 
Bsarndt
Member
Username: Bsarndt
Post Number: 54
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 9:54 am: |    |
Give me your best. Don't get outlandish. |
Olddetroiter
Member
Username: Olddetroiter
Post Number: 1075
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:07 am: | |
Get rid of the mayor, city council, school board and every other politician in the city. I know you said don't get outlandish, but outlandish is what Detroit needs. |
Bsarndt
Member
Username: Bsarndt
Post Number: 55
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:12 am: | |
Okay, hypothetically, you've removed that aspect. Where would you start? |
Strathcona
Member
Username: Strathcona
Post Number: 39
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:17 am: | |
What is the point of this? What is this going to solve? |
Urbanoutdoors
Member
Username: Urbanoutdoors
Post Number: 991
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:19 am: | |
Put in place a ward system, write a law against demolition by neglect. Embrace our past. Make all finances of public officials public. Make detroit a Green city thus diversifying the types of businesses and people we would attract. Build a light rail system that was functional for all. Instead of putting money in politicians pocket we put it into city services and parks and rec! |
Bsarndt
Member
Username: Bsarndt
Post Number: 56
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:27 am: | |
Strathcona, maybe we can get somebody to look at this thread who can change the future of this city. And maybe I should have said 1 thing you'd change. There are so many. Urbanoutdoors was an excellent reply. |
Sean_of_detroit
Member
Username: Sean_of_detroit
Post Number: 1171
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:35 am: | |
Neighborhood coalitions should ban together and form a super neighborhood coalition... AKA governing body. So you'll have the corrupt one you know you can't trust (you can trust that you can't trust them). Then you'll have the neighborhood representatives which is run by the actual citizens.
The corrupt machine needs to exist. Well, not corrupt, but the position needs to stay. There are more interests represented that way. Neighborhoods, industrial storage tanks, they all have there place. Controled Coruption is |
Bjl7997
Member
Username: Bjl7997
Post Number: 123
Registered: 03-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:40 am: | |
Modernize all traffic signals with mast arms instead of strung overheads |
Ericdetfan
Member
Username: Ericdetfan
Post Number: 275
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:47 am: | |
fix the DPS and hire more police officers. If you ask me, thats the roots of all detroits problems. Fix those and it will go a long way to fixing our city. |
Eastsidechris
Member
Username: Eastsidechris
Post Number: 267
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 11:05 am: | |
1. Remove the mayor.
2. Have city council members elected by districts. Have a three term limit.
3 Make it mandatory that the school board must be comprised of at least two members who have at least 15 years of teaching experience in the district. School board members must also sign an agreement that they must have a minimum four year grace period between the time they resign/are voted out and when they run for another public office.
4. All street lights shall be fixed within 48 hours of going out.
5. The city shall employ enough 911 operators, police officers and fire fighters that all calls will have a response at the scene within 7 minutes.
6. All residents shall have a police precinct within a 10 minute drive of their residence.
7. Residents 15 and under must be inside by the time the street lights go on.
8. Residents 16 and over must hang out in the backyard, and not on a porch, front lawn or sidewalk, after 10 p.m.
9. The city's noise ordinances will be enforced. All tax-paying citizens will be given a sonic "kill" switch which will be able to shut off a car's stereo if the noise emitted from it can be heard more than 20 feet away. The car's driver can start the car again once the noise has reached an acceptable level.
10. Pastors in the city can only own or lease a car that costs no more than the average yearly income of each adult at the church. Good bye Bentleys.
11. The Council of Baptist Pastors shall be stripped of all political clout it possesses.
12. Those who start a non-profit organization shall have no ties to the mayor or city council in terms of land sales, city contracts or schools.
13. Any expenditure of over $3000 will need to be approved by city council.
14. The Manoogian Mansion will be sold, and the mayor of Detroit will maintain a private residence.
(Message edited by EastsideChris on July 16, 2008) |
Bsarndt
Member
Username: Bsarndt
Post Number: 57
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 11:15 am: | |
Wow. Number 9 was funny, but can be effective. Great post. You have great knowledge on our city government, Eastsidechris. |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 2843
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 11:23 am: | |
I will dismantle all the brick walls preventing Detroit from becoming a big world class city. |
Eastsidechris
Member
Username: Eastsidechris
Post Number: 268
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 12:08 pm: | |
Thanks Bsarndt. I've unfortunately had a lot to learn in my four years living in the city.
As Denzel Washington's character said in training day, "To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf." |
Strathcona
Member
Username: Strathcona
Post Number: 41
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 12:08 pm: | |
Nope, you are getting it all wrong, starting from the repercussive causes and working your way down, i.e., government, city services, etc, is not the right way to look at this. What you should be looking for is the traceable root of all the problems.
For example,
Ericdetfan, writes:
“fix the DPS and hire more police officers. If you ask me, thats the roots of all detroits problems. Fix those and it will go a long way to fixing our city.”
NOT THE ROOT! This is not the answer! If you’re looking for blamable sources for Detroit’s problems understand that EDUCATION, MORALITY, and the ECONOMICS of our citizens is likely the largest issue(s) [this by the way is partially (whether directly, or indirectly) fueled by racism]. Now I am not arguing that these variables have not stemmed from other variables (de-economizing the city, perhaps?)… They very well may have, I don’t know. But, currently today, this is a SERIOUS, problematic dilemma and I don’t know what the answer is. I think the only thing we can really do is to encourage and embrace economic activity as possible thereby increasing the standard of living to the point where people have pride in their city and where they live.
And by the way, Bjl7997, we have been replacing antiquated mast arms with modern strung type for the past 4 years—NOT the other way around. |
Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher
Post Number: 1312
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 12:19 pm: | |
To bring Detroit to world class status and make it attractive for more people to move here we MUST fix DPS. Education is the key. If we have a great school system where parents, teachers, admin, students and the community have a vested interest and become involved in the education of our youth, more people would be apt to move into the city. In order to do this, we MUST get parents involved in their children's education. We need parents to start raising hell about what is going on in DPS. We also need to dismantle the whole system and start fresh (new books, updated buildings...we can use the old buildings, just fix them and bring in the technology, highly qualified teachers, best practice teaching methods, and accountability from the top down...this also includes the students and parents...and includes the people who are filtering funds from DPS for their own personal use). |
Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo
Post Number: 1943
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 12:28 pm: | |
Install leadership void of the "Us and Them" mentality. |
Ferntruth
Member
Username: Ferntruth
Post Number: 580
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 4:42 pm: | |
"And by the way, Bjl7997, we have been replacing antiquated mast arms with modern strung type for the past 4 years—NOT the other way around"
Maybe in Detroit (I can't honestly say), but the rest of the area (Ferndale for example) is switching TO the mast arms, and away from the strung type. |
Bearinabox
Member
Username: Bearinabox
Post Number: 745
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 4:47 pm: | |
quote:Modernize all traffic signals with mast arms instead of strung overheads That was a joke, right? Sometimes it's hard to tell. |
Richard_bak
Member
Username: Richard_bak
Post Number: 76
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 5:01 pm: | |
More fast-food restaurants. Most def. And get rid of all those aging eyesores--DIA, Penobscot Bldg., anything built before 1999. |
Croweblack
Member
Username: Croweblack
Post Number: 55
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 5:07 pm: | |
rich REPUBLICAN mayor with a background in a successful business not some shmuck that has profited from the 51% minority owned contracts or that is the head of a failing riverfront project.
The key is Rich though. Nothing to gain from the machine.
Also hire qualified police officers without regard to race and hire a bunch of them. Flood the city with blue shirts.
(The above sounds like New york)
No more public schools, charter only. Fund the charter schools with a donation from a multi-millionaire--oh whoops that was tried already and the city refused because he was white and he didn't want the schools to be hijacked by red tape and the unions.
I think the only way for the city to be saved is by going bankrupt. But the only way the governor will put a receiver in is if that governor is a republican. |
Bearinabox
Member
Username: Bearinabox
Post Number: 746
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 5:21 pm: | |
quote:The key is Rich though. Nothing to gain from the machine. I would say the key is "honest." No matter how rich you are, you can always gain something from the machine. Some people can never have too many Ferraris or vacation homes in the Bahamas. |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 1521
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 6:00 pm: | |
For a $10,000. fee I will give you a plan. |
Jasoncw
Member
Username: Jasoncw
Post Number: 539
Registered: 07-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 6:58 pm: | |
I would wipe out a ton of programs, and would make sure that the necessary ones are properly funded.
The city would be broken down into wards. Each ward would have a certain area in it that is to be thoroughly fixed. Public housing would replace every empty lot and abandoned building. Police would heavily patrol these areas. Public transit would be restructured to serve these areas most effectively.
Ideally, on the ward level, people wouldn't mind moving a mile away to live in the special areas. And each individual ward would start naturally restructuring itself into something healthier (socially, politically and economically). I think that would make stronger communities that would be more involved with ward level politics.
I don't know if this would work in the NW side though. Everywhere else has areas that would make sense to be special areas, the the NW side is so evenly distributed. |
Jb3
Member
Username: Jb3
Post Number: 413
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 9:08 pm: | |
Is that it Lefty2?
Shit, i'm charging $600k to start.
(Message edited by jb3 on July 16, 2008) |
Django
Member
Username: Django
Post Number: 1359
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 9:54 pm: | |
I haven't read through the thread yet but if Detroit could have the first Red Light District in the US, WE WOULD BE HUGE. As well as making a huge blow to this ridiculous War on Drugs. |
Royce
Member
Username: Royce
Post Number: 2688
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:05 pm: | |
There are two things that I would do immediately to improve conditions in Detroit. The first thing I would do is mothball certain neighborhoods.I have been a proponent of shrinking the city by mothballing areas with few residents. I would give these residents a year to find a new residence, but build new homes and apartments for these residents along the major arterial streets: Gratiot, Jefferson, Grand River, Woodward, Michigan, and Fort. After a year, all utilities: gas, and electric, and all city services: police, fire, street lights, and garbage pick up would be discontinued in those mothballed areas. Anyone wanting to stay would have to rough it. No eminent domain action would be taken.
The second thing I would do is hire more police and have police go door to door in a targeted neighborhood asking residents to identify any criminal activity or persons believed to be committing criminal activity. Then set up a command center in that neighborhood and for several days have the police monitor, patrol, conduct check points(mainly asking people what they are doing in the area), and keep and eye on any of those people who have been singled out for committing criminal.
If drugs are being sold in the targeted neighborhood, then the drug dealer and his customers will have to go elsewhere if they see the heavy police presence. If drug activity is coming out of an abandoned house, then the police would have the power and the means to have that house boarded up or demolished.
Once it is determined that the criminal activity has stopped and the criminals have moved on, then the police would move and set up a command post in a nearby neighborhood and do the same things that they did in the previous neighborhood.
I have some other things I would do as well to improve the conditions of the city. I will present those a little later. |
W_chicago
Member
Username: W_chicago
Post Number: 47
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 4:35 am: | |
Royce, you have a very conservative view on society.
"Mothballing" neighborhoods might sound like a rational decision, when one aspect like providing services efficiently take priority and all other factors are reduced to insignificant.
Similarly it might make sense to dramatically increase policing when assuming that more police = less crime. It's a reductionist, zero-sum solution that ignores political and social factors.
I'd like to offer alternatives to "mothballing" neighborhoods, and beefing up the cops.
An alternative that would include things like:
-transform empty lot and unused into community gardens that provide fresh fruits and veggies to the neighborhood
-participatory budgeting... putting the city budget in the hands of the people
-neighborhood councils... grassroots councils that would tackle the problems in each respective community, and funded by participatory budgeting
-cooperative enterprises... worker-owner cooperatives that provide good-paying, empowering jobs to the community they serve
There are hundreds of other possibilities, but I know we have have to take more radical action to achieve common (I hope) desired ends: a wold that promotes solidarity, equity, freedom, justice, and democracy.
-cooperative federations which include all participating cooperatives that will try to be business only with each other, and outside the limits of the markets |
Russix
Member
Username: Russix
Post Number: 93
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 6:08 am: | |
10 cent deposit on all glass bottles sold in the City of Detroit not covered by state recycling.
Free Condoms.
Extend free public education to a college associates degree.
Cover the freeways with parks(reduce noise and stoping the dividing impact) and rebuild the urban street grid.
Use volunteer criminal labor to dig subway tunnels in exchange for reduced sentence.
Create a city department to monitor corruption and voting fraud.
Jack up taxes on downtown surface parking lots to discourage the practice of demolishing buildings to create parking.
Broadcast free wireless access from public school buildings.
Break off outlining neighborhoods from the city and give them to the suburbs to take care of for 10 years. The city could benefit by focusing on a smaller area and the suburb could benefit by improving the neighboring area.
Stop the building of churches until existing ones are renovated or demolished.
Huge tax breaks for urbanized commercial development anywhere in the city(no strip malls or retail with frontal parking lots).
Build a massive recycling plant that readily provides green materials for the automotive industry.
Renovate and modernize old abandon factories into urban industrial parks.
Resume bulk trash pickups(just saw an abandon house yesterday on E. Forest that had become the neighborhood dumping ground, which is funny cause the city is going to(eventually) come and pick this up just like before they eliminated bulk pickup).
Provide bike lanes with the money made for licensing bikes.
Make citizens pay either city income tax or property tax, whichever is higher but not both(under $50,000 bracket).
Operate the historic trolleys from Joe Louis People Mover Station down Atwater street to a loop around Belle Isle.
Seize abandoned properties faster for auction(not after they are burned up and useless).
Build out Michigan Central Station as an International High Speed Rail Terminal to Toronto, Chicago, Toledo and centralizing point for Interurban commuter rail(Ann Arbor, Lansing, Flint, Port Huron, Grand Rapids).
Build a people mover line along 94 that connects the Airport to Downtown nonstop as purely a tourism/business ploy. Reduce construction cost by eliminating stations and seizing more right of ways.
Criminalize the act of buying other people's groceries on Bridge Cards(government food program) in exchange for Cash.
Require public/low-income housing to be mixed in with market value housing, and also public housing not to be consolidated/concentrated.
Legalize Marijuana and Prostitution and tax the hell out of it.
Dig a hole six stories deep where Campus Martius is currently located. Build a concourse on the 1st level with street escalators, information and retail/dining. 2nd level Woodward Subway with service from Pontiac to Windsor, 3rd level Grand River/Gratiot Line, 4th level W Jefferson/Fort St. Line, 5th Level Van Dyke/Michigan Line, 6th Level lease as club space, rebuild Campus Martius exactly as it is now. |
Blksoul_x
Member
Username: Blksoul_x
Post Number: 275
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 8:43 am: | |
Evoking the sentiment of the late great Honorable Coleman A. Young, my change would include, telling....
...all the 'undesirables', to get the hell across 8 mile!
and then, I would proceed to summons all of the Black community 'expats' to return home from their cozy paradise's in the sub's and hinterlands to re-invest, re-develop, and re-claim the villages to which they grew up to make Detroit the Black Mecca it was meant to be.
My public policy for city business etc would be...
'What's said in-house, stays in-house...sambo's are not welcomed!
blksoul_atcha! |
Duke_sims
Member
Username: Duke_sims
Post Number: 25
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 9:01 am: | |
If I could change one thing, it would be the racial prejudice among many Detroit officials.
For instance, would it be so wrong to choose a white person, or an Asian, or whatever, to run the school system instead of only looking at African American candidates, which is how it's done now?
African Americans make up about 12 percent of the population, according to the 2000 Census. So unless my calculator needs batteries, that means the "educational leaders" in Detroit are dismissing 88 percent of potential candidates based solely on the color of their skin, not their ability to run a school system.
With very few exceptions, all the departments in the city are run by black people. That's fine if they're qualified. But job qualification should the most important consideration, not skin color, which seems to be the most important thing now.
Years ago, there was a high-ranking white police official who really had his stuff together, and everyone agreed he would make a great chief. However, while his qualifications were universally acknowledged, it was also stipulated that he could never be chief because of his skin color.
Everyone agreed: It just wouldn't do to have a white police chief in Detroit.
Given this attitude, I find it ironic that Kwame's legal team is almost all white. When it comes to saving his own hide, suddenly the most important thing became job qualification, not blackness.
Many people seem to think it's important for black people to have black leaders they can look up to. This is a patronizing (and often self-serving) attitude.
I'm sure if you polled most black folks, they'd tell you they'd rather a strong school system and city government -- no matter what the pigmentation of the people in charge.
And before anyone flames me and accuses me of saying that only white people can do a good job, let me defuse that before it starts. Obviously, white folks can be just as crooked or incompetent as people of any other race.
But when you cut out 88 percent of the population, you're not going to get the best and the brightest. And that's what's happening in Detroit.
I seem to remember this dude saying we should judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Maybe I was dreaming... |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 1528
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 10:16 am: | |
The Indians, French, English, German's, Africans etc. built Detroit so it would be turned into a black mecca? I never knew that before. Was that Farrakhan's ideal plan? |
Bsarndt
Member
Username: Bsarndt
Post Number: 59
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 10:20 am: | |
This thread is beautiful. I read thoughts from people who truly care about this city.
And not that I would ever dismiss my black brothers and sisters, but we need better diversity in the city government. We have many diverse cultures and ethnicities that are not represented in our city government. That needs to happen. We need a human race runned city, not a segregated one. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 318
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 10:47 am: | |
Get rid of the politicians, get rid of the failing Public School System and let the TEACHERS run it, more cops, and prosecute the criminals to the fullest extent of the law, an bring in the jobs. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7477
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 10:49 am: | |
What Detroit needs a White mayor that can appeal to the Michigan Legislatures and U.S. Congress, the rest of the suburbs.
It's sounds kind of like a race card, but hey! The nation has a black candidate who would become our first African American president of the United States. |
Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Member
Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Post Number: 3
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 11:11 pm: | |
If I could change one thing about Detroit, it would be something far bigger then any one policy change.
I would want to see a leader (or leaders) who can heal the hurts, pains, anguish, disappointments and sorrow of all the past wrongs committed.
There is no US. There is no THEM.
Whether you owned a business destroyed in 1968, or whether you were one of the many who unfairly faced discrimination, costing you opportunities and resources. Whether you were the 3rd generation of UAW membership or a member of the Ford family. Whether you loved Coleman Young or hated everything he stood for.
We in Detroit have the financial capital, the talent, the natural resources, the intelligence, and the opportunity to make our city...yes OUR city -- both the city and the suburbs -- a cohesive, vibrant place to live. We need a leader who can inspire people to do their best and be their best -- not just because the opposing political party passed legislation forced us to reluctantly change our ways...but out of love for what our city can become. Out of love for ourselves.
I have long thought that if we simply removed the millions of people who lived in SE michigan and replaced them with an identical racial and socio-economic population of people -- but with out the collective memory of our past hurts -- the petty fighting, the power grabs, the corruption, the scarcity mentality, and the endless waste of opportunities would all end.
A few months ago, I was giving a tour of a Detroit hotel to a black surgeon in his 50's. I took him by the shoeshine, and he saw a white college-aged student shining a black man's shoes.
"...a white man shining a black man's shoes," he commented. "...I've never seen that before in my life."
I -- being neither white nor black -- looked at him and said, "well, maybe part of the world's changed". He had a dubious look on his face and then looked at me thoughtfully, saying, "yes. Yes it has."
If I could have one thing for Detroit and the Metro Detroit area...it would be for us to find a leader who can remind us of that. And show us that we, too, can move forward and make a better place for all of us. |
Benfield
Member
Username: Benfield
Post Number: 37
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 11:22 pm: | |
I'd change the city's name to Detroite.
Detroite.
Detroite.
It's more classy that way.
And I'd change 8 Mile Rd to Pepé Le Pew Avenue. Way more classy, evocative of the Paris of the Midwest and reflective of the Parisian feline's proclivity for the fairer sex, found in abundance in numerous locations along Pepé Le Pew Avenue. |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 2357
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 11:42 pm: | |
As Jack Nicholson's character The Joker in Batman said..."This city needs an enema!"
From reading the above posts, there are plenty of good ideas there that would get the constipation moving. I'm just sayin'. |
Blksoul_x
Member
Username: Blksoul_x
Post Number: 276
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 11:52 pm: | |
YPD'er naively stated....quote:A few months ago, I was giving a tour of a Detroit hotel to a black surgeon in his 50's. I took him by the shoeshine, and he saw a white college-aged student shining a black man's shoes.
Don't you love those 'amerikkkan dream' feel good stories....
However, the reality is....functionally, the basic white college kid would shine shoes for different reason's...in other-words, he/she had options...we(blacks), in the past, shined shoes for lack of options do to the racist institutions in this kkkountry'...BIG DIFFERENCE!__go figure!
blksoul_atcha!
Obama 08! |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 467
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 1:40 am: | |
Clean it up, so people like Cub ain,t gotta deal with all the crap dumped by Detroiters and SUBURBANITES ALIKE. As much as i like old buildings, ALOT GOTTA GO. This area has enuff broken down, unsafe buildings. Unless they have a plan they go Bye-Bye. |
Thejesus
Member
Username: Thejesus
Post Number: 107
Registered: 06-2008
| | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 8:52 am: | |
I'd get Detroiters to start taking their elections more seriously and holding their public officials accountable for their fuck-ups, as this is the most realistic way to solve many of the city's problems. The League of Women Voters has the right idea with their effort to divide the council into districts.
I'd also get the citizens to stop murdering each other in record numbers. While this may be unrealistic, such a move would pose a very low cost to the citizens of Detroit but would provide tremendous upside. |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 719
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 10:40 am: | |
Privatize SMART and DDOT.
Unless there is an incentive to provide mass transit at the lowest cost and to give the best and most safe service, there is no reason to believe that transit officials will ever listen to the public.
But, there is hope.
Maybe Wal-Mart and all our industries will pay decent wages out of the kindness of their big hearts to pay for mass transit at city hall?
Maybe the half per cent NEW county Sales tax increase that the Transportation Riders United supports will work to merge SMART and DDOT into one highly efficient public bus and rail system will actually work and bring good paying jobs back to southeast Michigan? |
Sludgedaddy
Member
Username: Sludgedaddy
Post Number: 73
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 6:22 pm: | |
Encourage 50 Amish families to settle one of Detroit's urban prairies. This will give a shining example of what ingenuity, community and a work ethic is.
....and get Blksoul-X a concession on 12th and Clairmont selling bean pies, Malcolm X velvet paintings, incense, shea butter and dashiki's made in China so he can persue the Amerikkkan dream.
Polish Soul....Comin' from Bushia's |
Ggores
Member
Username: Ggores
Post Number: 206
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 - 10:10 pm: | |
First of all, get out of the red ink. I'd reduce the City Council to a one, maybe two, day job per week. Cut their salary's proportionately as well. Secondly, abolish the bulk pickup tax. Thirdly, fight against the State's driver responsiblity tax. Fourthly, earmark about ten million bucks and instigate my "lawn mower in every garage" initiative. Yes, I'd make sure each and every household had a good working lawn mower. Fifthly, eliminate as much city taxes as possible, and encourage all city employees, from top to bottom, to learn how to live on tortillas and beans. Sixthly, highly encourage skilled trades to come back to the City - plumbers, welders, fabricators, etc. And seventhly, on the day of rest, hit Vivio's for a round of awesome Bloody Mary's, early in the morn, to celebrate the positive steps taken, and the bright future laying ahead. |
Themax
Member
Username: Themax
Post Number: 960
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008 - 11:13 am: | |
DO whatever it takes to attract businesses. Back when I was getting newspapers regularly, the issue was not enough large parcels of land in the city for a business to build on. How about starting there? And getting rid of the redtape that bogs businesses down. Also Detroit has lost out on loads of federal money in the past because of not meeting deadlines. I don't know if anyone ever lost his/her job over those snafus, but some heads should have rolled. People have got to be held accountable when things like that occur. There 's probably a union thing involved. |
Al_t_publican
Member
Username: Al_t_publican
Post Number: 219
Registered: 06-2004
| | Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008 - 11:38 am: | |
I would welcome immigrants to live and open businesses in Detroit in order to revive a moribund small business culture. I lived in Detroit (City of) for over fifty years and now live in San Diego. I have never seen a city so bereft of a small business culture as Detroit. Detroit seems resistant to having immigrants come in and set up shot, while shunning the idea of being small business ownership.
Without a small business culture that ranges from art to hardware stores, you can not have an urban culture. |
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