Boston’s mayor has a solution for fixing downtrodden Detroit: Just blow it all up.
Beantown’s Thomas Menino told the New York Times Magazine that if he had to live in a different city, he’d move to Detroit. And what would he do when he got there? “I’d blow up the place and start all over,” he said.
Detroit, under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, recently became the largest city to file for bankruptcy. But Mayor Dave Bing didn’t appreciate Menino’s slight — especially in light of the bombing at the Boston Marathon earlier this year.
“It’s extremely regrettable that Boston Mayor Thomas Menino used such an unfortunate choice of words to describe what he would do if he came to Detroit,” Bing said in a statement on Tuesday. “I would think they mayor of a city that recently experienced a deadly bombing attack would be more sensitive and not use the phrase ‘blow up.'”
With Detroit’s bankruptcy hearing is scheduled to begin Oct. 23, Bing insisted Menino’s perception of Detroit — that most of the city’s buildings are boarded up and the Police Department’s response time is 90 minutes — are incorrect. He invited Menino to visit the city himself and see.
[WWJ]