The city needs to stop looking at this as a "mothers teat" kinda thing. Business doesn't work that way.

As Hemingway adeptly stated, the city could cut the taxes on business greatly and not have to cut that much in revenue. Why should they do this? Why should the city decide their number one priority is business development of all kinds, especially micro-entrepreneurship?

Because the city, above all else, needs jobs. Yes, some of those jobs might go to some suburbanites; but the city needs to be THE job center of the region as it once was. Jobs help heal crime, which lowers policing costs; Jobs create tax revenue of all kinds; Jobs also bring pride into communities that have lost hope. It's not a silver bullet, but jobs are the closest thing to one Detroit could have.

People make decisions based on their pocketbooks, plain and simple. The city is facing horrid poverty and a lack of opportunity - BUSINESS is what gives that opportunity.

And why micro-entrepreneurship? That's the rung that many african-americans are going to start on [[and some white and latino folks too) due to the lack of financing available, exacerbated by the current economy climate. Maybe it's a community loan program; maybe it's grants; maybe it's bringing training programs to folks to be entrepreneurs.

Guess what - some of the best businessmen are former drug dealers. Being a drug dealer gives you all the prerequisite skills, with a little refinement. Bing is serious he says about creating opportunities. Let's see'em do it. There's some things that Bing could do immediately [[like change the parking policies) that could show Detroit is now open for business.