Detroit: “There Is NO ‘Plan’!”
Long but interesting article about public meetings held by the Mayor of Detroit. There is stuff in here that will make right wing types go ballistic but the bulleted points in the middle of the article are food for thought.
Detroit: “There Is NO ‘Plan’!”
http://countercurrents.org/stephens240910.htm
Excerpts:
Between September 14 and 22, 2010, Detroit experienced five extraordinary, well-attended public meetings on the subject of land use and related public policy issues. ....
But in their fear of real Detroiters, the organizers failed to offer any concrete ideas about community economic development and land, democracy and planning, environment, economy or justice – or indeed, any substantive ideas about much of anything.
Detroit has unparalleled assets for pursuing a strategy of asset-based development in the 21st century economy: great water resources, an incredible amount of open and relatively affordable urban land, and an enviable history and culture. There is virtually no equivalent example today of underutilized potential. This is a strong, dynamic community of survivors who want to do more than merely survive: we want Detroiters to thrive in the new century.
The first of these five public meetings demonstrated how out of touch the city’s official leadership is, when they didn’t realize that a call for public input toward radical change would draw a thousand people or so to Greater Grace Temple. They completely failed to understand the desperation and hunger for new vision and leadership in our communities. Moreover, the final cluelessness of Detroit’s business leadership consists in not recognizing that this time the “business cycle” isn’t going to ride to their rescue. This time it will be ordinary people, working at the grassroots and effectively challenging officials through democratic conversations, confrontations, and movement building power who – like our great-grandparents in the CIO during the Great Depression - will make the necessary changes in the face of massive transformations entailed by the crises all around us. Unless and until these officials join us in meaningful democratic conversations about genuine social change and justice, their “Detroit Works” project is doomed to failure.
What Detroit needs; Detroiters and Suburbanites will reject!
The residents of Detroit and not just the city officials are out of touch with reality and do not fully recognize the social and economic calamity the city has met! We have moved into a post industrial age and Detroit does not have the population base to make an effective trasition into the 21st century. Only 25% of 8th graders are graduating high school, and of those who manage to graduate, very few are equipped to pursue graduate studies. 70% of babies born in the city are born to unwed mothers and the majority are teenage mothers. HOW will Detroit supply the human capital to empower any sort of emerging economic sector?????
WHAT DETROIT needs is a huge influx of urban educated professionals to push for any semblance of sustainability. MEANING the future of this city relies almost entirely on the goodwill of people in suburbs as well as outside the state and even outside the country. These Public Works discussions illustrated how isolated and suspicious Detroiters are of "outsiders"....comments such as: "we don't want rich suburbanites moving into these cleared-out lands and buying it up." I guess they prefer the status quo, or cleared out lands with few habitated homes on a street, and believe that high school dropouts of the future will rejuvenate the city! Detroit needs to clear out a great portion of the city, create a New Detroit. A city with technology districts that will attract outside investors. There is a way to attract investors from India, Brazil, China, and other countries by a Visa program where non-nationals can obtain American visas if they invest a minimum of $500,000 and create 50 jobs. In addition, clean and safe housing with a schooling system administered in this New Detroit area could possibly attract professionals. Short of that, FORGET IT! Lastly, Detroit is actually relatively small compared to other cities. It's only 140 square miles. Detroit needs to consolidate suburbs in Wayne County...Livonia down to Woodhaven increasing the population to 1.6 million and increasing the tax base. But Suburban comminities would shreak at this idea partially due to the racial divide and due to the crime and poor schooling system. This is what Detroit needs. 1)Clear land, 2)Technology Districts, 3)Attract new educated professionals, 4)Consolidate 200 square miles of Wayne county, and 5)Revamp the schooling system. Other than that, there is no hope!!!!!!