Stephen Henderson Finally Gets It Right [[On Detroit's Situation)

[townonenorth]

"This is what happens when those left behind in the city borrow 33 times what the whole place is worth, and continue to make promises — to employees and residents — that are the most irresponsible form of economic fantasy."

I can't agree with that. Many of those who made promises in the forms of pensions and retiree health care have long ago left the city, leaving those left behind to pay. The same is true of infrastructure which was put in place by the same people who abandoned the city and left those left behind to pay for its upkeep. Or how about the tax abatements and other goodies doled out to the Ilitches over the past several decades? A good portion of the debt attributed to Detroit is owed by DWSD, which is an obligation of everyone using the system including the suburbs. It's an easy play for Henderson to lay the blame at the people left behind. But the truth is that it's taken decades for Detroit to reach its current state and much of that has nothing to do with the decisions made by those still in the city.

I would think that Orr will probably be looking at every tax abatement that has been passed by city council over the last few years, and will probably try and find a way to either completely negate them, or to work a compromise deal. Business as usual can't continue, and this is one part of the puzzle that could be beneficial to the city at some point financially. It may put a chill on business development, but whatever.

[canuck]

Suburban overbuilding is complicit in bankrupting Detroit just as are inept elected officials. How does a metropolitan area accumulate a minimum of 40 miles of abandoned land in its core without some seriously misguided regional policies?

Yes, exactly. Why no regional oversight or even on the state level?

How do you justify sprawl at the expense of a depopulating, gangster-ridden badly policed, financially bankrupt city for so long? Do you necessarily have to play into an Us vs Them dynamic for 50 years?

The EM situation may be the way out, the opportunity the "region" is looking for to transform Detroit into a metropolitan entity, with higher priorities than the parochial feuding it knows now. Will it be another missed opportunity?

[Honky Tonk]

How do you justify sprawl at the expense of a depopulating, gangster-ridden badly policed, financially bankrupt city for so long?

The same way the G. W. Bush administration justified looking the other way while people making $29K were written $365K home loans, it was generating tax revenue. Homes werre being built, contractors were making money, suppliers were making money, road and infrastructure builders were making money. Screw Detroit, that's old, here's your new McMansion. It was the land of milk and honey. Now the milk's soured, and the honey is full of flies. Still, if Detroit was made to be a more inviting place, maybe so many people wouldn't have taken off.

[canuck]

The same way the G. W. Bush administration justified looking the other way while people making $29K were written $365K home loans, it was generating tax revenue. Homes werre being built, contractors were making money, suppliers were making money, road and infrastructure builders were making money. Screw Detroit, that's old, here's your new McMansion. It was the land of milk and honey. Now the milk's soured, and the honey is full of flies. Still, if Detroit was made to be a more inviting place, maybe so many people wouldn't have taken off.

Yes, also, on the one hand, Detroit wanted the rest of the world out of it's business, and the suburbs couldnt have agreed more with that position. There may be hope in that if positions soften, if the need to coalesce is strong enough; then a new entity would come about. The opportunities to make Detroit a more attractive metro are many, once you factor in the need for better safety.

IMO, I think that the need for regional mass transit could help the region derive some measure of collective pride if the systems are strinkingly modern and all-encompassing. I think of Vancouver's skytrain or parts of the L.A. metro system on account of lower costs. What the metro of Detroit needs is a federating series of projects that can create a sense of cityhood, of a positive entity.

You need to look at how federating police and emergency services, cultural and other services would be serviced through one regional authority, leaving small municipal entities alone to manage local issues. Part of the muni tax bill would go to the federated services and the other to more mundane stuff such as road repairs, construction codes whatnot. In that sense you dont scare people into a situation where they "lose" that sense of belonging to a Novi or a Southfield, and you help them gain a new metro and the pride of place of a larger Detroit.

Transit is the obvious answer to a federating cause but there are many others.