The Agony of Detroit

I own real estate in Detroit, so I know what I am talking about.

Detroit's collapse in real estate values is the biggest real estate collapse in history outside of a nation being invaded. Even land values in Zimbabwe have not fallen as fast.

In the 1980's, over 60% of the residents in Consett (Britain) were employed in the Steel Mill and 30% were in subsidiary industries... on the day that Thatcher closed the Steel Mill. Instantly over 90% unemployment in the city, yet real estate STILL did not fall as badly as Detroit.

The problems of Detroit has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CAR PLANTS.

The problems of Detroit has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RACIAL MIX.

The problems of Detroit are caused by one thing only...
...The City of Detroit.

Brothes and sisters be envoking alot of due diligence.

60% of all those employed in Detroit WORK FOR THE CITY ITSELF.

How could one ever run a balanced budget when 60% of the city are paid their salary out of City's own taxes?

That obnoxious lady interrupting is Monica Conyers, she is the wife of U.S. Congressman John Conyers who is another huge pile of steaming turd that is running this country into the sewer.

She is now in prison for corruption and accepting bribes.

Wrong.

So only Union jobs are being or have been outsourced?

Lack of self respect and respect for other's property caused this.

How many black billionaires can you name that have major companies that expand globally?

Where the city went wrong...

- As unemployment rose, the city took on ever higher numbers of staff.

- To give these extra staff jobs to do and to help finances it, the City created more and more stupid bylaws and punitive fines.

- The City Of Detriot's anti-urban blight laws have actually CAUSED most of the urban blight. For instance, if someone else throws an empty chip bag on your lawn overnight, you can face being woken by a city employee with a $16,000 fine.

- With some many employed, no one has the slightest idea of what anyone else is doing so nothing in the city functions.

- If you overpay or pay your property taxes early, the City does not put the cash against your next property tax, but pockets it and calls you "in default" fro paying early. And to reclaim money paid too early, you are required to TURN UP IN PERSON and wait in a several hour queue until you can prove who you are, just to fill in a form.

- Skyrocketing taxes, fines and crazy legislation designed to scam businesses and residents has sent people and all the jobs packing.

- Education is so bad in the city that only 7& can passably read and write. Result? Al the city employees are utterly stupid bozos who screw up everything they do, in a legal framework that the city has created that make human DNA look simple by comparison.

- The city is so dysfunctional, that they had so many complaints, for about 6 months, they just closed down all the telephone lines for public information and forced everyone to turn up oin person.

- Public debt levels and spending got so bad in one neighbouring town. "Highland Park", the Council actually closed down the ENTIRE FIRE DEPARTMENT and THE ENTIRE POLICE FORCE, just to be able to continue to pay the salary and expenses of the Mayor and the Councillors. So if your house caught on fire or you were being attacked by a rapist, there was literally no-one to call. This went on for 3 Weeks before Michigan forced Highland Park to be taken over, debt load and all by Detroit City.

DETROIT'S PROBLEM IS THE CITY OF DETROIT. It is, without doubt, the very worst run Town Hall anywhere in the world and all the collapse of the car industry is just an annoying excuse that allows these bozos to stay in office.

There you go. I feel sorry for that real estate guy in the video. Nice chap, but he's like the 1% of his race.

>>>>How many black billionaires can you name that have major companies that expand globally?<<<<<

Thousands...in Gaborone.

Why?

In the 1950's Gaborone, then a shanty town, decided to do "something different" and took a hard-line, pro-business and highly conservative approach with low corporate taxes, a little red tape as possible and few handouts.

There is now almost no unemployment, wages are high and Gaborone is a boom town.

It has NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE. It has EVERYTHING to do with efficient, well run Government.

>>>> but he's like the 1% of his race.<<<<

Of course he is "like the 1% of his race" - everyone else with any intellect or money has fled the stupid City with its crazy taxes, huge fines, rubbish education and nutcase city planners that give an utter hiding to anyone trying to biuld there.

Gaborone looks like a cool place. If this is true, maybe it would help Detroit:

[link to www.weed.co.za]
Bakgatla paramount chief Kgosi Kgolo Kgafela recently suggested that public servants, cabinet ministers, pastors and even the attorney general, should smoke dagga to help them make better decisions.

It sure does not sound like anything could make things worse, execept prehaps the Black Plague....

I have always found your posts very informative..this one as well


and I must also say ..lol..ya got your santa hat... that hot!

Yeah, it must be fucking wonderful in Japan, your government has the good sense to not let them in! So what the fuck would you know Shintaro?

For some God unknown reason they've let them in here, & the trouble is starting! It doesn't take a genius to see where it's going to end up.

yeah I was in Botswana/Gabarone quite a few years ago but I was impressed then.

This is a very good post and informative, thanks for sharing. You deserve credit where it is due. Actually, your post describing the situation there should be printed out and held as a template as to what is going to happen in other cities after the collapse everyone keeps talking about finally goes thunderdome.

Good, damn! she should be on a TV show..shes got no f-in clue how to be a public servant whos check comes from the tax payers...and if she is serving time, well, this time it seems tax money well f-in spent...what a typical blk woman person of the times...(I'm trying to be f-in PC--I just threw up) shes somehow gets in a position where she thinks shes all this and that and ends up being nothing more than...bla,bla,bla... priceless!

how can so many people forget what Kawame Kilpatrick did to detoilet.

How the hell did she get on any council?

sounds like what the big cities in Texas have done as far as creating a pro-business atmosphere, and it works here as well

now if we could only figure out how to create more places like this, because even conservative locations can fail due to corruption and greed

I was raised racist and finally saw the light. Maybe you will too some day. Human beings are all the same genetically. There are no easy answers to all of this but I assure you, blaming skin color is not one of them. You may as well blame yourself.

If Government is really, really small, but well paid, then this is very little opportunity for corruption.

- If there are no inspsctors handing out ludicrous "urban blight tickets" then there is no-one to bribe to rip up the ticket.
- If there there are no ludicrous rules stating that the city can stop transfer of residential property until it meets ridiculous requirements then there is no-one to bribe to give one the clearance.
- If there are no "community centres" to be built then there are no bribes to get the construction contract.
- If there are no laws against smoking up then there are no Police Officers to hand a bribe to and no custodians department to bribe to get one's hash back.

This is why Gaborone is largely free cfrom corruption - there is no reason to bribe as there is nothing to get round and no honey pot to loot.

Has anyone seen this movie yet....what is its take on the problem?

[link to lokifilms.com]

Detroit's story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century— the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now . . . the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos. With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, DETROPIA sculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand city teetering on the brink of dissolution. As houses are demolished by the thousands, automobile-company wages plummet, institutions crumble, and tourists gawk at the "charming decay," the film's vibrant, gutsy characters glow and erupt like flames from the ashes. These soulful pragmatists and stalwart philosophers strive to make ends meet and make sense of it all, refusing to abandon hope or resistance. Their grit and pluck embody the spirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America and begins to envision a radically different future

Always whitey's fault, huh dreadlocks?

Pathetic.

Did anyone actually watch the video? The video starts out with Shea describing how hard business owners have it, if you have a dispute with a customer in Detroit, they come back later and burn your business down. In the Vid, the business owner, one of Shea's friends had a body shop, someone not only set his business on fire but vandalized all the customer cars sitting in his lot. Think about how hard it's going to be to try and make a living after SHTF economically. If no one has anything they are going to make DAMN sure you don't have anything either.

And their football team sux too.

Monica Conyers is the wife of John Conyers the U.S. House Democrat who has been in office since the dawn of time.
The only reason she got elected are 2 reasons : 1) She
sucks Johns Dick and 2) Using his name and thats all it is.

She couldn't get a job in the private sector if she tried.

Just another career politician.

Misery loves company.