Detroit/Wayne County as a City/County consolidation
My wife and I just returned from a trip to the Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg, TN to be exact. Every time I go on a trip I try to take in what a city has to offer, why people visit, and what Detroit could do to help improve it's city. My thoughts led me to digging up some statistics, and something I ran across in the past came to light, as well as many other things that caught my eye. First, I'm gonna throw some rankings out there.
Population rankings along with area in square miles
#1 New York, NY - 470
#2 LA, CA -500
#3 Chicago, IL - 234
#4 Houston, TX - 601
#5 Philadelphia, PA - 135
#6 Phoenix, AZ - 517
#7 San Antonio, TX - 517
#8 San Diego, CA - 412
#9 Dallas, TX - 385
#10 San Jose, CA - 461
#11 Detroit, MI - 143
#12 Indy, IN - 361
Rankings of the top 12 cities by population density
#1 New York, NY
#2 Philadelphia, PA
#3 Chicago, IL
#4 LA, CA
#5 Detroit, MI
#6 Houston, TX
#7 San Antonio, TX
#8 Phoenix, AZ
#9 San Diego, CA
#10 Dallas, TX
#11 San Jose, CA
#12 Indy, IN
What I find most interesting is the ranking by population density. Perhaps one of the greatest excuses as to why Detroit doesn't have businesses or mass transit always seems to relate to the city's population density, and yet when compared to the other top dozen US cities by population, Detroit ranks #5. So while Detroit may have fallen from the #3 or #4 spot in population during it's heyday, it still holds it's own in regards to density. Back in 1950, Detroit's density would have been nearly 14,000, placing it right there with Philly in the #2 spot today. By today's standards, even if Detroit were to drop to 800,000 people this census, the density would still be around 5,600, still in the #5 spot by a healthy margin.
Moving on, another distinct disadvantage that Detroit faces today is that the growing cities have much larger borders. Some nearly 4x the size of Detroit, such as Houston, which covers 601 square miles. These much larger cities aren't nearly as effected by population shifts as Detroit. Let's face it, in a 600 square mile city, if somebody works in the downtown area, how far outlying are they really willing to commute?
All this brings me to my thread topic, city-county consolidation. If Detroit was to encompass all of Wayne County, the population would rise to around 2.0 million people, placing Detroit in the #6 spot in terms of numbers, #1 in terms of size at 672 sq/mi, though population density would drop us down to the #10 spot. Yet all the federal dollars are based on the number of people, not the density of a city. Services, such as fire/police/government would all be combined, thus saving the region money. Damn near all of metro Detroit, aside from Wyandotte, already on on the Detroit Water system. A consolidation would level out the costs, eliminating the constant battle/complaints of charges for water.
Is this concept too far out there? Indianapolis, IN, Kansas City, MO, Nashville, TN, Louisville, KY, and Lexington,KY all operate as cities encompassing an entire county. A regional tax, one lower than the typical Detroiter or city worker pay could be put into effect. You can see, Detroit has the deck stacked against us. At our peak, we were one of the most dense cities in the country, seemingly busting at the seams, nearly on par with New York's density today. It would seem that we only had one way to go, and that was down.
When it comes to City/County consolidation, Detroit/Wayne County is probably one of the last places on earth I can see it happening. There remains too much "Us vs Them" regarding city and suburb. So, with a distinct disadvantage, and lacking warm weather, Detroit needs to look at other options, what tools do we have to work with? Detroit, she's one unique animal in so many ways, some good, some dreadful. Since I'm in a glass half full mood, let's focus on the good ones.
Detroit has many unique features that no other city has to the same degree. We have 3 major sporting events, all walking distance from one another. With a little luck, in the very near future, that could grow to 4. I can't think of any other city with all 4 professional teams walking distance to one another, let alone 3. We have 3 permanent casinos, also all walking distance from one another. For the trifecta of entertainment, we have one of the largest theatre districts in the country, said to be second only to Broadway in New York when it comes to seating. Detroit Institute of Arts ranks amongst the top art collections there is. We have Belle Isle, which at 982 acres, is much larger that even New York's Central Park at 843 acres. We have an international riverwalk for the first time in the city's history, with a port authority accepting cruise liners set to open this year. Light rail is set to break ground this fall, hopefully the first step in a master plan to make mass transit a reality.
We have all this, and yet we struggle. Our schools are collapsing, as are the homes. Yet on paper, by the numbers, we're not nearly as dead as the nation chooses to label us. So my question is, where to we go from here? Is a city/county consolidation nothing more than a dream? Would it help, or simply make us a sprawling/unmanagible city? Should our focus be on Philly, a city nearly the same size, yet with the 2 million people that Detroit once had? With arguably much harsher winters than us, is it's east coast location it's saving grace? Chicago at nearly 100 more sq/mi in size also maintains a healthy population and living environment, should our focus be on what they have done?
Hopefully this gets the gears moving and leads to a great thread, as sometimes...even though the answers seem so obvious, I still have to scratch my head while patroling the streets and ask "How did this happen?"
