Planning guru Maurice Cox

[O3H]

Detroit has MANY people who simply do not own a car.
We are no longer the Motor City and never will be again.

Maurice Cox brings a new perspective to the city.
One that embraces the current facts, he lives in the now !!!
[[ not the nonsense of yesteryear and long ago )

[Zacha341]

I'm driving an older car, paid for, that's my living now. Just trying to hold things down within my range. I like driving.

Link re. Cox please....

[kathy2trips]

Perhaps Maurice Cox needs to read some old Detroit newspapers to discover why people aren't so keen to walk, or even bicycle around anymore. It's called crime.

Even as far back as the 1950s the papers are rife with random rapes, robberies and murders. People were literally snatched off the streets. And the further forward in time you go, the worse it gets.

Here are just 2 from the Detroit Free Press: The first one is the JoAnn Gillespie case from 1953. The second is the Elizabeth Moulgher case from 1960. Both were killed just a few houses away from their homes. Both were dragged off the street. Both were walking home from the movies.



The fact is that people feel safer in their cars than walking. How does the "guru" plan on insuring the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists? Pardon my skepticism, but I'm a native Detroiter; I know my city. This "n'awlins" guy doesn't.



Then there was the police officer in 1975 riding his bike to work who was stabbed and robbed. Unlike the women above, he was packing heat.

[southen]

Are you actually passing off articles from the 50's and 60's as a reason we shouldn't consider walking or biking as alternatives to cars? Good lord.

[Honky Tonk]

Are you actually passing off articles from the 50's and 60's as a reason we shouldn't consider walking or biking as alternatives to cars? Good lord.

Is 2017 still too far back for you?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...UzAON25OwbLlb5

[southen]

That is far more relevant.

Another thread for you to whine about bicycles... great.

[Junjie]

Detroit has MANY people who simply do not own a car.
We are no longer the Motor City and never will be again.

Maurice Cox brings a new perspective to the city.
One that embraces the current facts, he lives in the now !!!
[[ not the nonsense of yesteryear and long ago )

Everything we've seen in terms of public plans from Cox and his department shows that he's a top shelf planning official. Detroit is getting plans that are competitive with anything being done today in successful cities. They're lucky to have him and I think the neighborhood strategy - shoring up neighborhoods that are not too far gone and building them into viable, walkable, bike-able urban areas oriented around local commercial corridors - is exactly what is needed.

[O3H]

Every city has crime - a simple bike is nothing to steal.
But that nice new Dodge Charger will definitely get jacked quick !!!
Sure Cox is a cyclist, but he brings soooo much more to the city.

Detroit cannot continue to hope/wish/pray/etc/etc for items from the past

Time to move forward , evolve, change, and progress to the future

[Junjie]

Perhaps Maurice Cox needs to read some old Detroit newspapers to discover why people aren't so keen to walk, or even bicycle around anymore. It's called crime. blahblah scaremongering

Yeah, I'm sure Cox has no idea there's crime in Detroit and has never dealt with such things in New Orleans.

All you're showing is that you know nothing about Cox and that you think perpetuating the same failed ideas of the last 70 years will somehow lead to a different result. Guess what? Every other major city in America - literally every single one, possibly with the exception of St. Louis - has been more successful than Detroit ever since WW2. Maybe it's time to accept a little outside advice.

Fortunately for Detroit, Cox is dealing with reality, where a third of Detroiters don't have cars and the young, successful professionals that the city desperately needs to attract are looking for walkable neighborhoods. Sorry if that bothers you.

[kathy2trips]

I'm all for walking and cycling. I'm just concerned about doing it in a safe environment. How will Cox address that?

How many of you have been to New Orleans recently? I was there in March. It's not a safe city. Just saying, I feel safer in my car. Nobody wants to be where they don't feel safe. It's a reasonable concern.

[O3H]

The push to make Detroit better goes beyond the simple bicycle, okay.

The problem isn’t that the middle-class is moving in.
The problem is more about allowing poor people to join middle class.
Alan Mallachnew has written about Detroit
“The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America”

"Nearly 40 percent of Detroit is impoverished, and job training
should be the city’s top priority over splashy, publicly subsidized
projects like Little Caesars Arena" - via Alan Mallachnew

Maurice Cox - is quite aware that viable working-class neighborhoods have declined drastically as residents move out and become concentrated poverty areas. The number of neighborhoods where that has happened is far greater than the number that have seen gentrification.

[Honky Tonk]

That is far more relevant.

Another thread for you to whine about bicycles... great.

Oh hell no, another thread for you to expound on how another overpriced coffee shop opening is making Detroit great again!

[Honky Tonk]

I'm all for walking and cycling. I'm just concerned about doing it in a safe environment. How will Cox address that?

How many of you have been to New Orleans recently? I was there in March. It's not a safe city. Just saying, I feel safer in my car. Nobody wants to be where they don't feel safe. It's a reasonable concern.

It's more then a reasonable concern, kathy2trips, you've hit the nail on the head. Go to one of these town hall meetings with Duggan or Chang, and ask them about police or road repair. They'll tell you in a heartbeat about expense, no fundage, maybe next week, etc. but spending money on bullshit, hey, no problem, we got it.

[O3H]

The city needs more than just Gilbert's own planner Melissa Dittmer
at the reigns. Cox is that catalyst to revitalize Detroit

[Wesley Mouch]

...
The problem isn’t that the middle-class is moving in.
The problem is more about allowing poor people to join middle class.

In our Republicans of Detroit meeting today, we decided not to allow any more poor people to join the middle class by a 3-1 vote. So that's all settled.

Do you really think somewhere there's a decision not to 'allow' middle class?

Alan Mallachnew has written about Detroit
“The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America”

"Nearly 40 percent of Detroit is impoverished, and job training
should be the city’s top priority over splashy, publicly subsidized
projects like Little Caesars Arena" - via Alan Mallachnew

I always chuckle when I read that 'job training' is needed.

Hey, I got an idea. Let's raise the minimum wage so Detroit youth are just as costly to hire as college graduates. Then we'll give them some good government-designed job training -- since we all know that the City of Detroit know just how to train people for jobs. Why just yesterday I heard just how all it takes is a little 'job training', and voila! Unemployed yesterday. Today, they're all skilled tradesman. Just sprinkle a little 'job training' provided by DPS and we've solved all our problems. No longer any need at all for jobs anymore at places like LCA. We're all employed now!

Maurice Cox - is quite aware that viable working-class neighborhoods have declined drastically as residents move out and become concentrated poverty areas. The number of neighborhoods where that has happened is far greater than the number that have seen gentrification.

Is gentrification now an approved DY strategy for urban renewal?

[O3H]

Honestly, truthfully, and by fact - gentrification is really not the problem.
It's a massive red herring, a falsehood, a myth.

[dtowncitylover]

While I do agree that walking and biking are generally good for a city to have and I'm happy to see safer alternatives and designs for bikers and pedestrians around the city, crime is a major factor of why people wouldn't want to do such things. However two things would help: density and well-lit streets.

"Eyes on the street" isn't some far-fetched idea. Jane Jacobs wasn't wrong about this. As well all know, as well populated as Detroit was it was still a sprawled city full of blocks and blocks of single family housing and only intermittent apartment blocks. Therefore, people weren't always walking up and down the street because they drove places. They weren't sitting on porches like Brooklyn stoops. Not all neighborhoods, Hamtramck and Southwest were/are great urban oasis'. In my gatherings of what Detroit was like from 1930-1970, the major roads were congested and full of people but the residential streets were quiet, dimly lit, and full of trees.

And I don't think I need to explain to importance of a well-lit street. Seems pretty self-evident.

But at the end of the day, there's always going to be crime. I'm just glad we live in an era where science and technology helps us solve crimes and rape kits are now being tested.

But when you become a dense environment, you don't drive. You walk, bike, or take transit.

Hey, I got an idea. Let's raise the minimum wage so Detroit youth are just as costly to hire as college graduates. Then we'll give them some good government-designed job training -- since we all know that the City of Detroit know just how to train people for jobs. Why just yesterday I heard just how all it takes is a little 'job training', and voila! Unemployed yesterday. Today, they're all skilled tradesman. Just sprinkle a little 'job training' provided by DPS and we've solved all our problems. No longer any need at all for jobs anymore at places like LCA. We're all employed now!

I don't understand what you're trying to say here. You don't want Detroit's youth to be skilled tradesmen/women? You don't wish DPS youth had better access and opportunities? I.e. didn't need to afford a car [[and could spend that money on education) and could rely on public transit or safe bikeways. What if they were taught and understood their own self-worth and applied to community colleges to become welders, carpenters, and machinists?

Detroit youth used to leave high school, enter the factory, and have 2.5 kids and a cottage up north by 30.

[O3H]

Perhaps people need to focus on facts, not hype.

High-poverty neighborhoods decades ago - are still high-poverty now.
Many in Detroit have an income problem, and we all know a home costs money.
**The displacement part of the gentrification discussion needs to focus
on who is actually moving into those poverty stricken areas - no one**
Gentrification is, actually, truthfully, quite rare.

Detroit has an issue of increasing isolation of neighborhoods via extreme poverty.

[p69rrh51]

In my travels around the city in the last 5 years I have observed a significant increase in foot and bicycle traffic. I have seen bicyclists in areas of the city that I would think twice about driving my car. One of my barometers is the number of people walking their dogs which has increased considerably. I am a "car" guy, but I think the bicycle lanes are exactly what is needed. Its time to stop crying about the lanes and get used to driving with them. Also the lanes seem to be cutting down on the number of those jaywalking but time will tell on that headache.

[Zacha341]

Ok, HT I told you to play nice when that subject came up again.... or 'time-out' for YOU!

Oh hell no, another thread for you to expound on how another overpriced coffee shop opening is making Detroit great again!

[O3H]

I'll bet you could ask 1,000 people in downtown Detroit who was Maurice Cox and only 5 might come up with the answer. People for the most part do very little in-depth reading about what brings real change to the D.

[southen]

Oh hell no, another thread for you to expound on how another overpriced coffee shop opening is making Detroit great again!

I guess when you are senile you start to make stuff up. That sucks.

[O3H]

For those that want more police - force a change in the law.
*Detroit taxpayers in recent years spent more than $2.5 million
on the training for the officers who left within two years.
* Detroit’s police shortage is exacerbated by an exodus of recruits who receive free training through the city’s police academy only to leave for a suburban force upon graduation.

[Honky Tonk]

I guess when you are senile you start to make stuff up. That sucks.

I guess when the truth hits close to home, photo-boy, you can always resort to name calling.

[southen]

I guess when the truth hits close to home, photo-boy, you can always resort to name calling.

Literally read what you just wrote. Goodnight.