Connor Coyne: Writer/Consultant

Hi Burton, I know it’s taken me forever to answer this. I like Dayne. I haven’t been following his specific moves closely enough to have a truly informed opinion, plus I’d want to hold off on expressing that until I’ve moved back (hopefully next month).

To your second point… it’s an in-between issue. Much as Jennifer Granholm (and, to be fair, Engler) couldn’t have done much on a scale to solve the industrial exodus from Michigan in the last 30 years, there is nothing any of Flint’s mayors could have done on the scale of GM’s departure. Whoever takes that job is going to take the heat for the inevitable decay of the city; it strikes me as a very hard, very thankless job.

That said, Flint mayors (and the Flint City Council) have done an abysmal job using the resources at their disposal to mitigate the damage. The first and most essential order of business is simply transparent and competent administration, which our elected mayors have sadly been unable to deliver (note: I’m not a fan at all of the Emergency Managers). Look at how quickly city hall has improved after our recalls when a City Administrator was put in the mayor’s office. Darnell Earley and Mike Brown did incredible jobs with just a few months notice.

Creative planning and brilliant inventiveness are important too, but not as important as experienced administration. And in fact, they aren’t even as important as capable leadership. Flint is a very segregated city with a lot of poverty and a history of instituional strife and discord, and until there is a more cooperative spirit among residents, these other tools are not given good room to grow.

I would say Flint’s leaders have had the order exactly backwards. The right priorities are:
1. Capable administration.
2. Good leadership.
3. Creative urban planning.

Ask me anything