What can be done to improve Detroit? (Dearborn, Wyandotte: insurance, crime rate)

[RedWingsFan]

Originally Posted by Bellarosa

I have a solution for Detroit. The welfare recipients could actually get their own jobs, earn their own money, and actually pay their own taxes from their own hard-earned money to benefit their own community. Hard-working people in other communities should not be expected to pay taxes from their hard-earned income to support a community that only wants handouts.

And noone who is working hard to provide for themselves (instead of leeching off welfare) is going to pay taxes into a city government that does not use the money to improve the city. And the citizens of Detroit repeatedly vote in corrupt leaders who do not improve the city's infrastructure.

Any logical hardworking individual will move to a location, such as a suburbs, where the taxes, which they pay from their own hard earned money, actually are used to benefit the people paying the taxes, again from their own HARD EARNED MONEY gained from a JOB.

Detroit doesn't have a tax base because the residents will not work and, therefore, are not generating their own tax base.

I like that! I see where you are going and it's true, when people put money into a city or community they feel attached to it more and will take better care of it.

[Bellarosa]

I truly believe that. I bought a home "intown," and I paid outrageous taxes for years. Yet, the government in no way improved the area. The budget primarily went to subsidized programs for people who would not work. The people who contributed the least took the most.

People who DID NOT PAY TAXES to support the school system complained about the lousy school system, but they certainly didn't put any of their own money, time or talents towards improving it. They just complained.

I finally sold the house, and moved into a more worker-friendly locale. People in this new community don't mind paying taxes towards the community because they see the positive results everywhere.

I am amazed at all of the improvement projects I see around me now. And the members of this community, myself included, volunteer a lot of our time to maintenance and improvement, because it is a worthwhile investment of our time, money and effort.

There is practically no crime here. I believe it is because people living here are too busy working and doing constructive things to go around shooting each other.

The people here work, and everyone contributes. People here do not steal from each other because they get jobs to buy the things they need. They choose to work instead of steal.

People DO NOT sit around whining about how someone else caused their problems. People here do not whine that other people should fix their self-caused problems.

Instead, people here work for a living, support themselves, and pay taxes into their own community. They vote for government leaders who are accountable to the taxpayers. Tax revenue, paid by working people in the community, is spent on projects, such as good schools, that benefit the taxpayers. Everyone is accountable, and it works.

[Bellarosa]

Originally Posted by zoomzoom

I didn’t think anybody could be so insensitive and cold towards the black population. (And I’m not black, so I‘m not trying to defend my own race). Come on, I though that was old. If you really think that Whites are that supreme, then slavery would never have happened. The white people are the ones that did not allow the Blacks to establish themselves. I mean, for real, did you ever read that questionnaire that people who lived in GROSSE POINT had to complete? Take a look at the following excerpt from it (This from something written by George Galster, originally from the questionnaire used in Grosse Point):
__________________________________________________ _____________________
Grosse Pointe’s “Point” System
Private Investigators’s filled out questionnaire re:
Is their way of living “typically American”?
Are husband’s immediate associates “typical”?
Are Their friends predominantly “typical”?
Appearances: swarthy, slight swarthy or not?
Accents: pronounced, medium, slight, or none?
Dress: neat, sloppy, flashy or conservative?
Grammar: good, fair or poor?
Grosse Pointe’s “Point” System
Maximum score on questionnaire = 100:
50 needed to purchase home in Grosse Pointe
EXCEPT:
Polish descent required 55
Greek descent required 65
Italian decent required 75
Jewish descent required 85
“Negroes” and “Orientals” do not qualify
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Whites were the ones with the better jobs in Detroit, and had the money to flee. The Black population had to, and to this day have to, stay in Detroit because they were treated unfairly, and preference was given to whites for any job. Yeah people SAY they are not racist, but then even long after we ruled that racism was IMMORAL why don’t people understand that today??

-zoomzoom

To Zoomzoom:

Those are old times past. Anyone now willing to work to earn the money to afford to live in Grosse Pointe can now move there. Anyone. It just requires work. Unfortunately, a lot of the residents of Detroit do not want to work. So they stay in poverty and blame their problems on others, when they could just get up and work, earn a living, and make a better life for themselves.

[mike jones]

Put the city in recievership
Take the Mayor and council out of the decsion making process

In order to improve the city it would require significant federal intervention.
Almost like a "Marshall Plan" to help overcome the urban blight.

A large scale demolishing of vacant and dangerous buildings, especially big ones like Michigan Central.

(This one might get me in trouble again)
A very large, proactive milatary force that would go throught he neighborhoods on a police mission.
A zero tolerance on crime, round em up, lock em up.

It worked really well in the 1980s 1990s in New York.
Times Square used to be horrible, now its a great place to visit.
If only we had the right attitude.

And stop blaming all the folks who live in the city for there situation
There are lots of good peoples who live in the hood who are trapped in a vicous cycle of poverty and despair.

[RedWingsFan]

Mike, I agree with just about everything you suggest. Except for the last part about not blaming the actual people that live there. I don't agree with that. People themselves can take action to clean up their own neighborhoods. I don't see those people as victims as you do. I see them as people that don't care enough about where they live to try to make it better. They live there and don't care to do what they can to make it better, therefore others outside the city must care enough to clean it up for them?!

[mike jones]

OK.
Point taken.
I agree it is pathetic that every year around spring time folks from the suburbs sponsor these volunteer clean up Detroit campaigns, where we come in and have to mop up Detroits residents mess.

I am angry that after the Super Bowl all the rubbish and graffiti that the volunteers removed is back. Or that vacant homes are set on fire and left to rot.

On the other hand I understand that many citizens who live in Detroit are socially dysfunctional, mentally ill, chemically dependent or just plain lazy.

The residents of Detroit are at fault for the blight.
However blame while it feels good, accomplishes nothing.

Like a parent who has to pickup after a recalcitrant teenager, more clean up efforts from the likes of Roger Penske or other major sponsors are needed to improve Detroit.

[zoomzoom]

Some of you people don't even try to improve Detroit, so I don't think it's even appropriate that you post. In the United States, the people are supposed to have the power. In order to improve detroit, the people need to put in their time and money. The politicans are supposed to be there to regulate. Perhaps Detroit is getting worse because of STEROTYPES. The news and media make everything look worse, for example, the movie 8 mile. (I will elaborate later.)

[zoomzoom]

Originally Posted by mike jones

Put the city in recievership
Take the Mayor and council out of the decsion making process

In order to improve the city it would require significant federal intervention.
Almost like a "Marshall Plan" to help overcome the urban blight.

A large scale demolishing of vacant and dangerous buildings, especially big ones like Michigan Central.

(This one might get me in trouble again)
A very large, proactive milatary force that would go throught he neighborhoods on a police mission.
A zero tolerance on crime, round em up, lock em up.

It worked really well in the 1980s 1990s in New York.
Times Square used to be horrible, now its a great place to visit.
If only we had the right attitude.

And stop blaming all the folks who live in the city for there situation
There are lots of good peoples who live in the hood who are trapped in a vicous cycle of poverty and despair.

I couldn't agree with you more! Only people that actually spend time in Detroit understand it.

[RedWingsFan]

Originally Posted by zoomzoom

Some of you people don't even try to improve Detroit, so I don't think it's even appropriate that you post. In the United States, the people are supposed to have the power. In order to improve detroit, the people need to put in their time and money. The politicans are supposed to be there to regulate. Perhaps Detroit is getting worse because of STEROTYPES. The news and media make everything look worse, for example, the movie 8 mile. (I will elaborate later.)

I respectfully disagree with just about everything you said. You think it's not appropriate that we post because we don't try to improve it? I think it is appropriate that we post. I was born in Detroit, as was my mother, my grandmother, etc. I grew up in the suburbs. I'm very familiar with the city and all it's problems. BUT they are not my problems to deal with. The people that live there first have to help themselves before always seeking help from those in the suburbs. They put that city into the mess it's in, others should not have to clean it up. And if they did, then most likely they would mess it up again.

And it's not the movies and the media making Detroit look bad. It does a good job of it on its own. All the burned down buildings, garbage everywhere, it's the second most dangerous city in the nation... those facts speak for themselves. You can drive through a neighborhood and see how bad it is, that has nothing to do with the movie 8 Mile.

Furthermore, you know how stereotypes get started? Because they are based on truths. Sometimes they get blown out of proportion, but they are often based on the truth.

[RedWingsFan]

Originally Posted by zoomzoom

I couldn't agree with you more! Only people that actually spend time in Detroit understand it.

Then maybe only people that spend time there should be the ones to help clean it up and get it back on its feet. After all, you said they are the only ones that understand it. If people don't understand Detroit and it's problems then why should they spend their hard earned dollars and valuable time to make it better?