VARIATIONS on a THEME or IMITATION is the Sincerest Form of Flattery!

Super Bowl czar to help clean up Detroit
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
May 9, 2006

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had a simple, happy message for Detroiters on Monday:
"Roger Penske is back!"

Confirming news reported in Monday's Free Press, Kilpatrick announced at a noon news conference in front of the "Spirit of Detroit" statue that businessman and auto-racing legend Penske will take on a major new downtown cleanup effort as the new chairman of the civic group Downtown Detroit Partnership.

With a budget of $1.2 million for the rest of this year and $1.5 million next year, Penske will oversee the effort to keep the downtown business district as clean as it was for Super Bowl XL.

"This is bigger than the Super Bowl, as far as I'm concerned, because this is sustaining value for this city and the future. So for me, it's an issue that I want to be sure I'm part of," Penske said.

The money, to be raised by private donations, will pay for daily patrols of uniformed workers to pick up litter, power-wash sidewalks, remove graffiti and posters and otherwise keep downtown looking clean. The area to be cleaned is bordered by Jefferson on the south, Beaubien on the east, Cass on the west and Adams on the north.

If there were any doubts about the need for a cleanup effort, a short walk along Woodward after Monday's news conference could dispel them. Sidewalks and the grassy median showed litter strewn about.

Penske said that Goodwill Industries, a nonprofit agency that lines up jobs for poor and disadvantaged people, would provide and supervise the workers. The cleanup effort, part of the mayor's Next Detroit series of initiatives, will start around June 1. Plans call for workers to clean from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and for shorter hours on weekends.

Kilpatrick was clearly pleased to have lined up the charismatic and popular Penske for the role. As chairman of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee, Penske led a six-year effort that recruited thousands of volunteers to greet visitors during game week, that hosted the Motown Winter Blast and that partnered with the city in a massive downtown cleanup.

"He is the kind of guy that, if it's not being done right, he jumps right in and says, 'Let's just get it done. Let's do it,' " Kilpatrick said of Penske. "And we need that kind of aggressive, tenacious, positive attitude pushing a movement like this."

Penske, who will serve for an undetermined period in a volunteer capacity, said his new role follows from the Super Bowl effort.

"I think it's a natural transition for me to set new deadlines and achieve new successes for the city of Detroit," he said. "This is a continuation of the spirit and the execution and the movement that started with Super Bowl XL."
Evoking such fabled partnerships of the past -- including that of former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and Henry Ford II -- Kilpatrick said Penske could have chosen anywhere to make his mark.

"Roger Penske -- a global competitor who does business all over the world, who can partner with any city on the planet, who can give of his service and himself and his resources anywhere -- has chosen to stick his flag, his stake, right here in the city of Detroit," Kilpatrick said.

As the downtown partnership's new chair, elected Monday by the partnership's board, Penske takes over from outgoing chair Matthew Cullen, a General Motors executive who will remain as vice chair.

Penske will also lead a revived effort to create a Business Improvement District, or BID. BIDs are districts dedicated to cleanup and marketing efforts, supported by a special tax on downtown property owners.

Many other cities have revived their downtowns using the BID model. Efforts to create a BID for downtown Detroit have failed because of political opposition. The new cleanup efforts are designed to bridge the gap between now and the time when a BID can win approvals from the City Council and property owners.

Kilpatrick said he would announce a second cleanup effort soon, aimed at neighborhoods. Industrialist and sports legend Dave Bing is expected to chair that effort.

Contact JOHN GALLAGHER at 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.