Less Than a Full-Service City

[R8RBOB]

I know we are in Detroit but I didn't see this in the Freep or Detnews. Did anyone catch this?

http://on.wsj.com/dFrNM9

[iheartthed]

I saw it this morning. I also laughed at the pun in the title. Was gonna post it on the Detroit Works project thread but never got around to it.

[Detroitnerd]

It's going to be great for DTE. Their profits should rise once they don't have to service one house in a neighborhood. Must be great to have the ear of the movers and shakers.

[BrushStart]

Reading the comments really gives you some perspective of what outsiders think of Detroit... And, it's not good.

[R8RBOB]

Reading the comments really gives you some perspective of what outsiders think of Detroit... And, it's not good.

Well, if outsiders read the Freep and see how suburbanites feel about Detroit then why should they hold back. I have to admit, I found this comment over the top.

Detroit should be subjected to international sanctions.

There should be a no-fly zone imposed over South Eastern Michigan.

There should be a trade embargo, with imports restricted to emergency UN food shipments.

Sanctions should continue until the "city" certifies that it has un-annexed the territory to adjoining counties that it cannot economically provide support for.

And when they fail to comply [[which they will), A UN resolution should be passed, and UN troops invade the city and restore order.

Of course, after all this takes place, some will whine that there was no "proof" of mismanagement, and none was "found" after the invasion. And they will be wrong again.

Use what works.

It's over the top but it gives you how others feel about us.

[iheartthed]

Reading the comments really gives you some perspective of what outsiders think of Detroit... And, it's not good.

Well, I work in an office full of people who have never been to Detroit... And yes, Detroit's image is very bad. And they don't make the distinction between city and suburb. But images are fluid. New York, Chicago, and other cities that America loves today are places that once had very poor images.

[mwilbert]

Newspaper comments everywhere tend toward the lowest common denominator, and I wouldn't give them any weight. That doesn't mean I deny the fact that the image of the city is poor.

I just hope the story is correct; that is the kind of scale of thinking [[concentrating of seven neighborhoods) that is required for downsizing to work. On the other hand, I have no idea what they think a neighborhood is. If you had neighborhoods like "Northwest Detroit", or "Southwest Detroit" you could probably fit the whole city into seven of them. If they were the size of Corktown, we'd end up with a city of under 50,000, even with a lot of infill.

[English]

Well, if outsiders read the Freep and see how suburbanites feel about Detroit then why should they hold back. I have to admit, I found this comment over the top.

It's over the top but it gives you how others feel about us.

Actually, I think the quote was satire about the whole Iraq invasion affair... in the beginning, I thought it was anti-Detroit, but the ending seemed like parody.

[Carey]

Monday's New York Times carried a sobering article on how Youngstown is encountering problems trying to deal with blight, and shrink. The following observation especially caught my eye, given how Mayor Bing and his people have been talking about luring residents to "good" neighborhoods:

"Even more vexing, despite the city’s efforts to entice residents in far-flung areas of the city to move closer to the center, no one has agreed, and the city’s footprint remains unmanageably large."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/us...ngstown&st=cse