Detroit mayor plans to "downsize" Detroit

[LETSFIGHTBACK]

DETROITS MAYOR IS PLANNING TO DOWNSIZE DETROIT AND RELOCATE POOR RESIDENTS.SINCE IT WILL TAKE 4 YEARS FOR THE PRO CORPORATE HEALTH CARE BILL TO KICK IN, AND SINCE 185,000 PEOPLE WILL DIE DURING THIS WAITING PERIOD,THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WILL ALSO DIE FROM LACK OF HEALTH INSURANCE.

TO LISTEN GO TO
letsfightback.podomatic.com

[Psy]

DETROITS MAYOR IS PLANNING TO DOWNSIZE DETRIOT AND RELOCATE POOR RESIDENTS.SINCE IT WILL TAKE 4 YEARS FOR THE PRO CORPORATE HEALTH CARE BILL TO KICK IN, AND SINCE 185,000 PEOPLE WILL DIE DURING THIS WAITING PERIOD,THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WILL ALSO DIE FROM LACK OF HEALTH INSURANCE.

TO LISTEN GO TO
letsfightback.podomatic.com
Plan to downsize Detroit?!? Detroit has been contracting for years now and what would be the point of relocating the poor since most of Detroit residents are below the poverty line.

[Martin Blank]

Plan to downsize Detroit?!? Detroit has been contracting for years now and what would be the point of relocating the poor since most of Detroit residents are below the poverty line.

"Downsize" is a little misleading, though it's the term they're using. What they're planning to do is forcibly remove poor and working people, including retirees, from their houses in selected neighborhoods and bulldoze the entire area, turning it into a huge no-man's land -- no electricity, no water service, no public lighting, old residential streets torn out, etc. They're planning to do this to one-fourth of the city, mostly around the borders of the suburbs.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

"Downsize" is a little misleading, though it's the term they're using. What they're planning to do is forcibly remove poor and working people, including retirees, from their houses in selected neighborhoods and bulldoze the entire area, turning it into a huge no-man's land -- no electricity, no water service, no public lighting, old residential streets torn out, etc. They're planning to do this to one-fourth of the city, mostly around the borders of the suburbs.

That is insane! Gentrification at its most extreme.

[Dimentio]

"Downsize" is a little misleading, though it's the term they're using. What they're planning to do is forcibly remove poor and working people, including retirees, from their houses in selected neighborhoods and bulldoze the entire area, turning it into a huge no-man's land -- no electricity, no water service, no public lighting, old residential streets torn out, etc. They're planning to do this to one-fourth of the city, mostly around the borders of the suburbs.

That is insanity on the level of Caligula...

[Martin Blank]

That is insane! Gentrification at its most extreme.

It's only partially gentrification. What they can't do with economic pressure is going to be done through eminent domain laws. In other words: it is part gentrification and part ethnic cleansing ("forcible relocation" is a form of ethnic cleansing).

[Martin Blank]

That is insanity on the level of Caligula...

Apparently, you've never met Generalissimo David Bing, Mayor-for-Life of the Banana Republic of Detroit.

[chegitz guevara]

Keep in mind that Detroit has large areas where there is only one house per block. Maintaining services for such areas is expensive for a city that has almost not tax base. Really you should target your ire at the state government and the Feds. They have the money to save Detroit. They just don't.

[Martin Blank]

I should also add that the White House has already committed $100 million to do this, and has the Brookings Institution overseeing the project. So, this is not speculation. This is going to happen.

[Martin Blank]

Keep in mind that Detroit has large areas where there is only one house per block. Maintaining services for such areas is expensive for a city that has almost not tax base. Really you should target your ire at the state government and the Feds. They have the money to save Detroit. They just don't.

The "one house per block" line is only true in about 5 percent of the city. Most of the neighborhoods being selected are, in fact, areas that are mostly inhabited; those residents are being pushed closer to downtown to make way for the demolition (i.e., into the devastated neighborhoods, some of which are the "one house per block" areas).

And Detroit actually has a potentially huge tax base. The problem is that the city has written most of it off as corporate welfare. Most of the downtown corporations -- GM, Compuware, Chase Bank, Bank of America, Comerica Bank, Little Caesar's/Olympia, the casinos, etc. -- all get huge tax breaks from the city and state. On top of that, the city charges outrageously high property taxes (most people in the city live in single-unit dwellings -- houses -- and most of them are retirees who own those houses).

There is enough ire and enough blame to go around in this. It's the city, the state and the feds together doing this.

[chegitz guevara]

Well fuck all that then.

[Dimentio]

Are there any protests planned?

[Martin Blank]

Are there any protests planned?

Working on it. We had to wait until that March 20 protest was out of the way before other groups were ready to consider the idea.

[SandiNeesta]

DETROITS MAYOR IS PLANNING TO DOWNSIZE DETRIOT AND RELOCATE POOR RESIDENTS.SINCE IT WILL TAKE 4 YEARS FOR THE PRO CORPORATE HEALTH CARE BILL TO KICK IN, AND SINCE 185,000 PEOPLE WILL DIE DURING THIS WAITING PERIOD,THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WILL ALSO DIE FROM LACK OF HEALTH INSURANCE.

TO LISTEN GO TO
letsfightback.podomatic.com

Where will they be moving them? To another area of Detroit or out of the city altogether? They're not going to rebuild the areas as in typical gentrification, they just want to have nothing there? What exactly would be the advantages of them doing that do you think?

[Martin Blank]

Where will they be moving them? To another area of Detroit or out of the city altogether? They're not going to rebuild the areas as in typical gentrification, they just want to have nothing there? What exactly would be the advantages of them doing that do you think?

The city government's not really concerned about where these residents go, either into the more devastated neighborhoods or the suburbs or to hell. Just as long as they leave the designated areas.

They don't really have any concrete plans for the areas themselves, once they are turned into the no-man's lands. For the moment, the only real advantage the city gets out of it is the money it saves on not having to provide municipal services in these areas: no garbage collection, no public lighting, no electricity or gas services, no water or sewerage, etc.

There's been talk of bringing in developers, but that's not going to go anywhere. The more likely outcome is that some of the suburbs with growing populations that border Detroit may have the adjacent land ceded back to them (most of it having been annexed by Detroit a century ago when the city was growing because of the auto industry). Other than that, it's a physical buffer zone between Detroit and the suburbs.

[SandiNeesta]

Very disturbing....I just read an article on the subject and it looks like they have a few other cities on their list after Detroit, including my hometown of Baltimore. Hopefully a few resident will put up a fight and not just give in and move.

[Martin Blank]

Very disturbing....I just read an article on the subject and it looks like they have a few other cities on their list after Detroit, including my hometown of Baltimore. Hopefully a few resident will put up a fight and not just give in and move.

As is often the case, Detroit is "ground zero" for another new social experiment. This one is what to do when the whole "Cool Cities" pipe dream fizzles. That concept worked in some cities, like Seattle and Chicago (somewhat), but did not take hold in others. Now there's a matter of what to do with those urban areas, since they are no longer considered "self-sufficient". This so-called "downsizing" appears to be the leading candidate. If it "works" here, you can expect to see it applied to a lot of other cities.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

“There are people that are going to have to be displaced and there will be people who are angry. I understand that, but I’ve got to do what I have to do and what’s best for the City of Detroit, not just specific individuals.” - Bing

[Guerrilla22]

What they're planning to do is forcibly remove poor and working people, including retirees, from their houses in selected neighborhoods and bulldoze the entire area, turning it into a huge no-man's land -- no electricity, no water service, no public lighting, old residential streets torn out, etc. They're planning to do this to one-fourth of the city, mostly around the borders of the suburbs.

Wonderful. They provably will end up putting people in tent cities somewhere.

[Tablo]

This is utterly disgusting. If I were pushed out of my home I would go crazy. This is very upsetting. I hope some mass demonstrations go on in response to this. I hope there is a reconsideration...

[Rusty Shackleford]

"Downsize" is a little misleading, though it's the term they're using. What they're planning to do is forcibly remove poor and working people, including retirees, from their houses in selected neighborhoods and bulldoze the entire area, turning it into a huge no-man's land -- no electricity, no water service, no public lighting, old residential streets torn out, etc. They're planning to do this to one-fourth of the city, mostly around the borders of the suburbs.
that sounds like just waht the god damn IDF does. fuck man. fuck the detroit politicians for doing that shit.

[zimmerwald1915]

"Downsize" is a little misleading, though it's the term they're using. What they're planning to do is forcibly remove poor and working people, including retirees, from their houses in selected neighborhoods and bulldoze the entire area, turning it into a huge no-man's land -- no electricity, no water service, no public lighting, old residential streets torn out, etc. They're planning to do this to one-fourth of the city, mostly around the borders of the suburbs.
So, in their minds, the world is a game of Civilization, and they can whip their cities whenever they feel like it?

What despicable people.

[Communist]

.

Unions, community groups challenge Detroit restructuring (http://www.workers.org/2010/us/detroit_0401/)

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Detroit
Mar 28, 2010

During the week of March 15, corporate interests unveiled several initiatives to further usurp local control of Detroit.

Robert Bobb, the Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager, announced that 45 school buildings would be closed by June. Bobb, an appointee of Gov. Jennifer Granholm, announced the plan at Renaissance High School to an invitation-only audience. The address was broadcast live over a number of major corporate radio and television outlets.

More than 100 activists and school employees picketed outside and then marched into the Renaissance auditorium, chanting, “This is our school!” Some protesters denounced the Skillman Foundation executives who were present for their role in dismantling Detroit’s public school system.

According to the New York Times, the plan to close the 45 schools “would eliminate as many as 2,100 jobs, in the face of a deficit expected to peak at $316.6 million and a dwindling student population.” (March 17)

The Detroit Federation of Teachers immediately rejected the plan. At a March 17 community meeting, the Coalition of Detroit Public Schools Unions called for a mass march from DFT headquarters to DPS headquarters on March 23.

A city with an official unemployment rate of approximately 28 percent, a foreclosure problem that worsens every year, and city governmental leadership that works exclusively on behalf of corporate interests, Detroit will be further weakened with the privatization of public education and the firing of workers.

However, the attacks are not confined to this majority African-American city. There have been large-scale cutbacks and layoffs of public sector employees throughout the southeastern Michigan region. Schools will be closed in several suburban communities.

Nationally, the trend is also toward school closings and downsizing. The Kansas City school district announced the closing of 28 schools this year.
Educator Carol Dantzler-Harris wrote: “These school closings usually happen in areas that can least afford it. Some of the schools were in trouble prior to the country’s economic woes; low performing schools result in parents pulling their children out to seek a better education. These schools have a difficult time attracting the best teachers and lack the resources they need.” (advanceweb.com, March 22)

Unions threaten to strike

In Detroit, city employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have protested Mayor Dave Bing’s attempts to impose a 10 percent wage cut and slash benefits. On March 16 AFSCME workers picketed outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. More than 500 workers then attended a public hearing with the Detroit City Council’s Internal Operations Committee.

The proposed benefit cuts include the requirement that employees purchase generic drugs; the elimination of paid lunch breaks; the suspension of tuition reimbursements; and the reduction of the age limit for dependents covered by health care, from 22 to 19 years of age.

Chants of “Strike!” emanated from the crowd. “We have no choice but to shut the city down this time because we are not going to take these concessions,” said Michael Mulholland, AFSCME Local 207 secretary-treasurer. (Detroit Free Press, March 18)

Richard Mack, an attorney representing AFSCME Council 25, called the proposed cuts “an effort to break the union, to break all these unions.”

Meanwhile, the Bing administration is moving forward with schemes to “rightsize” the city, in line with a corporate community agenda. A private foundation, the Kresge Foundation, is paying a so-called urban planner to implement plans to reconfigure the city. This will result in the mass dislocation of residents.

Even the Detroit News acknowledged that Kresge’s participation “underscores the influence of private foundations in Mayor Dave Bing’s downsizing initiative. Foundations, including Kresge, helped fund Data Driven Detroit’s block-by-block study of vacancies and housing conditions that could serve as a blueprint for neighborhood consolidations.” (March 18)

A spokesperson for Mayor Bing said that the city’s downsizing team “will expand as the effort progresses.”

Plans to slash pensions, axe Medical Center

Plans were recently announced for a state legislature bill that would effectively eliminate the elected municipal pension board, which oversees in excess of $5 billion in funds contributed by city workers. The legislation would transfer control from the pension boards to the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System, which faces an underfunding crisis.

The corporate media have accused the pension boards of making questionable investments. However, most employees and retirees feel that the city pension system is run efficiently.

In addition, the nonprofit Detroit Medical Center has announced a proposal for Vanguard Health System to acquire the institution. DMC board chairperson Steve D’Arcy called the proposal “the biggest private investment in the city of Detroit in history.” (Crain’s Detroit Business, March 21)

Detroit Receiving Hospital, a component of the DMC, provides health care to uninsured people. The takeover by Vanguard, a Tennessee-based firm, could change the entire character of the DMC and its policy on treating uninsured patients.

Fightback efforts continue

On March 23 a mass protest will take place outside Bing’s “State of the City” address. The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs and AFSCME locals are mobilizing for the demonstration, which will demand a freeze on layoffs and pay cuts along with a moratorium on debt service payments to the banks by the city of Detroit.

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition is demanding that Mayor Bing declare an economic state of emergency in Detroit and that Gov. Granholm enact a halt to all foreclosures, evictions and utility shut-offs. On March 27, the coalition will hold a Town Hall meeting to strategize a fightback and call for a massive federal public works program to put people back to work in Detroit and around the country.

____________



Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World (http://wwppitt.weebly.com/).
Verbatim copying and distribution of article
is permitted in any medium without royalty
provided this notice is preserved.

.

[RED DAVE]

This was alread done in NYC. About 1/4 of the Bronx was permitted to be burned down. The property was put into a "land bank." Then, during subsequent periods of prosperity, the neighborhoods were partially gentrified.

RED DAVE

[The Red Next Door]

Gotta Love America, You just gotta love it, Land of the shitheads.

[Communist]

.
Detroit advised to admit population loss permanent (http://detnews.com/article/20100327/METRO01/3270330/Detroit-advised-to-admit-population-loss-permanent)

Christine MacDonald
The Detroit News

Detroit -- If downsizing is going to help save Detroit, the city needs to admit it likely never will regain its lost population and start using tools already available to capitalize on its glut of vacant land.

That's what two leaders from Flint and Youngstown, Ohio -- who have launched similar downsizing efforts -- told local officials, community members and students at a symposium on downsizing Friday at the Wayne State University Law School.

Dan Kildee, the founder of the Genesee County Land Bank, said that facing up to Detroit's future is difficult in a country where bigger is considered better. But he said cities like Detroit have to plan for their reality. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has said he is considering ways -- including relocating residents -- to downsize the city to reflect its decline in population to below 900,000 from 1.8 million in 1950.

"Biggest always seems to be the measure of success," said Kildee, former Genesee County Treasurer, at the "Rebuilding the post-industrial city" conference. "The first step is the acknowledgement ... that a smaller community might be the better place."

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams echoed those sentiments, saying Detroit's plight mirrors Youngstown's loss of the steel industry. He said his city reached a low in the late 1990s and officials had a "collective epiphany" that no one new industry would save them and they weren't going to regain lost residents.

They created a plan to downsize, using incentives to urge residents to move to more populated areas in the hopes of reducing services in others. For example, the city doesn't spend money earmarked for rehabbing homes of low-income residents in underpopulated areas.

But others in Detroit are not convinced downsizing is the answer. Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said repopulating the city should be an option and talked about offering city-owned vacant homes to buyers for $1 to attract residents. She plans to hold a forum April 23. "We should look at everything," Watson said.

Other community members and city activists have said they are concerned that residents would be forced out to make land more accessible for corporations.

But Kildee, who recently dropped out of the governor's race, said residents don't have to be forced out and that economic tools -- such as tax breaks -- should be used to encourage residents to leave dilapidated areas. And the city should be using its land bank to control vacant land and spark development, instead of offering it at low prices to speculators, he added. Code enforcement should be used to force neglectful landowners to clean up properties or lose them, he said.

While some of the tools are there for downsizing, Wayne State professor John Mogk said the challenges -- political support; money; creating a bureaucracy to administer the project and legal challenges -- are great.

Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green, who also spoke at the symposium sponsored by the school's Journal of Law in Society, said the challenge for Bing is balancing the "daily dizzying emergencies," such as the city's immediate financial health and the long-term need to plan a different Detroit.


.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I think most of you are taking this completely the wrong way. What he's doing is taking back homes that aren't being taken care of, in which if they do, they will allow them to stay, if not then they'll take the homes & clean it up themselves & redistribute it. Michael Moore was talking to him on the dvd extras of Capitalism: A Love Story. You can watch a video talking about it below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpXfILTJccg

[Martin Blank]

I think most of you are taking this completely the wrong way. What he's doing is taking back homes that aren't being taken care of, in which if they do, they will allow them to stay, if not then they'll take the homes & clean it up themselves & redistribute it. Michael Moore was talking to him on the dvd extras of Capitalism: A Love Story. You can watch a video talking about it below:

This is about Flint, not Detroit. It's a completely different plan up there.

[The Vegan Marxist]

This is about Flint, not Detroit. It's a completely different plan up there.

How's it different? From what all's been talked about, it seems to be the same?

[Guerrilla22]

Downsizing Detroit, wonderful idea Bing. Where exactly are they going to put all the people they force out of their homes, FEMA trailers?

[Martin Blank]

How's it different? From what all's been talked about, it seems to be the same?

While both Flint and Detroit are facing a similar problem with population loss, Flint's government is not talking about forcible relocation, unlike Detroit; they are still relying on voluntary movement, incentives and even some neighborhood renewal. That's not happening here. Bing made it clear in his State of the City speech that he intends to go ahead with what amounts to ethnic cleansing, especially because it's so unpopular.

[Governor??]

I would like further discussion. I have read that the figures for the exodus of people from Detroit may be inaccurate. He states that people are homeless and no longer counted - but present living in abandoned homes and buildings.

Any thoughts??

I have read also that 50,000 homes are also in foreclosure presently. Bing states a population of 800,000 in Detroit. (As stated , some state this figure is inaccurate - swelling figures of homeless are not being counted.)

I consider, personally, the people of Detroit to be facing economic warfare. I am very concerned.