Cheerleader-in-Chief's State of the City

[sumas]

I was listening to WCHB this evening after work; Ms. Gaddis had Sam Riddle on as an in-studio guest, and also State Sen. Bert Johnson, to react to the mayor's speech. Mr. Johnson's comments were critical but nuanced; otherwise, things seemed to be fairly reactionary.

I've come to really hate the political discourse among some urban Detroiters. It seems to rarely rise above the level of "we hate everybody"/ everybody is a sellout/ The conspiracy of 'THEY'/'THEM' are always in the mix/ Coleman Young's ghost needs to come back and run the city/ every candidate has to have some super-perfectly Afrocentric bonafides.. It just gets to be a b____fest and frequently degenerates into scorched-earth religious rhetoric, but nobody's told that they need to vote to try and effect real change; settling on conspiracies with anonymous culprits doesn't cut it. I'm sick of hearing the g**damned Illuminati diatribes..

Don't get discouraged. In the neighborhoods its just fellowship. I can't brag about my neighbors enough. It isn't black or white, just quality of life. We are all embrasive. Ignored so long we all needed each other to get by.

I appreciated our mayor remembering neighborhoods outside of downtown and mid town still exist.

[sumas]

Forgot to say we have hispanic and Asians, Christians, Moslems and Agnostics in our mix.

Also forgot to say I agree people need to VOTE.

Divisive rhetoric needs to be ignored.

[Smirnoff]

Any mention of collecting the owed $254+ million in fees and other costs related to parking violations, civil infractions, misdemeanor traffic and drunken-driving violations and other misdemeanor violations from the 36th district court.....?????

[Spartan]

I've been tallying the numbers from the Detroit Dashboard in a spreadsheet since they started it, now seems like a good time to visit this. These numbers are since the end of July, so it's about 6 months worth of data. Percentages and times are average over the time period.

New Streetlights: 21,097
Tons of Illegal Dumping Removed: 13,951
City Parks Mowed: 98%
Blighted Homes Removed: 2,834
Vacant Homes Legal Notice Posted: 1,144
Nuisance Suits Filed: 880
Vacant Home Renovation Agreements: 176
EMS Response Time: 12m14s
Police Response Time: 17m40s

[ABetterDetroit]

I've been tallying the numbers from the Detroit Dashboard in a spreadsheet since they started it, now seems like a good time to visit this. These numbers are since the end of July, so it's about 6 months worth of data. Percentages and times are average over the time period.

New Streetlights: 21,097
Tons of Illegal Dumping Removed: 13,951
City Parks Mowed: 98%
Blighted Homes Removed: 2,834
Vacant Homes Legal Notice Posted: 1,144
Nuisance Suits Filed: 880
Vacant Home Renovation Agreements: 176
EMS Response Time: 12m14s
Police Response Time: 17m40s

This is significant progress. Your spreadsheet would be worthy of its own thread Spartan.

[Spartan]

This is significant progress. Your spreadsheet would be worthy of its own thread Spartan.

At some point I'd like to do some charting/graphing of the data, and I'll probably create a thread then. Maybe now would be good, since we're around 6 months.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I recall that not long ago the Mayor mentioned the huge amount of time he had been spending on the bankruptcy. Hopefully, with that behind him he can make even more progress.

[sumas]

Absolutely amazed. A neighbor dropped over and we heard this noise. We looked out and a huge commercial truck was re shoveling and salting the street. So bemused!

Thank you Mayor. Love that man. Promises and delivery are rare.

[DetroitBoy]

Absolutely amazed. A neighbor dropped over and we heard this noise. We looked out and a huge commercial truck was re shoveling and salting the street. So bemused!

Thank you Mayor. Love that man. Promises and delivery are rare.

He's a great man and Mayor for sure!

[Danny]

He's a great man and Mayor for sure!

Of course, He's a mayor that get the job done. Not Cobo, Cavanagh, Gribbs, Young, Archer, Kilpatrick, Cockerel and Bing. The last Detroit mayor the got the job done was Jefferies before he died.

[rjlj]

Danny has 4182 posts and nothing to say.

Of course, He's a mayor that get the job done. Not Cobo, Cavanagh, Gribbs, Young, Archer, Kilpatrick, Cockerel and Bing. The last Detroit mayor the got the job done was Jefferies before he died.

[sumas]

Of course, He's a mayor that get the job done. Not Cobo, Cavanagh, Gribbs, Young, Archer, Kilpatrick, Cockerel and Bing. The last Detroit mayor the got the job done was Jefferies before he died.

Interesting points. Since everyone says the city has been in decline for 50 yrs you covered most of the mayors. My favorite will always remain Pingree, could write a book on him, but to be honest I know nothing about Jefferies, will look into updating my knowledge.

[Thruster315]

Sometimes the city needs a little boost of self confidence. Is Mike Duggan the guy to do it? Sure why not? I'm not saying the guy's a savior by any means nor is he far superior to other mayors of this city [[time will tell) but in his short tenure so far he seems to have gotten out there the most, been most visible where he needed to be, and has actually provided the citizens of the city some form of visible leadership.

Personally I dug his speech and nearly teared up when he spoke about our City's chess champs. It might be small potatoes to some but as someone who has won some small awards as a kid that age, that sort of recognition sticks with you for a long time. You're telling me that the parents of those kids weren't busting out their DVRs and just about beaming with pride? They should be and to be mentioned by the Mayor? Bonus. But I think it's little moments like this that we should be proud of our accomplishments.

For far too long we tend to look at the negative aspects of this city [[and they're out there). Maybe it takes a guy like Duggan to remind us why we're still here. We're not cast off idiots who can't leave. We do have things in this region we're fiercely proud of and those things need to be celebrated. We self loathe far too much and should take a slice out of this speech and remind ourselves that while we still have a sh!tload to do, we do still have some things to be damned proud about.

[Gannon]

Gannon wrote [[and Sumas supported) this: "....shame you cannot put in an order to that serial arsonist who is conveniently doing the clearing for the Hantz Group...

Hantz Group conspirancy fears anyone?

Just so you know, Steve Neavling reports that the fires in January, for instance, were concentrated in the following zip codes:

48228
48203
48227
48205
48238
48208
48204

He writes:

"The highest concentration of fires was in west-side neighborhoods bounded by Michigan, West Grand River, Ford and Puritan. On the east side, the area near the old State Fairgrounds also was hit hard."

So, nary a mention of a fire in the 48214 neighborhood.

I am unsure of the exact zip code of the Hantz property concentration. Is it any of the zips that Neavling tallied above?

To insinuate that Hantz is paying off an arsonist is libelous - and both of your identities are very well-known around town. You should both be more careful.

The sure defense against libel is the truth and John Hantz could bring that defense to bear against people who libel him on a public forum.

Sure thing.

Since you brought him up, here's Mr. Neavling's latest article...seems the po-po and fire department are doing their best to ignore the arson issue, if not bury it in blatantly false statistics and a certain lack of investigations.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2015/0...tion-of-fires/


Would it have been a funnier joke if I had aimed it towards the ugly situation around Tyree's neighborhood?! Although, there are options on those properties as well...


Cheers!

[sumas]

Sure thing.

Since you brought him up, here's Mr. Neavling's latest article...seems the po-po and fire department are doing their best to ignore the arson issue, if not bury it in blatantly false statistics and a certain lack of investigations.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2015/0...tion-of-fires/


Would it have been a funnier joke if I had aimed it towards the ugly situation around Tyree's neighborhood?! Although, there are options on those properties as well...


Cheers!

Thank you for reminding of Tyrees properties, forgot that. That arson doesn't exist Right?

Then there is the crap happening regarding the carpet house blues land and fines levied. That's fun too. They showed up to fight the tickets and "city attorneys" were not prepared. Rescheduled for April 1st, April Fools Day. Hummm!

[FlyOnTheWall]

Sometimes the city needs a little boost of self confidence. Is Mike Duggan the guy to do it? Sure why not? I'm not saying the guy's a savior by any means nor is he far superior to other mayors of this city [[time will tell) but in his short tenure so far he seems to have gotten out there the most, been most visible where he needed to be, and has actually provided the citizens of the city some form of visible leadership.

Personally I dug his speech and nearly teared up when he spoke about our City's chess champs. It might be small potatoes to some but as someone who has won some small awards as a kid that age, that sort of recognition sticks with you for a long time. You're telling me that the parents of those kids weren't busting out their DVRs and just about beaming with pride? They should be and to be mentioned by the Mayor? Bonus. But I think it's little moments like this that we should be proud of our accomplishments.

For far too long we tend to look at the negative aspects of this city [[and they're out there). Maybe it takes a guy like Duggan to remind us why we're still here. We're not cast off idiots who can't leave. We do have things in this region we're fiercely proud of and those things need to be celebrated. We self loathe far too much and should take a slice out of this speech and remind ourselves that while we still have a sh!tload to do, we do still have some things to be damned proud about.

Great response! We need more positive stuff like this on DYes.

[313WX]

He is getting things done, the street lights being the most visible.

It depends on who you ask.

Many DEtroiters in the neighborhoods would say they're worse off [[I.E. darker) than before as the number of streetlights have been reduced and the new streetlights lack the diffusers the old Mercury bulbs had...

[Gannon]

Thank you for reminding of Tyrees properties, forgot that. That arson doesn't exist Right?

Then there is the crap happening regarding the carpet house blues land and fines levied. That's fun too. They showed up to fight the tickets and "city attorneys" were not prepared. Rescheduled for April 1st, April Fools Day. Hummm!

I know this is off-topic, and deserves its own thread...but I'm continuing a point made by someone earlier.

Mr. Neavling, one of the metro areas last real journalists, has made a dent in this administration's manipulation of the fire statistics reported by the Duggan team.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2015/0...er-our-report/


So, now the task is to compare the delta...the difference...between the fires which are actually investigated and reported/tallied as arson and those which're ignored and thusly made invisible to the FBI data collection.

It would be nice to know if there is a distinct trend in un-reported arson fires within a particular area. It would be damning if Tyree's properties, and those around his which he never acquired but decorated with his artistic statements, were not counted...simply because they were such big news, including a supposed investigation.

Just trying to keep the good mayor honest. We need him to remain squeaky clean in every single aspect of his administration, because ANY deviation from truth allows cracks in ethics and morals which...given the trends in this town throughout history...most certainly lead to full-on corruption and abuse.


Sincerely,
John