Tainted by Kwame?

**johnsmith** · November-20-09, 09:34 AM

Has all this Kwame BS had any affect on how you feel about those highly regarded Detroit figures like Dan Gilbert, Peter Karmanos and Roger Penske?

Without a doubt, and the affect is to the extreme negative. Although my respect for Karmanos already dropped like a turd in a toilet bowl back when he gave Kwame a so-called "job."

**detroitbred** · November-20-09, 09:47 AM

Absolutley no respect for any of them, and I am especially disappointed in Roger Penske. I always had the impression he was a straight up kind guy. Not so apparently. But I guess the beauty of being a rich businessman in this area is that you don't give a rat's ass about what the "little people" think of you. They should be ashamed of themselves, tho I'm sure they are not.

**Detroitnerd** · November-20-09, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by detroitbred

Absolutley no respect for any of them, and I am especially disappointed in Roger Penske. I always had the impression he was a straight up kind guy. Not so apparently. But I guess the beauty of being a rich businessman in this area is that you don't give a rat's ass about what the "little people" think of you. They should be ashamed of themselves, tho I'm sure they are not.

Ever since they laid down the concrete pad on Belle Isle, my estimation of Penske has dropped considerably. Now here's another reason.

Isn't it clear to everybody how Detroit works? The powerful get what they want. Men run around with cash in bags. "Gifts" magically become "personal loans" become "my wife's property." You scratch my back, I scratch yours.

But leave your car at the meter one nanosecond too long and that's a fine. Put your garbage container out a half-hour too early and that's a fine. Enjoy garbage pickup? Pay more for it!

We need some serious activism. Either that, or to merge the 40-odd municipalities into one big one so that nonsense won't fly anymore.

**jackie5275** · November-20-09, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

We need some serious activism. Either that, or to merge the 40-odd municipalities into one big one so that nonsense won't fly anymore.

Well, the risk you run with merging is the flip side. The nonsense will increase 40-odd times.

**Detroitnerd** · November-20-09, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

Well, the risk you run with merging is the flip side. The nonsense will increase 40-odd times.

Only if certain people keep trying to move out to 55 Mile Road. How well has that worked for the region? We need real regionalism.

**jackie5275** · November-20-09, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Only if certain people keep trying to move out to 55 Mile Road. How well has that worked for the region? We need real regionalism.

It hasn't, but can't the corruption expand into the regionalism?

**Detroitnerd** · November-20-09, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

It hasn't, but can't the corruption expand into the regionalism?

No, my point is that poor people get poor government. All these efforts to stabilize the region by restricting poverty to "their" municipalities [[and moving away) isn't working. We have expanding areas of poverty, and we use up more land, duplicate more services, and, at the end of the day, say it's "their" problem. Were we all one municipality, we'd rid ourselves of the delusion that we can just "move away" from our problems and start to seriously deal with them.

But I see your point. That's why lots of African-Americans have bitterly joked that "integration is the time between the first black family moving in and the last white family moving out."