Change a few names and it could be Sheffield/Birmingham/Berlin...
M
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Lester K. Spence" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "diana potts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <313@hyperreal.org>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: (313) The Crisis in Detroit
As an aside for those interested, I've moved to the Baltimore area
permanently. While I think Saint Louis uses greenspace better than any
other city in the Midwest, visit IT if you think Detroit is bad.
Now with that said, here's the skinny.
For the last thirty years cities like Detroit have been draining people
like a sieve. Whites left not only because many of them couldn't deal
with the prospect of living in a black city, but also because they had
other options. Suburbs like Livonia, Dearborn, and Southfield didn't
allow blacks to move in them, and had strict zoning regulations making
sure that only middle-upper income folks were welcome. And why pay
people union scale wages in the US when you can move to Mexico and pay
(including benefits) less than a 20th what you would pay a Detroiter?
Used to be that you could get fired from Chrysler on July 1, and walk
right across the street to GM and get a job the same day. With wages
good enough to buy a decent home, a car (of course a car!), and pay for
the college education of your kids. Those days are long gone. Over 35
years long gone.
Urban school systems are archaic in at least two ways. Their
infrastructure (the physical infrastructure) is usually more than fifty
years old on average. So kids are supposed to learn chemistry in labs
that were created before all of the elements were even DISCOVERED. And
their pedagogy is well over 50 years old. To train urban citizens to
be plant workers you need to teach them rote memorization, respect for
authority, timeliness. These skills work fine for McDonalds. But they
are no longer effective at even getting their graduates menial jobs at
Mickey Ds, much less at teaching them the agency required to change
their lived environment.
So who would want to send their kids to urban public schools?
Now in response to these problems, urban political officials have
called for a pro-growth development strategy focusing on downtown
development. Office buildings, convention centers, entertainment
districts, casinos, stadiums. In as much as these entities are usually
given significant tax abatements, there usually isn't the trickle down
effect that folks advertise. But damn, it's sure cool to have a
Border's in the city finally (which means THREE new bookstores for a
city with over 900,000 residents--The Shrine of the Black Madonna,
Border's downtown, and Barnes and Nobles at Wayne State).
With all that said, it is unfair to place the blame on Kilpatrick--even
though I am leaning against supporting him. He didn't support the
takeover of the schools...Archer did. He didn't originate the idea of
building up neighborhoods by building up downtown...Young did. He IS
guilty of not getting out of that vicious no-win paradigm. But it
isn't fundamentally his FAULT--though it is his responsibility.
So I fully understand the sentiment of Diana's message. But it isn't
really about "shaming" someone here.
We're talking about something much bigger than that.
peace
lks
On Feb 3, 2005, at 8:00 PM, diana potts wrote:
The thing I don't understand is this, if a city's
school system is sh*t and has self proclaimed it's
sh&t...then OF COURSE "empty nesters" are all that's
going to live in the area.
I'm not going to get into an 'education rant' here-
but shame on the mayor and more shame on the people
higher up on the state level for putting their own
school system in the crapper, putting the children who
NEED stability the most at even more risk, and taking
faith in learning away from teachers and students.
When I was doing graduate work in tourism my "thing"
was that people need to understand that cities are
like people. If one is going to rebuild themselves
properly they need to start from the inside out. Start
on the mind (education/schools), awareness
(museums,points of culture such as theater and music
venues) and the soul (the people, jobs, etc). Sure,
it's easier said than done. But no matter how many
people a broken person surrounds themselves with
through casinos and festivals...those surrounding and
visiting people will always leave if the person
remains broken from the inside.
Detroit can build as many casinos, lofts,ice rinks and
corporate buildings and throw as many festivals as it
wants. But very few people will stay as long as it
remains broken from the inside. A crisis is usually
defined as a turning point. If so, Detroit should of
had it a long time ago...seems that the right people
weren't listening.
--- Ian Malbon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"I'd buy that for a dollar!"
On Feb 3, 2005, at 10:04 AM, George Jones IV -
logic7 wrote:
Soon... Really soon...
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Prince [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 5:00 PM
To: atomly
Cc: 313@hyperreal.org
Subject: Re: (313) The Crisis in Detroit
atomly said:
http://tinyurl.com/4nagx
How long until OCP takes over the city government
and starts installing
ED-209 units downtown?
-bp
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Dr. Lester K. Spence
Assistant Professor, Political Science and African Afro-American Studies
Washington University
Kellogg Scholar in Health Disparities 2004-2006
