E-mail a friendMayor Dave Bing
airdate June 8, 2009
Dave Bing came from modest beginnings to being named one of the top 50 players in NBA history and elected to basketball's Hall of Fame. He launched his career at Syracuse University—where he majored in economics and marketing—and played 12 NBA seasons, most of them with the Detroit Pistons. After retiring, he entered the business world, founding The Bing Group, and became one of the most successful African American execs in the nation. Recently, Bing won a special election as Detroit's mayor.
Mayor Bing talks about the changing needs of Detroit and the need for the city to be run like a business. (1:39)
Full interview. (9:40)
Mayor Dave Bing
Tavis: On May 11th, Dave Bing was sworn in as the mayor of Detroit following a career as both an NBA Hall of Famer and successful businessman. Among the interesting facts you'll find in his bio, he grew up in Washington D.C. playing street ball with a future music superstar named Marvin Gaye. He joins us tonight from Detroit. Mayor Bing, congratulations. Nice to have you on the program, sir.
Mayor Dave Bing: Thank you. Awfully good being here, Tavis.
Tavis: Let me start by asking you the obvious question, and I mean this not to cast aspersion. I love the city of Detroit, but why would you or anybody else, given all that Detroit is up against right about now, want to be mayor?
Bing: Well, that is exactly the reason why, because we've got so many things that our city is in need of, we had to have somebody with the right kind of leadership skills and the right kind of heart for the city and for the people to do the job that's in front of me.
Tavis: How much of the trouble that Detroit is in now has to do with what you talked about during the campaign, that Detroit has not been run as a business. You own a $350 million business, so how much, again, I ask, of the troubles of the city have to do with the fact that it hasn't been run like a business?
Bing: Well, I think that's a primary part of the issues that we're facing today - decisions that should have been made years ago just kind of piled up and got backed up, and then we got into a situation where we're confronted with these major problems and we've got to deal with them all at the same time. Had we done the tough things that needed to be done when we were up against it, we wouldn't be making some of the decisions we're making today. But it is what it is and we've got to make the decisions and move on.
Tavis: I want to ask a two-part question and I know that both could set me up for a long list, but in short, give me a couple of examples of what should have been done, to your earlier point, years ago that wasn't done that has you in this bind right now.
Bing: Well, Detroit was a city that had over two million people several years ago, and today we're struggling to stay around 900,000 people. But we've got a city government that's set up and we've got an infrastructure that's set up for two million people. So as the city downsized and lost its tax base, we didn't do the things that was necessary to make sure that we kept our expenses in line with the revenue. So that was a major problem, and I think that is the biggest problem that we have today.
Tavis: So to the second part of your assessment a moment ago, with so many challenges, where does Dave Bing start as mayor?
Bing: Well, I start by really trying to recreate the right kind of environment for jobs, and I don't think city government or the board of education is a place where you create jobs. Jobs ought to be created with entrepreneurs out in the public sector, and for years and years we've had a city that has not been friendly to business.
And because I've been a businessperson here for the last 29 years, I understand what it takes to make people feel that they want to either keep their business and expand here in the city or come here to grow their business.
Tavis: Do I hear you to suggest that you believe in privatization? Because for some people, that's like a four-letter word.
Bing: Well, yeah, I can't say that everything has to be privatized, but there are some things here in this city that we ought not be doing as part of government. For example, we have a lighting department that we're not in that business, and there are things that we do in city government that were necessary when you had the funding to do it that we no longer have the revenue to do it anymore.
And in some cases, it can be done cheaper and better on the outside. I'm in favor of whatever we can keep inside, provided that we're benchmarking and we're competitive across the board. We keep it inside. But when we find out that we're not competitive, it ought to go out.
Tavis: Does privatization in a city as Black as Detroit mean that a lot of that privatization, whatever you have to do, is not going to be given to African Americans?
Bing: No, I think there are some things that we can do as we look at potential outsourcing, is to make sure if there are departments, for example, where we're not competitive and it needs to be outsourced, well, I want to try to make sure that those employees maintain their jobs. And they may be able to do some different kinds of things in private industry that we can't do in the public sector.
Tavis: Every city right now, for the most part, is challenged across the country. We live here in California, where this show emanates from every night, and it's not just the city of L.A. Indeed, the entire state of California as we speak is hanging in the balance, so we know something about budget shortfalls.
I guess the challenge specifically and uniquely to Detroit - uniquely is the word I want here - the challenge uniquely to Detroit is that the rug is being pulled out from underneath the auto industry. So help me understand how it is that the city, the Motor City, survives when the automotive industry is on life support.
Bing: Well, conversely you'd be surprised that there's a lot of ancillary businesses that are here in the city of Detroit that may be dependent upon the auto industry, but when you look at pure manufacturing, years and years ago that started to move down south and even out of this country.
So we're not as dependent on the automotive industry as we have been historically, and there are some other industries that are in the growth mode. The healthcare industry is growing at a rate of double digits a year, have been doing that for the last five years and probably will do that for the next five years.
From an entertainment standpoint, whether you agree with it or not, we've got three casinos here in the city of Detroit and one across the river in Windsor, Canada, and that's a growing industry. So we've got to look at - and now the film industry is starting to come here because of the incentives that we're giving through our state. So there are some opportunities, and there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
Tavis: What's the mood in the city like? I know Detroit is a great city, a working-class city with a lot of pride in that city, and yet the turn-out in your election was very, very miniscule. What does that say? What's your sense of the mood of the residents of your city?
Bing: Well, I think the people are fatigued, quite frankly, because now I am the third mayor in the last year. The Kilpatrick administration had some problems that are pretty well known at this point around the country and because of that there was a change in leadership on an interim basis where Ken Cockrel, who was our president of our city council moved into the position for about seven months, and then we had the election most recently here in May when I won the vote.
But I would agree with you - the turn-out was miniscule and that is a problem in itself. But I think because we had so many problems here and so many elections in a short period of time, people probably didn't feel that it was that important.
Tavis: Tell me how being an NBA Hall of Famer comes in handy as mayor.
Bing: I think the most important thing that I transfer over is the ability to work with people. Playing in a team sport environment for as long as I did, you need to understand regardless of how talented you may be as an individual. It's all about winning, and winning comes from everybody understanding their job and doing it every night.
And the same thing, I think, is true in business; the same thing is true in city government. I'm fortunate that I've surrounded myself with very capable people because I'm new to this and I don't have all the answers. But I'm smart enough to know what I don't know, and I'm utilizing the people around me to help me in areas that I may be weak in.
Tavis: The other way to read this, and some of your critics and those who of course ran against you made this argument - you've heard it a thousand times - and that is, to the point you made a moment ago, that because you haven't done this before, because you've not stood for elective office before, that now is not the time to be trying something with a, pardon the pun, rookie in the mayor's office.
Bing: Well, that is my strength, because I think I bring a new vision to the city. I bring some new energy; I don't bring the same old baggage that so many politicians brought to this office. I didn't run as a politician; I don't think that's something that I want to become. I come here with a business background, I come here from my first career as an athlete, understanding how important teamwork is, and that's what I'm bringing to the office. So I think my strength is that I didn't bring that baggage of politics with me.
Tavis: Finally, Mayor Bing, given all that you are up against, and it is tremendous; we've just scratched the surface here tonight - why do you remain hopeful? And I assume that you are because you wouldn't have run. But why are you hopeful tonight that this situation under your leadership can be turned around, for that matter, under anybody's leadership in Detroit, that it can be turned around?
Bing: Well, I think I'm the right guy at the right time with the right skill sets and the right contacts to make this a success. Our city is a proud city but we have to change, and that's what I ran my campaign on, was change. We can't continue to do what we have been doing for the last 30 or 40 years and think we're going to get something different on the other end. So I'm looking forward to this. This is the biggest challenge of my life, and I think it's the legacy that will live on long after me and I'm looking forward to the challenge.
Tavis: Mayor Dave Bing, NBA Hall of Famer and now the new mayor of the Motor City - the city of Detroit. Mayor Bing, congratulations again and nice to have you on the program. Look forward to talking to you again in the coming months and years, sir.
Bing: Thank you so much, and it's my pleasure, and good luck to you.
Tavis: Thank you, Mayor.
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