Originally Posted by
DetroitPole
First off, this has nothing to do with the merits of the city, police, and fire employees who currently serve the city every day, wherever they live. I don't think you have to live here to do just as honorable a job as anyone else.
Buy American, really tasteful of you to use the family of a fallen fire fighter to advance your argument. You're a class act. You can count on me ignoring your inane posts from now on. WHAT YOU POST, I WON'T BOTHER TO READ!!!!
I refuse to concede that all of Detroit is some ring of hell unfit for human existence. Of course, a lot of it is. However there are plenty of people who do raise family here who don't get raped and pillaged or turn to a life of crime. I live in one such neighborhood.
However as a life-long Detroiter I'm sure you noticed the near instantaneous decline of many neighborhoods when Engler forced Detroit to drop residency requirements. It isn't about having a round-the-clock cop nearby to bust the hoodlums, it is about neighborhoods with middle class people with stable lives and jobs.
This has been Detroit's unsolvable and greatest problem for the past 50-some odd years: the flight of the middle class. This was something politically the city was actually able to do about it.
Nobody is holding a gun to someone's head and forcing people to move here. If you don't find Detroit suitable for habitation, then you can look for a job elsewhere. Right now look at job postings at non-profit organizations that require buy-in from there employees to their missions - with many Jewish organizations that means support of Isreal. The same goes for pro-life or pro-choice orgs. Not to mention the ever-prevalent pee-in-the-cup or more invasive hair sample to flip burgers or make coffee. I consider those to be more invasive than residency.
It may limit the talent pool, but then again it may not. With so many people out of work in Metro Detroit, people are willing to do nearly anything for a job. They are willing to follow jobs anywhere, even if it means uprooting their lives and families. Take that with the changing attitudes about Detroit and I think a surprising number of people would be willing to move to the city to get a full-time job with benefits.
You mention the city income tax. Yes, it is miniscule. But take 10,000 people and have them start paying property taxes...well now we're talking some desperately needed funds.
Let's also not act so outraged about the residency requirement or like it is some insane, revolutionary idea. It was on the books for a long time and people dealt with it.
What I will say about the recent events with the rash of fires is, buried in the Free Press, many of the off-duty firefighters who were called to be asked to come in while the infernos raged lived as far as 25 miles away from the city. This made the situation all the more dangerous. What if there were a civil disturbance or something that required DPD to call off-duty cops to ask them to come in and they're off in Lake Orion?
Again, in the interest of fairness, I strongly oppose using it arbitrarily against people. Not to mention this is all theoretical, since the residency requirement is now illegal.