Decidedly uneasy about the future, Detroiters went to the polls Tuesday to choose the leader of a city that about a third of them would leave if they had the means and opportunity.

That does not bode well for Michigan's largest city or its leadership. People who want to be someplace else tend not to take very good care of where they are, and the mayor of Detroit is going to need an involved, invested population to get through the harder times immediately ahead.

In polling of Detroit done Tuesday for the Free Press and WXYZ-TV, about half the people who voted said the city was on a wrong track and 33% said they would get out of town if they could. Almost 60% of the would-be expatriates said they'd leave Michigan, too.

It's not hard to understand why. High taxes and high insurance rates make it a bottom-line issue for some people that outweighs any loyalty to Detroit. The city has very serious budget and labor problems that must be resolved to avoid the stain of receivership, which would take years to erase.

The surveys also showed about a third of Detroit voters feel the city's struggling schools have not improved and another third believe they have gotten worse, despite the state-imposed five-year venture into a semi-autocracy that ended Tuesday with the election of a new school board. The poll numbers signal that families with children, the core of a stable, thriving community, are not big on Detroit.

In the middle of all these issues, the city has a chance to address its longstanding image problem early next year as the world media visit for the North American International Auto Show and then pro football's Super Bowl. These events offer an opportunity to show off Detroit's assets, but city leaders should not try at the same time to paper over the problems.

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