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Michael Guido left a thriving, inclusive city

Detroit News
Posted on Thursday December 7, 2006

Dearborn mayor worked to welcome Arab-Americans

Dearborn Mayor Michael Guido was a model for Metro Detroit’s race relations. Guido, who died on Tuesday, leaves a city that has progressed from being hostile to ethnic minorities to an emblem of success and inclusion.

The mayor, who served almost 21 years, did not start off his career as a bridge-builder. During the city’s 1985 primary, he released a brochure titled, “Let’s talk about . . . the Arab problem.”

In it, Guido criticized the prospect of bilingual, bicultural education for the city’s growing Arab-American population. Yet Guido evolved—and with him, Dearborn. He guided the city’s evolution to a diverse community where a third of its residents are Arab American.

And unlike many Metro Detroit suburbs that succumbed to white flight when racial and ethnic minorities moved in, Dearborn has enjoyed a renaissance.

By this fall, Dearborn’s population was 100,022, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments estimates, up from 89,286 in 1990.

Under Guido’s tenure, Arab Americans made significant gains in fire, police and city employment. He routinely met with both local Arab and African American leaders, and leaders from Quana, Lebanon, Dearborn’s sister-city. After Sept. 11th, Guido worked with community members to make sure a backlash against Arab Americans did not sweep the city and beyond. While most older Metro Detroit cities dream of population growth, warmer race relations and revitalized neighborhoods, Guido proved all three go together.

Guido showed that a successful community that welcomes ethnic and religious minorities can make all the difference between a declining city and an ascendant one.

His leadership will be missed.