  French777 Member Username: French777 Post Number: 689 Registered: 10-2006 |
What would you say is detroit's biggest issue and first priority issue. examples Cobo Expansion Downtown More "Tourist Friendly" Light Rail Neighborhood Stabilization Crime Schools More Big Business Downtown ??????? These are not my order. I personally believe light Rail should be first priority. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4133 Registered: 10-2003 |
At least for the things city government has some jurisdiction over, policing (crime) and transit. I'd also add public safety, in general, which would include diverting more funds (and finding more grants) to demolish dangerous properties. Outside of the city government's jurisdiction and on another scale would rank schools equally up there among the other two. | ||
Gene Member Username: Gene Post Number: 192 Registered: 10-2006 |
How about a hash bash. The city needs more people walking around stoned. | ||
Rjk Member Username: Rjk Post Number: 1192 Registered: 11-2003 |
"I personally believe light Rail should be first priority." I would just go with lights. The city of Detroit first needs to nail down basic city services. | ||
Vantanna Member Username: Vantanna Post Number: 32 Registered: 08-2007 |
Crime. | ||
Cmubryan Member Username: Cmubryan Post Number: 461 Registered: 11-2003 |
1. unemployment 2. crime 3. more big business downtown | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3772 Registered: 04-2006 |
The economy. Then transportation. | ||
Ongowwah Member Username: Ongowwah Post Number: 315 Registered: 03-2008 |
Single parent homes which directly or indirectly breed crime.....not in all, but in many cases. | ||
Janesback Member Username: Janesback Post Number: 510 Registered: 08-2006 |
Bad publicity is hurting Detroit as well.....this really is not healthy for the city and its recovoery....... Jane http://realestate.yahoo.com/pr omo/americas-emptiest-cities.h tml | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3776 Registered: 04-2006 |
Here is bad publicity + the economy: quote: NYT: Dead End in Detroit for White-Collar Workers | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 3330 Registered: 02-2007 |
A lot of people sitting around waiting for something to happen. Detroiters need to get out of this mentality that they "need a job". Waiting for some industry to miraculously appear. We need businesses that provide jobs. The spirit of entrepreneurship needs to be rediscovered. | ||
Waymooreland Member Username: Waymooreland Post Number: 114 Registered: 11-2007 |
I would say Cobo expansion, not because it's the most important thing, but because it just needs to get done ASAP so we can move on to the next thing. It would be an immediate victory, as opposed to an ongoing process like many of the city's other woes. I'd go with transit second, again, because it's a project with an end in sight that should have a quick impact on local business and population. Schools and crime are problems today and they'll still be problems tomorrow. We can say we're working really hard to improve schools and fight crime, but we're not going to solve those problems overnight so emphasizing those areas won't improve the city's image or spur further investment into the city. We need to keep fighting these fights, but the city needs to be opportunistic and pounce on finite projects like Cobo and LRT to build support and demonstrate that it can get things done. | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 2285 Registered: 03-2008 |
^it is a crisis of confidence. Improving confidence is step one. | ||
Dcmorrison12 Member Username: Dcmorrison12 Post Number: 36 Registered: 02-2009 |
Light Rail is the most important issue. It's not only addressing the issue of transportation, but Light Rail becomes a catalyst for economic expansion - which creates jobs - increases overall happiness in the city - brings new residents to the city - and reduces crime because there's a healthier economy. Light rail is definately the most important. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1806 Registered: 12-2006 |
Schools. In order for Detroit to exist in any meaningful form, we have to make it attractive for families to live here, and not just desperately impoverished families. When parents of school-age or younger children look for a place to live, one of their first priorities is to find a place with good schools. Then crime, for obvious reasons. Then public transportation, by which I don't mean just "light rail", but good, frequent, reliable bus service. Detroit has to establish that, in some way or another, it provides a clear advantage to living in the suburbs, and public transportation could be that advantage. In fact I can't think of anything else that could realistically do it. Light rail (etc.) will be a good upgrade, but I'd also like to see the damn Michigan bus show up when it's supposed to. Cobo is absolutely a red herring IMVHO. Other than the auto show, what events will we attract if we expand Cobo to five trillion square miles and make the floors out of solid gold? Detroit's future, short to medium term, is not going to be defined by "gosh we sure host a lot of big conventions because EVERYBODY wants to spend a week in Detroit". Let's be realistic a little bit here. | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 1716 Registered: 05-2005 |
crime/gangs | ||
Gmich99 Member Username: Gmich99 Post Number: 248 Registered: 11-2005 |
Occasionally it is discussed, but before Detroit can muster up the tax base to properly execute projects. Annexation of the suburbs is the only solution I can imagine save the emergence of a wholly new and unforeseeable industry centered in Detroit. Politically this is an impossibility. But merging the population and resources of a large chunk of the approx. 4.5 million metro would elevate the City's status as one of the largest cities in the US and provide a tax base large enough to actually address a number of the City's problems. | ||
Buyamerican Member Username: Buyamerican Post Number: 907 Registered: 02-2007 |
Loss of the Big 3 WHAT YOU DRIVE, DRIVES AMERICA! OUT OF A JOB YET? KEEP BUYING FOREIGN. | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 506 Registered: 07-2008 |
1. Crime, and the attitude that accepts it. 2. Unemployment 3. Metropolitanization (is that a word?) 4. Efficient, safe mass transit | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 2234 Registered: 12-2005 |
In any attempt to prioritize the allocation of scarce resources to competing demands, it is important to stop and refer back to the charter or responsibilities you've been given. In the case of municipal government, we the people have willingly given up some measure of our liberties and treasure in exchange for the protections of government to insure and improve our "health, safety and welfare". Within that broad charter, responsible government over the years has contributed greatly to improve the health, safety and welfare of the populace. The cities grew and prospered and many local governments were able to expand on the types of projects and services they provided, many of which had a tenuous connection to the "health, safety and welfare" of its residents. In my opinion, if you cannot easily convince someone that your proposed public expenditures will contribute to improving at least two of those three objectives, it should go to the bottom of the list in this time of shrinking resources and critical, unmet, basic needs. In the case of Detroit and using my suggested prioritization approach, I think that these kind of issues ought to be at the top of the list: - improving average 911 police, EMS and fire response times to less than 5 minutes - achieving an nightly average of 95% of total street miles in the city with working street lights - reduce by half the approximately $100 million dollars worth of water that Detroit pumps annually and which is never delivered or paid for | ||
Dannyv Member Username: Dannyv Post Number: 556 Registered: 08-2007 |
Crime, unemployment and education. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 5277 Registered: 06-2004 |
quote:as long as they have the money to pay for their munchies... | ||
Ashdetroit Member Username: Ashdetroit Post Number: 62 Registered: 08-2008 |
SCHOOLS. People are never going to move back and invest in a city where only 1 in 3 males finish high school. It's ridiculous, everything else is window dressing. | ||
Softailrider Member Username: Softailrider Post Number: 277 Registered: 02-2007 |
End the open air drug markets that are pervasive in so many neighborhoods. I've never seen such brazen, blatent activity in any other city I've ever been in. It's a disgrace to the decent people who live on those blocks. | ||
Gene Member Username: Gene Post Number: 194 Registered: 10-2006 |
Here we go again with the mass transit, light rail will solve all of our problems. Will somebody explain how mass transit and light rail will get generations of Detroiters off welfare, drugs,crime, violence, and into a functioning educational system so when Obama saves and or creates the 3 million jobs Detroiters will be employable?? | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 2083 Registered: 10-2003 |
Crime Schools Diversify the economy... stop depending on the so-called "Big 3" | ||
East_detroit Member Username: East_detroit Post Number: 1944 Registered: 11-2003 |
Crime Schools Diversify the economy but embrace and feel pride in our legacy rather than buy into the self-loathing many want us to feel for their own various reasons. | ||
Keysrock35 Member Username: Keysrock35 Post Number: 3 Registered: 12-2007 |
1. Taxes too high 2. unemployment 3. City Council | ||
Eastsideal Member Username: Eastsideal Post Number: 324 Registered: 10-2007 |
It depends, if you're talking big picture, there's no doubt that the number one priority for Detroit and the entire region is economic redevelopment. There will be no growth and no resurgence in an area with little or no economy and very few decent-paying jobs, and no means to improve things without a reasonable tax base. Certainly it should be clear by now (hell, it should have been clear back in the '70s) that we can no longer depend on the auto industry for our livlihoods. A little shorter term is aggressively addressing crime, which is eating away at city neighborhoods again like cancer and harms all attempts at redevelopment. Nothing would be so beneficial so fast to this city as reducing crime and the perception of danger and chaos that accompanies it. Yes, that means more police, and more importantly new and improved ways of policing taken from the experiences of other cities. Closely linked to this (but then they're all linked, aren't they?), of course, is education, which is an utter and total disaster in Detroit - even beyond the disastrous state of most urban schools in the country. Someone really needs to get ahold of the School Board and stop the total madness that leaves our children as abandoned as all those old blown-out school buildings that litter the city's landscape and throughly fails in preparing most of them for a productive adult life. Light rail and better transit, as much as I'd love to have it, can't be the priority many of you seem to feel it is. Not in a city with such deep and growing problems, most of which are occurring far from the Woodward corridor in the neighborhoods where most of the city's citizens actually live. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3802 Registered: 09-2007 |
Detroit's biggest issue is the economy. If you don't have a good economy (which Detroit obviously doesn't have), all of those things the original poster will either get worse or not happen at all. |
