Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Detroit Government To Abandon More Than 20% of City

Posted by samzenpus on from the welcome-to-the-wasteland dept.

In an attempt to deal with the massive amount of people leaving the city, and meet the budget, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has proposed cutting off all but seven neighborhoods from city services. People not in the select seven face living without garbage pickup, police patrols, road repair and street lights. From the article: "Karla Henderson, a city planning official leading the mayor's campaign, said in an interview Thursday that her staff had deemed just seven to nine sections of Detroit worthy of receiving the city's full resources. She declined to identify the areas, but said the final plan could include a greater number." Looks like RoboCop Detroit is getting closer to reality.

6 comments

  1. Alright then... by Locke2005 · · Score: 2

    so those areas not receiving city services no longer have to pay city taxes? Yeah, that's what I thought... I'm sorry, but if you are taxing all districts at the same rate but only providing services to certain "select" districts, you ARE going to see massive lawsuits. It's called "discrimination", and public bodies aren't allowed to do it.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Alright then... by RockDoctor · · Score: 2

      so those areas not receiving city services no longer have to pay city taxes? Yeah, that's what I thought... I'm sorry, but if you are taxing all districts at the same rate but only providing services to certain "select" districts, you ARE going to see massive lawsuits. It's called "discrimination", and public bodies aren't allowed to do it.

      Sounds perfectly reasonable. "No taxation without representation" and all that terrorist/freedom-fighter guff.

      So, if Detroit says "You, you and you [suburbs] ; we're no longer collecting taxes. Swim for yourselves!", then everything is going to be fine.

      And people in the named suburbs are then going to have to work out how to run a modern city from scratch.

      This is going to be fun to watch.

      From a sufficient distance.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    2. Re:Alright then... by zellfaze · · Score: 1

      Indeed. I actually think it would be quite fun to live in. It would be a chance to start something anew.

    3. Re:Alright then... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Indeed. I actually think it would be quite fun to live in. It would be a chance to start something anew.

      A volunteer!

      [/self gets chair, food, drink and a telescope]

      This is going to be fun.

      Perhaps I should get a bigger telescope and move back a bit.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  2. WAAAAY past RoboCop territory here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The situation in Detroit is way past RoboCop territory - remember, somebody WANTED to build stuff in Old Detroit in that movie. What's happening now is a wholesale abandonment of the area...

  3. I'll buy that for a dollar... by Agent__Smith · · Score: 1

    They should legalize the LETHAL RESPONSE security system from ROBO COP as that would allow the city to cut back on the police services with fewer bad results...

    --
    "It seems that we are at the age where life stops giving us things, and starts taking them away..." Indiana Jones