What could put Detroit on top?

[YoungProfDetroit]

Detroit is beginning to transform right infront of our eyes.

What are the next steps?

What could set us apart from other livable cities?

How optimistic are you about the Detroit renaissance?

Please share all of your thoughts and ideas.

[Gangway1111]

Good Question. Some Ideas I have are...

1. Consolidate city services in areas that would work(that have a chance) so that some areas would have high levels and most would have low

2. Cut Taxes More

3. Adverise Detroit as a less expenisive alternative to New York/ Chicago for Office Development

4. Funnel What ever money you can into exsisting institutions like WSU

5. Make city more liviable by expanding things like Eastern Market

6. Advertise outside this country to bring immigrants into the city

7. Improve Bus system by consolidateg routes to go up and down radio roads and across mile roads

8. Close Detroit Public School System ENTIRELY to rebuild it, have city offer money for successful area school systems to take over some of them

9. Make more efforts to advertise local events

10. Get Lions to super bowl

Most importantly, advertise to people entering the home ownership market that Detroit is an alternative to Troy to get a big house with a big yard for families that is only a few miles away from places like Downtown, Midtown, and the New Center. All that empty space and "urban prarie" makes detroit into a blank slate for people to have everything that troy has, for much less money, and much closer to the action.

Thank You

[YoungProfDetroit]

FYI. I will be sharing this thread with the Detroit City Council and Mayor Kilpatrick. All insight is appreciated.

[wolverine]

Gangway, you can also substitute office development in #3 with residential development as well.

You can still live in a loft and now have to drop six figures.

I'm not so sure about #8. How about privatize a good number of the schools?

[Gangway1111]

Advertising Detroit as a inexpensive alternative to new york and chicago for high qaulity office space is somthing that hasnt been done, and it would work. There is a lot of vacant office space in the city and suburbs (southfield) that is not be utilized.

The bottom part of my commet dealt with housing, actual houses. Lofts will NEVER get families back to the city. Families want a piece of land to call their own. Detroit can be advetised as the place where the american dream of home ownership can still come true, unlike other big cities in this country.

Any alternative to using the exsisting school system is welcomed, be it school choice, suburban take over of schools, privatisation, or more likely a mix of all three.

Tell the Mayor to keep up the good work. I opposed his re-election, but it looks like I was wrong.

Thank You.

[Jasoncw]

The bottom part of my commet dealt with housing, actual houses. Lofts will NEVER get families back to the city. Families want a piece of land to call their own. Detroit can be advetised as the place where the american dream of home ownership can still come true, unlike other big cities in this country.

[nofunk]

I think having more moderately priced, safe, and clean apartments...

[Gangway1111]

Detroit has a lot of empty land in its neighborhoods, much more than any other large city. It has even more empty land than place like troy and rochestor hills. This land is already zoned, hooked to to utiltities and roaded, so this would not cause sprawl.

This empty land is in PRIME areas, some only a few miles from the downtown area. Just google earth detroit and you will see large areas of this "urban praire" that is just begging for new HOUSEing development.

Just imagine, living in a nice house, with a big back yard, and be within walking distance of the DIA.

That is what Detroit should be adverising.

Thank You

[Gangway1111]

Here is an example of what I mean.

This is just west of Midtown Detroit between the Lodge and Jeffries freeway.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=14...7620&size=l

There is a lot of good land there to build nice houses there, the kind of houses you could never get in this close to downtown New York or Chicago, or any other Major Downtown area.

[CGunn]

Retail, not only downtown but through out the city. Fast Food seems like the only place where high schoolers can work in the city.

[Michi]

Detroit WILL NOT attract families until the school system is completely flipped. Many argue that it is just the image and that may hold a lot of weight, but that image is in fact drowning DPS. My opinion is that the leadership is corrupted from the top - down.

I would like to see a task force designed to PROactively promote moving existing businesses downtown. There is a lot in the way of small business creation, which is good (Bizdom U) but the more business to come downtown, the better.

I was at Somerset last night and while waiting on an employee for some shoes, I overheard two middle aged men talking about the economy and and housing market, etc x 49. One of the guys mentioned to the other that his business is located at _____ Lake Road...Long Lake I think it was...and he questioned out loud what he might be able to do to better profile his business. I wanted to unapologetically interrupt and suggest that if his business is not married to a location w/i the metro area (out of necessity), that he consider downtown Detroit for growth and new market opportunity. The bottom line is, Detroit, starting w/ the nucleus of downtown, is the future of this entire state. Michigan can die off and have only 24 people left living in it, and downtown Detroit will STILL be the economic engine keeping those 24 people afloat.

The bottom line to the bottom line is that that's NEVER going to change. So, why not speed this recovery and act now? The resistance from workers who are employed by the companies making the move currently are just signs of growing pains. A few people are going to have to take a minor hit (those that live at 109 Mile Rd) but the overall positive spin off will be far greater than the negative.

Also, maybe that gigga expansion of the water system will not "have" to take place, further sealing this regions' perception as being backwards.

[hudkina]

I don't know how well this could work, but I was thinking the other day that maybe the city should split the school district into several smaller districts. Warren which covers a much smaller area and has a much smaller population than Detroit has six different school districts within its boundaries. Some of them are good, some of them aren't so good.

I know that we should be thinking about consolidating services, but I think that if the city chopped up the school district into several smaller, independently run school districts, it could help keep the more stable areas (which still have decent schools) from seeing the mass exodus of families. It could also help attract potential new families.

[Gangway1111]

The problem with the schools are with its leadership ( the school board and administrations), lack of participation of the parents, and the teachers union having too much power (tenure and similar problems).

We should abolish the school board and replace it with a council made up of parents, force parents to attend meetings.

Stand up to the union, which has been unwilling to yeld on anything (maybe offer higher teacher pay to give up tenure).

Good schools should be kept open, bad ones should either be closed or given to a private, charter school, or suburban school system to run.

Finally, administration an maitenance cost should be slashed ( do we really need a vice principal?) cut salaries of principals, cut maintenance staff (a roating staff of students in each school would save money and instill civic pride in the student population, something all school districts should be doing not just Detroit)

These ideas would make Detroit schools better, almost overnight, if implemented.

Thank You

[RustTown]

As dysfunctional as DPS leadership may be, the problem is MUCH greater and more complicated than the actual system. As a minority, I can say first hand that an equally huge problem facing the schools is not the system, but many of the students and their families trapped in a vicious mindset and cycle where they honestly don't see the value in an education. The problem is just as much the dysfunctional system as it is the society, and this is true of most all urban school districts, the only major difference being that DPS is something like 90%+ african-american. It's a dirty little subject no one wants to talk about. The schools have been run by both state and local boards with the same results: perptually poor and unacceptable performance to train kids for out modern economy (i.e. preparing them for college). When your school disitrict is having to worry about even just keeping graduating half your high-school, let alone preparing them for college, you've got a major problem with the society.

Seeing as how things won't change overnight, I'd like to see more vocational and alternative schools set up in schools that were closed. I'd also like to see the system place much more emphasis much, much earlier on college, to combat kids giving up before they even reach high-school. I'd also like to see a much greater percentage of children enrolled in pre-school. It's been proven that children that begin school in head-start/pre-school have a significantly greater chance of completeing high-school. I think we have to be much more practical than ideological while we wait for the society to come around.

The whole railing against union and teachers pay, I think, is really a much more minor issue than people make it to be, with a much smaller effect on the product that DPS produces than people try to make that issue out to be. As for charters, and this was released a year or so ago, a recent report showed that, on a whole, they perform at, and many times, below, public schools in the state. Their positive effects are greatly exaggerated. I can understand someone arguing for charters out of a belief that people should have options. I don't, however, understand how someone can argue for charters under the false belief that they are inherently better schools, because the facts just don't bear that presupposition out.

[TheDetroitCity99]

The fact is the kids getting an education there don't see any point in it. They figure I'm stuck here forever so who the hell cares. Someone needs to let them in on the little secret that most people know by now. Knowledge is the key to sucess and money. They could be driving the hummers and bentlys they see in those music video's if they tried.

[wolverine]

Don't get too excited.

How about Detroiters let you in on a little secret that the majority of public schools have piss poor teaching due to the lack of decent funding and the inability to raise the bar in academics. Yes, it's the attitude of the students, but if you attended class everyday and studied hard, would you achieve the level of knowledge that other students receive at private schools or districts outside the city?

Take it from someone who had to play catch-up after moving from dumb inner city schools to the suburbs. No way I would have made it to U of M by keeping my education at the status quo. Of course, many people don't have a choice.

[tomo]

There's also the large population who could potentially move to Detroit who don't have school-aged kids if any at all. These people want a lot of the same things parents want except for the schools. Retail, safety, lower taxes and better city services for those taxes, accountable government, etc. They will help pay for schools for other people's kids through taxes, while not adding to the burden themselves. They are cheaper to attract because not a cent has to be spent on improving schools in order to attract them.

Advertising to the NYC/Chicago office markets and to the rest of the world was mentioned. How about advertising to the millions of suburbanites who hold an extremely narrow view of the city? Most people don't know of 90% of businesses in the CBD. They don't know about restaurants in Southwest Detroit outside of Mexicantown, if that, or in the Cass Corridor, and many other inner neighborhoods. They don't know of anything outside of the greater downtown core. The region should spend more advertising itself to the rest of the country, but the city should get the word out about what businesses and business oppurtunities remain within the city... especially Southwest Detroit, Warrendale, Chaldean Town and other parts of 7 Mile, around Wayne State, etc.

[jas49503]

Don't get too excited.

How about Detroiters let you in on a little secret that the majority of public schools have piss poor teaching due to the lack of decent funding and the inability to raise the bar in academics. Yes, it's the attitude of the students, but if you attended class everyday and studied hard, would you achieve the level of knowledge that other students receive at private schools or districts outside the city?

Take it from someone who had to play catch-up after moving from dumb inner city schools to the suburbs. No way I would have made it to U of M by keeping my education at the status quo. Of course, many people don't have a choice.