Ruredi you're oversimplifying things too much. The world is more nuanced that you just tried to describe. Texas led the nation in the innovation that unlocked shale gas and shale oil, which is causing a manufacturing resurgence nationwide. To suggest that "we just got lucky since we sit on oil" is very wrong. That took educated engineering and scientists decades to figure out. It's very high tech stuff involving supercomputers and geologists, etc. You also overlook the explosion of growth in the DFW and Austin area, which are less dependent on oil and gas like Houston. and by the way -- I do agree on your immigration point. I'm very pro-immigration from "points south" because they bring hard working people with generally good morals (yeah there are always some bad apples in any lot, but fore the most part they're good). They are also willing to work for cheap, which lowers the cost of housing and construction, as an example.
25 Facts About Detroit Link Partial post of info; the rest is opinion. 1) At this point, the city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors. 2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident. 3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit actually had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation. 4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit. Today, there are less than 27,000. 5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost. 6) There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less. 7) At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city. 8) About one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict. 9) An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate. 10) Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point. 11) If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty. 12) Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, but over the past 60 years the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent. 13) The city of Detroit is now very heavily dependent on the tax revenue it pulls in from the casinos in the city. Right now, Detroit is bringing in about 11 million dollars a month in tax revenue from the casinos. 14) There are 70 "Superfund" hazardous waste sites in Detroit. 15) 40 percent of the street lights do not work. 16) Only about a third of the ambulances are running. 17) Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them. 18) Two-thirds of the parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down since 2008. 19) The size of the police force in Detroit has been cut by about 40 percent over the past decade. 20) When you call the police in Detroit, it takes them an average of 58 minutes to respond. 21) Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day. 22) The violent crime rate in Detroit is five times higher than the national average. 23) The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City. 24) Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit. 25) Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to "enter Detroit at your own risk".
I appreciate your standing up for the side of reason, but you do know that talking about these things with these guys---big_texxx, gwayneco, commodore, tallanvor, basso, et al----is like arguing with a drunk, right? If they want to be literalists and blame this on the President, then by God, it's Obama's fault, right? I nearly hit a pothole on Richmond this morning. Damn that Rick Perry. It's his fault, you know.
it absolutely COULD. it's going to take a massive injection of resources from those outside of it, though. they have removed the lifeblood of that city. but it sure seems like this has been coming for quite a while. crass, largely unimportant question -- is there a future for pro sports in Detroit?
Absolutely there's a future for sports. Detroit just experienced a crazy level of white flight. I mean the Pistons don't even play in Detroit. You add up the suburbs and you still have a gigantic metro area. Its no different than say Cleveland which has had a similar population decline to the suburbs.
southeastern michigan has ~4-5 million ppl so its not like the whole area is desolate ann arbor and dearborn are doing really well. lots of companies moving to the area to take advantage of UMich talent they can recruit from. its a dream scenario but if I were tesla motors I would move manufacturing of the genIII high volume car to the area. cheap land, existing manufacturing infrastructure. and how awesome would the story be? new american auto manufacturer dedicated towards the revitalization of a former great city. as for greater detroit, its going to have to downsize. theyre going to have to raze many city blocks and cut off funding entirely, and re-direct those funds to the downtown/midtown/new center/riverfront areas. then once thats done everyone who is committed and bringing private money needs to work on creating a city thats going to attract a young crowd that wants a unique, sustainable city. detroit is gonna have to innovate a lot on creating a new type of city. one with lots of green spaces and focus on green living.
All you talking about a revitalization of Detroit I don't think grasp the magnitude of the problem. How can it be expected that people are going to move there with this type of citizen base?
Shale Technology has been around for a while. Exxon spent a lot of money on it the 80s, and then they realized they couldn't make money on it since oil prices were too low. Prices are much higher now so it is more economically feasible. I have a lot of coworkers that went through the oil bust. It was a rough time for Houston. Similar to what Detroit is going through right now.
I don't know, but unless the city gets its priorities straight and builds us some new stadium upgrades, we'll never find out, and we'll be forced to kill this adorable puppy. -owners
The scope of the problem exceeds the oil busts that Houston went through. But you're right in concept that it's similar.
The collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh is a better comparison. (but still not as big as the problem Detroit is facing) The collapse of the steel industry was a disaster but Pittsburgh didn't get quite the population collapse that Detroit. That said, there are lessons to be learned. Pittsburgh leveraged its large pool of skilled workers from the steel industry and brought in other industries and companies that could use that talent. The city and state invested heavily in public-private partnerships to incentivize companies moving to Pittsburgh. The city has recovered to a reasonable degree. Now Detroit has much much bigger challenges but I think Pittsburgh is a nice blueprint to go off of once Detroit figures out how to consolidate city services.
Detroit is a very unique mess that can't be fixed on using methods that worked for other cities that experienced minor issues compared to what they are in. I lol at the poster who said Detroit is similar to Houston in the oil bust. Not even close. I'm not sure people really realize how bad things are in Detroit.
You must have good leaders to start the recovery. I do not think Detroit is capable of electing good leaders at this point. Maybe they should have state appoint all top level government positions for 10 years.
If it gets bailed out they should do something very controversial and suspend its status as an actual city for something like 10 years. Have no elections. Bring in people on contracts to run the city and develop it. It's a city full of corruption, run by people we should not trust with money that get elected by uneducated, low information voters who are just fighting to survive in that economic hell hole.
This is a good example of why Democracy by itself doesn't always work, and pushing Democracy on poor uneducated people does not really solve their problems, and there are far worse places than Detroit around the world.
well its a good thing then that the poor and uneducated in detroit probably dont vote anyway.. the city's future depends on the few bigwigs spending money now, bringing the first new employees. then its up to various factors if these ppl decide to make detroit home. more companies follow, so on, so forth.
