Going Home

I have advocated this for years. I don't think it's a "white flag"; rather, it's a long-overdue response to Detroit's "new" reality.

As it sits now, the city is inherently inefficient: all of its infrastructure is designed to support a population of 2 million people, but the city only has less than half of that now. Its public lighting system is designed for 2 million people. Its network of police precincts is designed to protect 2 million people. Its network of fire departments is designed to provide fire coverage for 2 million people. Every time a garbage truck or police car has to drive past a vacant lot where nobody lives, it costs the city and its citizens money. That money is wasted, and the overall level of services for the citizens suffer.

Just as a city can expand, there is no rule that says it can't contract. And in this situation, it makes more sense for Detroit to contract its population into a smaller area in order to improve population density. A smaller area with a higher population density gives Detroit a chance to do more with less. It could survive with fewer police precincts because it would have less area to patrol. It could survive with fewer fire stations because there would be less area to cover. It could survive with fewer schools because there would be less neighborhoods to be served.

On one hand, Detroit would save a lot of money by being able to downsize its infrastructure. On the other hand, the level of services would improve for the people who live in the higher density neighborhoods. A smaller population area would allow police to patrol fewer streets more often, establishing a stronger presence and better protection in the community. Crime would go down because more police would cover a smaller area instead of the current situation where a few police try to cover a huge area. Fire coverage would be more efficient. The education system would improve because there would be fewer schools to pay for. The cost of garbage pick-up would decrease because it wouldn't have to pay for miles and miles of driving past vacant lots. The city could maintain a fewer number of parks better than what it does now: one lawn mowing per year. The city could provide better lighting because it doesn't have to try and light streets where nobody lives. These are just a few examples of how a "smaller" city with higher population density could be better served than the current huge city that must spend its resources serving lots of sparsely populated neighborhoods.

I don't see this as a "defeat". I see it as a positive step in the right direction, for a new and better future for the city. The success of Detroit's past was a blessing, but we can't let it become a curse. We do the city a disservice if we ignore real solutions to today's problems in favor of nostalgia of a time and place that doesn't exist any more. Let's give the city a chance at a brighter future by trying something new.

I agree, NOT A WHITE FLAG! Did anyone see the documentry recently on PBS entitled Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City. It was an incredible journey from Detroits days of grandure to it's ruins of today and most of all the hope that is had for it's return. There was indeed a brief section showing many areas having 1 or 2 homes (if you wanna call em that), where rows and rows of homes once stood. Even with the 1 or 2 the city still has to provide water, sewer, EMS, electric (well are supposed to anyway) so I see nothing wrong with moving these few out. In most cases would be a much better and safer place. (remember when I696 was coming through, move or be moved) THis time it would be soley for the matter of safety!
No coyotes Mike, think fast track railways and new business. Problems with buses not going into these low populated areas of Detroit mean these people are literally stuck if they don't drive. The bus is all they have but they won't run in low populated areas because of cost. SO these people can't get to stores, can't get to work, get it? Cannot contribute to any businesses to help stimulate the economy and the city!

Yes, I say DEFRAG the City of Detroit! It's a great idea! I think most people want a better place to live. This is a win win situation. Please so what ever it takes to search out the documentary I mentioned above. YOu will be pleasantly remotivated. Pay close attention to the sucsess of the railways coming back.

Win-win, only if the land is reused wisely. Nothing Mayor Bing or anybody else has said convinces me it won't remain in ruins, left for the coyotes to roam and future generations to wonder what the hell happened.

The tax payer has nothing to say! who gave the MAYOR this authority to downsize THE city NOT THE CITIZEN. he is suppose to be the MAYOR of the people and for the people in DETROIT He hasn't spoken to the citizen about his plans he didn't talk about it when he ran for MAYOR WILL SOMEONE LET HIM KNOW THIS IS AMERICAN HE IS ACTING LIKE WE ARE HIS SUBJECT TO DO WITH AS HE AND HIS FRIENDS WANT their something wrong with this picture we are being push out WHY? he keep hiring folks making over a (100,000)A YEAR their MONEY FOR THAT. VOTING IS A JOKE i am from the CIVIL RIGHT movement I BELIEVED IN THE POWER OF THE VOTE NOT ANY MORE if he is allow to do this without the citizen OK it will be like LIVING IN CUBA THEIR IS A QUESTION TO ALL WHO AGREE WITH HIM WHY ARE YOU SO ANGY WITH THE FOLKS IN DETROIT? we are the one who has to live here being DISRESPECTED BY EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY If YOUR MAYOR STARTED THIS IN your community what would you do?

Mayor Bing is not the one who downsized the City; the population was downsized long before Mr. Bing's appointment. He's the one working to create viabrant communities for Detroit's remaining citizens, and urban prairies for the rest of the land. Dealing with coyotes will present far less of a challenge.

Too much emotion and lip service have produced the ruins of today. Now is the time for clear heads and God-fulled hearts to make rational decisions. The City cannot wait for people to decide to relocate into the decaying neighborhoods. Future generations deserve better than that.

Mayor Bing acknowledges that there will be winners and losers, no way around it; but right now all of Detroit suffers from the extreme waste. Time to adopt a fresh, new approach.

Sorry, I hit a wrong button, and didn;t finsih my previous post....just as well..it was too darn long, and you get my point!!

Hello, Michael, Chris, Imogene and all my other F3 comrades.

Since I hit a wrong button, my whole previous, very opinionated post disappeared. I thought it was one of the ones awaiting review, but nope, it just went away. Just as well.. It's God's way of telling me to start again.

Sorry I haven't been as active as I'd like to be in visting my friends at F3. Family, business and life seems to get in the way. Even in the summer it seems that the only time I can be active is when I can carve out a block of time for a whole day of "FF weed whacking"! Same with this post. When I finally have time to write...it's long. So sit back and have a cuppa joe...or move past it, because it is indeed "writer's diarrhea".

For the first time that I know of, I find myself in disagreement with the good Mr. Happy. I find myself making the inevitable comparison between my beloved Hometown and other cities.

In every instance my perception of a vibrant city includes some type of DENSITY, and, if I can relate it to theology, some type of "three persons though one God" character. To take New York as an example, there is really one New York, but it is comprised of defined areas, with differing personalities, like different siblings from one family. These "persons" or "siblings" may be defined by ethnicity ("Little Italy", "ChinaTown", or what "Harlem" used to mean). They might defined and recognizable by social strata (the rich part of town" or a "blue collar" area.) Even different names ("Brooklyn", "Queens"). It might even be defined by usage, perhaps "an artists colony" (like SOHO or "Bleecker Street), or a business area (like Wall Street). But the very definition of "city" brings to mind DENSITY, and the mix, hustle-bustle, and even the problems that go with it. All these "persons" or "siblings" still define the amazing character of one CITY that we call "New York". And people, even my daughter from Hoboken, only ten mintues away, still refers to that megopolis as "The City".(As her Dad, I hold great hope that she's not emulating "Sex in the City" !!!!!)

"City" means "Density".

I find it interesting that in DENSE cities that I can think of (perhaps not in third World countries, but here), services are expected, and available. This DENSITY and vibrancy seem to go hand in hand. When I am New York, I find it amazing that, even in the poor economy the streets are cleaned every day, the fire department and police department seem to be adequately staffed, and even services to the poor can, to a great degree hold their own. And these towns have had more than their share of corruption, bribery and racism; that's been true as long as there have been cities; poor services can't be blamed solely on "Kilpatrickosis". Businesses and $$$ follow the PEOPLE. If there are a lot of PEOPLE, businesses locate to serve them. Neighborhood businesses exist EVERYWHERE in Chicago..my step daughter sold her Honda when she lived there. She lived in the city, she worked in the city. Shopping, hair dressers, dry cleaners were close enough to home and work so that there was no need for her to have a car. In fact, it was more trouble to have one than not to have one. She saved a ton of money in parking tickets once she got rid of that car.:). My friend Steve teaches at Loyola in Chicago. He still has no need for a car. We'll be visiting him there the middle of this month. We're taking the Amtrak there, and using mass transit while in town...no need to drive.


Size has little to do with it, but DENSITY does. Locally, I think about Royal Oak or Ann Arbor, or Rochester, or even areas along Mack in the Pointes. The Arab population in Dearborn is vibrant, and perhaps the most vibrant part of Detroit is now the southwest and downriver, where I see families still walking their babies in strollers in MexicanTown, and talking to the neighbors while having a beer in any of the (walkable) neighborhood taverns in Wyandotte. (Does it sound like Dobel circa 1960?..Teenie Weenie, Fox Drugs, Royal Ice Cream, the pizza places, the churches, even the funeral homes...all due to a dense concentration of people who LIVED nearby.) When Carol and I go to dinner in any one of those towns, or to Mexican town, it's difficult to even consider using the word "recession". Dense surrounding populations, often within walking, bicycling or short communting distances attract the business, which then compete for available $$$. Even if Detroit remained comprised of predominatly black households, the color-blind $$$ would follow a concentrated population. If it did get larger, the city would expand OUTWARD again, and be served accordingly.

So, let me dream for a moment. If Detroit is "right-sized", the services to that DENSER population get more concentrated. Folks then are living in the remarkably stable and well built housing stock that exists in some of the "ring" neighborhoods. (My former all brick home, with it's marble sills,hardwood floors, fireplace, in northwest Detroit would easily STILL make a home for a family of four.) Yes, there may be a surrounding rim of forest, trees and coyotes..but only for a while. Why only for a while? Service businesses, like grocery stores, drug stores, dry cleaners (and BARS!!)spring up to serve the PEOPLE. Suburbanites would hear and observe that services are better, and that it's easier to feel safe because law enforcement and fire protection are in closer proximity, and the remarkably constructed housing stock is reasonably priced, (at least at first.) Of course, the parks are plentiful, safe, and well maintained due to the amazing growth of the "Michael Happy F3 Foundation for Civic Park Development". More people move in, more businesses follow. Eventually, the coyotes are outnumbered again, and go back to Northern Macomb and Oakland counties, because the people from Northern Macomb and Oakland counties now realize they don't have to commute for more than two hours per day anymore. In a stunning reversal, folks leave the suburbs to the die hards and the coyotes, and move to where their favorite bars restaurants, stadiums, art museums, sports venues and favorite parks are CLOSE!!! The tax base is now rebuilt and services can more easily be paid for. The Detroit Symphony, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, the Detroit Library, are now all truly supported by Detroiters again, instead of suburbanites, like me, who come and go with a "slam, bam, thank you maa'm". We still wait in line for good eats and good entertainment, but walk home, or take the bus or a reasonbly priced SHORT taxi ride.

Would this all happen quickly? Not. Probably not in our lifetime. That old saying applies "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." But I'd be willing to bet any amount of money that the same type of people who now are involved in F3 would be willing to work on a park WHEREVER in the city it could benefit kids. And, wouldn't be even more wonderful to think that, someday, our OWN children (and grandchildren) are again going to the same schools, living in the same neighborhoods as their friends, and causing a ruckus in the same parks that we've been helping to rebuild? That maybe my son and daughter would come back from New York and Los Angeles to raise their families in an all brick home Van Dyke and Outer Drive.... Maybe even City Airport would have a VALID use again!!!

I'll stop now....I think the "downsizing" is a wonderful first step, and actually has been suggested by forward thinking urban planners in major metropolitan areas for quite some time now....why can't Detroit and Michigan LEAD, instead of follow, again...?

I think it's time to think way outside of the box. I like what Glenn has to say. Many of us look at Detroit in a nostalgic way and wish we could bring it back. It won't happen. It can't happen.

The problem will be the resistance of people living in the middle of vacant blocks.

I think Glenn is right it won't happen in our lifetime, maybe not for quite awhile, but something major needs to be done. Bandaids won't "fix" Detroit.

Of course, I can't speak for the folks living in the middle of those vacant blocks.

However, if I still lived in my childhood home on home on Doyle, here's what could happen.....
Someone official knocks on my door, in a home I've called my own for 30 years or more, but one where my neighbors have moved, and one where I feel, well, actually, sort of neglected...
They present me the following:
- Your home is small, drafty and expensive to heat. And the pipes that do carry the heat are covered with life threatening asbestos
-there are no stores anywhere nearby to get shoes for your kids, or milk for breakfast
-transit to get to your job on the other side of town is useless
-it's tough to get the police and fire folks here to protect you, because they have so much ground to cover, and besides, those darn trains on 6 Mile and up Van Dyke, and that closure by the airport, might block them....
-that beautifully renovated park, Fletcher Field is nearby, but we're unsure how long it will be there.

Mr. Porzadek I know you call this your home, but we are willing to move you into a new home...
-one that's been vacant, but is being renovated. It's an all brick home near Wayne State University, with hardwood floors, marble sills, a fireplace, closer to shopping and transportation. You'll have lots of neighbors who watch out for each other and police available to handle the times when some of the neighbors are not so considerate.
-it's near the stadiums, the Art Museum, the restaurants and improving schools.The Catholic Church in the area has reopened. The library is within walking distance. Same with the concerts and the plays at the Gem and the Fox. Remember your neighbor's daughter Linda? She' starting a beauty salon over there. Kroger's putting in a new store to serve the many people who now live in the area again.
-the new trains and all the new busses will get you back and forth to work, although it might be a little busy sometimes because of all the Convention traffic that is coming to town

-we'll do this at little or no current cost to you...because our forward thinking leaders understand that the City will recoup the cost in the long run, since we'll save so much money on providing more efficient city services. We've also have companies willing to help, since they know there's money to be made where a lot of people live.

Mr. Porzadek, what do you think?

"Mr. Official Man, where do I sign, and how soon can I get Three Men and a Truck over here!!!!?"

Sir are you saying their no PEOPLE living in DETROIT ? IT IS STATEMENT LIKE THAT KEEP US DIVIDED everyone in this city know your code words I EXPRESS MY OPINION ABOUT THE DOWNSIZING OF DETROIT IT WAS MY OPINION it is easy for you to say THAT THE MAYOR IS RIGHT you move out of the city many years ago that was your Right we chose to stay and that is our Right and fight any way we could to keep our community together and we are not sorry as voter we did not support the last two administration that how DEMOCRACY work I WILL SAY AGAIN I STILL DO NOT AGREE WITH THE MAYOR (GATEWAY MALL) ONE REASON

WOW, CANTONICE BLUE DON'T WRITE WITH SO MANY CAPS ON ALL THE TIME. TURN IT DOWN. ITS ANNOYING, LIKE YOU"RE YELLING AT EVERYBODY IN THE ROOM WHO'S TRYING TO SPEAK

And, please read the above posts, and this post, carefully and completely, with reason, and without drawing conclusions that are unjust. Quit ranting, and stick to the topic, or you'll lose your audience. We are not using "Code words". The people on this blog are good and loving people, helping with a dream, as far from being racist as could ever be. We are black and white, old and young, male and female, well-to-do and not so well-to-do. There have been HUNDREDS of us involved. Perhaps you should look to the right side of this page and check out the archives. We have been actively trying to help for YEARS now, including making our presence known at City Council meetings. In other words, we are full of action. We are people who "walk the talk."

Have you even been to a Fletcher Field event, or met ANYONE from this group? If not, maybe you should actually DO something instead of all this screaming.

First,you said that voters did not support the last two administrations. It's unfortunsate, but true, that Detroit voters DID support the last two administations, or they would not have been elected and re-elected by the voters. Many could not understand how Detroit voters could have been so blind as to re-elect politicians who were so obviously corrupt and stealing from the citizens, but they were re-elected.(At least, for now, majority rule still exists in this nation)

Next, not even one post suggested there are no people living in Detroit. Every post indicates how much we love Detroit, but love even more what Detroit could be. And we have been working tirelessly (actually with a great deal of tiredness, sometimes) taking a piece of wasted parkland, and turning it into something uselful where kids could play again.

My position is simple, and comes out of love for the city. There are a lot of people living in Detroit, and they all deserve to be served better than they are now. But the city is geographically simply too big, too spread out to be served well. Allowing folks to live in some of the many beautiful, well built homes, but closer together like e REAL city, would mean that city services would get to them easier.

Now, take a breath, and speak, don't scream, and maybe someone will be willing to discuss your opinion more, but I, for one, will not bother if you continue to be on the attack. The rest of us will just continue to discuss differences, and continue to do the great work we are doing for the kids in our old neighborhood, which means so much to us.

God's Blessings and Peace be with you.

my Organization was their when Fletcher Field stared you don't know me and i don't know you i said we did not support the last two administration i did not mean Detroit i was speaking about the people i know sorry about the shouting God blessing to you.