This Won't Fix Detroit!!!!

The town I live in lost a factory about 10 years ago and replaced with a really decent hotel and convention center. The problem is that tourism to this particular city is next to non-existent. (It is only a few blocks from where I live, and I sometimes go by it at night and see three or four windows lit up in the entire building.) We simply do not need this large of a hotel.

Detroit is going to repeat this mistake.

Pizza Barons, the Ilitch family, founders of Little Caesar's, are going to invest in properties in downtown Detroit and make improvements on several landmarks. What they plan to do is good, in and of itself, but believing that hotels, theatres, etc. will turn the city of Detroit around is delusional. These businesses are important but they need to be supported by wealth producing industries. Nothing is going to turn Detroit around until wealth PRODUCING businesses return to this city and more of its suburbs. An unemployment rate of 15% will not support expensive theatres.

There are things Detroit can do. Detroit needs to get rid of its living wage laws which drive businesses out of Detroit. Detroit needs to clean up its crime and violence. Detroit's city government needs to clean out its corruption and cronyism. The people of Detroit need to remember the idea of a work ethic. The unions need to give the city and private employers some breathing room, which I do not see happening. I don't see any of this happening. When I was in school Detroit was America's fifth largest city and it has lost population since then, having dropped below the one million mark. The outlook for Detroit is very bleak.