Allow Detroit to keep a tool to help itself

[bailey]

Let's qualify this carefully, because I think there are a lot of good, honest, hardworking city employees. But, yes, as I said, the scum rises to the top when the so many voters are apathetic, poorly educated and without money. Opportunistic charlatans rise to power more easily in this kind of environment. So, essentially, with that careful qualification, I heartily agree.



This is how it goes: Somebody presents a rational reason for not helping the city. Sure. Why should a suburban person, in any way, want the city to have a penny more until they get their act together?

But, of course, they CAN'T get their act together. Or their act, such as it is, is as together as it's ever going to be. It's obviously too poor, too corrupt, too much a warehouse for a pool of cheap, unskilled labor -- or more grist for the army or the prison system.

So, that proposal is totally unrealistic. But what if we could have a regional government that brings corruption and incompetence under control, and give us the resources to reinvest in our central city while preserving our desirable suburban environments? What say we all throw in and take responsibility for our region?

No, it's much more comfortable to say you'll help if and when the impossible happens...



That is as simple as having an involved electorate: Which is exactly what you don't want to be, and which is exactly what you demand the poorest and least educated become...

sounds like the perfect scenario for an EFM with broad powers to clean house? No?

And conversely, you can't unilaterally deny the City of Detroit self-determination [[no matter how flawed it may be) if you insist that the City carry the burden of housing the region's poor, indigent, and disabled.

If you plant hay seed, you can't expect to grow cotton.

Detroit's massive structural issues are not the result of being the regions magnet for the poor/indigent/disabled. Detroit has a 3 billion dollar a year budget it can't figure out how to balance. The presence of some homelessness is not causing 300 million dollar deficits every year. A dysfunctional city government is.