Originally Posted by
Lowell
If I had to choose one root problem, it would be that the City of Detroit has become the de facto quarantine for the region's people with troubles, the poor, the beyond poor homeless, the insane, the felons and ex-felons.
This creates a downward spiral of municipal unsustainability. These poor souls cannot / do not pay taxes. Instead, they require great resources to cover their needs, create crime, drive up insurance rates and discourage the more fortunate from living or doing business in the city.
Until this unfair burden is shifted from the City of Detroit's shoulders, no EFM or miracle worker will succeed. The only way out is for the rest of the region and the state to pay the City of Detroit [and other older city's in similar straits] for the 'service' of keeping these problems cordoned off.
This could be done not by giving money to the city [too many politics for that] but by making it a state tax free zone and provide home owner's and automotive tax credits for insurance rates paid beyond the average for the region. Criminal justice must be bolstered via the State Police and all crimes, large and small, vigorously investigated and prosecuted.