Nolan Finley's Sunday editorial

**R8RBOB** · September-19-10, 03:15 PM

Discuss.....

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100...roit-s-decline

**BrushStart** · September-19-10, 03:28 PM

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100919/OPINION03/9190309/The-three-I-s-of-Detroit-s-decline

I read this in the Detroit News this morning and I would like to propose my own three I's of Southeast Michigan's decline: Incompetence, Idiocy, and Irritation.

"Look how screwed up Detroit is. Why can't those people get their act together?" This is the general message of blogger Nolan Finley's opinion editorial. To the appeal of his followers, Finley loves to point out just how far and fast Detroit is sinking. He says "Let's get real" and asks what kind of jobs Detroit is going to attract with its residents. In other words, he's saying Detroit can't attract any jobs. Hate to break it to you Mr. Finley, but you and your readers need take a look in the mirror. Finley describes the suburbs as having to save Detroiters by throwing them a lifeline, when in fact, the entire region can't save itself from itself. It's like a drowning person trying to float on the back of another drowning person. Hint: WE’RE ALL STILL DROWNING!

As suburban Detroit points its fingers and chastises the City of Detroit, the rest of the world points its collective fingers and laughs at all of Southeast Michigan. Our region has become a running joke, and yes, that includes the great Oakland County.

Thus, my first "I" is Incompetence. The entire region is comprised of incompetent leaders and an electorate too idiotic to realize that the region is dying. This region can't even complete simple projects to make itself competitive with other metros. It is totally incapable of helping itself. Like a frog in boiling water, Metro Detroit is oblivious to its own demise. People like Finley are standing above the pot, pouring salt into the water causing it to boil faster. His article accomplishes nothing except to stir up more destructive divisiveness and infighting. Somehow, people like Finley think Detroit is all that's screwed up, but fail to see the forest through the trees. This is no longer a City of Detroit issue, Finley. The suburbs are bleeding residents and people at a rapid pace. Over 80,000 lost in the last decade alone and obviously accelerating. What are you doing Mr. Finley other than using the disaster that is Detroit as a benchmark to gauge the success of an entirely dysfunctional region in the throes of its own massive failure? Incompetence is across the board.

Next, we have Idiocy, for all the people in Detroit and the suburbs who think that they can save themselves without the other. Detroit, you can’t. I don’t care how much you dislike the folks across 8 Mile, they have the money that needs to be invested here. Suburbs, this region doesn’t exist without Detroit because nobody wants to live in a region that has no city. The series of strip malls lining your street are not attracting people and businesses. What you think of as “nice and clean” is actually “tiresome and boring.” Sorry... Keep stalling regional cooperation and there’s no hope at all for Southeast Michigan. Mr. Finley, you’ve just been nominated to turn out the lights.

Lastly, is Irritation. This is because living in this region is irritating. It is irritating to wake up and read a worthless, divisive piece like Finley’s with my Sunday morning coffee. Most people with any sense have already left Metro Detroit. I now have more friends in Chicago than I do Detroit, and they can’t figure out why I stay. To be honest, because I love Detroit, but if people like you, Finley, keep driving a wedge between the independently failing parts of this region, the rest of us are gone too. Everyone has a limit. Stop irritating people and start INSPIRING people. This region is not going to turn itself around with more of the same animosity towards itself.

Buy American · September-19-10, 03:43 PM

He hit the nail on the head with this one...I agree with him 100%.

**313WX** · September-19-10, 03:45 PM

Great post BrushStart.

**mwilbert** · September-19-10, 03:46 PM

Well, he's probably right about the ignorance part--the schools are terrible and the population undereducated. I'm not so sure about illegitimacy; it is rapidly becoming the norm in the US and doesn't really differentiate Detroit from other places. It seems to me like the big problem is the teenage birth rate which is insanely high and much, much higher than the national average.

I wish I knew a socially acceptable, non-coercive way to prevent teenage girls from having children that would not require decades to work, but I don't. Personally I'd be OK with paying girls not to have children; it would be much cheaper than raising them and screw up the girls' lives less, but I'm reasonably sure lots of people would think that wasn't appropriate for a wide variety of reasons.

**Crumbled_pavement** · September-19-10, 03:52 PM

Buy American · September-19-10, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by mwilbert

Well, he's probably right about the ignorance part--the schools are terrible and the population undereducated. I'm not so sure about illegitimacy; it is rapidly becoming the norm in the US and doesn't really differentiate Detroit from other places. It seems to me like the big problem is the teenage birth rate which is insanely high and much, much higher than the national average.

I wish I knew a socially acceptable, non-coercive way to prevent teenage girls from having children that would not require decades to work, but I don't. Personally I'd be OK with paying girls not to have children; it would be much cheaper than raising them and screw up the girls' lives less, but I'm reasonably sure lots of people would think that wasn't appropriate for a wide variety of reasons.

The young mothers of illegitimate children have had decades of examples set by their own parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, absent or otherwise. There are no consequences for babies having babies, welfare is there to support these children and the mothers; social services provides them with health care for free, so what is the incentive for these young people to NOT have sex, to avoid pregnancy, to NOT perpetuate the problem over years and years?

It all starts at home, with the parents, teaching their young the difference between right and wrong...not just to avoid getting pregnant, but to live by a set of rules that applies in life. Unfortunately, the parents are children themselves, so it goes on and on and on ad nauseam.

**BrushStart** · September-19-10, 04:00 PM

I accidentally created a different thread concerning Finley's piece: http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=7112

Don't know if they can be merged...

**Patrick** · September-19-10, 04:11 PM

How are you going to educate adults with 5th-grade reading skills? Where do these people fit into a knowledge-based society? Can we teach old dogs new tricks?

**R8RBOB** · September-19-10, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by BrushStart

I accidentally created a different thread concerning Finley's piece: http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=7112

Don't know if they can be merged...

I think if u give a shout out to Lowell, I think it could be done.

**R8RBOB** · September-19-10, 04:46 PM

When I read Finley's piece, it screamed everything that I feel about Detroit. Finley hit a home run but the bat was corked [[I will explain in a sec)

Finley hit point after point on issues that intelligent Detroiters like myself have been saying for years. Broken homes, bad schools, lack of ownership, broken dreams...the list is endless and Finley had to talk to Detroiters like me to put the frustrations we feel on paper. Detroit is a city filled with thousands and thousands of poor people. Poor people who have stopped caring and if people don't care well you have Kwame Kilpatrick and Monica Conyers as elected officials and we all know how that worked out.

Nolan Finley may be a hillbilly Republican from Kentucky but he is no dummy. I give him props for saying what many are too afraid to say. That Detroit is on the edge of a cliff preparing to fall into a bottomless pit because its citizens would rather regress instead of progress.[[case in point, the school mess) That said, his editorial was one-sided. He pointed out all of the ills that plague Detroit but he failed to disclose what caused those ills. You can't talk about the three I's without explaining how the three I's came to be. Mr. Finley would have hit a grand slam if he would have laid out the "What, How, Why" to his three I's.

**Lowell** · September-19-10, 05:30 PM

This is a prime example of naive redlining journalism. Just like a discriminatory insurance company he draws his circle around Detroit and declares, "You people have problems, you're f*****, you pay." That's his first solution -- Isolation. Isolate the issue inside the redlines so he doesn't need to address how these exist on outside where his constituents can draw comfort by saying, "my life is a mess but at least I don't live there."

With his target isolated he turns his venom on Illegitimacy. He says to the children, "You are not just the child of a single parent; you are illegitimate ergo your parents are no good." Beyond humiliatiing them what good does he do? Can they suddenly become legitimate, trade in their parents, move to a two parent family next door to Mr. Finley and attend his neighborhood school?

What Finley forgot to add to his patronizing sermon was the fourth I -- Insensitivity.

Buy American · September-19-10, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by R8RBOB

When I read Finley's piece, it screamed everything that I feel about Detroit. Finley hit a home run but the bat was corked [[I will explain in a sec)

Finley hit point after point on issues that intelligence Detroiters like myself have been saying for years. Broken homes, bad schools, lack of ownership, broken dreams...the list is endless and Finley had to talk to Detroiters like me to put the frustrations we feel on paper. Detroit is a city filled with thousands and thousands of poor people. Poor people who have stopped caring and if people don't care well you have Kwame Kilpatrick and Monica Conyers as elected officials and we all know how that worked out.

Nolan Finley may be a hillbilly Republican from Kentucky but he is no dummy. I give him props for saying what many are too afraid to say. That Detroit is on the edge of a cliff preparing to fall into a bottomless pit because its citizens would rather regress instead of progress.[[case in point, the school mess) That said, his editorial was one-sided. He pointed out all of the ills that plague Detroit but he failed to disclose what caused those ills. You can't talk about the three I's without explaining how the three I's came to be. Mr. Finley would have hit a grand slam if he would have laid out the "What, How, Why" to his three I's.

Can anyone explain the What, How and Why Detroit ended up like it is today? What caused the ills that Nolan Finley is speaking about? This could become a huge Detroit discussion. I have my opinions and thoughts and I'm sure that there would be many that will disagree....I'll wait and see how this goes.

**EASTSIDE CAT 67-83** · September-19-10, 05:38 PM

I watched this very cycle if illegitimacy play out as a teen growing up on the lower east side back in the 70's early 80's. You had every teenage girl between the ages of 16-18 on the block having babies, in many cases multiple children, they would be raised by their middle school aged aunts, and grandma's. In every case there was no new family unit created only the perpetuation of a welfare check. Responsible fathers were unheard of. This was completely foreign to the family unit I was being raised in. None of my neighborhood friends graduated H.S. or worked, they simply hung out. Now keep in mind this was only one city block in a city of 1 million. This article has spot on articulated the crisis in Detroit, but it is nothing new and can only be fixed by self discipline and determination.

**Hypestyles** · September-19-10, 05:39 PM

regarding regionalized government, how would that structure be set up? who would be the key stakeholders?

**EASTSIDE CAT 67-83** · September-19-10, 05:49 PM

This thread will get ugly if we start to try and answer those questions. Let me guess, its somebody elses fault and personal accountability has no role in this mess. I'm not buying it but I will be labeled many thing for saying it.

**East Detroit** · September-19-10, 05:53 PM

Isolation is a problem.

We should enact cross-district school busing. Want to see the Detroit Schools get quickly up to par?
That would guarantee it. Then it would no longer be "their" problem. It isn't the fault of the kids.

Plus, busing has the added benefit of giving kids exposure to each other so they appreciate diversity instead of running away from it and insulting it.

Would Finley and his supporters get behind my idea? Or is it better as NIMBY?

**ASR89** · September-19-10, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

regarding regionalized government, how would that structure be set up? who would be the key stakeholders?

They could privatise Detroit city government, and give the citizens the ability to buy stock in the company.

**MCP-001** · September-19-10, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

Isolation is a problem.

We should enact cross-district school busing. Want to see the Detroit Schools get quickly up to par?
That would guarantee it. Then it would no longer be "their" problem. It isn't the fault of the kids.

Plus, busing has the added benefit of giving kids exposure to each other so they appreciate diversity instead of running away from it and insulting it.

Would Finley and his supporters get behind my idea? Or is it better as NIMBY?

That idea has been tried once before.

It crashed faster than the Hindenburg.

I agree with the other comments above. You even cannot begin to address Detroit's problems until you identify WHY it happened in the first place.

**R8RBOB** · September-19-10, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by EASTSIDE CAT 67-83

This thread will get ugly if we start to try and answer those questions. Let me guess, its somebody elses fault and personal accountability has no role in this mess. I'm not buying it but I will be labeled many thing for saying it.

I don't believe it would get ugly but we can't be naive to believe that things happen without an explanation on what happened, how did it happened and why it happened. Finley laid out the here and now what Detroit has turned into but he avoids listing the events or what created this disaster. This makes his words appear as someone on the outside throwing stones at the glass house

**Detroitej72** · September-19-10, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

We should enact cross-district school busing.

Would Finley and his supporters get behind my idea? Or is it better as NIMBY?

That would never happen because those kind of people are defiantly the "not in my backyard" crowd. Many of them are of the opinion that a large wall should be built around Detroit and nobody should be aloud in or out.

MrSam · September-19-10, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by Buy American

Can anyone explain the What, How and Why Detroit ended up like it is today? What caused the ills that Nolan Finley is speaking about? This could become a huge Detroit discussion. I have my opinions and thoughts and I'm sure that there would be many that will disagree....I'll wait and see how this goes.

We all somewhat know the cause on how it got like this. However since I'm typing this from my black berry, and not my desktop, in the next day or so I will put together one hell of an supporting argument for my thesis.

**R8RBOB** · September-19-10, 07:55 PM

Originally Posted by MrSam

We all somewhat know the cause on how it got like this. However since I'm typing this from my black berry, and not my desktop, in the next day or so I will put together one hell of an supporting argument for my thesis.

MrSam, I look forward to your argument just don't take too long to post.

**mwilbert** · September-19-10, 08:43 PM

I'm now going to engage in amateur sociology, which is always dangerous. I'm sure I am oversimplifying greatly, but for some reason I can't resist.

What you see in Detroit is primarily the result of a sorting phenomenon.

For various reasons [[I'm not going there) a large proportion of the people who could move out of the city, did. That largely left people who couldn't, and at least for the past forty years the main reason you wouldn't be able to move is mainly that you are poor. There are lots of reasons that people might be poor, but in general it is because they have one or more of poor parents*, poor educations, poor time-preferences, poor work habits, poor health, or poor support systems.

So it is hardly surprising that a large proportion of the people living in Detroit have these kinds of issues; it isn't a random sample, and these problems are mutually reinforcing. The question is how do you change things to get into a virtuous circle rather than a vicious one. There are several obvious points of intervention, all of which have been tried, rarely successfully. Equally obviously, we have to keep trying.

*Either poor economically or poor in parenting skills

**1KielsonDrive** · September-19-10, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

Isolation is a problem.

We should enact cross-district school busing. Want to see the Detroit Schools get quickly up to par?
That would guarantee it. Then it would no longer be "their" problem. It isn't the fault of the kids.

Plus, busing has the added benefit of giving kids exposure to each other so they appreciate diversity instead of running away from it and insulting it.

Would Finley and his supporters get behind my idea? Or is it better as NIMBY?

That's how we managed to suffer L.Brooks Patterson. If not for his bussing stance, he might never have been heard from.