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City, not state... How on Earth did they let it get to this. Bring in the EFM!!
Fifty city parks will close in the spring as a result of the Detroit City Council's inaction on a state lease of Belle Isle earlier this week, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced in a news conference today.
The lease agreement would have saved the city $6.2 million, Bing said.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...NEWS/130209988
Yeah for the rapists and muggers who will have more cover to lurk about in.
Hah! Incredible but not surprising at all! What a victory for the city! A "jewel" is saved while the rest is left in rubble to further decay - including the jewel! Just great!
Can't get better decision making than this!
I thank goodness to have a passport to get away over the bridge or tunnel for an hour or two when it all just gets to be too much.
Seems like the city govt. would rather rule over a slum than be a part of the rebirth.
So is there a list of these 19 parks that are supposed to get "top notch" or improved services through the Detroit Future City plan?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2598938.html
Easier to stay in power ruling over a slum than just sharing part of a rebirth. Sad, but true.Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitkid
Sad but telling commentary by Bill McGraw on DeadlineDetroit.
Full commentaryQuote:
Closing a park means halting maintenance. By early summer, the weedy grass in those parks will be waist high. Litter will gather. Playground equipment will get scrapped, and ruins will remain.
City council didn't vote down the Belle Isle proposal. I don't undertsand why the state had to pull the proposal? It's like Snyder said I'm going to take my ball and go home.
DNR needed to put its budget together. City Council had months to look over the lease. Voting to put off the vote was essentially voting it down, given that they were well aware of the end-of-January timeline.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shollin
Let's be a little more realistic here. Snyder shows up with a softball and says "Hey, you guy's wanna play some baseball?" The Council says "Hell no, we're either playing basketball, or you can take your, [[insert racial slur here) and GTFO!" "C'mon, I've got the bats, gloves, bases, everything we need." "What part of we're playing basketball or nothing doesn't your [[insert racial slur here) understand?" "Are you sure? Tell you what, how about we play baseball for just a couple of hours, then we'll switch to basketball?" "We're not playing anything with your [[insert racial slur here), get it?". Then Snyder takes his ball and goes home.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shollin
Farwell, Heilmann, Zussman, Fargo-Fenton, Peterson, Palmer, Balduck, Belle Isle, Clark, Patton, Hart Plaza, Lafayette Plaissance, Lafayette Central, Lafayette Entry, Roosevelt, Voigt, Joe Prance [[Rouge), LittlefieldQuote:
Originally Posted by getmoore
It's in your link!
^^^^^Lol! I think they updated the link with that info. Thanks :)
Round up all those racists who were in the peanut gallery during clowncil meetings about Belle Isle, get Watson and Kenyatta, give them all rakes, shovels, and garbage bags and have them clean up the parks when they start to stink. Clowncil was intimidated by these people, let them run the show, now they face the consequences of giving the City of Detroit no parks at all!
What a bunch of unintelligent people.
If it's left on the table with no withdrawal date it merely becomes a bargaining chip that can be used in all the future begging requirements that will crop up. Council had at least 10 months to say Yes/No and they didn't say anything so a reasonable person would assume they don't need or want it. They can always ask for it to be re-instated. Snyder isn't taking his ball home he's simply making sensible decisions with our money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shollin
That would be vision! To even have them initiate or promote such a community event would be shocking!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cla1945
Can Bing do a budget amendment without the City Council's approval?
Bing actions are rather "childlike" in nature. He is showing his true colors. This is why he was a failure running Bing Steel. He is going to do major damage to the residents of this city before he leaves office next January. His master had told him to close the parks and the puppet just obliged
And more places to dump bodies in the worst case scenario...
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcole
The State of Michigan has never financially supported the maintenance of Belle Isle. How did these state dollars become part of any city of Detroit budget? How can not doing what has never been done cause Bing to need to close 50 unrelated city parks?
Probably, [[in Bing's mind), a tactful political move.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevgoblue
This is exactly why nthe old senile dingbat needs to go back to Franklin yesterday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevgoblue
First off, the money for Belle Isle has already been budgeted out, along with the money for the other parks. All the fool's doing now is giving the people he already harbors contempt for even more reason to hate him.
Second, while he's making these grandiose announcements to the media, I'm not even sure he can do this without approval from the city council.
just close the hole city most of it is a dump anyways ,
Why hasn't Bing asked for more lemonade stands?
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...nancial-crisis
City council is intent on the 0 steps forward, 10 steps backward plan. Save a rotting park on an island because it was a jewel 50 years ago, and sacrifice 50 parks in Detroit. But hey, they still own all that land AND Belle Isle. Clearly a win for the city :rolleyes:
I don't think this will be that big of a deal. By "maintaining" and having the parks "open" all they really mean is that they get the grass cut every once in a while with zero other maintenance on equipment/structures/litter blah blah blah. Most parks in my area are maintained by the local residents. With the exception of large scale lawn mowing equipment I don't foresee anything different then things are now. They certainly won't be able to fence off parks if they don't have money. So keep calm and carry on.
I found this statement from the Crain’s article amazing:
“Four years ago, the city had 317 parks. Following the closure of 210 parks in the 2008-09 fiscal year and the announcement of 50 more park closures today, the city will have a park portfolio that has been reduced 82 percent.”
In the 1950’s and 60’s, we lived just a couple of blocks from Jayne Field and Lasky Park. I remember going to watch the Union softball leagues play at night under the lights in Jayne Field. Lasky Recreation Center had everything: A basketball court with bleachers, lockers & showers, a boxing rink, an auditorium on the top floor, ping-pong, and you could “check out” baseball equipment to use outside. The park even had a concrete pond area that was used for ice skating in the winter that we called the duck pond.
What happened?? I just can’t believe it!!
Black Detroit will come to an end soon. That is what happens if plantation politics is in the way of regular politics. Bring in the EFM and Detroit will change in the blinking of your eyes.
This is an opportunity for Dan Gilbert to became EFM of Detroit. He will but they whole city for a dollar.
This park situation is the height of absurb....nice going clowncil.
The problem is Danny that people with the ability of Dan Gilbert don't want a job like EFM of Detroit. There isn't enough money or challenge in it and there can't be a good result. I'm not sure what "He will but they whole city for a dollar." effect will have, but I would gamble it won't work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny
This is partly wrong. The job of EM of Detroit would be very challenging, and it is doubtful that Gilbert is primarily motivated by money at this point in his career. It may well not be something he would be interested in at all, but certainly other rich businessmen have run cities, as witness Mr. Bloomberg in NYC. However, Gilbert has a stronger reason not to do this, which is that he has such major interests in Detroit that he would be constantly hamstrung by conflict of interest problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by coracle
Just read about the parks closing on the Chicago "L" station news monitors. This story is everywhere I guess. A couple waiting passengers asked how the hell you "close" a park.
When your posts don't reek of racism, maybe I'll take them more seriously.Quote:
Originally Posted by cla1945
Are you actually saying that I'm incorrect in my assumptions that most of the people in the audience at the council meetings regarding Belle Isle, and that Watson and Kenyatta are not racist?Quote:
Originally Posted by downtownguy
I don't care if you take me seriously or not, my opinions are mine.
If anyone cares about these parks, can't they just cut the grass themselves? The residents of Corktown took over maintaining the Tiger Stadium site because the city wasn't doing anything, and it looks great.
Bing gave a report on Fox2Detroit this AM that he did not endorse this idea. That he felt the Belle Isle option was the best... I will see if I can find a vid on his comments.
I understand that three council persons did not go along with the NO to the plan. Which three were they?
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/20...e-deal-fallout
Here's the list:
Closing Parks [[Spring 2013 - No Maintenance)
Biraga
Howarth
Sasser
Brookins
Marruso
Manning-Beland
Dueweke
Maheras
Manz
Messmer
Chandler
Mollicone
Hackett
Milan
O'Hair
Outer Dr. - Burgess
Rosemont - Acacia
Bennett
Cass
Dues
Michigan-Third
Mt. Elliott
Murphy
Pirrien
Savage
Bishop
Calvert
Franklin
Keidan
Laker
Richard Allen
Russell Woods
Schultz
Cross
Fitzpatrick
Phelps
Rough [[portion)
Simanek
Stein
Cook
Diack
Fields
Kelley
Sawyer
Varier
Romanowski
Windgle
Hyde
Lugar
Sherwood
St. Martin
I believe Brown, Jenkins and Tate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zacha341
You're right. What I wrote is partly [[all) wrong. I guess my thoughts were based on the State and City Managements allowing the city to drift too far into difficulties over the decades to make it possible for anybody to effect a successful recovery; and I just don't think Dan Gilbert is in to lost causes. [[I wrote it to reply to Danny who's posts always interest me).Quote:
Originally Posted by mwilbert
Of course you're entitled to your opinions as am I. But if you're going to post here, be ready for feedback. I'm so tired of white people [[of which I share membership) using black racists as a reason to justify their own racist rants. And that's how I read most of yours. Prove me otherwise. I'll sleep better at night.Quote:
Originally Posted by cla1945
People saying stupid things, even things with some racial content, aren't necessarily racists. My guess is that Watson and Kenyatta and many of their supporters have deluded themselves about the state of the city for so long that they can't deal with the necessity of ceding some control in order to get help. They sometimes put things in terms of race because that is part of how they [[and a whole lot of other people) look at the world.
But I think it would be a mistake to think that in and of itself that makes them racists. They seem to be people who are committed to an unworkable vision of the city and get overly excited when it is challenged, and aren't any too articulate or careful in their choice of words. But when those idiot Republicans made their inane comments about rape last year, I didn't assume they were misogynists; I assumed they were fools, and I pretty much think the same about Watson and Kenyatta.
So, this is all a manufactured crisis. Bing is "closing" 50 parks [[that is to say, deferring what maintenance there is) and may not even have the authority to do so. So he's overstepping his authority to do something that has little impact to make a big scene in hopes of making Detroit City Council look bad.
And, given the way a lot of people, not all of them racists, hate Detroit City Council, I'm not surprised to see the illusion working on those who want to believe it.
Yes, send Bing back to his gated mansion. Let's get somebody with a vision for Detroit that doesn't come out of corporate boardrooms or nonprofit-funded think tanks.
The mistake was not making a big scene early enough that it would matterQuote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
Yes, let's demand they be city/county apparatchiks instead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
You mean Big Mike? God help us...Quote:
Originally Posted by bailey
No mention of Troester Park, Troester near Hayes.
Has this one already been closed?
Just checked the map. Our neighborhood park in Aviation near Tireman is on the hit list. We kids went up there all the time back in the 60's-70's. Neighborhood kids still go up there to play, swing, etc.
In the summer, it looks so bad when you go down Tireman. The Dearborn side is maintained regularly [[grass cut etc.) but on the Detroit side the grass is always overgrown until the city gets to it.
I never get when people say stuff like this. Let's see... do you still live there? No? Well, why did you move, then?Quote:
Originally Posted by CassTechGrad
And there's your answer.
Maybe it's because it's never ending? Always one thing immediately after another. It is hard to believe sometimes...Quote:
Originally Posted by nain rouge
I never found it hard to believe. When crime increases, rather than retrenching and doubling up our efforts as a society, we generally choose to move away because it's the most efficient solution. Consequently, buildings fall apart, since no one lives in or rents them anymore. It's a simple equation. I get that at this point that some of the problems have grown so large that it would be unfair to ask individual Detroiters in the city's bad neighborhoods to put on some kind of heroic effort to save their area. You got to do what's good for you.
But it's no mystery how we got here or why it keeps getting worse...
Is this an attempt at humor?Quote:
Originally Posted by stasu1213
I find it funny how so much more anger is directed at Bing than at the city counsel. They are a bunch of mindless amateurs that are trying to make a name for themselves and this is what comes out of it. They should have taken the governors proposal with open arms, but they didn't, and now they've blown it. Not only would the state have payed yearly to maintain it, but they would have also paid to improve it, and Detroit still owns it. Such fools.
Can you explain to me why he would not have the authority? If that's the case then who would have the authority to stop him from closing one of, or all of, those parks?Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
I see Cass Park is on the hit list. Great. It can be sketchy enough with cut grass. I'm hoping some do-gooders will step up to the plate and cut the grass there for the good of the neighborhood. Given its proximity to Masonic Temple and the fact he's going to get massive handouts for his new hockey arena it really ought to be Illitch.
Maybe he can deduct it out of his City tax payments?Quote:
Originally Posted by KJ5