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Rouge Park for sale!


Ramcharger

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It's ludicrous. These people mean to tell us that there is not available land in Detroit to develop on? Insane is the word for that. This is a lose-lose for the city. Every world class city has a large portion of its land set aside as a large park or open space. What is wrong with Kwame's leadership in thinking that he can just go ahead and eat away at Detroit's assets like this? I guess he wants more stomach ulcers.

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How about we quit all of the over-reactions and exaggerations? We're talking about 1/10 of Rouge Park along the periphery, a park surrounded on all sides by neighborhoods, that will be easily marketable that will be built on. It's all about location, which is why I don't get this "why don't they try selling empty lots on the Eastside?" I'm not saying that the city should just be willy-nilly selling any and everything it can get its hands on, but I'm tired of people beotching about any and every possible sell of city land when Detroit is just dollars away from recievership. Detroit needs to keep all options open. If Kwame wasn't selling land people would be complaining that he's not doing enough. You can't win for losing with some people. The city can't even afford to regularly maintain parks like Rouge and Belle Isle, and Rouge is different (at least for me), again, because it's already surrounded by houses.

Detroitplanner, at detroit.com just came up with a great idea. Maybe the city should stipulate that any parkland lost must be made up in other parts of the city. I really like it as there are some areas in sore need of more parkland.

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I'm not totally against the idea of selling city land. I'm more upset that Detroit is delaying the inevitable longer and longer. Rather than selling land, the city should be cutting city workers & other expenses. The government needs to be reformed, but rather than reforming anything, they're just selling city land to cover the deficit - a short-sighted and temporary solution to the problem. Oh, and they created that $300 trash fee...how in the heck will an average Detroiter be able to pay for that?! Our trash bill went from $60 per year to $300, although the letter we received taunted the so-called "benefits" of the new system.

I, for one, will be happy when the state steps in and takes the city into receivership. Detroit's leaders don't have the vision or foresight it's going to take to see the city through these tough times. Those in power today see what's happening in a week or two, but fail to see the bigger, long-term picture.

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I'm not totally against the idea of selling city land. I'm more upset that Detroit is delaying the inevitable longer and longer. Rather than selling land, the city should be cutting city workers & other expenses. The government needs to be reformed, but rather than reforming anything, they're just selling city land to cover the deficit - a short-sighted and temporary solution to the problem. Oh, and they created that $300 trash fee...how in the heck will an average Detroiter be able to pay for that?! Our trash bill went from $60 per year to $300, although the letter we received taunted the so-called "benefits" of the new system.

You'll be able to pay for it with the $300 tax cut you will receive next year. :whistling:

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Detroitplanner, at detroit.com just came up with a great idea. Maybe the city should stipulate that any parkland lost must be made up in other parts of the city. I really like it as there are some areas in sore need of more parkland.

But you just got on your high horse and said the city can't afford to care for the parks it has. Make up your mind.

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But you just got on your high horse and said the city can't afford to care for the parks it has. Make up your mind.

Size and placement of parks accounts for a lot. I should have been more clear. It is the largest "natural" parks that are suffering the most. The city (city workers + residents) would obviously be a lot better at keeping up smaller neighborhood parks, plus, it would be more likely (if even still not all that likely) that neighbors would fill more ownership in keeping up/keeping safe a smaller neighborhood park than a park the size or Rouge or Belle Isle.

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You'll be able to pay for it with the $300 tax cut you will receive next year. :whistling:
$300 tax cut! LOL, the city thinks the house I live in is worth far less than it actually is, so my friend is paying next to nothing in the way of taxes. The reduction on the taxes will be minimal because of that. And when you're living paycheck to paycheck, $300 is a huge increase.
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  • 2 months later...

Five Rouge Park bids submitted

These are the five proposals the city has received for the five parcels being offered for sale in Rouge Park. None of the bids are anywhere near the real value of this property. Some of the people involved with these proposals include Walt Watkins the former chief development officer for city and Bernard Kilpatrick, Kwame

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Only two of them look even near decent, and that's 1 and 3. As for tax abatements, just about all new housing in inner-cities in Michigan is abated. What you weigh is how much money these people will be able to pump into the local economy, how many children they have or will have, etc...The taxes are really not an issue as it seems to be a given, now, that very few new housing units built in urban areas actually pay full taxes.

And, building on park land nothing is loss, because it never generated taxes in the first place.

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If the city doesn't stand to make any money on the sale (many of the bids were less than the city paid for the land in 1924) and it doesn't increase the tax base, what is the point, unless it's to make money for Kwame's friends and family?

And, building on park land nothing is loss, because it never generated taxes in the first place.

When you lose park land something very precious is lost, something that can never be retrieved. It is a quality of life issue. If this sale goes forward I predict a huge exodus of residents from the neighborhoods surrounding the park and I may be among them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The town hall meeting with the City Council concerning the sale of Rouge Park which was scheduled for tonight, Oct. 17 at 7:00 P.M. at Lessenger Middle School was canceled, supposedly due to a power failure even though there were lights on throughout the building. Several hundred people and a WDIV news crew were left standing in the parking lot. We were promised that the meeting would be rescheduled although no date has been set.

I think this was another attempt by the mayor to push this sale through under the radar, with little or no public debate.

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Detroit City Council Reschedules Public Hearing

Regarding Proposed Rouge Park Sale

Contact: Sally Petrella 313-271-1643 (alt. daytime # 313-792-9621)

Di Allgood 313-590-0268

Who: Detroit City Council

What: Town Hall Meeting on proposed sale of 115 acres of Detroit's Rouge Park

When: Rescheduled for Wednesday November 1, 2006 7:00-8:30 pm

Where: Saint Thomas Aquinas School, 5845 Auburn Street (Corner of Ford Rd. & Evergreen Rd.), Detroit, MI 48228-3905

Why: Meeting had to be rescheduled after a power outage on October 17 at Lessenger Middle School forced the City to postpone the hearing. The hearing is being held at the request of the Friends of Rouge Park and others opposed to the sale of any part of this 1200 acre park, Detroit's largest.

On October 17, people arriving at Lessenger Middle School were disappointed to find the school dark and representatives from the City telling them the meeting was cancelled due to a power outage. They had been prepared to tell the Detroit City Council how they felt about the proposed sale of 115 acres of Rouge Park for development.

The power outage and the lack of City Council members did not stop several hundred concerned people from showing up anyway and holding a spontaneous, boisterous rally in support of their beloved Rouge Park. The crowd began waving lawn signs and broke into chants of

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WE DID IT!!!! :D

Yesterday, Detroit City Recreation Department Director Loren Jackson announced

at our meeting that the mayor has agreed to stop any deal to sell Rouge Park!!!

Detroit will preserve park

It is time to celebrate our success in saving the park from development, but...

NOW the hard work begins.

The park has been saved from development for the moment but is still threatened by neglect, vandalism, and the lack of resources needed to make it into the world class park we all envision. We need your time, your vision and your ideas. Please stay involved in the Friends of Rouge Park and help us to make

Rouge Park a clean, safe, and attractive park that

the City would never dream of selling

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