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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
State Senator Proposes Dissolving City Of Detroit
2012-11-29
[Detroit.CBSLocal] It would no doubt be controversial, but the idea of dissolving the fiscally struggling city of Detroit and absorbing it into Wayne County is being tossed around in Lansing.
Does Wayne County want it?
WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick reports some state Republicans are talking about giving the city the option to vote itself into bankruptcy. And mid-Michigan Senator Rick Jones said all options should be considered -- including dissolving the city.

"If we have to, that is one idea we have to look at. We really have to look at everything that is on the table," Jones said. "Again, if this goes to federal bankruptcy, every employee down there will suffer, the city will suffer and the vultures will come in and take the jewels of Detroit and they will be gone."

Local consultant Tom Watkins has proposed this in the past, but the idea has never played well among Detroiters.

In a live interview on WWJ Newsradio 950 Wednesday morning, Gov. Rick Snyder said he wouldn't count anything out.

"Detroit needs to solve their problems, but they need support and we've been very supportive partners, I believe, in terms of offering different ideas and thoughts. And I just encourage them to work harder about working better together," Snyder said.

Talking to Talk Radio 1270 host Charlie Langton, Detroit's ex-communications chief Karen Dumas said she would not support such a plan.

"No, I don't think that dissolution is the solution for the city of Detroit; I don't," said Dumas. "I think people ... with every step we get more and more fearful ... and maybe at some point that's going to make everybody wake up and realize that we need to stop playing politics and come up with a solution for progress. "I don't know at what point that's going to happen. "
Posted by:Fred

#40  No worries Mullah..and it was an honor. The Drifters hired em as an opening act for some gigs and Mr Gordy even gsve em a song to record. Not bad for a bunch of white boys who were still in or just out of high school.

The thing is Detroit was a powerhouse, a national treasure and the industrial engine thay helped speed victory in WWII. It's sad decline is an endictment of progressive politics and their parastic ways.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2012-11-29 22:16  

#39  Didn't know, had to ask. Thanks Rex.

Playing at the Apollo is still pretty cool, though. What an honor, plus a great opportunity, for a young man.

Lived my very early years in an apartment complex in St. Clair Shores. Don't remember much, only that you could see the lake.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2012-11-29 20:57  

#38  Use it as props for making Batman movies :-)
Posted by: Raider   2012-11-29 20:50  

#37  Holy bushel o'shrooms, SteveS.

I do not think I can legally drive for three hours after reading the DUSA flag.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2012-11-29 20:43  

#36  Bh6: I hear ya. Went back for grandma's funeral some years ago. We toured around the the old homesteads like strangers. Afterwards we went to Rick's in Ann Arbor, got tanked and ran the pool tables for several hours. Haven't been back since.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2012-11-29 19:38  

#35  Ahhh yes Mullah, that would be the RnB Dynamics. My dad's group formed up in the late 50's and started out as doo-wop, but also included numbers by The Drifters and Sam Cooke, etc.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2012-11-29 19:32  

#34  When the Romans destroyed a city they then plowed salt in the agricultural land around the city, so that it could not be re-inhabited. See Cartage.
Surely since the Dems have destroyed Detroit it must now be time they salted it as well.
Posted by: tipper   2012-11-29 19:11  

#33  Hey Rex, was your Dad in the Dynamics before or after the Ice Cream Song?

I believe they produced that while still in Detroit and before their Memphis days.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2012-11-29 18:43  

#32  What, exactly, are jewels are Detroit?

The Heidelburg Project

Posted by: SteveS   2012-11-29 18:26  

#31  Rex - Wayne Memorial High. Not exactly Detroit but close enough. Both my parents went there. My Step-Father went to St. Mary's Commercial High (pretty sure that was the one)Many, many, moons ago...His old neighborhood (once polish and italian) is not even recognizable today. Where his house stood is a vacant lot.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2012-11-29 17:35  

#30  and use it as a living laboratory of how societies fail.

Unfortunately the lefties never learn. See 'Soviet Union', 'North Korea', 'Cuba'. they always think *they* will get it right this time (and never do!).
Posted by: CrazyFool   2012-11-29 16:07  

#29  Why not just let Detroit go and use it as a living laboratory of how societies fail. Won't really cost you a cent, and the union issues will resolve themselves as the remaining money dries up.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2012-11-29 15:04  

#28  Buy up the foreclosed homes and properties selling for a $1 and get them off the market.

Strike most laws from the books (including welfare) and become an American version of Hong Kong. If the folks leave to collect their welfare elsewhere so be it. Detroit can be rebuilt but the current government/paradigm is not going to do it.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2012-11-29 14:48  

#27  What shall we do with our fair city
Dirty and dangerous, grimy and gritty?
What shall we do with our fair town?
GRAB A HAMMER AND SMASH IT DOWN!
Posted by: mojo   2012-11-29 14:12  

#26  "Does Wayne County want it?"

I doubt it.

But I would suppose it would depend on how stupid they are.
Posted by: Barbara   2012-11-29 12:22  

#25  Isn't Detroit the 'Model City' of the Liberal/Socialist 'Great Society' or something?
Posted by: CrazyFool   2012-11-29 12:14  

#24  Rex, to each his own on the brew. At least you didn't have Schmidts (or Iron City) 8^)
Posted by: AlanC   2012-11-29 12:05  

#23  My dad was a Wayne County guy back in the day. Transferred from Wayne high to Ypsi where he met my mom. Pegged jeans, white suede shoes and a DA. He was base vocal for the Dynamics...even played the Apollo. They moved to CA just prior to my birth. A day doesn't go by where I thank God they did. Breaks my mom's heart to see what has become of that once great city and it's surrounds.
Oh and Stroh's was terrible. Guaranteed case of the runs each and every time.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2012-11-29 11:20  

#22  Strohs was a favorite brew in my penny pinching (squeezing till they screamed) days post college.
Also liked Black Horse Ale and Prior's Double Dark.
Posted by: AlanC   2012-11-29 11:06  

#21  Strohs was a decent brew as I recall but then it is a matter of taste. I was born in Detroitistan years ago. So when asked "place of birth" what does one say if Detroit is dissolved? Does it put you on a TSA watch list if you respond with "Detroit?" How about "Southeast Territory of Michigan?" Wayne County? "Born in what is former Detroit?" Or just silently curse the greedy corruptocrats (politicians, unions, etc.) of every stripe who fed at the public trough and caused this?
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-11-29 10:34  

#20  The iconic Detroit Public Library was recently raided by the FBI.
Nothing's safe.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey   2012-11-29 10:19  

#19  "the jewels of Detroit"

What?! Is someone going to steal Mike Illitch? Al Kaline? Better Made Potato Chips? Strohs has been gone for decades...
Posted by: Broadhead6   2012-11-29 09:46  

#18  Journeyman Homicide Squads?

As featured in A&E's The First 48.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2012-11-29 09:41  

#17  Monica Conyers, Kwame Kilpatrick....

nuff said
Posted by: Frank G   2012-11-29 09:32  

#16  I was wondering that myself. Other than the sports teams who have a good season every so often...

What, exactly, are jewels are Detroit?

Museums? Art Galleries? Journeyman Homicide Squads?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2012-11-29 09:26  

#15  the jewels of Detroit

Ummm, I don't think that word means what you think it does.

Cubic Zirconium is vastly superior to the polished turd that is Detroit.
Posted by: AlanC   2012-11-29 08:50  

#14  Detroit will now get not into.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2012-11-29 08:39  

#13   The Michigan state legislature did pass laws to impose emergency management on the city of Detroit to get a handle on the situation by, among other things, throwing out union contracts in a step short of bankruptcy or dissolution.
The electorate of the state of Michigan in their wisdom (/sarc) THREW OUT this legislation in a referendum.
Now the state government has fewer & more drastic options, as mentioned.
By voting for that referendum, the entire state bought into the coming disaster. They own whatever awful situation Detroit will now get not. Got to protect those public unions, no matter what.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2012-11-29 08:38  

#12  It will be like popping an infected boil. Poor Wayne county will need to worry about infection as the leftist puss oozes out.
Posted by: airandee   2012-11-29 08:21  

#11  Part of this is to absorb it into Wayne County.
The folks in the county aren't pleased. In fact, I think they're terrified. Imagine spreading Detroititis to the innocent surrounding municipalities.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey   2012-11-29 08:00  

#10  Arresting decay is very costly and for what reason? We seldom learn anything from history, so let it go. Reforestation and reestablishing animal habitats are probably the right courses of action. Within 50-60 years wood frame structures will have collapsed with only the foundations remaining. There may be some commercial value in harvesting used brick and scrap iron. Gaia will manage it properly until future generations have a valid need for it.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-11-29 07:09  

#9  Too bad we can't pack it all up and ship it to Sacramento CA as a warning.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2012-11-29 06:57  

#8  I was thinking the same - maybe dissolve it in fuming nitric acid. Or - Drano.
Posted by: Lone Ranger   2012-11-29 05:29  

#7  What are they going to use to dissolve it with?
Posted by: tu3031   2012-11-29 02:20  

#6  Detroit can be a set for the continuing episodes of "Life without People."
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2012-11-29 02:07  

#5  Hmmm, seems the most effective way would be to split it among all the Bosses now running it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2012-11-29 01:16  

#4  Editorial from Detroit News:
Hard to know which is more stunning — the dysfunction of Detroit's political class and their paymasters in the city's unions or the denial embedded in their posturing and public statements. And all of it comes wrapped in rhetoric dripping with the same sense of entitlement that Detroit's auto industry regularly manufactured right up to its collapse four years ago.

A current favorite from Ed McNeil, assistant to the president of AFSCME Local 25: "If we get them out of here" — "them" being appointees answerable to the state Treasury Department — "we won't be broke."

Really? It's that simple? Bounce the interlopers imported from Lansing, revert to business as usual, restore wage and benefit cuts, cancel restructuring plans and tax revenues and credit ratings will magically reverse their steady downward trajectory? So easy, that.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2012-11-29 00:45  

#3  Only in Detroit: In town for his ongoing federal racketeering trial in U.S. District Court, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick tweeted that he caught a guy breaking into a house on the same street as his mother's, former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.

"Dude breaking into a house on Moms street," he tweeted around 8 p.m.

"Hey get out there," Kilpatrick yelled.

The would-be burglar apparently was stunned by the person giving the orders.

"Damn, Ok Kwame," Kilpatrick reported he said.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2012-11-29 00:41  

#2  Oh. As a legal entity. I was hoping for bulldozers.
Posted by: gromky   2012-11-29 00:37  

#1  I thought JOHN KERRY + Arabs were going to save the day ala the proposed "GREAT LAKES FTZ"???

SON, AHZ ES NOW CONFUSED.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2012-11-29 00:25  

00:00