Location: It Really Does Matter

I just learned from my daugher last night that everyone in her Physics class will receive an F.

Boy, isn't that wonderful. The kids say that Robert Bobb has removed all the good teachers.

And as an architect experienced also in construction, that what is happening at King is sheer profligate nonsense based upon lies.

Yup it can be heartbreaking living here.

The insults are fine but the abuse and stupidity isn't.

And what are the kids doing learning Spanish?
The choice on the telephone should English or Mandarin.

Bill

Karen...No need for you to feel bad about not living "Inside" Detroit. If I remember your blogs, you live in Grosse Pointe very NEAR the citys' edge.
My thinking, somewhere by Alter and Kercheval. The neighborhood of my youth.
This is really close to Detroit and you are in what we called the overspill area. Being that close to Detroit. you are in the know. That line blurs for the good and bad. You are affected by this almost as much as being inside the city. The crime...the drugs...the empty and burned houses are all right there by you. Perhaps right down your street is and empty house..
Your heart is IN the city. We can see that by the blog. The things you say and do help Detroit. Most likely, in more ways than you know.
The execs' in the burbs are the distant ones. You are correct in saying the moving of these companies did nothing but transfer and shuffle people. I have been saying that and thought no one else even saw it that way.
Your being pessimistic today, it will pass. Your love and concern for Detroit will take care of that. I know exactly how you feel. I was born in Detroit and love the city..Dearly. I hear a lot of bad comments when I say that to people.
Thugs and drugs and political theives are the regular problems now. Some days it is hard to believe Detroit has fallen so far. Some just think that is it too much to ask, while others really don't care. However, the people of Detroit really have what it takes to make a comeback. We just have some hurdles to jump and a lot of hard work to get done.
Karen, get some rest, for tomorrow is another day.
Thank you...

Detroit Kid 51

It is a mistake to look at the problems as a City of Detroit issue alone. It is an accident of geographical development that the City has the borders it does. If one erases the borders between municipalities and counties, looking at residential and commercial development as one continuious process spreading out from the core of Woodward and the River, as well as outwards from the various villages and hamlets, one sees that the area identified as Detroit was developed no differently, just earlier, than other areas across the metropolitan region. Within the City borders are proto suburbs, earlier suburbs absorbed by the City as it expanded.

What this view says is that the issues the City is dealing with are issues that the inner and later outer suburbs will be dealing with sooner or later. This view also says the solutions are regional solutions, not just City of Detroit solutons. While the region grew rapidly because of auto and related manufacturing, it has always been troubling to those looking at Michigan over the long term because metro Detroit, as well as Michigan, was far too heavily dependant on a single industry. We hit the wall, meaning the direction we were going was no longer sustainable. Now we are in the aftermath, the same as Pittsburg and other single industry areas. My objection to this blog is that it continues to focus on the City of Detroit to the exclusion of the rest of the metro area, or treats the rest of the metro area as the enemy, including Windsor, continuing the Fortress Detroit mentality.

I suggest that we look at the thriving metro areas in North America, as well as elsewhere around the globe, to identify the mix of businesses and institutions that make them work. Taking those examples, we can look at the metro Detroit area, including Windsor, to identify what industries and institutions we don't have, to go about a concerted, cooperative effort to induce those missing elements to establish themselves in our area. That effort should begin to generate a renewal of the area, including City of Detroit, in a significanly self sustaining mix. As long as the City and the suburbs continue to be at war with each other, regional regeneration will be stunted, at best.

The City will be thriving again, as will the metro region. History suggest it will. Not necessarly in my lifetime but certainly within a hundred years.