Detroit 2019 +

[O3H]

I completely DIS-agree.
FEAR is parasitic upon society.
Many people live their entire 70, 80, 90 years and NEVER have a fire.
Fire can and is prevented everyday, and relentlessly asking people to pay,
for something that almost never happens is evil, immensely so.

Make the cops patrol and do the fire fighter role, IF and WHEN it occurs.
Dual duty more bang for the buck, eyes and ears on the streets.
When assholes shoot at the paramedics, they receive return rounds.

How do more , with less, should be the motto.
Not the more, more, more, more mantra repeated like intoxicated parrots

New thinking, new ideas --- time to flip it all around, be creative.

[stasu1213]

Downtown needs two-hour free parking to encourage people to drive in, park and walk around to shops and restaurants.

I am totally surprised that Dan Gilbert didn't have 2 hours free parking in his Z lot for those who are shopping downtown since most of the store are inside the buildings that he owned. I did suggest this but people on here had said that the idea was ridiculous. He cant rely on those who live downtown to support those shops for their are not enough people to do it. I admire him single handedly made downtown a shopping destination again but like other major cities most of the supporters of these stores come from all around and not just those living downtown. There also need to be SMART services that would run downtown on the weekends. That would bring more people to shop including events downtown without having to pay to park

[renf]

Is it accurate to state that no foreign vehicle companies have built new assembly plants in the Detroit area? I thought that Mazda built the Flat Rock plant and then later joined forces with Ford in operating it. I realize that it is now a major Ford assembly plant. The Indian firm, Mahindra, recently spent $230 million on plants in the area and now assembles their
Roxor vehicles in Auburn Hills. The French firm, Navya, set up a plant in
Saline and is now turning out a modest number of automated electric vehicles there.
It would be desirable if there were more diversity of employment in metro Detroit. We will see more medical sector employment as the population ages. But cars and trucks not going to disappear and Detroit will remain axis mundi for the vehicle industry with increasing employment in the high tech sector.

[313WX]

Is it accurate to state that no foreign vehicle companies have built new assembly plants in the Detroit area? I thought that Mazda built the Flat Rock plant and then later joined forces with Ford in operating it. I realize that it is now a major Ford assembly plant. The Indian firm, Mahindra, recently spent $230 million on plants in the area and now assembles their
Roxor vehicles in Auburn Hills. The French firm, Navya, set up a plant in
Saline and is now turning out a modest number of automated electric vehicles there.
It would be desirable if there were more diversity of employment in metro Detroit. We will see more medical sector employment as the population ages. But cars and trucks not going to disappear and Detroit will remain axis mundi for the vehicle industry with increasing employment in the high tech sector.

No foreign OEM has. Flat Rock was originally a Ford plant and only started building Mazda vehicles once Ford had a significant ownership stake in the company [[thus doesn't count).

In all fairness though, Detroit does still have the NA tech centers for Toyota, Nissan and Daimler, while Daimler builds their heavy duty trucks there [[Detroit Diesel).

[K-slice]

I completely DIS-agree.

Make the cops patrol and do the fire fighter role, IF and WHEN it occurs.
Dual duty more bang for the buck, eyes and ears on the streets.
When assholes shoot at the paramedics, they receive return rounds.

Cops having to fight fires and encouraging paramedics to get into shootouts. These are probably two of the worst ideas I've ever heard...

[DeLemur]

Cops having to fight fires and encouraging paramedics to get into shootouts. These are probably two of the worst ideas I've ever heard...

Lol, yeah you can barely get DPD to do pro-active patrolling, forget firefighting.

[Danny]

A Detroit-Wayne County amalgamation will not work. Too much municipal tax work. It will be very expensive. Racial and political divisions this City-County merger will increase conflicts whether a district that is black and poor vs. districts that black and rich and same goes with poor whites vs rich whites. Also ethnic communities will be still stuck their community flag waving stupidity.

A City-County Building in Gilbert Town Detroit will do.

[ABetterDetroit]

These endless threads about how “Detroit needs a new revenue stream!”... like it is within their control.

The State of Michigan makes all the rules.

Detroit is is a medium sized city with one third of its population living in poverty. Thinking that it is within their capability to do things it does not have the tools or resources for is beyond foolish.

[O3H]

Foolish is only for those who REFUSE to continue brainstorming.
Many are still stuck within their own mental parameters and fencing.

Others continue to look for solutions, invent new ones, and evolve forward.

Fire/Police MUST merge even more , to be truly effective

https://www.fireengineering.com/arti...forcement.html

https://www.fireengineering.com/arti...personnel.html

[ndavies]

Foolish is somebody thinking that posting on a public internet forum is actually doing something.

[O3H]

It acts as a sounding board to refine ideas .
Some actually take part in government and politics, eh.

[ndavies]

It's nothing more than an echo chamber when you shout down people with opposing views.

[Richard]

Foolish is only for those who REFUSE to continue brainstorming.
Many are still stuck within their own mental parameters and fencing.

Others continue to look for solutions, invent new ones, and evolve forward.

Fire/Police MUST merge even more , to be truly effective

https://www.fireengineering.com/arti...forcement.html

https://www.fireengineering.com/arti...personnel.html

I called my attorney and asked him if in his downtime he could come mow my grass,he told me with the amount he is charging me for the phone call I could hire 3 lawn crews.

You are talking about two completely different professions that costs the city revenue in training,you still need X amount of officers per citizen ratio and X amount of firefighters.

I highly doubt as it stands the police are spending half of their shift in a doughnut shop.

The second pay to read link refers to crowd control while fighting fires in a rough neighborhood,so you still need double personnel in order to achieve the same results,not to even mention it is probably not a good idea to be running into a burning building with a gun belt on.

Granted they already have fire hoses that could be used for crowd control but that opens up a whole different set of issues,and is probably indicative of a much bigger problem and discussion then the actual fire.

I guess if one wanted to rob a bank you could have an accomplice throw some cats up in a tree on the other side of town in order to distract half of the force.

It may be feasible in a really small town with a volunteer fire department but even sheriff Andy seemed to be pretty busy.

You are talking about putting lives at risk,fighter fighters have been fighting fires for 100s of years and LEO have been doing their job for 100s of years,I am sure they have in their minds what works best and usually it is backed up by a community that elects responsible leaders that allows them to do their jobs in the most responsible way.

[O3H]

I think some are full of crap. They never traveled, and don't know much.
A first responder who has medical training and "crime training"
could easily size up the needs at a situation and be extremely useful.

One of dozens of example in 200 countries around the world --
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/categor...ce-motorbikes/



Mobilizing a full blown massive truck with multiple people to merely
find out a cat is caught in the tree for a 911 call is quite ludicrous.
A motorcycle with large side bags could handle a defib unit, meds, and
move inbetween traffic snarls responding quickly to crime or fire.
Once on the scene the issue could be sized up from a professional view
- and more intensive dispatches could then respond.

The Wall Street Journal noted that 90 percent of firehouse calls
were to accompany ambulances to medical emergencies.

We WASTE an amazing amount of time for ""minor"" disturbances
with a huge amount of resources who use equip and time in-effectively.

Parasitic Insurance and Union personal who want to protect their ass
-- that's what it comes down to -- profit from your fear of pain !!!!!
Statistically it almost never happens, few see crime or fire in their entire lives

Many other countries are poor, impoverished, and cash strapped,
-- yet they find a way to take care of crisis - without the hindrance --
of the third party naysayers and wanna bees and legal weasels in the mix

Cut the nonsense out :
the inevitable expansion of government-funded bureaucracies and illustrates how public-sector unions have continued to grow and gain power even as unions have lost power and membership in the private sector. For example, while unions represent nearly half of all local government employees, only 7% of private sector employees are represented by unions.

DETROIT can NOT afford it, period !!!
The legacy costs of the current way of doing things is Astronomical.

Change it it, legally, out of necessity, and for the betterment of society

[night-timer]

Ask Dan Gilbert what should be done, outside of Downtown. He may have some good suggestions.

Tourism won't bring the city back. Detroit gets big crowds and suburban-ites for game days [[again Downtown/Midtown only) but there's an increased police presence and private security [[at least to my mind?) to keep things running smoothly at such times.

Downtown has seen good progress for ten years or more. Are the builders/companies who get hired to refurbish the 're-purposed' buildings all from Detroit? They should be, it would be a good start. Some of those projects take a few years to complete.

[O3H]

I think it's time to BREAK the old ways of thinking.

Make work, actually, physically, and put tools in peoples hands
"creating" a place where people show up and build stuff.
Screw the unions, the constraints, the weasels and as Nike - Just do It.
Plenty of old timers willing to mentor, have apprentices, etc., etc.
Perhaps authoritarian, totalitarian, type movement is needed to move forward
Work Programs like the USA had years ago, give folks pride/paycheck.

[Hermod]

It's not just Detroit - the whole state needs some other revenue stream other than the Big Three. The Big Three have been in terminal decline for decades. When not demanding tax breaks, they are offshoring jobs, dropping product lines, abandoning markets and selling off pieces of themselves to raise cash. The ripple effect of that decline, plus NAFTA, has cost the state something like 800,000 jobs.

While the Big Three have closed plants in Michigan [[and elsewhere), foreign auto makers have built more than 20 auto plants in the U.S. None of those foreign auto maker plants were built in Michigan. The big question is "why not?"

Furthermore, it’s not just foreign auto manufacturers avoiding Michigan. Boeing recently built a huge new plant in the Carolinas. Airbus will soon be building airliners in Alabama. Someone needs to ask why not Michigan?

Right to Work without the stifling effort of unions. While unions grew as they truly represented workers, they failed as they represented more their hierarchy and failed to look for the long term. The unions failed to see that effects of the technology/off-shoring boom and sub-optimized for the short term.

[ASilvaman]

The city needs a better revenue stream in 2019

- Just because it's """balanced"""" a budget don't mean much
Hardly any in = hardly anything out,
but it's balanced, is a piss poor attitude for the future.

All those tax breaks for PoleTown worked soooo wonderfully

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/...utdown/577678/

The plant is only 33 years old,
and GM spent $121 million to renovate it less than five years ago

STILL want to bet on Auto for Detroit - you are a FOOL !!!!!!!!!!

Good Lord he's at it again.

[O3H]

Thank you for calling me Lord - you may bow down and kiss my shoes

[Hypestyles]

city leadership should attract and incubate more diverse small businesses to the city, in different neighborhoods. small scale manufacturing can be a part of it but it can't be the only thing anymore.