Is Detroit fixable? How would you fix it?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Absolutely.  The infrastructure of public transit needs to be reformed, and by that I mean we need more than buses, and the buses that we do have need to run ON TIME.

The blight needs to be removed - plain and simple.  Not just remove/rebuild those buildings, but those buildings need to be occupied.

The corruption NEEDS to stop - people like Monica Conyers are disgusting, but because they have name recognition, got elected.

The us vs. them attitide of the city council needs to go.  Not every issue has a black vs. white component of it.  Stop treating it like it does, and accept outside help instead of sticking to the attitude that you can fix it yourselves - clearly you cannot.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

The us vs. them attitide of the city council needs to go.  Not every issue has a black vs. white component of it.  Stop treating it like it does, and accept outside help instead of sticking to the attitude that you can fix it yourselves - clearly you cannot.

I absolutely don't deny that the attitudes of the city council are disturbing, but as far as racial issues go it's hard to argue that anyone but the whites started it and whites are still the main perpetrators now.

Wholeheartedly agree.  But the council has the ongoing view that anytime somebody outside of Detroit tries to step in and help, that they're trying to take control away from the black population and have some kind of white takeover.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I'm from Lincoln Park, just south of Detroit.  And on the topic of buildings - buildings that are beyond repair need to be torn down.  Old buildings that have historic value should be kept.

Places like Fort Wayne Michigan Central Station need to be fixed up, not just left to rot.  As many buildings as can be saved should be saved.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Has the state ever given consideration to a subdivision of the city into smaller independent self-governing communities? That could provide the means for different leaders to try different solutions to the problems that may be too big when addressed at the scale of the whole city.

I suggested that.

But has there been any discussion in Lansing?

That would NEVER pass.  The Detroit City Council would be enraged over that proposal.  In fact, I can picture that council meeting.  Lansing would probably need their approval, and even if they didn't, the Council would raise such a huge fuss that even the most determined, well-intentioned legislator would give up.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Has the state ever given consideration to a subdivision of the city into smaller independent self-governing communities? That could provide the means for different leaders to try different solutions to the problems that may be too big when addressed at the scale of the whole city.

I suggested that.

But has there been any discussion in Lansing?

That would NEVER pass.  The Detroit City Council would be enraged over that proposal.  In fact, I can picture that council meeting.  Lansing would probably need their approval, and even if they didn't, the Council would raise such a huge fuss that even the most determined, well-intentioned legislator would give up.

I suspected that would be the case, but I could imagine that some legislator from a more distant corner of MI might have proposed it anyway. I wouldn't expect much in the way of complaints from constituents in a district in central or western MI.

It may have been proposed, but it wouldn't ever be actively discussed.  I'd be willing to bet $50 that such a bill wouldn't make it out of committee.

Plus, legislators from distant corners of Michigan probably don't really care enough about Detroit to propose a bill such as that.  There are a lot of people in Michigan who don't have a clue of what Detroit's like.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Well, this thread has veered off track.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

The point of tearing them down isn’t just to remove an eyesore. Abandoned houses breed crime by providing an ideal location for squatters, junkies, drug deals, etc. There have been studies that have shown crime rates are affected by the presence of broken down houses. Have you ever heard of Broken Windows Theory?

It's not just that, too; keeping people spread out means you have to waste a lot of money on police/fire protection, buses, streetlights (oh wait, those are being privatized), etc. that you wouldn't if people were actually at a reasonable density for an inner city.

What does tearing down homes have to do with density?

Because you can convert the land that the abandoned homes are sitting on to something that requires less patrolling and less fire protection;
____
not to mention there are always the one or two holdouts on each street who insist on staying (probably because they can't find anything better, given that Detroit is, well, Detroit) and therefore need all those services.

That has nothing to do with density.

It does, because if you have many occupied homes, you have high density.  If you have many abandoned homes and few occupied homes, you have low density.  If you have no homes, you have no density.  You might as well get rid of the problem areas until you're ready to put new things there.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

No, but if you have no abandoned homes, you have nowhere for criminals to hide out.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Plus, then you have less arsons to worry about.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

There's a lot of arson in Detroit.  It's down from what it used to be, but especially on Devil's Night, things would be a lot easier for officials and volunteers if there were less empty houses to have to worry about.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

This article has the statistics from 2009, and even notes that "Three men squatting inside a vacant house where a fire was reported were arrested":

http://dailytribune.com/articles/2009/11/03/news/doc4aef43ca44335834433376.txt

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

This article has the statistics from 2009, and even notes that "Three men squatting inside a vacant house where a fire was reported were arrested":

http://dailytribune.com/articles/2009/11/03/news/doc4aef43ca44335834433376.txt

Well I would certainly hope that the attempted arsons wouldn't start occurring in better homes as the really crappy ones get bulldozed. That wouldn't be a good result.

The number of arsons in occupied homes is much lower than unoccupied homes.  Plus, you'd have less areas to patrol, so you would have a better police presence.