Detroit seems ready to facilitate the Pistons return to Detroit at all costs. The team will play at Little Caesars Arena, which they will share with the Detroit Red Wings, But can Mayor Mike Duggan justify an investment of additional public tax dollars in a struggling economy and the disconcerting reality that Detroit is broke […]
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This November this will be the first opportunity for residents in the four-county Metro area to vote on a 1.2-mill, 20-year, $4.6 billion property tax millage for regional transit. It may also be the only opportunity for voters to say NO. Passage of this hyped transit proposal would burden taxpayers with never-ending construction, maintenance and […]
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I suppose there is one reason for Detroiters to get excited about Mayor Mike Duggan’s unveiling of Detroit Promise – a program, funded by several foundations and the Detroit Regional Chamber whose intent is to give tuition-free two-year college scholarships to every student who graduates from a school in the city. This inducement, after all, […]
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THIS IS THE EMAIL EVERYONE SHOULD SEE. SHOWS THE INSANE DECISION BY SNYDER TO ALLOW FLINT TO DISCONNECT FROM DETROIT WAS NOT FISCALLY SOUND — AND POLITICALLY MOTIVATED. (ANIT-DETROIT BIAS)? IF SNYDER HAD ACCEPTED THIS DEAL, THE CATASTROPHE WOULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED. I’ll make the actual proposal available to anyone who wants to […]
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Financial markets are unsentimental places. That’s why it is a little strange that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is pumped up about the Entrepreneurs of Color program, a creation of the nonprofit Detroit Development Fund, JPMorgan Chase and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The “coloreds-only” loan initiative sends the message that the city tacitly, if not officially, supports race […]
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Mike Duggan, Detroit’s top politician, became a jet-setter to a foreign land this week — a business and trade trip to Japan. Not that there’s anything wrong with such trips, provided the agenda has some realistic prospect of benefiting the constituency the mayor serves. But history shows the benefits to Detroiters from these excursions are […]
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A few weeks ago, I traveled to Chicago, President Barack Obama’s hometown, at the invitation of the Illinois Policy Institute. I took part in a panel discussion about Detroit’s path to bankruptcy and whether the Windy City was far behind. Since I was in Detroit during the city’s heyday and witnessed its demise firsthand, I […]
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The great welfare debate took on a more forceful tone last week with committee passage of drug-testing legislation that would, among other things, mandate community service for people receiving public assistance. Seems the Legislature is moving to protect a shrinking treasury following generous increases under the Obama administration. Its goal: to extricate the destitute and […]
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Detroit Police Chief James Craig swaggered into town boldly declaring that the carjackings, street crimes and home invasions were a thing of the past. Young brutal barbarians were put on notice that their reign was over. The message was clear and unapologetic: thugs will be aprehended, prosecuted and incarcerated. The self-portrait he painted of a […]
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I can only think of one reason why Mayor Dave Bing wants President Barack Obama to visit Detroit leading up to the November election: He wants the president to get a glimpse of what urban areas across America will look like in 2016 after his second term. “People say Detroit is important to this administration. […]
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