So explain this to me? Every couple of days the Packard Plant burns. Every couple of weeks it's the main subject in an unflattering national story about Detroit's downfall. Everyday people trespass there doing God knows what, most of which is probably illegal. It obviously presents the biggest danger to citizens and firefighters in Detroit. And we hear nothing from Dave Bing or Ken Cockrell or George Jackson about tearing down this dangerous eyesore.

Instead the DEGC and city are spending millions of dollars tearing down the Lafayette, random Ilitch buildings behind the Fox Theater and Tiger Stadium. These buildings have never caught fire. They are not used as a dumping ground. They are [[were) not the magnet for illegal activity that the Packard Plant is or present the same fatal danger toward first responders that the Packard Plant does.

The Lafayette is in downtown and next door to the John Ferchill's Book Cadillac Hotel. The land the buildings stood on behind the Fox is still owned by the Ilitches [[even though they were torn down with taxpayer money) where the Ilitches pocket $20 for every car that parks there. Tiger Stadium had millions of dollars of federal money ear marked for it and a group of prominent backers working to turn it into a baseball tourism Mecca, but some influential people considered it competition for Comerica Park and a possibly place for a new home for the Red Wings. The Packard Plant and countless other old industrial ruins are deep in the neighborhoods, far from downtown's movers and shakers.

Someone please explain to me why the city, the DEGC, George Jackson, Ken Cockrell and Mayor Bing are prioritizing spending what little tax payer money the city has left on costly demolitions this way?

Tallying up Detroit's absurdities
http://www.freep.com/article/2009062...+s+absurdities