Stop blaming politicians for Detroit's problem.

[nain rouge]

So many people like to blame much of the downfall of Detroit on poor political leadership, but is that really the true story? Yes, Detroit's had more than its fair share of bad politicians, but you have to look at it this way: how many good, smart politicians would willingly get themselves into a doomed situation? Detroit had so many problems facing it from an economic and social perspective that there probably wasn't anything that really could've been done politically to "save" it. Detroit was a sinking ship - like the Titanic after it hit the iceberg - and didn't matter how good of a captain you were. This ship was gonna sink.

Jerome Cavanagh, for example was considered a rising star when he was first elected mayor, but in the end the stress of trying to manage Detroit most likely contributed to his early, untimely death. How many honest politicians that want to have a successful career would willingly follow his footsteps? A few, but not many.

Look at Gary, Cincinnati, Youngstown, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Toledo, Saginaw, Flint, Decatur, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Warren [[Ohio), south Chicago, Muncie [[Indiana), and etc. Do you think it's all the fault of politicians that those cities severely declined, or were there bigger issues at play? It's convenient to blame politicians, but maybe we should look in the mirror instead.

If you ask me, it's clear that we made decisions both socially and economically to kill these cities. Maybe some of it was inadvertent, but we did it nonetheless. You can cry about Coleman Young or Kwame Kilpatrick, but they weren't the real culprits in Detroit's decline. We were.

[Hermod]

If you ask me, it's clear that we made decisions both socially and economically to kill these cities. Maybe some of it was inadvertent, but we did it nonetheless. You can cry about Coleman Young or Kwame Kilpatrick, but they weren't the real culprits in Detroit's decline. We were.

Who is this "we" that made these decisions?

Is it the people who decided not to buy over-priced, poorly designed, and unreliable cars?

Is it the people who felt their quality of life slipping and made the decision to vote with their feet?

Was it a federal state, or county decision?

[313hero]

Great Post!!! Always Thought the same thing. The PEOPLE are the Problem. And not just because the "vote for bad people" but because WE are the ones destroying our neighborhoods. I've never seen a politician do a DRIVE BY and kill innocent children... And for those that "voted with their feet" you TOO are apart of the problem. Less people = less revenue. duh

[mwilbert]

I don't see the conflict here.

Are bad/incompetent/crooked politicians responsible for Detroit's underlying problems? No.

Did they make them worse? Yes.

[313WX]

It's the [[ill-informed) people who elect the politicians in Detroit [[including the Jim Foutses and L. Brooks Pattersons).

Though, to be fair, the OP did make one good point. No sane person would touch today's Detroit with a 10-foot pole.

[JBMcB]

It's not the politician's fault that the population and tax base has declined steadily. It *is* their fault that they did nothing to reign in spending with the reduced tax base, causing debts to balloon hundreds of times over.

It's also their fault that they've botched audits and haven't met requirements for federal matching funds and reimbursements.

[313WX]

It's not the politician's fault that the population and tax base has declined steadily. It *is* their fault that they did nothing to reign in spending with the reduced tax base, causing debts to balloon hundreds of times over..

It's also their fault that they haven't been creative enough to figure out ways to expand our economic base and increase revenues, beyond poaching from their neighbor.

[Danny]

People will continue to blame our politicians for Detroit's dilemnas for not feeding our proletarian cause from education to improving our infrastructure.

Politicians were blamed for demise of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, Poletown, Chinatown and destruction of Downtown Detroit and genetrification.

Here's some Detroit Mayors being blamed!

1. Charles Trowbridge was blamed for not controlling the colera outbreak.

2. Charles Bowles was blamed for uneccessary raids in Detroit neighborhoods, siding with the Klu Klux Klan, and allegedly executed the murder of investigative journalist Jerry Buckley.

3. Richard Reading was blamed for graft racketeering scandals for the Detroit Police dept. and other bribes.

4. Albert Cobo was blamed for being racist!

5. Louis Miriani was blamed for supporting the destruction of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley for the development of Chrysler [[I-75) FWY

6. Jerome Cavanaugh was blamed for not stopping the 1967 riot on time

7. Coleman Young was blamed for being a political bigot! The destruction of Poletown, the downsizing of police, decay of city bus transportation, increase of street crimes and the destruction of Downtown Detroit's regional infrastructure.

8. Dennis Archer was blamed for price of gentrification and proposal of either downsize or de-annex certian parts of Detroit neighborhoods to the suburbs.

9. Kwame Kilpatrick was blamed A LOT for his alleged stripper party in the Manoogian Mansion, the alleged murder of Tamera Green, firing of Detroit Police Chief Jerry Brown, buying his wife a Red Lincoln Navigator for his wife, commited perjury testifying about the text message sexual relationship scandal of his lover Christine Beatty, and possible text messaging scandals of kickbacks, extortions and bribes while using city taxpayers expences.

10. Dave Bing was blamed for downsizing Detroit public services from its police dept. to its EMS workers.

As long as polticians don't answer our mantra to improve Detroit's image, people will place them totally responsible for their works.

[Hermod]

Here is a thought:

Most of the counties in the northern part of the lower peninsula and in the upper peninsula have gone through a hundred years of population losses and losses of their key industries. How were they smart enough to manage the decline in population and tax revenues? How did they avoid becoming crime-infested slums?

[Detroitnerd]

Here is a thought:

Most of the counties in the northern part of the lower peninsula and in the upper peninsula have gone through a hundred years of population losses and losses of their key industries. How were they smart enough to manage the decline in population and tax revenues? How did they avoid becoming crime-infested slums?

They are none too prosperous out there. The amount of For Sale signs in Michigan outside of Grand Traverse and Benzie counties shows that times are really tough out there right now.

But how did they avoid becoming slums even as they were disinvested? That's pretty simple. They had the good fortune to be white. Slums are created in public-private partnership for minorities using de jure segregation where legal, de facto segregation where not. Since the poor residents of Oscoda county aren't black, for instance, there is no reason to install a slum for them.

[nain rouge]

But how did they avoid becoming slums even as they were disinvested?

It's a lot easier to manage and fix up an area with maybe 10,000 or 20,000 people than city with 2,000,000. The bigger the city, the bigger the problems.

It *is* their fault that they did nothing to reign in spending with the reduced tax base, causing debts to balloon hundreds of times over.

This argument is used to all the time, but I think it's way off the mark. All that money the Detroit government was partially what kept the city around 1 million people for so long. All those "wasteful" government jobs and projects, for example, were what kept a lot of Detroiters employed and spending money when corporations were treating the city like it was full of toxic sludge.

Was the spending always as efficient as it should've been? No. But that's a problem all governments seem to have, not just Detroit's government. After all, look at much money our federal government wastes!

Let's look at it this way: what would Detroit be like today if the city government had always made all the right decisions? I still see it being a city of under a million. I think Hamtramck's government has done a pretty good job, and that city still has less than half of its peak population. There is less urban decay in Hamtramck than Detroit, but again, because Hamtrack was only built for about 55,000 people, the problems were easier to get a grip on.

There were broader trends at play that damaged these cities [[Detroit, Hamtramck, Gary, Cincinnati, Youngstown, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Toledo, Saginaw, Flint, Decatur, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Warren [Ohio], south Chicago, Muncie [Indiana], and etc.), such as the growth of the suburbs and commuter culture, deindustrialization [[these cities had a lot of factories that were considered obsolete structurally that just got abandoned by corporations) , and an explosion of racial tensions.

The politicians are just a footnote in all this. The failure of so many cities at once in our region just shows how hopeless and overwhelming the problem was in hindsight. And it almost automatically makes every political decision made look bad, because detractors can point at the present state of cities like Detroit and Flint and say, "They must've really messed up to make it look like this!" But in reality, they were probably heading towards that point no matter what.

In fact, of all the cities I've mentioned, only Indianapolis has somewhat managed to get its act together. However, if you drive around there, you'll see that many of the neighborhoods within the traditional or historic city boundaries are missing homes just like Detroit, and downtown was considered a place to avoid until maybe only 15 years ago.

The only thing Indy was able to do different - which our politicians failed to do - was annex most of its county/the suburbs, placing everything under Indy's jurisdiction. That gave politicians the money to properly invest in the infrastructure of the inner city, although it took awhile to really get things going.

I'd blame Metro Detroit's racial tensions for killing any sort of "Unigov" more than any politicians, though. The citizens of most suburbs just wouldn't have stood for it.

[stasu1213]

Harry Truman, politician and president, had once said "The buck stops here"

[Hermod]

Harry Truman, politician and president, had once said "The buck stops here"

Then it must be Obama's fault!

[MaxCady]

The politicians can't be blamed for the winds of change that have been blowing through Detroit for decades. The dramatic economic and social changes that have occurred have reshaped the city in ways that are likely permanent.

It's a city built for 2 million that houses less than half that and the population seems to be dropping on a daily basis. I think Detroit still has a future but it needs to be viewed in terms of it's new reality.

Shrinking the city borders and condensing the city into a smaller, more manageable area is a pretty radical idea but it may be necessary to insure it's survival.

[illwill]

The politicians can't be blamed for the winds of change that have been blowing through Detroit for decades. The dramatic economic and social changes that have occurred have reshaped the city in ways that are likely permanent.

It's a city built for 2 million that houses less than half that and the population seems to be dropping on a daily basis. I think Detroit still has a future but it needs to be viewed in terms of it's new reality.

Shrinking the city borders and condensing the city into a smaller, more manageable area is a pretty radical idea but it may be necessary to insure it's survival.

Spot on!

This is the ONLY solution!