"How would you propose to distribute this burden equally amongst the communities? "
Even distribution of care facilities, halfway houses, homeless shelters, etc. Right now the poorest cities in the region have the least political clout or resources to fight these facilities going up. Homeless tend to migrate to where services are and the services are in Detroit, Pontiac, Mt. Clemens, etc.
I say if we want real regionalization we evenly distribute the resources througout SE Michigan. What kind of support would there be for that [[look no further than the current fight in Ferndale)
"Insurance Costs The costs are astronomical in the COD. Could it be due to the lack of policing? The frequency of thefts and robbery? The high cost of doing business in the city due to shoplifting? Spreading the costs around? It's all due to risk, I'd think. Fix the crime, fix the rates."
Or we fix rates where SE Michigan is a pool. This is giving people the luxury of saying since it doesn't happen in their backyard they shoudln't be impacted. When we speak of regionalization there is no more unfair system in the state than the insurance structure. How would that me supported at a regional level?
"Infrastructure [[burden on older cities) That's a function of the state and federal revenue sharing, unfortunately the state and feds are just as systemically dysfunctional as the COD. Well, not quite. But there's got to be better cash management on the City side.
Think about just the water issue alone. The COD water department pumps thousands of gallons through vacant prarie fields where homes were once. There's a hidden cost, both in infrastructure and water losses. Maintenance to keep the pipes operating, the fire hydrants functional, etc, drains countless dollars from the rest of the city."
The COD water deaprtment also maintains miles and miles of pipes to get water to people 40-50 miles away yet these consumers aren't being charged a disprportionate rate due to their infrastructure needs. The costs are distributed to all rate payers - exactly the opposite of insurance. Funny, huh?
"Caring for the the huge majority of the metro's ex-felons, poor and disabled
Why is that so? I think that's a symptom of the affordable housing problem, not any regional problem. Maybe there is a regional solution. Require every city with a population having an income above a certain percentage of the poverty rate, to have a percentage of their housing as affordable housing. Let's take Farmington, for an example. If Farmington has 95 percent of their people that have income above the poverty rate, a proportionate percentage of their housing should be made affordable. Inner ring suburbs which currently have largely affordable homes and significantly lower incomes would not be required to do so as much. "
Or force communities to have half way houses ans services for the poor/disabled. Most communities do not offer services and services do not locate in wealthier areas. Again the ex-felons, poor, disabled must go to the services which are in the most impoverished areas in the region. Nice and convenient
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