  Little_buddy Member Username: Little_buddy Post Number: 65 Registered: 03-2006 |
What can one person do to fix it? Is it beyond fixing? How much should the suburbs help? | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 5372 Registered: 10-2003 |
If I were the mayor, I would fix it by resigning. | ||
Rel Member Username: Rel Post Number: 261 Registered: 02-2008 |
It's not about one person. The mayor of a city alone cannot do everything. A good mayor needs: -A positive relationship with the city's council -A voter base & community leaders that have faith in him/her -A suburban community that understands it plays a role in the main city's future. Sigh.... just a dream? ;) | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 810 Registered: 08-2007 |
Gosh Gilligan, I think the first thing you should do is get a shot of tetracycline, followed by some creme to help with the itching and painful urination. You and the Skipper should be more careful. | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 428 Registered: 09-2004 |
I'd start putting new light bulbs in all those streetlights that don't work. If everyone can see, then nothing can be hidden. | ||
D_mcc Member Username: D_mcc Post Number: 289 Registered: 12-2007 |
I would make up a fresh batch of Kool-Aide to serve to the people that elected me. Have wild parties at the mansion, use my over paid, and unorganized security detail cover up my extramarital affairs. Text message my chief of staff. Electrocute members of the city council. But every once in a while I would go to my church, with a camera and teleprompters...and ask forgiveness in the eyes of the lord. But I would have kept the earing...I think thats what everyone forgets. When the earing was removed...thats when things started to fall apart. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 1559 Registered: 04-2006 |
Drop income taxes to two percent for residents and one percent for non residents as required original agreement/law with State of Michigan. This would help make the City more attractive for investment and home owners. Review the effectiveness of the Department of Administrative hearings. I don't know about others but I see more blight, not less. Provide funding for more police and fire personnel. Mow the grass in the parks every once-in-a-while. Fix the schools. Several years ago we were hit with a big property tax hike to fix the schools, yet we see closed ones become eyesores. Why? Continue to provide alternatives to driving through expanding trail networks and improving transit in a cost effective manner. Listen to the residents. They have the vote. | ||
Izzadore Member Username: Izzadore Post Number: 113 Registered: 11-2006 |
quote: Nice. Visit the communities. A Mayor cannot 'rule' from City Hall. She/He has to express concern over the needs of the people in all of the communities that make up Detroit. If uplifting Detroit's Downtown is hard, just imagine how hard that task is at Liv and Tireman. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1577 Registered: 11-2004 |
Have green letter jackets made up for me and all of my posse. | ||
Registeredguest Member Username: Registeredguest Post Number: 353 Registered: 10-2003 |
Wow - now we all can play "virtual mayor" for a day. How exciting! Thanks for sharing this great virtual opportunity! And I'll bet we all have such a vast knowledge of all the problems and issues that abound in Detroit - because we all live within the city limits and experience, first hand, these problems... Can't wait for the next 300 posts of knowledge, wit and engaging public policy... Cause, you know, no one in Detroit has ever thought that schools, safety, lack of transit, parks, taxes, etc. were problems. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1578 Registered: 11-2004 |
OK, one thing that isn't talked about often but I have experience in as a city resident is mentoring. First thing I would do as mayor is issue a challenge to city and suburban residents alike to make time to mentor a young adult or someone who is entangled with the law and looking to get their life back on track. I put more money and city cooperation toward helping deal with young adults in need of a steady, successful adult figure in their lives. Similar initiatives have worked quite well in Boston and other big cities and should be tried here. | ||
Digitalvision Member Username: Digitalvision Post Number: 593 Registered: 11-2003 |
I'd first go in there not with the attitude I'm going to fix it, but that I'll improve it. It's patently offensive to lots of constituents to say they're "broken" or their city is "broken" for various reasons (not all of which I agree with, but they have a right to their opinion). I'd go in to improve. First focus would be reinvestment by private industry. Can't get guys off the porch to a job if there aren't any. I'd start bringing property taxes in line with the rest of the region for personal and commercial, but in the meantime, to shortcut the system, as much as I hate them I'd offer some incentives as a necessary evil, and double the budget of the DEGC. Second, a two-pronged mass transit approach. Part A is to fix what we have an use whatever political juice to make it happen so we at least get high-speed buses. But until that happens, I would create targeted job shuttles. There are key business areas - Southfield, Troy business corridor, etc. that have the most jobs and are hardest to get to, and I'd create a targeted shuttle from major DDOT points on the edge of the city (like the fairgrounds) that took the freeway and got people to jobs with the idea that they would only need to take one line from their house and then pick up their job connector. Can't expect someone to "go get a job" when they can't physically get to it. Third, a complete restructuring of the budget, throw it out and start over at zero. Create an office of risk management with teeth, and refocus the priorities to core services - Police, Fire, etc. The city is in business to provide services, and the Detroit taxpayers deserve more than what they're getting. I would renegotiate the union contracts so that if someone was lazy they could be fired. Increase accountability for city employees that the slackers (although a minority) will not be tolerated. If you get rid of the core violators, it'll show everyone else BS is not tolerated. You get paid for 38-40 hours, you show up for that time and you work. No "site visits" where you spend the whole day at home. No signing in for other people who showed up 30 minutes late. That's not tolerated at any work place. If they didn't accept those conditions, I'd start privatization. But first, have the option to increase their performance. Privatization is not always the answer - but what's currently going on sure isn't. That's the start of it. | ||
Rax Member Username: Rax Post Number: 153 Registered: 11-2007 |
Digitalvision for Mayor! | ||
Chris_rohn Member Username: Chris_rohn Post Number: 410 Registered: 04-2005 |
I'd have everyone text "DET" to 12345 so the administration could send sexy text updates to everyone in the city. | ||
Melody Member Username: Melody Post Number: 155 Registered: 11-2007 |
"I'd start putting new light bulbs in all those streetlights that don't work. If everyone can see, then nothing can be hidden." Can you also replace the street lights that fell over because the base was rusted through? | ||
Ferntruth Member Username: Ferntruth Post Number: 367 Registered: 11-2006 |
"Cause, you know, no one in Detroit has ever thought that schools, safety, lack of transit, parks, taxes, etc. were problems" I don't think that anyone would accuse Detroiters of NOT seeing these issues as problems. I just don't see a lot of demand for change going on - seems like SOME NOT ALL have accepted the status quo as "just the way it is". It's going to take more than a few bombastic posters on D'yes to turn things around - its takes a population that cares enough to put ACTIONS to WORDS and to actually DEMAND that things change, services improve, etc. THAT is what seems to be missing (IMO). | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5429 Registered: 10-2004 |
quote:About seven weeks ago, large electrical flashes were coming out of the sidewalk at Vernor and Waterman when I was walking on the other side of the street. It apparently was due to a light pole ruined in an accident because some signs of digging was visible on the terrace nearby (where the pole was removed). There was a light shower then, and from the size of the electrical flashing (about a foot or so high) about every twenty seconds, it seemed to me that it might have electrocuted any pedestrian who unknowingly had stepped on that stretch of sidewalk. [Perhaps, this stretch of Vernor could be renamed the McPhail Terrace.] (Message edited by LivernoisYard on February 28, 2008) | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1958 Registered: 07-2004 |
Decriminalize sale and possession of less than two ounces of weed, and legalize all use. | ||
Digitalvision Member Username: Digitalvision Post Number: 594 Registered: 11-2003 |
Detroitnerd: Federal law over-reaches everything. Detroit doesn't have that power. And if you think that's the most important thing facing the city, go back to smoking what you're smoking as it's obviously good stuff for ya'. Livernoisyard: Saw somewhat of the same thing a couple months ago in new center - was making a left from Grand Boulevard to Cass and one of those electrical boxes that stands up was smoking and sparking - but this was without rain :-) | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1134 Registered: 12-2006 |
The main thing for any executive of a troubled organization, in business or government, is to answer the following lead question: since we only have x number of dollars, and we can't do everything we've been doing, what things do we stop doing? If you're bankrupt you can't control your destiny. Second, our customer base is abandoning us for others; what is our potential base and what do we do to get them here or get them back? It's all about making intelligent spending decisions and deciding what to improve and what to let go of. I post often enough; if I was mayor a lot of you already know what I'd do. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1959 Registered: 07-2004 |
Go back to smoking? That would mean I stopped!  | ||
Bulletmagnet Member Username: Bulletmagnet Post Number: 998 Registered: 01-2007 |
I would return Detroit back to agricultural. We have loads of land, and lots of homeless and hungry. It would be based on the Soviet model, only Detroit style. It wouldn’t take much to do it, given what we have now. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1960 Registered: 07-2004 |
Actually, before the Soviet Union was a twinkle in Lenin's eye, Mayor Hazen Pingree was doing something very similar in Detroit: Allowing hungry Detroiters to appropriate empty lots for potato fields. | ||
401don Member Username: 401don Post Number: 281 Registered: 11-2007 |
Institute a shoot-on-site for littering policy. The more serious crimes should be treated accordingly. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3619 Registered: 06-2004 |
Of all the empty lots how many do you think are safe for farming? My worry would be about ground contamination, otherwise plant away! Maybe folks from Greenfield Village could help teach what would be the best things to plant to actually feed a household. Maybe some lots should become chicken yards. (Message edited by lilpup on February 28, 2008) | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1136 Registered: 12-2006 |
I doubt the formerly residential lots have much contamination. Gleaners Community Food Bank already does some urban farming. Industrial sites, that's another matter. 401don, that reminds me of the capital punishment monologue of the late comedian Robin Harris. Capital punishment for everything. Parking ticket: electric chair. It'd eliminate all that whining to the judge, you know: "Your honor, I won't do it no more!" (Judge: ) "I know." | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 7744 Registered: 10-2003 |
One thing urban farming might do is help remediate contaminated soils and the produce can be used for biofuels instead of human consumption. But, my best guess is it won't happen. | ||
Asbury Member Username: Asbury Post Number: 31 Registered: 10-2007 |
Focus on quality of life. Stop wasting resources and better the lives of the residents. This also includes police/security. If you start to better the people's lives, it all will fall into place. More people would want to live in the city. With residental come commercial. Business would want to open and would prosper. This selfish wasting of funds/resources has to end. It really is a grand opportunity for someone to come in and make a lasting difference. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1962 Registered: 07-2004 |
Somebody from some agricultural program was telling me you can decontaminate city soil by growing vegetables, and then disposing of the vegetables. They say that after working in plenty of compost and disposing of the pollution-catching plants, you can remediate soil effectively and cheaply. | ||
Funaho Member Username: Funaho Post Number: 21 Registered: 11-2007 |
First I'd start with what Digitalvision proposed. Let's get rid of the dead weight in the system so that we're not wasting what little resources we already have. The City is never going to get better if basic services aren't maintained at an acceptable level. Maybe get The Bobs in there to help. ;-) In addition I'd sit down with some smart folks and draft a long-range plan for the City with specific milestones, for example "reduce the overall crime rate by x% by 2015". If you have a definite plan in place, and it's reasonable, then people take you more seriously, and we can then take this plan to Lansing and to Washington and say "Look, we need help. We have a good plan to fix things, but we need some help to kick start the process." If all these other places can get their pork projects why can't we get some real assistance when we need it? Oh and we need some serious PR. A big problem I see (based on the blight and the littering) is that a lot (hell, i'll say most) of the people living in the city just don't give a damn. On one hand I can certainly understand why they feel this way, but then again if we don't all have some pride in our city how will we ever fix it? | ||
Jdkeepsmiling Member Username: Jdkeepsmiling Post Number: 323 Registered: 01-2006 |
The problem with capital punishment as a penalty for all crime is that if you are going to die, you might as well do something REALLY bad. So you end up with more serious crime. If the penalty for rebellion is the same as for stealing, why wouldn't you rebel? | ||
Evelyn Member Username: Evelyn Post Number: 137 Registered: 02-2005 |
Introduce a ward system for electing members of Detroit city council. And don't let the casinos put up any more garish neon. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1137 Registered: 12-2006 |
Fun, if you are trying to sell a fundamentally bad product, all the PR in the world won't help. Our problems are real: bad schools, high crime, high poverty, high taxes, bad transit, roads in bad shape, lots of blight, almost no retail. Fix the product before you worry about the advertising. | ||
Digitalvision Member Username: Digitalvision Post Number: 595 Registered: 11-2003 |
Genius, Jams... gets rid of that contamination issue. If you're not going to eat it, who cares? And eventually, it will work the items out of the soil. I am not a farmer (as you know, the only "harvesting" I do is drinking alcohol made from grain) and my only extent of agriculture experience is planting forsythia (sp) and evergreen bushes, so I have a stupid question. How difficult would it be to get the machinery in to do the farming, with all of these small plots? Moving folks is going to cause an uproar... so you probably are going to have to work around them. It needs to viable in some sort of way. I'm not saying it's not viable, I'm saying I don't understand the economics and dynamics. Seems promising though as part of an overall solution. | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 5321 Registered: 02-2007 |
flip the entire state upside down into the Gulf of mexico. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3622 Registered: 06-2004 |
We're not talkin' Kansas megafarm here - farm tractors aren't that big. The city probably even owns a few. When I worked as a landscaper during college summers we used them to mow the flatter freeway shoulders and medians. Aside from that some (many) crops are still handwork. | ||
Mrsjdaniels Member Username: Mrsjdaniels Post Number: 487 Registered: 08-2005 |
Marshall law and imminent domain. i had to take stuff over to fix it. | ||
Harpernottingham Member Username: Harpernottingham Post Number: 369 Registered: 04-2006 |
Maybe Detroit needs a Rudy Giuliani type to do what he did in New York. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1964 Registered: 07-2004 |
Oh yeah, that'll go over great, esp. if he starts his run for mayor like Giuliani did, by getting a crowd of hundred of police to chant racial slurs about the black mayor. That was a great moment in New York history. | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 7761 Registered: 10-2003 |
Just a coincidence, I received a call today regarding a parcel I own about this very subject. There is not a structure on that entire block and basically has been a dumping ground for old tires for the past few years. While I would prefer to see that block plowed and planted with a usable crop, instead of the weeds, contacting and getting waivers from all of the property owners is a daunting task. The other choice is guerilla farming but that opens up another legal can of worms about property rights and trespassing, despite it is obvious no one maintains any of the lots on that street. | ||
Ladyinabag Member Username: Ladyinabag Post Number: 396 Registered: 03-2007 |
I would take the 53 million that the state is holding because the 2006-2007 audit is late and clean up the city. I would have the streets cleaned up and all of the junk hauled. I would manicure the overgrown fields, and get as many of the boarded up houses ready for low-price sale. I would court big business and get on my knees for them to bring their business into the city, thus creating new jobs. I would have all of the stop-lights repaired as well as any other electric defaults. This would be just the beginning. (Message edited by Ladyinabag on February 28, 2008) | ||
Nainrouge Member Username: Nainrouge Post Number: 899 Registered: 05-2006 |
Sounds like we need to get the mayor fixed | ||
Ladyinabag Member Username: Ladyinabag Post Number: 401 Registered: 03-2007 |
Hey, Jams- Wouldn't it be wild if all the vacant fields turned into farms? What a thought. "Chicks and Ducks and Geese better scurry.... | ||
Funaho Member Username: Funaho Post Number: 22 Registered: 11-2007 |
Professorscott, I'm not suggesting trying to "polish the turd", I'm talking about trying to get the people to care. If nobody cares, and just keeps trashing (literally, not verbally) the city, how can it ever get fixed? At least if everyone pitched in and kept their own property cleaned up it would be a good start would it not? | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 653 Registered: 05-2004 |
The problem is the turd is still fresh and steaming. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3665 Registered: 06-2004 |
Even one lot sized garden can supplement a lot of dinner plates. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 659 Registered: 05-2004 |
Blow it up and start over. | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 456 Registered: 06-2005 |
Annex Highland Park and work hard to clean it up. It is an ulcer right in the center of the city, and you can see it infecting the edges. Detroit will remain FU'd in my opinion until HP is delt with. OR, (Put a wall around it and make it a supermax prison) at least the rest of detroit would have a place to work. Just one idea IMO! | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1971 Registered: 07-2004 |
In theaters soon: Escape from Highland Park, starring Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine and Connie Sellecca. The year is 2018, and the president is trapped within the walls of Highland Park, an open-air prison inside the city of Detroit ... | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2781 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: LOL, that was funny. Highland Park causing Detroit's blight... lol. | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 458 Registered: 06-2005 |
I didnt say that Highland park was causing detroits blight, but look around the edges. Look at six mile in palmer park. All those buildings right there are the worst. Why? Because of HP. No its not the cause of detroits problems but it would be a good place to start. How are you going to raise detroit, with a cancer right in the middle of it? Your not! IMO!. As far as the Supermax prison, it was tounge in cheek, but sure doesnt seem that far fetched to me. It would employe a few hundred (if not a couple of thousand) people. Are ya working now? Evidently not seeing the rate people/jobs are leaving the city. I dont think detroit is in any condition to make fun of any idea. Hell you cant live in HP for the crime and violence. But I do think Brad Pitt would be better to play the part than Kurt Russell given his age and all. Please point out where I said "Highland Park is causing all of detroits problems" because Im pretty sure I didnt say that. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 11394 Registered: 10-2003 |
EM has a point. While HP may not be causing Detroit's blight Detroit has no control over what is done in HP. Areas like BE and Palmer Park are close enough to HP that the city can do a ton to improve those areas but still have the big question mark of what HP does. I think it is a fair point. | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 3605 Registered: 11-2005 |
Re: urban farming/gardening, it is already going on: http://www.modeldmedia.com/fea tures/urbanag.aspx | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 459 Registered: 06-2005 |
RE: Urban Farming, how are they keeping the thiefs out? Do they have huge fences or guards? Just wondering, Dont jump my shit, Im just asking a question! | ||
Mwilbert Member Username: Mwilbert Post Number: 114 Registered: 11-2007 |
If I were mayor, I would concentrate on the following: 1) Tearing down unsalvageable buildings. 2) Moving people out of and tearing down substandard buildings. 3) Improving the police force. In terms of getting Detroit closer to a turnaround, these are the things within the city government's power that would make the most difference. | ||
Ray Member Username: Ray Post Number: 1091 Registered: 06-2004 |
I would do three things: improve the police force improve the police force improve the police force lower crime and investment and popluation will flow back into the city. For extra credit, I would also do everything in my power to encourage families with children to move out of the city, offloading the massive liablity of education -- and the attendant crime comitted by 16-25 year olds -- on more affluent suburbs. I would focus on driving the city's poplution with affluent, childless young people and empty nesters. The idea that the city government is the appropriate institution to deal with social problems like poverty or racism is absurd. The city picks up trash, provides police and fire etc. The state and federal governments are in charge of saving the world. The city's attempts to address these issues seem to me to be unproductive and probably counterproductive. Cities are in my mind analogous to a large mixed use real estate development in the sense that it must compete intensely with other developments (i.e. cities) for prestige, human resources and financial capital. The best a city can do -- like Chicago or Manhattan -- is be ruthlessly competitive at attracting those resources. Only then from the citadel of success does a city of the luxury of nipping around the edges of America's social problems. It's all about money aint a damn thing funny. |
