The city of Detroit needs to put on its thinking cap and stop acting like a victim, like a depressed person curled up in bed. There’s a financial crisis.
There’s a crime crisis. There’s a blight crisis. There’s a shortage of services: Fire, EMS, Police.
Let’s attack the problem. Let’s show a sense of urgency. Let’s show some innovation. Let’s act as if there’s a crisis.
First off, there are about 12,000 non-violent inmates in the state. There are 20,000 people on parole in the state and 50,000 on probation. There are 48,664 families receiving welfare in Wayne County. And there there are tens of thousands of university students in the state, some of whom would love to do internships for credit.
Let’s start by using an army of inmates -- and I mean a mass of inmates and ex-inmates on probation and parole in the Metro Detroit area to help knock down abandoned homes and buildings. They’d be supervised and assisted by the Army Corps of Engineers.
After they knock down and remove the structures, they could work on landscaping the lots cutting down trees. Corporations could donate equipment. The city could get some federal grants.
Let’s not tackle this blight problem one neighborhood at a time. Let’s blitz the city, address it in months, not years, not decades.
Let’s also get some folks on welfare, who are willing and able to work for the money they get from the state, to help put up parks with swing sets and gardens with vegetables.
Some could train as volunteer firefighters. Some could work as civilians in undermanned police stations, doing clerical work, answering phones.
These aren’t long term solutions. I’m not suggesting they replace people in jobs, but rather fill positions that are being eliminated -- at least for the next couple years.
We aren’t helpless. We aren’t hopeless. Let’s not act as if we are.
And let’s get universities to set up serious programs that provide students credits to do internships, working in schools as tutors, as teachers’ aides, in senior homes and police stations.
Let’s get every Detroit athlete making over $1 million to donate at least $5,000 or $10,000, with the goal of using those funds to keep open some fire houses. Let’s get teams and corporations to toss money into the pot.
Then there’s the crime problem.
Besides bringing in State police and Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies, we need to use the National Guard to do some patrols, just like in New Orleans after Katrina. We have a financial Katrina on our hands. Sure, some residents might complain about the military presence. But I say, better to have the military presence than drug dealers and violent criminals ruling the streets. People are constantly getting robbed and carjacked in Detroit, and that’s just during the day.
What’s more, I say we have a Detroit version of Farm Aid, a three day concert at Comerica Park, to raise money to keep Detroit cops on the streets. Get folks like Eminem and Kid Rock and Bob Seger and Aretha Franklin, and charge $100 a ticket, per day. A local TV station could televise the event and solicit donations. A website could be set up for donations as well.
Sure, all these things sounds simple. And sure there are plenty complications, and for that matter, expenses, like transporting and feeding inmates and having correctional officers, not to mention, concerns from unions over jobs.
Complications shouldn’t stop us from trying, and for that matter, succeeding.
This is an emergency.
I repeat, this is an emergency.
Let’s act as if it is one.