The city of Detroit in transition
The city that gave the world Motown and all the big hits in gospel and R&B is once again in for big changes. The city that gave the world the most independent black mayor is in for great change. The city that made blacks feel empowered in ways that other blacks in other cities with black leaders could never know is in for great change.
A well-meaning white man said to me just before election day, "Bob, we must find a way to buy up all the property we can and move a million whites back to the city."
I know the change he is looking for and he believes with his whole pocketbook it is going to happen. I reminded him that when Dennis Archer became Detroit's mayor that bus tours of Detroit were conducted by realtors who believed that white people were coming back to the old neighborhoods. You would see buses on Sunday evening going up and down Chicago Boulevard with people that had interest in moving back to the city their parents told them great stories about.
The truth is too many blacks are moving out, not just the ones making six figures and going to the upscale suburbs, but the ones who are making less than $20,000 a year are moving to Warren and Taylor. People are just leaving Detroit.
The people elected leaders in Detroit must first stop the flow of people moving out. And that is not going to be easy. The crime and poor school conditions, coupled with no jobs, makes staying in Detroit a hard choice.
Detroiters will look back 10 years from now and wonder if they made the right choices on election day and how much of what Detroit has become was influenced by that decision.
Change is coming, but what kind of change?
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re: Change in Detroit
Robert Smith Jr wrote in part "The people elected leaders in Detroit must first stop the flow of people moving out. And that is not going to be easy. The crime and poor school conditions, coupled with no jobs, makes staying in Detroit a hard choice.
"Reverend Smith"..WHY are their poor schools in Detroit? As Robert Bobb has uncovered..Rampant fraud, abuse and incompetence abound in the DPS system. Yet since Mr Bobb has been doing his job..not a single blog from you demanding those responsible be fired and / or pay restitution
As far as "jobs"..take a look at the tax structure, and comical city government in your city for a clue. The most corrupt mayor in Detroit in years was convicted of a crime..with nary a criticism from you.
A good start for people of your party would be to acknowledge that good ideas can come from across the aisle as well.
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Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it.
Thomas Sowell
Again we get a vague warning(?)
The last two posts from Mr. Pitts are worrisome - it's obvious the health of Detroit is at stake (as in every election), but what is the decision being implied? What's Door 1# and what's Door #2? It's like the reader is supposed to know already. There's an ominous 'outcome' he's repeatedly pointed his tongue at but not said.
It reads an awful lot like the codespeak I hear out in the burbs, but in the other direction. Am I right - are we still at seige politics ala 1972?? Is Bing perceived as a 'dependant' mayor? Am I getting warmer?
His well-meaning friend gets partial credit for his "A Million Points of White" plan. Detroit needs a million . . . ANY million . . . to move here. Look what a group of motived immigrants from Jalisco MX have done to SW Detroit. Imagine just a few more surges like that (by anybody) in other parts of the city. If Detroit rises, the region and the whole state would likely rise with it. Why continue to play to our lesser natures?
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