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modern townhouses. This construction contrasted the mute, sterile towers of other public housing projects and was backed by the UAW who resisted pressure from community groups to restrict the development to whites. The project’s advocates viewed its fruition as the “deal testing ground to see whether whites and
Negroes could live side by side without difficulties.” However, those opposed vocally resisted. William Louks, on behalf of the Detroit Real Estate Board believed that “proponents of the Schoolcraft Gardens sought to inject the century-worn strategy of pitting class against class or race against class or race and to promote the socialistic theory of cooperative society.” Floy McGriff initiated a year long campaign against the project in Northwest Neighborhoods through newspaper articles touting the project as a “socialistic” challenge to the “vested rights” of homeowners. The Tel-Craft Association, led by Northwest Detroit’s Homeowners Association sent over 10,000 postcards of protest to city officials while 12 fundamentalist Christian ministers signed resolutions to condemn the project. These acts did not fall on deaf ears as Cobo agreed with the opposition and vetoed City Council’s authorization of zoning changes to begin construction.
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Housing Office to largely be run by people with real estate and construction industry background. Cobo appointed Harry J. Durbin, former president of the
National Association of Home Builders and successful developer, as Inglis's replacement along with Walter Gessell, a real estate giant, and George Isabell, a property manager. Cobo further enforced the interests of private industry and building trades in public city housing policy with two members of the Housing Commission, Ed Thal and Finlay C. Allan, also being officers of the Detroit Building Trades Council of the American Federation of Labor. In 1951, Cobo appointed Alan E. MacNichol, president of the Federated Civic Association of Northwest Detroit, to the City Plan Commission. Cobo continued enhancing private influence through an advisory committee that consulted on city zoning and consisted of Ross Christile of Gratiot from Chalmers Property Owners Association and Alan C. Laird of the Park Drive-Ravendale Improvement Association. Cobo vigorously opposed public housing because he opposed subsidies for poor people in favor of more private developer’s ownership of property.
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Federal
Housing Projects in the outlying single home areas.” Cobo justified his staunch opposition by rationalizing it as protecting the rights and consideration of people that move and invest in single-family areas. Twelve proposals for public housing in Detroit were under consideration when Cobo was elected mayor, and he adamantly opposed the construction of all but four sites—all in city centers with a large black population. By slowing and stopping the construction process for public housing and placing single-family home developer Harry J. Durbin in charge of the Detroit Housing Commission, Cobo significantly limited the housing options for poor families in 1950s Detroit. Accordingly, Cobo once said in a radio interview, "The people who pay taxes want better services for their money", touting as justification for his actions that private property owners, and not public housing benefactors, were the ones primarily paying the city taxes. Cobo’s stance on public housing was applauded by real estate groups,
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Republican, corporate executive, real estate investor who adamantly focused his campaign on race and public housing. Cobo, a fiscal conservative, translated his past career as a utility company executive into politics through a strong mistrust of government, economic intervention and deep confidence in the unhindered operation of a free market. While his opponent George
Edwards openly supported the provision of public housing for families in any neighborhood of Detroit, Cobo adamantly opposed so called "Negro invasions" thought to occur through public housing. White neighborhood improvement associations strongly endorsed Cobo, motivated by the threat of public housing, allowing him to sweep largely white precincts in the Northeast and Northwest sides. Cobo won the election in a Democratic city and dominated union voters. He was elected twice more, in 1951 and 1953 (the latter time for a four-year term).
221:(president of the Southwest Detroit Improvement League). Only 8,155 public housing units were constructed between 1937 and 1955. Jeffries, Brewster, and Douglass Homes, high-density complexes constructed in the inner city, represented the three largest projects. On a ranking of largest cities based on their ratio of low-rent starts to housing starts Detroit was ranked 18th out of 25. Cobo’s successful dismantling of public housing programs instilled in Ralph Smith, president of the Michigan Council of Civic Associations, confidence that “minority pressure groups” would “collapse.”
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vilification by white
Detroiters for its advocacy for civil rights and desegregation of public housing and opposition to restrictive covenants and discrimination. Laub was the president of the pro-Cobo Northwest Civic Federation and a high school coach and counselor. Cobo rejected Beulah Whitby, because of her opposition to segregated public housing, and John Field, the director of the Toledo Human Relations Board.
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Arguably, Cobo’s most controversial action represented the appointment of John Laub as head of the
Commission of Community Relations (CCR). The Detroit Common Council authorized the restructuring of the Mayor’s Interracial Committee (MIC) into the CCR. The restructuring occurred in response to MIC’s
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Cobo’s stopping of plans for the
Schoolcraft Gardens Cooperative on Detroit’s far Northwest Side represented a racially fueled and crushing blow to improving housing equality. The project represented a privately funded and well-publicized effort to design a model for “workers” housing in spacious
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Albert Cobo began his career as
Detroit's mayor in 1949 after defeating Liberal Common Council member George Edwards. Edwards, an activist for the United Automobile Workers (UAW), public housing administrator and democratic proponent of the New Deal represented Cobo’s antithesis. Cobo embodied a
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Cobo appointed non-career officials with strong business background to many key positions in the administration of
Detroit. Cobo’s actions lead James Inglis, who was head of the Detroit Housing Commission under Mayors Jeffries and Van Antwerp, to resign. After this Cobo restructured the Detroit
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Cobo's election facilitated the successful prominence of civic associations. Once elected, Cobo pledged “it will not be the purpose of the administration to scatter public housing projects throughout the city, just because funds may be forthcoming from the
Federal Government. I WILL NOT APPROVE
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A major aspect of Cobo's campaign and subsequent terms in office involved urban renewal and reinvention of an aging city. Cobo supported urban renewal projects like the Civic Center, Medical Center and apartment projects in the predominantly Black inner city for middle-income families.
186:, working his way up to an executive position. In 1933 during the Great Depression, the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. lent Cobo, an accountant, to the city for six months to help it fix its troubled books. He subsequently ran for and was elected Detroit City Treasurer in 1935.
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As treasurer he helped keep tax-delinquent Detroiters in their homes through a seven-year tax payment plan. The move helped endear him to voters, and, after seven terms as treasurer, he was elected mayor in 1949.
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on September 12, 1957, just months before his last term in office would have ended. Cobo Center (formerly Cobo Hall) was built and named in his honor. However, on August 27, 2019, the facility was renamed the
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Cobo also heavily pushed for the expansion of the expressway system; many of his backers were wealthy suburbanites, who wanted a faster, easier commute into the city.
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775:"Albert Cobo Dies; Detroit Mayor, 63; Gubernatorial Candidate for G.O.P. Last Year Helped Build City Expressway Returned to Duties Planned to Call Loan"
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Albert Cobo was born in Detroit on October 2, 1893. He married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel; the couple had two daughters, Jean and Elaine.
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Cobo opened and ran two candy stores in Detroit, while attending night school to study business administration and accounting at the
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577:{Detroit Housing Commission, “Public Housing in Detroit, 1946– 1948,” 9– 10, CHPC, Box 71, Folder: Housing Shortage.}
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Cobo was mayor at the apex of the city's population of about 1.8 million in 1950. He died of a
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Jones, Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820– 1980: Big City Mayors
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The origins of the urban crisis : race and inequality in postwar Detroit
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648:"Some Questions and Answers About Schoolcraft Gardens Cooperative, Inc".
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182:. After completing his studies, he sold his stores and went to work for
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837:"Rochelle Riley: How do we honor Joe Louis? Rename Cobo Center"
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508:"Detroit Housing Commission Monthly Report". December 1949.
154:(October 2, 1893 – September 12, 1957) was an American
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Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980
794:"After 59 years, Cobo officially renamed TCF Center"
423:. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 69–70.
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388:"Detroit's Mayor Cobo, 63, Dies of Heart Attack"
360:. Detroit1701.org. November 2008. Archived from
479:. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
268:Cobo ran on the Republican ticket in 1956 for
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217:(president of the Detroit Civic League), and
67:January 3, 1950 – September 12, 1957
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819:"Detroit City Employees Pay Respect to Cobo"
753:"Meet the 5 worst mayors in Detroit history"
734:"Michigan's Governor Matches Ike's Victory"
567:"Orville Tenaglia to Cobo". March 28, 1950.
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601:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
433:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
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1405:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit)
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616:. The Detroit Focus. March–April 1954.
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792:Livengood, Chad (August 27, 2019).
591:. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
285:United States Conference of Mayors
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1410:20th-century American politicians
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533:Dilworth, Richard (2011-09-13).
279:Cobo served as president of the
751:Austin, Dan (August 29, 1914).
522:(vol. 16 ed.). 1950–1951.
281:American Municipal Association
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1400:Burroughs Corporation people
520:City Plan Commission Minutes
272:, but was handily beaten by
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471:Sugrue, Thomas J. (1996).
180:Detroit Business Institute
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587:Holli, Melvin G. (1981).
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897:Party political offices
798:Crain's Detroit Business
374:; note image of plaque.
340:"Mayor Cobo Dies at 63"
166:Early and personal life
131:Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
823:The Owosso Argus-Press
419:Melvin, Holli (1981).
402:"Hot Fight in Detroit"
344:The Windsor Daily Star
304:. Cobo is interred at
256:Expressway development
825:. September 16, 1957.
781:. September 13, 1957.
346:. September 13, 1957.
283:and a trustee of the
184:Burroughs Corporation
1395:Michigan Republicans
914:Governor of Michigan
755:. Detroit Free Press
666:. December 22, 1949.
364:on November 22, 2010
270:governor of Michigan
740:. November 7, 1956.
701:. February 9, 1950.
408:. November 8, 1949.
247:Schoolcraft Gardens
162:from 1950 to 1957.
27:American politician
873:Eugene Van Antwerp
865:Political offices
699:Brightmoor Journal
664:Brightmoor Journal
650:Brightmoor Journal
274:G. Mennen Williams
152:Albert Eugene Cobo
125:September 12, 1957
78:Eugene Van Antwerp
1385:Mayors of Detroit
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963:Mayors of Detroit
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923:Succeeded by
904:Donald S. Leonard
887:Succeeded by
714:Missing or empty
679:Missing or empty
652:. April 20, 1950.
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306:Woodlawn Cemetery
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127:(1957-09-12)
85:Succeeded by
62:
1380:1957 deaths
1375:1893 births
1295:Van Antwerp
1175:Chamberlain
853:Albert Cobo
759:January 13,
358:"Cobo Hall"
73:Preceded by
34:Albert Cobo
1369:Categories
1330:Kilpatrick
1280:F. Couzens
1270:F. Couzens
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1210:Breitmeyer
1020:Trowbridge
925:Paul Bagwe
910:Republican
803:August 27,
539:. p.
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312:References
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264:Later life
225:Appointees
156:politician
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63:In office
53:62nd
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1180:Pridgeon
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1075:Van Dyke
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1195:Maybury
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1160:Langdon
1145:Wheaton
1125:C. Buhl
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1080:F. Buhl
1065:Pitcher
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111:Detroit
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1260:Bowles
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291:Legacy
117:, U.S.
1320:Young
1275:Smith
1255:Lodge
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1245:Lodge
1230:Lodge
1155:Lewis
1140:Mills
1090:Ladue
1050:Jones
1045:Bates
1340:Bing
1300:Cobo
1220:Marx
1200:Codd
1115:Hyde
1105:Hyde
1030:Cook
1025:Mack
1010:Cook
980:Hunt
919:1956
857:IMDb
805:2019
761:2018
720:help
685:help
635:help
603:link
545:ISBN
491:OCLC
481:ISBN
435:link
370:2010
122:Died
105:Born
855:at
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