Thoughts on Detroit
by Tom aka Rusty
Economics and Corruption
Detroit and the Detroit metro area are a pathetic, decaying mess. The reasons are many, ranging from the decline of the Big 3 auto companies to rampant corruption.
For almost 40 years corruption has been well known and wide spread. In recent years, the administration of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick made corruption so visible the feds have moved. Monica Conyers, wife of veteran Rep. John Conyers is in prisons for taking bribes while on City Council, as are many others. The Detroit Public Schools are in receivership and numerous former officials are under investigation or indictment.
The Bush and Obama Justice Departments have been indicting and convicting numerous people with ties to the local government, and yesterday dropped the bomb, a massive racketerring indictment of Kilpatrick, his father and several political operatives.
In a city where infrastructure is literally collapsing in front of peoples’ eyes the crooks were using city construction contracts to extort money to selected cronies who then funneled money to Kilpatrick.
Kilpatrick is already in jail for perjury for a scandal involving wild sexual escapades, misuse of government funds, misuse of police security officers, and there is an on-going investigation of the murder of a stripper who may have been beaten by the Mayor’s wife when she came home to one of Kwame’s parties in the mayoral mansion (the investigation also focuses on possible official obstruction of the murder investigation).
Corruption is nothing new, but this corruption was on a scale that was astounding, just based on the convictions thus far.
People have been fleeing Detroit due to bad infrastructure, bad schools and rampant crime. The money that could have fixed some of those problems has been misdirected as best and outright stolen at worst.
Why did it take so long to bring justice to Detroit? Could it have been a political correctness issue? Did politicians offer cover for political reasons?
Many, many have suffered, and will continue to suffer.
Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
I actually think it was just the opposite of the political correctness issue. Detroit was a hole in the mid 70’s. Even at that time some of my less racially sensitive aquaintences suggested just putting a wall around the city and come back in 30 years and arrest anyone who was still alive. I think that is basically what the Feds have done.
all you’d have to do is change the names and you’d have youngstown…
Detroit was the eleventh largest city in the USA in 2009. That may have changed with the latest Census.
Detroit is the worst looking large city in the USA that I have ever visited. I used to fly into Detroit and go through some warehouses containing excess NOS (new old stock) automobile parts and assemblies. I didn’t think much about it for the first couple of trips, but I was in some rough areas of that city. Pretty much a dead zone where you could vanish and no one would find you. I traveled around downtown Detroit on one trip early on and was blown away by what I saw. There was some fine architecture in Detroit and some of it is still there…in ruins. Grand buildings.
Photographs of the city’s decay are shocking enough, but to see it in person will burn a memory into your brain. I told a friend one day that it was starting to look like we were in war torn Yugoslavia. Not that bad, of course, but close enough to make you want to fly the hell out of there as soon as you finished your business activities.
Here’s a collection of photos for those who have never visited Detroit or seen any of the decay photo collections.
http://www.google.com/images?q=Detroit+decay+photos&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=aK4KTYO_Doqr8Aa49-WhAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB4QsAQwAA&biw=1123&bih=687
I left nothing in Detroit except for the parts that I didn’t buy.
Thanks MG
for an interesting comment.
mine will be less interesting. i don’t think political correctness has much to do with it. i iive in a pretty non corrupt part of the country, but even here i see evidence that politics and power breeds an easy relationship with integrity. I think the whole country is suffering from that. Just that it shows through more easily under conditions of poverty.
Detroit has an interesting experiment ahead of it. They have to figure out how to redensify to a sufficient degree that the existing viable tax base will cover the needed infrastructure and social services (including police and fire coverage etc.) I am not aware of any place else this has been attempted much less pulled off successfully.
The experiment will be interesting partly because there aren’t a lot of existing development models that drive populations to increasing density even for civic purpose. Detroit’s survival may well turn out to hinge on whether or not you can figure out how to incentivize people to move from suburbs into higher density areas that will be at least more cost effective for infrastructure purposes.
Without a coordinated plan to reconsolidate the city core and abandon the sparsely populated massively foreclosed periphery Detroit may well be over. And yes a coordinated plan usually involves making sure that the corruption gets covered to the extent required to complete the project. I didn’t notice the pentagon making significantly different arrangements.
The good news for Detroit may turn out to be that it has been so abandoned, so completely betrayed by corrupt pols that truly radical ideas can take root. At long last they may end up being a model for how to start with nothing.
I have to confess. I have been working for the Chinese people for the past 4 years, gladly. I have met many of the Chinese people who come to our country to see how their investment is progressing.
They are a great people. They have always been kind, and interested, and direct. In fact, when I am talking with them I sense their ancient culture. I obviously notice their beauty. They are unaware of the refinements from the millenia they seem to possess.
Anyway. Thanks for trhe business China. Hope to do more after your January New Year. Best success and happiness.
I have to confess. I have been working for the Chinese people for the past 4 years, gladly. I have met many of the Chinese people who come to our country to see how their investment is progressing.
They are a great people. They have always been kind, and interested, and direct. In fact, when I am talking with them I sense their ancient culture. I obviously notice their beauty. They are unaware of the refinements from the millenia they seem to possess.
Anyway. Thanks for trhe business China. Hope to do more after your January New Year. Best success and happiness.
I have to confess. I have been working for the Chinese people for the past 4 years, gladly. I have met many of the Chinese people who come to our country to see how their investment is progressing.
They are a great people. They have always been kind, and interested, and direct. In fact, when I am talking with them I sense their ancient culture. I obviously notice their beauty. They are unaware of the refinements from the millenia they seem to possess.
Anyway. Thanks for trhe business China. Hope to do more after your January New Year. Best success and happiness.
I have to confess. I have been working for the Chinese people for the past 4 years, gladly. I have met many of the Chinese people who come to our country to see how their investment is progressing.
They are a great people. They have always been kind, and interested, and direct. In fact, when I am talking with them I sense their ancient culture. I obviously notice their beauty. They are unaware of the refinements from the millenia they seem to possess.
Anyway. Thanks for trhe business China. Hope to do more after your January New Year. Best success and happiness.
I have to confess. I have been working for the Chinese people for the past 4 years, gladly. I have met many of the Chinese people who come to our country to see how their investment is progressing.
They are a great people. They have always been kind, and interested, and direct. In fact, when I am talking with them I sense their ancient culture. I obviously notice their beauty. They are unaware of the refinements from the millenia they seem to possess.
Anyway. Thanks for trhe business China. Hope to do more after your January New Year. Best success and happiness.
I have to confess. I have been working for the Chinese people for the past 4 years, gladly. I have met many of the Chinese people who come to our country to see how their investment is progressing.
They are a great people. They have always been kind, and interested, and direct. In fact, when I am talking with them I sense their ancient culture. I obviously notice their beauty. They are unaware of the refinements from the millenia they seem to possess.
Anyway. Thanks for trhe business China. Hope to do more after your January New Year. Best success and happiness.
And it’s one Two Three four
And it’s one Two Three four
And it’s one Two Three four
Amateur socialist, I wonder if the recovery of Pittsburgh in th 1960s would provide a pattern? I don’t know how corrupt it was before then, but it managed to revive its urban infrastructure after the steel industry abandoned it, and now is a center of the medical industry. Of course, it helped that it was already the seat of many universities and some great museums, put in place by the likes of the Heinzes and Carnegies (and even the Melons in their less evil incarnations).
Thank you Rusty, quite an eye opener. So this is a preview of what the grandchildren are going to inherit. What a legacy the movers & shakers have left behind. Well, from the looks of the pics, the only remedy I see, is the one showing empty lots on some street. I suppose having a real bon fire sale, pun intended, would create too much air polution. Perhaps if the rest of the country were treated to a week-end of these pics over & over on the tube, the sunday paper, for those that partake in such, with the caption of “This is your present Country on Corruption”, perhaps the eyes would be opened? Perhaps! On the other hand, it would be good for the Greedy types to see what their bent is leading up to. As the infrastructure in the U.S. is left to rot, one wonders just what they hope to accomplish?
ah, but Norman,
don’t you see, they’d just play it as the end result of political correctness.
haven’t any of you seen Robocop?
The level of dysfunction at the metropolitan level is remarkable. There is next to no cooperation between Detroit and the suburbs. Most people accept without question that this is the result of lingering racial tensions. While I don’t doubt that this is a concern for anyone older than gen-x, not enough appreciation is given to how the political boundaries affect the relationship. The notorious 8 mile road serves not only as the northern boundary of Detroit, but also Wayne county. I think much of the animosity and lack of cooperation between the suburbs and central city comes from this county divide. Because the suburbs and city are politically isolated in different counties there are greater hurdles to any regional planing and cooperation. I have long advocated, to totally deaf ears, for a consolidation of the tri-county area into a single county in order to better address regional planing. The older generations have too much racial baggage to even consider such a possibility and the younger generations are not politically engaged enough to make it happen. As the racial attitudes fade with the changing of the guard, more chances for reimagining the Detroit metropolitan region will be possible. The only question, given the depopulation that is occurring in the region, is whether there will be a sustainable population left by the time attitudes change.
The essay rings true, until that final non-sequitor. Yes, there was corruption in Detroit. Yes, Detroit is in decay. Both true. Both referenced in the essay. Was there relunctance to prosecute corruption because blacks were involved. Certainly, there is nothing in the essay to say so, other than by inference because of Kilpatrick being black.
Lemme ask – how long did it take to indict the Bugman? Did Gingrich ever face charges over the evidence revealed by his intercepted cell-phone call? Should we infer political correctness behind slow-motion or no-motion justice in the case of white politicians?
I don’t think Detroit is a model for anything else, Detroit is an extreme outlier.
Yes, great flick.
Indict all of the white folks you want.
Detroit is a special case because of the concentration and length of intense corruption that was regularly reported by two major newspapers (one quite liberal).
The DPS schools reciever estimates that $400M was stolen or wasted over a brief period while students went to school without enough teachers or books.
Follow up reports indicate in 2011 there will be additional indictments for looting of pension plans. Stay tuned.
Detroit had the chance to elect a fine, upstanding, honest public servant in Freeman Hendrix, but chose the known criminal enterprise known as the Kilpatrick family. Kwame was helped by the endorsement of Lansing Republicans and the Attorney General who worked as a prosecutor in Wayne County.
The problem
str,
And why would anyone move back into Detroit? Why would a business move back into Detroit? Considering all the options you have, why pick Detroit? What does Detroit have to bring in business?
Do you think the best and brightest even know the name of Detroit or Michigan when they consider jobs after college?
You have a huge corruption problem, a crumbling infastructure, horrible schools, high taxes, and high crime, plus a general anti-business climate in the state. Top that off with crummy cold weather. Yet I see people saying Detroit needs to re-densify? How? By whom? This isn’t black neighborhoods in Washington DC gentrifying from the young white privilidged class moving in to cheap places and slowly changing the neighborhood. No one will move back. There are no jobs, definitely no high-tech hip-jobs in the city. And what business would re-locate into the hell hole that these pictures and MG describe? When you can go to Atlanta, or Dallas, or Raleigh, or etc???
And why would any of the adjacent cities and counties want to merge with the dead corpse of Detroit? That would be insane.
50 years ago Detroit, Cleveland, Akron, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester area were the core of the US industrial might. Now its a big rust-belt. The best and brightest don’t go there – they leave as quickly as they can. Detroit is the outlier all right, but the rest are not far behind. I was in Cleveland over the Thanksgiving holiday and there were areas just as bad as these pictures showed of Detroit. Akron has spots also.
Until the states and local governments change their tune, crack down on corruption, improve the public schools, and become pro-business this will not get any better. I’ll beleive change has happened when a Toyota, or Honda opens a plant in the rust belt vs. Mississippi. Your really in a hole when you can’t even compete against Mississippi….
Islam will change
True, but I don’t think anyone in Wayne County pays much attention to GOP endorsements.
A small bit of good news was the election of Dave Bing as Mayor, except of course it is about 20 years too late.
I should give some props to President Obama and his U.S. Attorney, they picked up this investigation mid-course, followed it wherevere it went and there will be some political price for these prosecutions.
Seems odd, but an African-American President who prosecutes African-American criminals who stole money from African-American citizens will be (is being) accused of racism in the weird world of Detroit. Listening to talk radio in Detroit is always a treat – wow.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy, an African-American, has been accused of racism for prosecuting the perjury and obstruction charges from the earlier Kilpatrick incidents.
Detroit is a Dem city. No one there cares what the GOP endorses. Get real.
islam will change
STR,
yes, I find the charges of rascism fascinating in this context also. Its almost a reflex charge anytime a black person gets investigated or charged (see Cong Randel). Its getting to the point when charges of rascism no longer mean anything becuase its so overused.
But the larger point is still ineffect. No one is going to move into Detroit…
Islam will change
New controversy.
indigent defendants in Wayne County, whether in the county or federal court system, get public defenders from the PD offices or from a list of attorneys who take such appointments.
The defendants in this mess, all claiming to be indigent, are getting special attorneys who get paid unknown amounts of money because the budget paperwork is secret. The best excuses so far are 1) the attorneys aleady know these guys and 2) the cases are complex.
Wayne County taxpayers will never stop suffering.
Buff:
It is the most heavily used transit point for business between Canada and the US. Canada is in the top three of our business partners and if I am correct exceeds China.
Of all the cities you have mentioned, each has gone into a recession of sorts due to the flight of people (mostly whites) to the outlying suburbs. You could have easily tossed Chicago into that scenario also. The difference being Chicago was able to reinvent itself.
Schools are supported by sales taxes in Michigan with ~50% of them getting the average payout. Schools in Royal Oak, Huntington, Rochester Hills, Rochester, Farmington, Farmington Hills, Ann Arbor, etc. get more than the average and as much as twice because of the state grand-fathered exemptions to mileage these areas of rich in income and mostly white enclaves already had in place. Many of the remaining commerccial and residential properties in Detroit can not generate the same revenues as a a Roayl Oak residence or business.
If Detroit of the other cities mentioned did not exist neither would the rich suburbs surrounding it. It would be fam land at best. Perhaps it is time to tie the fate of their taxes into that of Detroit?
U.S. taxpayers will never stop suffering also.
“Detroit and the Detroit metro area are a pathetic, decaying mess. The reasons are many, ranging from the decline of the Big 3 auto companies to rampant corruption.”
Dear Tom aka Rusty,
Thank you for your inciteful observations. As a resident of the Detroit metro area, I didn’t know what kind of place I lived in until I read your amazingly revealing post. You see, we Detroiters do nothing all day but damn the god who put us in this awful place. As we live our lives, and enjoy the many activities this area has to offer, our spirits are constantly crushed by the fact that, somewhere in this vast thing we call the internet, some guy typing on a keyboard has the courage to tell us how awful our lives really are. If only we could leave this place and live in the sunlight that shines out of your asshole we would all be happier people.
now, i was accused of racism because i said something disrespectful of Our President for stealing the Social Security of the American People, some of whom are rumored to be black.
Thing is, there are people in this country who can’t think of any better argument than, “you are a racist.”
Funny thing is that kharris thinks I am one of them.
should give you some idea of what even an honest politician is up against.
Are you a resident of “Detroit” or of the “Detroit metro area?” Big difference in what part of the area you live in.
Are you denying there are problems in Wayne County? Would love to hear that argument.
Have a nice day and Go Tigers!
Rusty:
Michigan has one of the worst PD offices in the nation and a Michigan Supreme Court that was declared the worst a few years ago. Engler certainly left us with a legacy.
run,
Your description of Detroit geographic advantage wrt Canada are on the money. Also don’t forget its on the Great Lakes with all the water-born traffic that it generates (why Ft Detroit was built way back when).
Detroit was once the center of teh US manufacturing base.
Now its a big rusty hell hole that the best and brightest laugh at. Not a destination for jobs or tourism.
Why? Becuase of teh policies the local, city, and state governments followed that killed it. If you can’t compete with Mississppi you basically suck. Detroits Dems government leadership brought us to this place. I seriously doubt they will have any ability to change.
Islam will change