Parts unknown: Detroit (for Frem) by Geezer

Imma comment, but I gotta roll out at the moment, some ninny locked their keys in the car, and I got rounds to do after...
Back soonish.

-F

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Monday, November 11, 2013 12:50 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Originally posted by Geezer:

Corrupt government lets the city go to hell, but folks fight back.

Just wondering where you got this from. It wasn't in your link. Also, gotta' ask if the heroic corporations shuttering the auto industry might have had some effect. What do you think?

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Monday, November 11, 2013 3:56 AM

SHINYGOODGUY

Saw something on MSNBC about the "vultures" circling when Detroit was first in trouble. Corrupt and bias politicians and execs picking at the remains and making money from the city's misery.

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Anybody watch this? Probably run again this week.

http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/index.ht
ml?SR=Parts_Unknown_with_Anthony_Bourdain

Both sad and hopeful.

Corrupt government lets the city go to hell, but folks fight back.

Firefighters against massive arson of abandoned buildings, underfunded and using old equipment.

Guys getting together to mow the parks the city has abandoned so kids can play safely.

Folks actually moving back to try and revitalize sections that'll hopefully spread.

Urban farmers growing food to sell only to locals.

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Monday, November 11, 2013 8:08 AM

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:

Originally posted by Geezer:

Corrupt government lets the city go to hell, but folks fight back.

Just wondering where you got this from. It wasn't in your link. Also, gotta' ask if the heroic corporations shuttering the auto industry might have had some effect. What do you think?

It was discussed quite a bit in the show. Did you watch the show? If not, you didn't see it.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Monday, November 11, 2013 8:17 AM

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Imma comment, but I gotta roll out at the moment, some ninny locked their keys in the car, and I got rounds to do after...
Back soonish.

-F

I'll be interested in your take.

I was in Detroit for work in the early 90's, and it seemed to be in pretty good shape. Of course I was down around Greektown, which may be different. Notice they didn't mention it in the show.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Monday, November 11, 2013 11:00 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

"It was discussed quite a bit in the show. Did you watch the show? If not, you didn't see it."

So, your link goes nowhere useful. Your claim is still unverified.

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Monday, November 11, 2013 2:56 PM

Sorry bout the late response, hell of a night that was, had to roust maintanence when they wouldn't answer a busted pipe page, help the local Sheriffs do a sweep and clear for a suspicious vehicle and in between was trying to coordinate a few relief efforts by finding them transport, as well as GF ripping the ballon ascender out of the minivan and getting it onto a boat ASAP, cause even a low altitude visual observation platform and radio repeater might be damn useful, urgh urgh, and my leg is all busted up and killing me and I am half crocked soooo...

Topic at hand.

Well, to start with, best start at the beginning of the beginning.
It's long been an obvious problem that Government prosecutors at every level have serious corruption issues, which is what happens when you hand out unlimited power with damn near zero accountability, and simply by choosing to overprosecute petty bullshit while refusing to prosecute their partners in crime, the boys in blue, they done most of the yeomans work in turning our country into a goddamn police state.
(See also: William Grigg, Radley Balko, Jonathan Turley)

And the real core of corruption in Wayne County and Detroit proper rests at the feet of Kym Worthy, who in an oddball legal-system form of Regulatory Capture, has turned the city of Detroit into more or less her own private fiefdom, borrowing heavily on the concepts first introduced by Jonathan Wild.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Wild

Simply of itself this would have had a substantial negative impact, but the real rubicon came along when Worthy decided to play kingmaker, and the jackass she got elevated to the mayors office, one Kwame Kilpatrick, decided he didn't have to listen to her anymore cause he was the mayor, right ?
Cue fiasco of EPIC proportions as her petty empire spared no expense in retaliation without regard to collateral damage to the social and legal fictions which hold up the implied social contract between Government and Society.

And this is where it started to go to hell.

There's also the simple fact that her praetorian gaurd, the Detroit Police Dept operates at a level of corruption which would make LAPD's RAMPART squad blush in embarassment, and five things brought this to a head as well.
One was the attempt to bring reform by forcing a Federal monitor on the DPD, which came to pieces when it came out that she was banging Kwame on the side, and the FBI punks set to watch over the DPD, primary among them Andy the bullshitter, were usually complicit in the abuses rather than stupping them - up to the Huttaree fisaco, which finally sent Andy packing to be replaced with another useless, corrupt Federale.

Two was the attempt to force reforms by installing Wayne Evans as Detroit police chief, quickly quashed by both being hammered for stealing subordinate Godbees insane girlfriend, and the murder of Aiyanna Jones (which was the third) on his watch didn't help, so out he went, to be replaced by Godbee, another of Worthys pets, who didn't last long himself cause his girlfriend was bat crazy and he was sleeping with half the department.
Soon followed by the fourth, the Maryanne Godboldo fiasco.

But the fifth was the real breaking point, see in Detroit the whole "public safety" budget is an all in one, and the Detroit police loot it clean, leaving the firefighters and EMTs without sufficient personnel and equipment to even RESPOND in some cases, much less be effective, leading to the September 2010 firestorm where DTEs rotted out power infrastructure wound up causing 85 fires in 24 hours and the Detroit FD was unable to cope - throw in the EMTs getting fired for whistleblowing on the budget leaving them to swing as well, and THEN top it all off with the Police buying a brand new 50 million dollar posh casino HQ and having pizza parties on the public dime while the city burns and bleeds.

You can't even HELP the poor damned firefighters and EMTs because of that consolidated budget, cause the Police get first pickings, and you can't cut the damn thing cause the axe will fall on them FIRST, of course.
(And this is *WHY* folks, Washtenaw County has them as SEPERATE BUDGET ITEMS)

So with the break of trust between public and government, compounded by "law enforcement" which operates more like a damn predatory protection racket, people started looking elsewhere for solutions - abandoned, crumbling properties which drew crime and vermin mysteriously caught fire, or suddenly fell down all by themselves.

And the forgotten poor started trying their own hand at urban reclaimation, only to be opposed by the Monsanto cronies of the local DNR, but scratch an american, and you find a farmer - we can grow anything, anywhere, something which drives the DEA up a wall but fuck em, and so they kept the contractors hired by DNR playing wack a mole, or bought them off cause hey, who doesn't like fresh produce, and so forth and so on.
Worth a note there's money to plow under peoples attempts to feed themselves, but none to help feed them, ehe ?

This did not at ALL boost anyones faith in Government, that I tellya.
Nor did the Detroit police attempts to harrass and intimidate local neighborhood watches and contracted security, which fell flat in a hurry cause some of them watches and some of us contractors outgun the cops, and they're only brave when it's like six of em beating an old lady, yanno ?

So mostly by now the devastated remains, and the shell shocked, hardcore and often desperately poor survivors get by via IGNORING the damn Government, or treating it much in the fashion of a hostile weather pattern, an annoyance and hassle to be dealt with, rather than placing any faith in it.

There was the abortive attempt to reach out to the party of opposition in hoping to change things, but THAT got us Snyder, who doesn't even try to fucking hide his intent to loot the place and then shit all over the remains as he flees - it'll be a long, long, LONG time before any GOP candidate around here is viewed as anything but a potential lynching because of that - and so the folks of Detroit elected Duggan, in one of the damn saddest political actions I've ever seen cause the general sentiment is "Well, everyone else sucks MORE, try not to fuck this up too badly", and no one is even pretending that they expect him to survive the one-two punch of dealing with Snyder and Worthy, who despite partisanship on a political level in theory, both truly worship power and money.

Tis a funny thing, more and more townships and neighborhoods are either firing their police forces outright or hiring contract security to both do the job the cops won't, AND protect them FROM the damn cops.
http://belmont-ca.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/is-it-a-good-idea
-for-neighborhoods-to-hire-private-security-guards_ef7a714f-belmont-ca

Maywood, CA
Kilbruck, PA
Columbus, NM
Hoschton, GA
Pewaukee, WI
Alto, TX
Camden, NJ
Youngtown, AZ
Millbrae, CA
San Carlos, CA
Pontiac, MI

That's only a partial list - cause once neighborhoods start hiring contract guards to do what the cops won't, the question comes along of exactly what they're paying those abusive dicks for, and no one usually has any good answers.

Yah, I watched the bit, but Reason.com has a better one, and I'll post it in a minute, but here's a consideration too - something like the pop-up-shop (as we call it) in the bit you posted... you takes your chances, there's no regulation, no health inspection, HOWEVER, his word is his bond, and a ripoff or unsavory joint will soon lack customers, or even get trashed by angry folks who've been screwed, so there's that.
There's a homeless guy down on one corner, he might look rough, he might be a mentally ill alcoholic, but that man can build you ANYTHING out of Budweiser cans you can possibly imagine, provided you bring him full cans in exchange for the empties he uses - one of my co-workers has a beautiful WWI fighter plane the guy built for him.

Reason's overview.

THE MOWER GANG.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/the-mower-gang-anarchy-in-detroi
t-part-i

DETROIT THREAT MANAGEMENT
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/detroit-threat-management-anarch
y-in-det

Okay, yes, they make me laugh with their all lets-pretend tactic-cool wannabe-blackwater crap to do what one ole retiree with a flashlight and a radio can accomplish, but if it makes em happy.... they're not that expensive* and they do have decent equipment, but mostly it's about putting trained bodies in the right place.

FIREWEED.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/fireweed-universe-city-anarchy-i
n-detroi

BELLE ISLE COMMONWEALTH.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/belle-isle-commonwealth-anarchy-
in-detro

Anyhows, thing is, depending on Governments entire, now there are things done better collectively, like public utilities, but even those without competition become corrupt and exploitive, DTE likes to scream a fit that their infrastructure is "public" when the demand to actually fucking maintain it comes round, but all of the sudden "private" when it comes time to collect the friggin money, which is just bullshit, and the bastards supposed to make them behave in exchange for their monopoly status have long since been bought off by them - that's one thing better nationalized/socialized, OR alternatively opened to real competition.

But PEOPLE, them you can overall depend on, cause there will always be someone crazy enough to step up to the plate and at least TRY.
Hell, there's one kid around here who created a Death-Ray grade parabolic mirror to, of all the things, make MAPLE SYRUP with...
http://www.heritage.com/articles/2010/04/07/heritagewest/news/doc4bb8f
48db767e495919236.txt?viewmode=fullstory

And then there's the downside, fuckers like Davey the Radboy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

Sure, you get the wackjobs and the weenies, but in the end Rosseau *was* right, people are generally good natured - which is what this is all about.
Not to say Government, at least in the form of collective action, cannot be useful in some things, but as a rule it tends to end in disaster, one need look no further than Somalia for that, because contrary to the bullshit story told to excuse it, what Somalia is... is the end result of GOVERNMENT, every goddamn time.

Fuck Corporations, Fuck Governments, you wanna put faith in something, put it in your fellow humans - and when Detroit started doin that, was the moment when things started to turn around, and watch Government fuck it up completely.

-Frem

*PS - Despite their laughable pretend-blackwater status, DTM is actually cheaper than we are, and if you want me personally to attend to your security, you *will* pay a premium for it as my base-rate is higher than most armed gaurds - unless you happen to convince me you are by virtue of kind heart or decent behavior worth making a deal with, and it don't necessarily have to be cash either, I like a homecooked meal as well as anyone, but spare the womanly wiles, cause I got no problems gettin that on my own, thanks.

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Monday, November 11, 2013 3:45 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Since 2005, the Detroit metropolitan area has lost approximately 323,400 jobs. According to one estimate, the city had 90,000 abandoned or vacant lots or residential homes in 2010.

So yeah, blame it all on corruption. The collapse of a big chunk of capitalist ecopnomy was a non-event.

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Monday, November 11, 2013 4:08 PM

*eyebrow lift*
How is Americas military-backed, Government-subsidized, so-called (VULTURE) "Capitalism" not a form, itself, of corruption ?!

I'd discuss it further, but good heavens I am like, moments from passing out drunk here, a little mercy on me, yes ?

-Frem

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Monday, November 11, 2013 5:22 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Not directed to you Frem, apologies if it seemed like it was.

"Corrupt government lets the city go to hell, but folks fight back."

This is Geezer's claim. It's all about corrupt government, and nothing to do with vulture economics. I was just pointing out the shortcomings of his position, for his edification. Not that I expect he'll take note.

ETA: Have a good drunk! Yanno, if you can't stop the pain you can at least not care. That's MY story anyway - and I'm sticking to it!

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Tuesday, November 12, 2013 8:32 AM

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
"Corrupt government lets the city go to hell, but folks fight back."

This is Geezer's claim.

Not really. It was a theme of the show. Take it up with CNN.

http://delishows.com/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown-season-2-episode-8
-detroit.html

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Tuesday, November 12, 2013 12:24 PM

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:
Reason's overview.

THE MOWER GANG.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/the-mower-gang-anarchy-in-detroi
t-part-i

DETROIT THREAT MANAGEMENT
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/detroit-threat-management-anarch
y-in-det

Okay, yes, they make me laugh with their all lets-pretend tactic-cool wannabe-blackwater crap to do what one ole retiree with a flashlight and a radio can accomplish, but if it makes em happy.... they're not that expensive* and they do have decent equipment, but mostly it's about putting trained bodies in the right place.

FIREWEED.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/fireweed-universe-city-anarchy-i
n-detroi

BELLE ISLE COMMONWEALTH.
http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/23/belle-isle-commonwealth-anarchy-
in-detro

Thanks for posting these links. Enjoyed the concept of Libertarians buying up neighborhoods and starting little free-trade zones shown in the Fireweed segment. I expect that the city government will spend more resources to keep that from happening than they would to restore the same neighborhoods themselves.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Tuesday, November 12, 2013 10:28 PM