Quote Originally Posted by EastsideAl View Post
All of which ignores the fact that city unions, including the sanitation workers, have already negotiated significant cuts and concessions with the mayor and council.

Now, it may be that the situation is dire enough that more and deeper cuts need to be suffered. And Lansing's intervention may indeed be necessary at some level. But treating city workers and their unions as abstractions that don't represent actual working people, particularly in a city where city workers are a major driving force in what little economic activity we have and are the largest group of working taxpayers, is a recipe for dissension and distrust.

Everyone here wants service levels commensurate with our taxes paid. Certainly people who work for the city do too. But the main problem in the City of Detroit is that we live in a city with an aging and crumbling infrastructure and a shrinking population, in which there are simply not enough taxpayers, at a high enough level, to get the services done. Don't kid yourself that privatization, or paying workers below a minimal living wage standard, is somehow going to change that situation in any way or magically improve the level of services you receive.

Now, here comes Lansing riding to our "rescue," only they aren't bringing the thing we need the most, which is money and revenue sources. Instead they promise to come riding in the help us only with their Republicanized ideas of further cutting, and the disempowering, and perhaps even the privatizing out of existence of the jobs and lives of a significant chunk of the city's working population. And, along the way, pretty much undoing the work that our actual elected officials have already done to address the emergency, while still preserving some measure of trust and goodwill with the people who actually do our work. In other words, Snyder et.al. promise to "save" us only by potentially destroying us to serve their anti-labor ideological needs - not by actually damn helping us.

I submit that's because we, that is to say the actual residents of the City of Detroit, are just as hated, resented, disdained, and feared in Lansing now as we have been for decades. I sure don't expect services to improve, or become anything even approaching "top-notch" under such a regime, because I don't think they really give a damn how we live or what services we get as long as we don't cost any of their constituents any money.

So, while I admit that we perhaps do need Lansing's help in some form right now, don't expect me or everyone else here to jump up and down with thanks or suddenly trust them or their motives, and certainly not to fight to get a better deal in writing. Particularly since they've already said that they're showing up to take us over, while offering nothing in return but empty hands and vague promises.
All you have to do to avoid this is to fix the problem yourself. Then there's no Lansing 'riding in' to rescue. Nothing would make Lansing happier.

City residents love rights, but aren't so big on responsibilities. They seem to be looking for a savior [[to fund things) but aren't willing to accept the control that comes with now being able to manage your own finances. [[Cue the blame game here.)