As this thread is primarily directed toward residents of Michigan, I assume that increased use of government-run social programs will not even be considered as an option? Just policing and "business councils", etc?
What ones are you talking about? Currently they are talking about a government run rail link to make it easier to work in the city, more cops, and a slew of job training initiatives.
The big problem with
Detroit is that just about everyone who can
move out, does. If you do give a mother better welfare, her children better meals, education, and job placement then the most likely consequences will be her kids making enough money to
move to the suburbs and bring her along.
Those would certainly have their place--they'd have to, with the city in the shape that it's in--but you're limited by money. Detroit can't pay for anything itself. The state of Michigan isn't in great shape, and they can't really pour more money into Detroit than they're doing already without the rest of the state screaming about it. The Feds can help, but they can't, say, offer free health care to everyone in Detroit and not to the rest of the country.
Michigan is broke. The budget is in deficit by three quarters of a billion dollars; and that is after raising all the hidden taxes (fees, fines, and under the radar taxes) the state government could fine. The money simply isn't there to be had. Theoreticly the state could raise taxes to increase revenue, however the electorate will vote out the governor and the legislature.
The state's economey is tied up in the auto industry and that suffers from the fact that you can go south for lower taxes and cheaper workers or you can head east for lower taxes, marginally cheaper workers, and government subsidized healthcare - raising taxes will almost certainly
move automotive jobs out of the state (which is why the Democratic governor wants to lower the business tax) and likely be a net drain on the budget.
one quick and dirty way to do it would be to annex the suburbs and restore the tax base.
Wouldn't cut it. Several of the suburbs themselves are in deficit and they are also witnessing the wealthy, educated, and unionized workers moving farther out. For a while Hamtramck was in such dire straights that the state actually took over their budget. The only way to be sure of setting right the city's budget through annexation would be to create the largest city (by land area) in the country.
Even assuming you manage that, I will give you great odds that flight will begin all over again. Wherever you draw the dividing line - even if its Ann Arbor city limits, people will
move to the other side. You will need a massive margain to keep the tax base from simply falling through further flight - the early suburbs are already seeing this - their residents are getting the hell out as crime rates and incomes fall.
The problem is that it will be politically extremely difficult. The suburban residents will, of course, resist the move.
It would require an amendment of the State constitution which requires a statewide vote in favor and would have to bypass the state legislature meaning you'd have to go through a massive petition drive ... and it would still be
shot down. You can't annex the burbs without their consent, particularly since most of them are already incorporated into towns and cities in their own right.
And so might the political class in Detroit. Annexing middle-class Republican suburbs will break the Democratic machine in the city.
The political class in
Detroit are easy: bribe them. There are a few people in power in
Detroit who aren't beholden to cronyism, under federal investigation, or admitted to unethical behaviour, but they aren't a majority.
Add to that the race problems, which are just astounding--you're going to have a lot of white soccer moms whispering "We can't live in the same city as those people"
Bullocks. The
Detroit suburbs are one of the more diverse regions in the country. Their are thriving Arab, Persian, Indian, Polish, Chinese, Southeast Asian, African, etc. communities within the burbs. The University of Michigan has been drawing thousands of international students for decades, those families have moved throughout the area and virtually no major incidents have occured in middle class areas. Likewise middle class black flight from
Detroit to the burbs has been documented. The problem isn't skin colors, it is gang colors. If you tell people who forked out 100,000 dollars to get their kids out of the
Detroit school system they are back in - then I suggest you invest in real estate just on the other side of the dividing line.
Southeastern Michigan is first and foremost divided by class, race is largely an issue because of the overlap. Wealthy blacks vote Republican as much as wealthy whites, they live in the same communities, and attend the same schools; recently they've even begun attending the same churches. Intermarriage in some areas, like most of Ann Arbor, is so common it fails to raise eyebrows (to be fair in Ann Arbor a bi-racial gay couple raises few eyebrows).
black workers saying "This is our city, and we're not letting those crackers tell us what to do".
Middle class black workers? No. Most of them have gotten the hell out or are sufficiently enlightened to see beyond the race card (these are people staying in the city for altruistic reasons). The rest of the population, perhaps, the electoral demagogues routinely blame whitey for holding down the city.
Realistic ways to reverse the decline:
1. Fix the educational system.
Detroit, its remaining voters, and the educational system have made a mutual suicide pact. Graduation rates are abysmal, reading comprehension is terrible (and functional illiterates do graduate out), violence in schools is horrid, as is drug use, etc.. Right now many future productive citizens of
Detroit get shafted by an education system that spends too much time, money, and effort on losers. What is needed in education is some way of allowing the kids who can learn and want to to get the hell away from those who don't and can't. Either you'd have to force the teacher's union to repitively fail the losers (and that requires breaking the union) or you have to go for seperate schools. Vouchers will most likely suck off the intelligent and driven kids, as well as those whose parent(s) really care - leaving behind a bigger mess in the public schools. Frankly I think it is the lesser of evils to let those within the system effectively rot and let those who want to enroll their kids in schools where they fail, punish, and expell the losers.
Minimally you need to abolish the school board and have it run by some one nicely apolitical and compotent. After that you need to get the budget directed to useful expenditures (a "state of the art" high school for the fine and performing arts ain't it), have it out with the teacher's union, and rewrite the cirrculum.
2. Sell off all the cultural institutions the city budget is carrying. The
Detroit Zoo, the DIA, etc anyone who buys such an institution will be allowed to operate it with no taxation so there is a chance some of them will survive. Yes cutting such funding will not be popular, but given a choice between laying off cops and firemen or saying goodbye to the Zoo - I know which one I prefer.
3. Demolish every vacant home you can legally get away with.
4. Build walled and gated communities to bring back in the middle class.
5. Hire a crapload of undercover cops, deputize and train neighborhood watches, and place a few snipers on various rooftops throughout the city at random times and locations. The general idea is to arrest as many criminals as possible and to place a healthy fear that they will eventually be caught or killed.
Really though I don't think you can solve Detroits problems without burning down the city and rebuilding. You've had decades of corruption, mismanagement, and educated flight. In certain parts of
Detroit all that remains are the poor, the criminals, and the drug addicts.
Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
) I do know one thing that might help: get rid of Kilpatrick.
He's trying to live like he's a rap star, and it's hurting the city.
