Detroit thread. Post Kwame, Monica, and $1 houses here.

[Malthus]

I just saw Detroit's motto. Were the authors prescient or has it been adopted recently?

No it was adopted in 1805 after the city burned to the ground. So see? Being a disaster zone is not new for Detroit.

The city too tough to die.   

I've had weeds like that. 

[Savonarola]

All jokes aside, though, Detroit is much better today than it's been since I started living in the area in 1994.  Even five years ago the downtown area was deserted on weeknights; today there's a decent crowd every night of the week.

The school system is a major stumbling block, of course.  In addition to the financial situation; the students consistently under-perform.  While college students and young professionals have started to move back into the city; families aren't going to move back until that improves.

[Savonarola]

Shameless Plug:

Ferndale's 'Valentine Vodka' named the best in the world

Glorious Detroit suburb of Ferndalistan produces world's best vodka.  Putin cries self to sleep, saying "But their blini no good."

[Savonarola]

I was in the D last week.  As I was driving around I came across a billboard with a nubile, young, white woman on it which read "Consent if you don't get it, you don't get it."  The billboard wasn't located near one of the universities; instead it was in one of the rougher African American neighborhoods in the city.  Thank you PSA people, you've done so much to reverse long standing stereotypes.

[jimmy olsen]

[KRonn]

All jokes aside, though, Detroit is much better today than it's been since I started living in the area in 1994.  Even five years ago the downtown area was deserted on weeknights; today there's a decent crowd every night of the week.

The school system is a major stumbling block, of course.  In addition to the financial situation; the students consistently under-perform.  While college students and young professionals have started to move back into the city; families aren't going to move back until that improves.

Baby steps, but at least some progress. 

[Savonarola]

All jokes aside, though, Detroit is much better today than it's been since I started living in the area in 1994.  Even five years ago the downtown area was deserted on weeknights; today there's a decent crowd every night of the week.

The school system is a major stumbling block, of course.  In addition to the financial situation; the students consistently under-perform.  While college students and young professionals have started to move back into the city; families aren't going to move back until that improves.

Baby steps, but at least some progress. 

Heh, my brother used to say (about Detroit) if it was 40 miles into the woods, it's going to be 40 miles out of the woods.  (Though that was in the Kwame years, before anyone realized he was taking Detroit another 20 miles into the woods.   )

[jimmy olsen]

Holy shit! That's crazy even by Detroit standards!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/05/09/lawsuit_accuses_flint_mayor_of_diverting_water_crisis_donations_into_campaign.html

Lawsuit Accuses Flint Mayor of Diverting Water Crisis Donations Into Campaign Account

By Elliot Hannon


There's a lot of blame to go around for the Flint water crisis, but a federal lawsuit filed Monday against the city's mayor claims even attempts to make things right have been fraught with mismanagement and corruption. The suit was filed by former city administrator Natasha Henderson, who alleges she was wrongfully fired from her post in February after she tried to initiate an investigation into Flint Mayor Karen Weaver after she learned Weaver was allegedly diverting funds earmarked for water crisis charities into a campaign account.


From the Detroit Free Press:

The suit alleges that Weaver directed a city employee and volunteer to steer donors away from a charity called Safe Water/Safe Homes, and instead give money to the so-called "Karenabout Flint" fund, which was a political action committee or campaign fund created at Weaver's direction. According to the lawsuit, a city employee told Henderson in confidence that she and a volunteer had previously been directing donors to the City of Flint's website, where they could give money to the Safe Water/Safe Homes charity, which helped families affected by the water crisis. But Weaver directed them to steer donors to the "Karenabout Flint" website, which the city council had not approved, the suit claims.

Henderson was hired in 2014 as the city's administrator, the highest ranking unelected post in the city. Three days after Henderson reported the alleged violation to the city's chief legal counsel, she was fired. The suit claims that Mayor Weaver told Henderson that the state no longer had the budget to fund her position; Henderson informed her the city administrator job is funded by the city, not the state. "The mayor and city staff do not comment on pending litigation," a city spokeswoman said.

Elliot Hannon is a writer in New York City. Follow him on Twitter

[Eddie Teach]

I'm confused. They say the money was "earmarked" for water crisis charities which suggests it was tax money, but then talk about steering donors away. If all she's doing is asking for campaign donations, it's misuse of the city employee's time, but that's small potatoes for Detroit. If there's some kind of misrepresentation about the fund, the article doesn't make that clear.

[Savonarola]

Flint and Detroit aren't at all the same.  Flint is about 60 miles from Detroit; it's in a different Basic Trading Area (BTA), has its own suburbs and (the very definition of culture in Michigan and Ohio) its own unique style of chili for hot dogs.

I'd advise caution before leaping to conclusions on this story; Henderson might not be anything more than a disgruntled bureaucrat.

[Savonarola]

I have a cousin, originally from northern Michigan, who wants to take part in the Detroit Renaissance (Huzzah!)  He attended law school at Wayne State University, lives in mid-town Detroit and works for Legal Aid in the city.  His girlfriend works for a conglomeration of Detroit based charities called Focus Hope.  As he and his girlfriend were driving home from his (and my) grandfather's home (in Dearborn, Michigan) he got his window shot out.  He pulled over to the shoulder, and the car with the shooter pulled over in front of them and started backing up.  My cousin pulled back out on the highway, hit it, and made it back home safely.  He and his girlfriend are reconsidering some life decisions right now.

This happened in the early evening, and right on one of the interstates; so I may have been a little over-optimistic in trumpeting Detroit's comeback.

[Phillip V]

I have a cousin, originally from northern Michigan, who wants to take part in the Detroit Renaissance (Huzzah!)  He attended law school at Wayne State University, lives in mid-town Detroit and works for Legal Aid in the city.  His girlfriend works for a conglomeration of Detroit based charities called Focus Hope.  As he and his girlfriend were driving home from his (and my) grandfather's home (in Dearborn, Michigan) he got his window shot out.  He pulled over to the shoulder, and the car with the shooter pulled over in front of them and started backing up.  My cousin pulled back out on the highway, hit it, and made it back home safely.  He and his girlfriend are reconsidering some life decisions right now.

This happened in the early evening, and right on one of the interstates; so I may have been a little over-optimistic in trumpeting Detroit's comeback.

Any motive for the shooter, was it just random?

[Savonarola]

Any motive for the shooter, was it just random?

The police haven't caught the shooter, so they don't know.  My cousin didn't know the person who shot at him.

[The Brain]

I have a cousin, originally from northern Michigan, who wants to take part in the Detroit Renaissance (Huzzah!)  He attended law school at Wayne State University, lives in mid-town Detroit and works for Legal Aid in the city.  His girlfriend works for a conglomeration of Detroit based charities called Focus Hope.  As he and his girlfriend were driving home from his (and my) grandfather's home (in Dearborn, Michigan) he got his window shot out.  He pulled over to the shoulder, and the car with the shooter pulled over in front of them and started backing up.  My cousin pulled back out on the highway, hit it, and made it back home safely.  He and his girlfriend are reconsidering some life decisions right now.

This happened in the early evening, and right on one of the interstates; so I may have been a little over-optimistic in trumpeting Detroit's comeback.

Scary.

[jimmy olsen]

Holy shit that's scary Sav. Let's hope that was a random act of opportunity and he won't run into that guy again.