A Job I Wouldn't Want
I would not want to ever trade jobs with this woman. Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings. She probably has the most thankless job on the planet. Detroit's homicide rate is down and yet there were still 394 murders in Detroit last year. That's one a day with 29 to spare.
She does not have enough officers to do the job and the city can't afford to hire more. This creates a vicious cycle of crime drives out businesses, tax revenues fall, city can afford fewer police officers, crime gets worse, more businesses bail . . .
Detroit will soon be like Gotham City in the Batman movies with criminals everywhere, abandoned buildings everywhere, law enforcement seemingly nowhere and nothing to really hope for. It appears that Detroit can no longer generate the revenue needed to ensure its own survival. Modern Detroit seems to have no future and I lay the blame on the grave of Coleman Young, whose cronyism, racial politics, and graft began the cycle of destruction that neither Dennis Archer nor the current Mayor seem to be able to stop.
Detroit can go one of two ways if it is to survive.
The people can decide that it's their home and they're going to fight for it by doing voluntarily what the city cannot afford to pay for. Trash on the sidewalk It's our city, let's pick it up! Got a drug dealer or crime lord nearby? Anonymous tip to the police. I don't think this is going to happen.
The other way is unAmerican, but it may have to be done. Call in the military and put the worst neighborhoods under martial law. I don't want that to happen, nor does most of Detroit, but if the decline continues . . . well I could see it happening in ten to twenty years.
Nearby Flint isn't a whole lot better. Imagine an 80+ person brawl.
At a Chuck E Cheese family pizzeria.
Such is Flint.
She does not have enough officers to do the job and the city can't afford to hire more. This creates a vicious cycle of crime drives out businesses, tax revenues fall, city can afford fewer police officers, crime gets worse, more businesses bail . . .
Detroit will soon be like Gotham City in the Batman movies with criminals everywhere, abandoned buildings everywhere, law enforcement seemingly nowhere and nothing to really hope for. It appears that Detroit can no longer generate the revenue needed to ensure its own survival. Modern Detroit seems to have no future and I lay the blame on the grave of Coleman Young, whose cronyism, racial politics, and graft began the cycle of destruction that neither Dennis Archer nor the current Mayor seem to be able to stop.
Detroit can go one of two ways if it is to survive.
The people can decide that it's their home and they're going to fight for it by doing voluntarily what the city cannot afford to pay for. Trash on the sidewalk It's our city, let's pick it up! Got a drug dealer or crime lord nearby? Anonymous tip to the police. I don't think this is going to happen.
The other way is unAmerican, but it may have to be done. Call in the military and put the worst neighborhoods under martial law. I don't want that to happen, nor does most of Detroit, but if the decline continues . . . well I could see it happening in ten to twenty years.
Nearby Flint isn't a whole lot better. Imagine an 80+ person brawl.
At a Chuck E Cheese family pizzeria.
Such is Flint.
posted by shoprat at 7:23 PM
5 Comments:
SR- I think that you are being overly negative towards the largest city in our state. Yes, compared to Chicago, or even the Twin Cities, it's not as nice, but if you look at other midwestern cities I have been to like Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester (NY), and Syracuse, it has a lot going for it. The new stadiums, especially Comerica Park, the new Motor City Casino, Detroit Institute of Art, Riverwalk park, and tons of other new resturants, clubs, the Campus Martius park development anchored by Comuware and soon to be Joined by Quiken Loans, there is a new energy that I have not seen in ten years. Don't fotget all of the expansion on the southwest Mexican town area either.Detroit is making a comeback. Although I live in the suburbs, I love our city and enjoy spending time in it. I have never felt unsafe there. A lot of the homocides are "druggie on druggie" and people not involved in that kind of activity don't have a lot to worry about. Have you been to a Tiger game lately? How about one of the many fine mueseums? You like classical music, have you been to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra? They are one of the best in the country. The decline of Detroit has more to do with the economy than crime, but our great city will continue to move forward. I don't know when the last time was that you spent a weekend just hanging out seeing the sights was, but great things are happening down there!
That is horrible Shoprat! There are parts of Kansas City that are the same way. I believe it is at least partly moral decline that causes the economic problems. After all, what business owner would want to start up a business in that mess?
I don't think you are being overly negative at all, Shoprat!
I have a third suggestion: Hire Rudy Guiliani to clean it up. He did a great job in NYC. :)
Well I have to be Anonymous cuz I can't log in, I agree with Tim, As you know I have been all over and seen much, we were raised in a small "safe" town, so we were sheltered, Being in the Detroit and metro area is not as bad as it sounds, Yes there are murders, like Tim says its drug on drug or gang on gang, great let them sort it out and save some tax dollars. I have been to many of the cultural sites there and feel totally safe. We also have been Antiquing there. Its not all media hype, but figure the numbers on a per capita, None of us are living in a much better area.
Skip
No. Wrong. That's absolutely wrong. Just as with New Orleans, everyone needs to simply let Detroit tank. Only when all people but the knife-and-gun-bearing remain will there be any movement to a solution. I am more and more convinced that the nature of humans is such that common sense is the last refuge of the Oppressive.
BZ
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