It's just like in Robocop, Detroit goes bankrupt and the state sells it off to some corporation. Maybe Apple can pick up Detroit cheep and force the residents to work in sweatshops making iPad3's.
I see this as an opportunity. PROFIT.
Bad management, corruption, and incompetence added to a near-nonexistent tax base and a huge geography to maintain.
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Census data released this week confirmed what we already knew: Detroit is dying. It’s just happening much faster than we thought. From 2000 to 2010, Detroit lost a quarter of its population; 273,500 people. According to news reports, local officials are stunned, including Mayor Dave Bing, who wants a recount.
After New Orleans, which lost 29 percent of its population in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Detroit’s 25 percent loss is the largest percentage drop in the history of an American city with more than 100,000 people. Just ten years ago, Detroit was the tenth largest city in the country. Demographers at the Brookings Institute now believe it might have fallen all the way to 18th, with just 713,777 people. That’s the smallest it’s been since 1910, just before the automotive boom brought millions of well-paid jobs and turned Detroit into the Motor City. It’s hard to imagine, but up until 1950, Detroit was the fourth biggest city in America. In 1960, it had the highest per-capita income in the U.S.
While the complete 2010 U.S. Census data won’t be released until Thursday, enough of it is available to see which other cities were big losers in the first decade of the 21st century: Cleveland lost 17%, Cincinnati lost 10.4%, Pittsburgh lost 8.6%, Toledo lost 8.4% See a trend? Looks like more of the same as the American Rust Belt continues to fade.
~Freakonomics, 03/23/2011, 1:17 pm
Detroit's mayors have been complaining about the numbers since long before 2000. The population has been dropping steadily for decades, taking a big hit after the riot of '67. Much earlier than the rusting of manufacturing. I suspect the numbers for the 70s would be higher, though not in terms of percentages. Don't want to bother looking, as it would just make me more sad.
The reason the pols scream so much? - The city income tax (3% for residents, 1.5% for non-locals working in the city) is supposed only be legal as long as the population is a million or over. Despite the drop in numbers the city somehow manages to keep charging the tax.
A simple drive thru the neighborhoods will show you the truth. Approx 60% of the homes are GONE, or burned wrecks.
The faux outrage over the numbers is a joke, and has been for a looooong time.
Detroit has been one of the worst places to live, ever. Detroit has been ranked as the #1 worst city to live almost consistently since 1970. The only reason people moved to Detroit was for automotive jobs. Now that the automotive jobs are gone and there's nothing to replace them is it any wonder that the population has been dropping like a stone. When your options are to be unemployed and live in a shithole or move someplace that isn't a shithole where you might be able to get a job most sane people will move.
i hear michigan isnt doing much better, with state creditcards being refused, and thus cops cannot get gas for their cars.
i hear michigan isnt doing much better, with state creditcards being refused, and thus cops cannot get gas for their cars.
I thought they just used sled dogs...
I'm glad a state overseer is going to replace the Detroit local government. Michigan still has some black people that can vote for local officials. They can't have that. /sarcasm
Its democracy exactly as the founding fathers intended.
Yep, I'm sure that's what it's all about. /sarcasm
Are you looking across the river? Maybe you're seeing Windsor.
Un-elected hack? But still reporting to an elected official, just at a higher level. Kinda like the ones the local govt hires to get things done.
Screw the poor? Those same people that have to wait 2-3 hours for a bus, or 15 minutes for police/fire/EMS if they're lucky? Let alone garbage pick up, or the timely demolition of THOUSANDS of destroyed homes, or the repair of failed street lights. Oh, I could write you such a long list...
Locally, we've been watching this in our news for quite some time. People are just up in arms now because something is actually happening. We've been living this crap for decades. The elected officials have been at an impasse with union bargaining, the city requires much more money to operate than it can generate (and has for decades), and those valuable assets have been decaying for decades. The state has been asked to foot the bill.
Frankly, the hot button smokescreen responses are tiring. This law has kept other failing industry-based cities operational. (We do have more than a few) WITH their own elected officials, and WITH their police/fire/city workers still collecting paychecks.
Yet, the elected governor takes the hit for daring to do something while the city officials don't. It's political suicide for them to do.
Belle Isle - A once beautiful piece of Detroit is being considered to be converted to a state park. How dare they! Hell, I used to walk to this place when I was a kid, and still drive there.
Who knows how this all will play out. It sure won't fix some of the core problems, because those are people problems. At least it's something. I'm hoping for a fix of the regional water service (provided by Detroit) and a safe commute. I have family that lives and works there. I'm lucky to live in one of those 'hostile' suburbs nearby. Maybe if basic things get addressed more businesses will relocate there, and create local jobs.
Wait... Detroit still has finances?
No, wait... Detroit still has people?
A credit card, that's been over limit for way too long. :(
They only have people at election time. :P
Wait... Detroit still has finances?
No, wait... Detroit still has people?
A credit card, that's been over limit for way too long. :(
They only have people at election time. :P
Hey now, necromancer's union local 508 is one of the few steady sources of jobs in the area.
So what if he reports to an elected official. This is basically all of your state ganging up on one town. So your town votes against the governor. Big deal. I bet he turns out 100,000 whites to vote who wouldn't have shown up otherwise in his favor sense he is stripping local control from black communities. I guess their council can still have meetings and still rename streets maybe?
There will be very little payback for this. He's going to get away with it.
Black communities are back to asking whites if they can vote for their own local officials. Sad.
Strawman the racism argument all you want, but it doesn't change the problem. MONEY!
BTW, more than a few black/ethnic/poor voters (even in the city of Detroit -gasp!) voted for this guy in the last election. Many of them were sick and tired of the way things have been going here. Black and white and all the rest, rich and poor alike. And the courts have upheld Public Act 4 (2011), which was an expansion of the original 1988 law. Heck, the city of Pontiac has been under one since 2009 (BEFORE this governor was even elected and PA 4 was approved)
Huffington Post Article and City Credit Ratings Impact and Basic Info
This is hardly carte blanche, and hopefully temporary. And yes, it will be challenged and held under a microscope every day. And if you have any delusions that the status quo was working feel free to take a drive around the area. Heck, take up residence for a few months and truly live it. I'll be here, still going to my old church in Detroit, and waiting for signs of progress or calamity.
Cheers.
Hey now, necromancer's union local 508 is one of the few steady sources of jobs in the area.Wait... Detroit still has finances?
No, wait... Detroit still has people?
A credit card, that's been over limit for way too long. :(
They only have people at election time. :P
Especially in election years. We still get dead voters showing up at the polls. Sad, but funny.
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Especially in election years. We still get dead voters showing up at the polls. Sad, but funny.Hey now, necromancer's union local 508 is one of the few steady sources of jobs in the area.Wait... Detroit still has finances?
No, wait... Detroit still has people?
A credit card, that's been over limit for way too long. :(
They only have people at election time. :P
Yeah. I grew up in Dearborn, near the corner of Greenfield and Tireman - just a couple houses on the Dearborn side of Tireman, actually - and the other side of the street is Detroit. And I think it's tragic the city's in the state it's in. When I was a kid, it was generally accepted the problem was corruption in the Detroit city government.
I remember a couple of times the Dearborn cops would hang out on our street for hours, watching these big black gold trimmed Cadillacs driving up and down the Detroit side of the city limits...just hoping the drug dealers would cross the city border into their jurisdiction so they could be arrested. The Detroit cops let them run free on the Detroit side, however.
:(
Corruption and incompetence, mixed in with a boatload of apathy.
We grew up just barely over the poverty level, but crime was never an option or desire in our household. Too many people make excuses for criminals, and ignore things because they're happening to someone else.
In the 70s and 80s, the Detroit mayor was more than happy to drive people out of the city so he could reign unchallenged. By the 90s the problems were endemic. And that type of cancer has been spreading into nearby areas. But let's keep throwing money at it, so people don't feel disenfranchised. Yeah, that will work.
The Kilpatrick regime spent more time figuring out how to bleed the system than figuring out how to actually use HUD and state funds. And some of that money was never tapped. Sick.
The only people actually doing anything positive are private. The city council is still made up of some long-timers, despite the problems. Amazing how they turn salaries into millions.
A simple drive thru the neighborhoods will show you the truth. Approx 60% of the homes are GONE, or burned wrecks.
I grew up in Warrendale (a couple streets past Evergreen and Warren), and can attest to this.
East sider here; Van D yke/Gratiot then 6 Mile/Gratiot.
Was in my old neighborhood yesterday. Drove past some newly wrecked houses, yet the street next to my church still has most of them standing and occupied. Creepy, how the blight jumps around. It's good to see how good people/neighbors can stand their ground.
Ever wonder why the RedBull airrace moved across the river to Windsor 2009/10/11 after being in Detroit 2008? Last minute unwritten permit squeeze just before opening act. One more opp chased out for greed.
Not surprised. I know of plenty of stories like that, even from groups doing charity work in the city. Putting the squeeze on charities is extra low.
I attended a meeting last month in the D where the developers/architects/contractors told us that it was so much better to work with the city on downtown projects than it was even 4 years ago. I'm hoping it's true, and not just people blowing smoke.