Who Really Cares About City?

Buses standing idle, diesel engines running, on St. Aubin

One of my pet peeves in our neighborhood is the buses that stand all day with engines running on St. Aubin between East Lafayette and Larned streets next to the Dequindre Cut (the old below-street-level railroad right-of-way). The Martin Luther King townhouse apartments, a low-to-moderate income community, are also across the street. The buses come and go all day, the drivers sit and wait until they're ready to be dispatched. Usually a supervisor stops by in an SUV to kibitz with the drivers and perhaps give them orders. Occasionally, a mechanic with his truck will stop by and make on-the-spot-repairs. Rarely, a disabled bus will sit until a tow truck can remove it.

The bus drivers keep their engines running, spewing pollution and a constant grumble from their diesel engines. Worst of all, this practice has created a long constant slur of oil leakage on the street that runs the entire length from East Lafayette to Larned. When no buses are parked there, you see this long black, wide nonstop oil leak.

This is another example of how Detroit gets treated by some private and public entities that do business in Detroit but whose people don't live here (Few SMART drivers, personnel and executives live in Detroit; some D-DOT folks probably do.) Neither bus authority cares about the quality of life or the aesthetics of this particular little piece of Detroit. They don't live here, so they can turn it into a bus yard. What do they care whether their exhaust emissions and noise drift all day accross the street where people live, or whether those of us who live nearby have to experience this every day? This would never happen in Grosse Pointe or Bloomfield Hills. I have lived in this city all of my life and grown weary of how some outsiders come into Detroit, make their money, and leave a mess. Many service providers and contractors send workers into the city who are not residents thus have little interest in its well being. Detroiters have been subjected to abuse so long that they have aquired a tolerance for it.

There are a thousand little stories like this in Detroit. You've just read one of them.

Detroit Near Last in Minorities Who Work in Highway Construction

I was listening to Mildred Gaddis this morning on 1200 AM radio and she and her guest were talking about the lack of minorities visible working on the John Lodge construction project in Detroit. Her guest referenced Smart Growth America and a study they are releasing today about this subject called "Missing in Action." I visited SGA's website briefly and saw that many of the issues that they address, such as sprawl, disinvestment and public transportation are the same that affect Detroit. The site has a decidedly left-wing slant, but we're apolitical here at Talk About Detroit and realize that good ideas (and bad ones, too) come from everywhere along the political spectrum. The "Missing in Action" report supposedly places Detroit second from last of 18 cities and their track records of hiring minorities and women in the highway and other construction industries Why am I not surprised? This exclusion of blacks and other minorities is particularly upsetting in a city like Detroit which is 90 percent black and has an unemployment rate hovering around 14 percent, and higher for black males. Check it out Smart Growth America and stay tuned. I will read the report and get back to you.

Where Are the Black Guys on Those Road Crews?

Latinos are overrepresented in construction, study says

Here's the Detroit News story regarding the "Missing in Action" report from Smart Growth America that is discussed in the post immediately above this one:

Detroit's Construction Workforce Comprised of Few Blacks

by Cindy Rodriguez

DETROIT -- Detroit's construction workforce is primarily white with just seven out of 100 workers black, a disparity that undermines the potential of African American men to earn decent salaries, according to a first-of-its-kind study released today that examines the race and ethnicity of workers in building trades.

The study, "Missing in Action," looked at 19 cities across the nation, focusing on the construction trade because those jobs offer decent wages and benefits and don't require a college degree. Those jobs will continue to be in demand in the coming years.

Of the cities examined, Detroit had the second worst disparity rate, after Virginia Beach, Va. While blacks comprise 20 percent of the workforce in Detroit, they accounted for 7 percent of the workers in construction. Whites, on the other hand, comprised 72 percent of the workforce and 86 percent of the construction workers. Latinos also were overrepresented: They account for 3 percent of the workforce and 6 percent of those in construction.

"Construction employment works through informal networks. It's through word of mouth and through connections," said Dr. Todd Swanstrom, professor of public policy at Saint Louis University and the primary author of the study. "What's happened with African Americans is they simply aren't plugged into networks."

Bob Filka, CEO of the Michigan Association of Homebuilders, said blacks need to be made more aware of opportunities in building trades, especially because there will be a rising need once the Michigan economy recovers.

"We are going to have a hard time in the industry when the economy comes back because a lot of our workers have left the state," he said.

Ponsella Hardaway, executive director of the non-profit agency Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling strength, said public schools should train young black men and women for jobs in these trades and think of it as an investment.

"It's one of the reasons why we have a high crime rate. People do what they can to survive," Hardaway said. "There's a lot of hopelessness for young men and because of it they sometimes resort to other things."

City's Most Serious Problem is Lack of Two-Parent Households

All of Detroit's problems stem from one source -- the absence of two-parent households that create stable families who raise kids with focus and motivation to succeed. The issue is raised often enough, but it never seems to get a thorough discussion. It's always brushed aside, or the conversation changes quickly to since we can't solve that problem how do we help the children living in single-parent families.

Expand Dream Cruise to Include Detroit

For the past several years communities along the Woodward Dream Cruise route have been complaining that it has become too large and unwieldy to handle and does not generate enough income to pay for police and other services to support it. Now the talk is that organizers are looking for other communities to join in and help with the burden and generate some new income, presumably through new sponsors in those new communities. They are even looking toward the City of Detroit as a possible co-sponsor and I say the time is ripe. We should begin plans immediately for a new, expanded two-day Dream Cruise that adds a full day of cruising and events on the Sunday following the now one-day event on Saturday.

The cruisers, motorheads and other car lovers would be willing to cruise another day in a fresh venue, and several locations in Detroit would work perfectly. Already, several Dream Cruise events take place in Detroit including car shows at the State Fairgrounds on Woodward Avenue at 8 Mile Road, and downtown in Eastern Market. The Metro Cruisers -- a major Detroit car club -- the Detroit Parade Company and Roger Penske could plan and implement the day's events. Here's how we do it:

The Sunday after the present-day Saturday Woodward Dream Cruise is a perfect day. This gives Detroit officials and sponsors all-day Saturday to prepare dowtown while the office buildings are closed and traffic is light. The Detroit cruise route begins with Belle Isle, travels west on East Jefferson toward downtown to Woodward Avenue, then north on Woodward to Grand Boulevard.

The beauty of this cruise is that the event can still use the name Woodward Dream Cruise. And don't let the logistics of Belle Isle worry you -- several Grand Prix auto races including one this Labor Day weekend have been staged on Belle Isle and are proof that a major car event can be held successfully on the island. General Motors Headquarters at the Renaissance Center is a perfect stage for special events and car shows (and GM a natural sponsor) as is Eastern Market. Crowds along the Jefferson route can spill over to the new RiverWalk. On a Sunday there will be plenty of free street parking as well as available pay lots. We know people love to come downtown for these sort of spectacles and a downtown cruise on the Sunday following the original Woodward Dream Cruise is no exception.

Mark my words. This will happen.

All We Need is a Slice of Philly

I haven't been blogging lately because I spent several days last week at a family reunion in Philadelphia. I had a great visit and my only regret is that I couldn't have brought a slice of that city home to plant somewhere in Detroit. To be sure Philadelphia has problems similar to ours -- crime, poverty, and racial tensions. But in spite of those ills, the city has a vibrancy and a glow that excites and reminds you why people will tolerate considerable adversity to live in a big city.

I went to downtown Philly Saturday morning and was struck by the number of people on the streets at 11 a.m. People were scrambling everywhere, running errands, shopping, visiting museums and historical sites. I walked through a few neighborhoods in Central City and enjoyed the narrow, intimate streets and row housing. People were walking dogs, jogging, and stopping in the neighborhood hardware store and coffee shops. Bicycles and motor scooters were common, and parked everywhere.

I know that there are many contrasts between Detroit and Philadelphia that make them very different cities. Philadelphia is the cradle of American democracy and early colonial life and so much of that history is still evident. Unlike Detroit, it was a city that was built and grew before the automobile, so it still has miles of narrow brick streets. When Philly was already urbane and refined for the time, Detroit was still a frontier town, a military outpost. Detroit didn't become an urbanized boom town until the late 19th century and soon after the automobile was beginning to influence the design of streets, road and highways.

Once a city of 2.1 million residents, Philadelphia is now a city of 1.4 million, with still a slight trickle of population loss. Detroit has lost half its population in the past 50 years -- 1.8 million to roughly 900,000 people, and still losing population rapidlly. The key of course to population size isn't so much how many people live in your city, but what is the socioeconomic quality of that population. On that note, Philly's population is decidely more upscale with a lower unemployment rate. Its workforce is more professional and academic than Detroit's. The geographic size of the two cities is virtually the same -- both about 130 square miles. But Philadelphia has a half million more residents, thus less open space created by housing abandonment. Row houses in Philadelphia's gentrified neighborhoods sell in the $300,000+ range.

But perhaps the most significant distinction between the two cities is their racial demographic. With 53 percent of its 1.4 million residents being white, Philadelphia is still a majority white city. With a population of 900,000 which is 85 percent black, Detroit is virtually a black city. I make this point regretfully but necessarily because the reality in our society today is that a white population will bring more wealth and a stronger tax base to a city in addition to demanding better schools, public safety and general services for their tax dollar. I am not suggesting a "let's get whites back here" strategy for Detroit. I am simply making the point that Detroit's road to recovery is going to be filled with huge potholes if we can't find ways to make living in Detroit closer to what it's like living in the better areas of cities like Philadelphia.

Urban Farming Bigger in Detroit

The schoolyard of Catherine Ferguson Academy, left, looks more

like a barnyard, thanks to the efforts of science teacher Paul Weertz. The academy is a DPS school, not a charter, that educates students who are pregnant parenting teens

Some 400 people -- seven busloads -- went on the Detroit Agriculture Network's 2007 annual tour of urban gardens and farms in the city of Detroit last night. I did not take the tour because I didn't sign up in time, but was on hand for the sendoff and was impressed with the effort. The tour left from the Catherine Ferguson Academy on Selden Street on the city's near southwest side, half the group heading for west side sites, half for east side sites.

The east side group visited the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Gleaners Community Food Bank where eight city lots have been converted into a small farm. Last year more than 7,000 pounds of organically fresh produce was harvested and distributed to local markets and low-income Detroit residents. They also stopped at a pocket park in Indian Village, and several community gardens.

The west side tour stopped at the Brightmoor Community Garden, Detroit Black Community Security Network Garden, Romanowski Park, American Indian Health and Family Services garden and the Birdtown Garden in the Cass Corridor. Here are more photos from yesterday at Catherine Ferguson Academy:

This effort is growing (no pun intended) in Detroit and must continue to do so as one element in an overall land use strategy. One third of Detroit is now open space, and we have to find useful and attractive ways to reclaim it. For more go to the Earth Works Garden website.