Detroit, a union city

[carpro]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a82_1320450236

 

[LadyEagle]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a82_1320450236

Thanks for posting this, carpro. I have posted pics before, but the video shows it in more detail what has happened to this "Model City." But it wasn't just the unions.....it was socialism, what obama and his ilk will turn this entire country into if they go unchecked!!

Here is more info....

<snipped>

In 1961, the last Republican mayor of Detroit lost his re-election bid to a young, intelligent Democrat, with the overwhelming support of newly organized black voters. His name was Jerome Cavanagh. The incumbent was widely considered to be corrupt (and later served 10 years in prison for tax evasion). Cavanagh, a white man, pandered to poor underclass black voters. He marched with Martin Luther King down the streets of Detroit in 1963. (Of course, marching with King was the right thing to do... It's just Cavanagh's motives were political not moral.) He instated aggressive affirmative action policies at City Hall. And most critically, he greatly expanded the role of the government in Detroit, taking advantage of President Lyndon Johnson's "Model Cities Program" – the first great experiment in centralized urban planning.

Mayor Cavanagh was the only elected official to serve on Johnson's task force. And Detroit received widespread acclaim for its leadership in the program, which attempted to turn a nine-square-mile section of the city (with 134,000 inhabitants) into a "model city." More than $400 million was spent trying to turn inner cities into shining new monuments to government planning. In short, the feds and Democratic city mayors were soon telling people where to live, what to build, and what businesses to open or close. In return, the people received cash, training, education, and health care.

The Model Cities program was a disaster for Detroit. But it did accomplish its real goal: The creation of a state-supported, Democratic political power base.

<snipped>
Unfortunately, as with all socialist programs, lots of folks simply don't like being told what to do. Lots of folks don't like being plundered by the government. They don't like losing their jobs because of their race.

In Detroit, they didn't like paying new, large taxes to fund a largely black and Democratic political hegemony. And so, in 1966, more than 22,000 middle- and upper-class residents moved out of the city.

<snipped>
Over the next 18 months, an additional 140,000 upper- and middle-class residents – almost all of them white – left the city.

What happened? Even with all of their power and all of the money, centralized planners couldn't succeed with any of their plans. Nearly all of the upper and middle class left Detroit. The poor fled, too. The Model City area lost 63% of its population and 45% of its housing units from the inception of the program through 1990.

Even today, the crisis continues. At a recent auction of nearly 9,000 seized homes and lots, less than one-fifth of the available properties sold, even with bidding starting at $500. You literally can't give away most of the "Model City" areas today.

<snipped>

Every single mayor of Detroit since 1961 has been a Democrat. Every single mayor of Detroit since 1974 has been black. Detroit has been a major recipient of every major social program since the early 1960s and has received hundreds of billions of dollars in government grants, loans, and programs. We now have a black, Democrat president, who is promising to do to America as a whole what his political mentors have done to Detroit.

http://www.thedailycrux.com/Article/32941/Government_Stupidity


Another source:

http://townhall.com/columnists/edwardwhite/2012/03/28/america_the_next_detroit/page/full/


And then there's this, like the article says: "But it did accomplish its real goal: The creation of a state-supported, Democratic political power base."

President Barack Obama is coming to the Motor City for a $1 million pizza party being thrown for him compliments of Denise Ilitch, daughter of Little Caesars’ founders Mike and Marian Ilitch. Ilitch is opening her home April 18 for the fundraiser where movers and shakers are being asked to pony up thousands to add to his re-election coffer while getting a chance to rub shoulders with the most powerful man on the planet.

<snipped>

And the price of admission isn’t for those on a budget. $40,000 buys access to the cocktail reception, formal photo with Obama and dinner. $10,000 buys dinner and a photo.

The event is the latest twist in the political relationship between Obama and Ilitch, eldest of the Ilitch’s seven children. Mike and Marian also own the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Fox Theatre, Motor City Casino and more. The family is among the wealthiest and most influential in Michigan with an empire worth billions.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/04/09/president-obamas-1-million-pizza-party-in-detroit/


Part of the 1% crowd, no doubt.

 

[OldRegular]

Detroit is an American tragedy. However all the blame does not lie with the unions. It must be shared by the corporations and politicians who caved to union demands, passing the cost on to the consumer/taxpayer. Perhaps the worst of the lot in the case of Detroit were the car companies. They were selling everything they could produce and sewed the seeds of their ultimate failure. Gm is the worst of the lot!

 

[carpro]

Flint, Michagan. Even worse...and for mostly the same reasons.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxZj567NP74

 

[OldRegular]

Half of Detroit's Streetlights May Go Out as City Shrinks

Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating nearly half its streetlights.

As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can't afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing's plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.

Other U.S. cities have gone partially dark to save money, among them Colorado Springs; Santa Rosa, California; and Rockford, Illinois. Detroit's plan goes further: It would leave sparsely populated swaths unlit in a community of 713,000 that covers more area than Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco combined. Vacant property and parks account for 37 square miles (96 square kilometers), according to city planners.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/half-detroits-streetlights-may-city-160617398.html

 

[just-want-peace]

Read my sig line!