Former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing co-wrote an autobiography that spins the yarn of his multifaceted career in sports, politics and mentorship. The former Detroit Pistons star is also a former automotive supplier and founder of the Bing Youth Institute that offers young Black men academic and social support. The Washington, D.C., native and Franklin resident spoke with Crain's about the book, "Attacking the Rim: My Journey from NBA Legend to Business Leader to Big-City Mayor to Mentor."
What inspired the timing of this book?
Bob Warfield (Bing's manager), who has been with me for the last eight to nine years ... basically said, "You know, you've got a story to tell. You've done a whole bunch of things in your life and outside of Detroit, probably a lot of people might not know."
Is it strange to have a book written about you, an autobiography, coming out?
Very strange, no doubt about it. I had a lot of heartaches and headaches and everything else trying to remember, you know, so much that has gone on in my life.
In the book you talk about your auto supply company, The Bing Group, how during the Great Recession you were losing money and you knew if you held on to the business you would continue to lose, but you were also worried about what would happen to employees if you sold. How does that dynamic you went through compare with what businesses are facing now?
I think the difference would be I knew I was going to get out of the business and that was my decision. What's going now for entrepreneurs and business owners, a lot of the things that are happening they have absolutely no control over. And, you know, they could wake up one day and their business is done. In my case, at least I had a little bit of time to figure out what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it and who was going to be most impacted from it. ... For me to make a decision to sell or close the business down was very, very difficult. I lost more money than I probably should have lost by holding on.
Detroit's had to deal with a $410 million shortfall from the pandemic this fiscal year and last. I'm wondering if that brought you back to the decisions you were making when you became mayor in 2009?
Absolutely. When you're responsible for keeping people safe and providing them with the services a city is supposed to provide and you don't have the income to be able to do that efficiently, it's a gut-wrenching decision. What's going on right now, the businesses are shut down in a lot of cases so the revenue you had put into your budget the prior year, you had no idea something like this was going to happen. It was different. We didn't have the money, but at the same token, you have some kind of idea about timing. Here you just, you don't know, you're shooting in the dark. You have no idea if this pandemic is going to slow down ... I've gotta say as a businessperson or an elected politician, this has got to be one of the worst times that they've had to go through.
There's been a lot of discussion this spring and summer about systemic racism and biases in policing and industries. You've spoken before about Black businesses, Black executives being sort of on the outside looking in on Detroit's recent redevelopment. What do you think is the current state of that?
Well, I think most recently, at least it's being talked about. Not necessarily anybody's doing a lot about it, because everybody is in survival mode. But as part of the survival mode, with a city's that's almost 80 percent African American, you've got to start looking at those businesses that are here in the city providing a service. You've got to figure out, how do you maintain those businesses? But with everybody in survival mode, that's not high on anybody's agenda, and that's unfortunate.
What do you think of Mayor Mike Duggan's administration's efforts around Black-owned businesses and around inequities more generally?
There's a realistic understanding of the negative impact on small, minority-owned companies. But once again, from a historical perspective, we've not done anything but give lip service. And until such time, as I look at when I was in business, because of the automotive industry and some of their programs, it allowed a lot of Black-owned suppliers to do well ...
You've really got to be very much focused on (small businesses) and what they're up against. The banking industry has historically been very tough on small and minority-owned businesses because you didn't have the equity that was necessary ... so there's no easy answers, in my opinion.
What kind of leadership do you think Detroit needs in the next couple of years?
You know, I'm not anti-the administration that's in place because I know how hard a job Mike Duggan has. But once again, as I'm around the country when I travel there are a lot of people who are not from this area who will ask the question, "You've got a city that's 80 percent African American. How in the world do you have a white mayor?" You know. "You don't have Black people with the capability to move into a position like that?" But then people look back and say there was a long period of time when you did have Black leadership. ... But once again, because of an industry that was on its knees, up and down, the automotive industry, which is a dominant industry in this area, you don't get the consistency that you need to build a business. It's hard to say. I can't think right off the top of my head of anybody that I could be very supportive for mayor right now. I asked that question, "Who's out there?" And nobody comes up with a good answer. So is it going to be Duggan on an ongoing basis? Don't know. Is there somebody else in the system that will be able to raise their hand and say they're ready for this? We're in a tough time in terms of leadership.
You said in the book and I've read in interviews before that you feel it's important your mayoral administration get the credit it deserves for starting some financial rebuilding processes in Detroit. Were there any specific narratives you were looking to set the record straight on in this book?
I think one of the things that was pretty much misunderstood ... was that you had a lot of people in city government that looked at their positions as just a job and didn't look at it serious enough as a career. You know, I got in there and very short term I understood that was a total misconception. The vast majority ... respected their jobs, their community and neighborhood ... There was a fondness from my vantage point and a great deal of respect that I gained from the people that stayed and worked so hard in a terrible situation.
Are you talking more about when you first came into office or under emergency manager Kevyn Orr?
The whole job. I think most people, City Council at that time in particular, wanted me to fight Kevyn Orr. And that made no sense to me. Kevyn Orr had a very difficult job and I think he did a really good job, but he was able to do a good job because of the kind of support that he got from Lansing. We did not get the same support from Lansing ... Had we got (the same kind of support), we probably still would have gone into bankruptcy, but it would have been done by people who live here in the city, who are going to stay here in the city.
In the book you talk about the BINGO one-on-one mentoring program. I wonder if there are any particular anecdotes or stories about mentees that have been floating in your mind recently that you could share?
We've had quite a few of our young men ... they've grown up in a tough situation. The level of expectations for their success was always very low. When a young man gets to be 13, 14, 15 years old, for whatever reason their mindset changes. They think, "I'm grown. I'm independent. I don't need any help." But we've had so many of our young men we've matched with mentors, with Black men, that's really made a significant difference in the kids' lives. We think we've done a good job with a small core group of young men and we'd love to do more, but it's all dependent on getting mentors, the right kind of mentor.
Would you say getting the right mentors is more of a challenge than fundraising?
Absolutely. The funders have been absolutely great in terms of supporting what I'm trying to do. But because we are trying to match up one on one ... We ask a lot of (the mentors) in terms of giving time, and a lot of them probably have to make a decision, you know, "I don't have much time, I got my own family to worry about, I've got my own job and career to worry about." The ones that are there, without them our program would never work.
What does it cost to run per year?
We're looking at somewhere around $500,000-$600,000 per year to run our program.
I'd be remiss if I didn't ask one more time: Would you support Duggan, or would you support someone else running for mayor?
I think it would depend on who would run against him. I'm not negative toward Mike, but you know, leadership in the city of Detroit is wanting. And, you know, we could talk about the mayor, that's one position. There are a lot of other critical positions, whether it be from a political standpoint or a business standpoint, from a foundation standpoint. We need people of color in all of those arenas. You've got to have a voice out there. You look at major boards and major corporations, you're not going to find too many African Americans or people of color. You're not going to find too many women. And that's what's come out in this pandemic. People are seeing what systemic racism has done.
"need" - Google News
November 15, 2020 at 12:08PM
https://ift.tt/32OaRo5
Dave Bing on tough decisions, need for Black mentors, leaders - Crain's Detroit Business
"need" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3c23wne
https://ift.tt/2YsHiXz
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Dave Bing on tough decisions, need for Black mentors, leaders - Crain's Detroit Business"
Post a Comment