Why hasn't Detroit ever owned up to its urban planning blunders?

[rjlj]

When you hire people like your friends and family and put people in charge who have no experience in urban and land use planning, Detroit at its present state is your result. Without a clear vision and master plan by educated planners, we will continue to have a city that is not built for people.

[Detroitnerd]

The leadership hasn't owned up to the "mistakes" because it fully intends to keep doing same. Only when they decide not to do it anymore are they regretfully looked back upon as "mistakes."

That quote about Moses could be said for many of our local leaders.

[DetroitDad]

Great thread!

However, we are playing chess not checkers. The big mistakes you mention got us here, but it was the job of the press or in some serious cases, the FBI, to hold people accountable, which they have done recently. The past blunders [[riots, horrible super projects, and the like) are not what keep us down today, and neither are issues like violent crime, poor schools, and vacant lots, those are symptoms.

First, DV and others, I mean no offence, but you are way off base about suburban developments, the East side, and the like, but that is really neither here nor there. The state of Detroit has little to do with poor urbanism, that is yet another symptom. In theory, the outer areas of Detroit could and should have been able to function just fine on the suburban model in the more recent past.


The REAL problem in Detroit is....

I went for a walk on the West side near Lonyo today with someone who was virtually a lifelong Detroiter who remembered that street in better days. Later I talked to another individual in the same general area. Both of them shared some things that I think echoed the real problem in Detroit, the root of our woes, and rjlj pretty much said the same thing in this post;

When you hire people like your friends and family and put people in charge who have no experience in urban and land use planning, Detroit at its present state is your result. Without a clear vision and master plan by educated planners, we will continue to have a city that is not built for people.

The problem is corruption, and Kwame in particular really put the nail in the coffin that will take a long time to undo. Many city planners and city employees in Detroit got their jobs because of family or friends, not because they were qualified... or even the best qualified. This opinion is told to me time and again by people who have worked along side those handout employees. These "handout employees" are described as lazy individuals who hate their jobs, and do as little work as possible, often getting away with pushing the real work on the already overwhelmed legitimate and desirable employees.

A strong root problem in Detroit is corruption, and this problem is even bigger when compounded with the higher ups who desire comfort. Again, one of these people today pointed out to me that some higher ups actually want Detroit to stay the way it is. These individuals like being the big fish in the small pond. If Detroit improved and grew, said big fish would soon be [[politically) just another fish in a much larger pond. We as a city and state need to be leery about who we trust, as many saviors just seem to enjoy being viewed as God's messenger.

Beyond that, legitimate projects and revitalization efforts are often met with a impenetrable wall of corruption. Many have been drawn to the prospect of rebuilding Detroit, some very knowledgeable and very talented individuals, and almost all have failed. They face that wall of corruption, as well as resistance by those who wish to keep Detroit just the way it is, whether because they want to be the big fish, or because they enjoy being able to break the law, or other such reasons.