance, Detroiters, as is their custom, wailed about a suburban outsider taking away their schools and stealing their children.

Then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick told Thompson to just drop off the check and let Detroit Public Schools decide how to spend it. Gov. Jennifer Granholm stood in the schoolhouse door, assuring unionized teachers she wouldn’t allow Thompson’s charters to come in and take their jobs.

So, six years later, does it really matter what might have, could have, should have happened? Does it really do us any good to dwell on the shortcomings of a mindset in Detroit that seems, for the most part, to be ceding to a more positive and welcoming outlook that is staring to take hold?  Perhaps not.  But then again, it’s sometimes compelling to dwell on what might have been. 

You can read Nolan Finley’s full piece here.

Thoughts? Comments? Feel free to discuss.