Mayor Young Leaves Legacy of Struggle : He dominated the city for two decades, helping the disenfranchised black majority. But he was unable to stem the town’s devastating decline.

When Coleman A. Young won reelection as mayor of Detroit in 1985, the Detroit Free Press headline summed up the result: “It’s Young’s Town.”

Indeed, for the last 20 years Young has symbolized Detroit--profane, tough, street-smart, angry, confrontational. Young, who announced this week that he will not seek reelection, dominated his city like no other American mayor in the same period.

But while he accomplished many things, mainly empowering the city’s disenfranchised black majority, he failed to reverse Detroit’s devastating decline.

He argues that he never had a chance.

“The city is in a state of crisis,” the 75-year-old mayor said this week. “When I became mayor in 1974, it was in crisis. It has been one continuing crisis, almost unrelenting.”

He blames events beyond his control: the Arab oil embargoes that hurt the auto industry in the 1970s, the painful transformation of the Rust Belt that threw thousands out of work in the 1980s, the city’s constant budget crisis and myriad social problems, worsened by the spread of drugs and guns in the inner city.

But that begs the question. If Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Baltimore, which faced many of the same problems as Detroit, picked up their shattered pieces and put them back together again, why hasn’t the Motor City?

The answer may lie in the nature of Young and of politics in Detroit. Young’s personality was shaped by race. Detroit’s destiny has been shaped by race. Neither has been able to resolve their inner conflicts on this issue.

Certainly, Young was a victim of racial prejudice. He was rejected for college scholarships because he was black. During World War II, he became a second lieutenant in the black Tuskegee Airmen division, and was arrested after organizing a sit-down at an officers club that would not seat blacks.

In 1973, Young beat Detroit’s white police chief John Nichols by 14,000 votes to become mayor.

He quickly moved to reform the Police Department, widely considered by the black community as a racist organization. Today, the department is more than 50% black. Young rightfully considers this one of his greatest achievements.

Young became mayor after the destructive riots of 1967, which began a white flight north of Eight Mile Road that has not abated.

Some suggest that Young has encouraged the white exodus to strengthen his black power base. He dismisses such charges as a “bum rap.” But Young went out of his way to antagonize his neighbors, labeling them the “hostile suburbs.” Some white leaders returned the taunts, shunning joint projects that could have benefited the city, and luring businesses, shopping centers and even professional sports teams away.

The result has been one of the most segregated big cities in America. Detroit, which is now more than 70% black, has become an enclave of the poor. In the last two decades, its population has dropped 50%, per capita income fell 25%, a third of its jobs are gone and the percent of families living in poverty has almost doubled.

Meanwhile, Detroit is surrounded by some of the richest, most attractive suburbs in the nation.

The irony is that Young seemed to understand that he needed the economic strength of the white community for Detroit to succeed. He fell short because he was unable to stem the flow of people, commerce and money out of Detroit.

“The inability to translate political control into economic self-sufficiency is perhaps Young’s greatest frustration,” observed Ze’ev Chafets in his 1990 book “Devil’s Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit.”

He had some successes, wooing Henry Ford II to help rebuild the waterfront. But it never seemed to get beyond the Detroit River. Today, Detroit’s downtown is just a shadow of its former self.

And in a way, so is Young. With his health failing--he suffers from emphysema--he has become more isolated. A newspaper poll earlier this year found that 80% of voters thought he should step down.

Once a force in Washington and Lansing, Young no longer seems to have much influence in either capital. Once a recognized urban leader, he did not even go to the National Conference of Mayors this year.

Still, he leaves a legacy of struggle. To blacks here, Young is a hero, idolized by many as a figure as inspiring and important as Detroit’s boxing immortal Joe Louis.

“He’ll go down as a Detroit legend,” said Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics.

Certainly Young’s presence will continue to be felt. His endorsement surely will be a factor in the Sept. 14 nonpartisan primary race. But the race issue, while largely unspoken, will surely be there as well. Already several candidates have said it is time for more conciliatory relations with Detroit’s suburban neighbors, talk that was heresy when Detroit was indisputably Young’s town.