- Councilman Kwame Kenyatta and a packed room of Detroiters warned today of an impending revolt against state intervention, urging residents to stock up on canned food and supplies.
“Even the Bloods in the hood fight for their territory,” Kenyatta said during a 20-minute monologue on the civil rights struggle at today’s city council meeting. “You are going to have to drag me out of here for me to leave.”
Kenyatta cited Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became an intellectual and civil rights icon, because of his position that black people must sacrifice their lives, if necessary, to win freedom and the right to vote. Many in the audience stood up and applauded.
There are a number of background stories submitted under #detroit. Basically, Detroit is on the edge of bankruptcy, and the city council is demagoging to deflect blame from themselves, on whose shoulders many of the cities financial problems lie. Not to say they caused the problem. Obviously, there are many complex reasons why a city like this takes such a massive nose dive, but they have been obstructionists in every attempt to come up with a solution to the problem. They finally have to pay the piper, and they don't like it. A few of the members have decided that if they're going down, then they're taking the city with them. Some city leaders have gone so far as to say: This is white-on-black crime. This is white supremacy. Before you can take over our city, we will burn it.
Personally, I love it. There are tons of artists and breweries, great architecture, unique restaurants, etc. Sure there is a lot of abandonment, but that adds to the open space. The crime is overstated quite a bit in the media, as you might expect. In the city center crime is pretty low. I've lived here for more than five years, and I've never had a problem beyond someone stealing an iPod out of my car (and where couldn't that happen?). I don't think its surreal, but then its my everyday reality, so its hard to say. Most people that aren't familiar with Detroit are blown away by how cool it is when I show them around town, or at least they're amazed by how far it beats their expectations.
Detroit's finances are a mess, and the city is quickly approaching insolvency. The emergency financial manager is a Governor-appointed official that has sweeping powers to make changes to the City's budget and services. The EFM appointment renders the Mayor and City Council near powerless. Most Michiganders are for it. Even a majority of Detroiters feel like it's a better option to bankruptcy, which might be coming anyway.
It's funny - all sorts of California cities are just going bankrupt without all the drama. Between Stockton and Vallejo that's a half million people in insolvent communities just in the past couple years. I dunno. This whole "you aren't adult enough to take care of your finances so we're appointing a nanny" thing is... ugly when you consider that it wasn't even discussed over here on the Left Coast.
I think the difference is that Stockton lost out big in the housing bubble, and their property tax collections plummeted, no? Perhaps a temporary problem, and not one totally of their own making. Detroit has been on a downward trajectory for decades, and there is no end in sight, given the current state of affairs. A clean slate may be what the doctor ordered, but that's never going to happen with this city council in the way.
Well, basically the people who lived there couldn't pay the necessary taxes to keep the city afloat. It's a similar thing to Detroit, the difference being Detroit has dropped 50% of its population since the 50s while California has dropped 20% of its population since the 90s. I think our weather is better. Other than that, game on.
One would think that hiring a bankruptcy lawyer for the job means that this is exactly what they have in mind. Doesn't seem like an ideal solution, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The mayor has come up with a few plans to consolidate and reorganize, but he was opposed at every turn by the council, most of whom don't appear to hold governance as part of their job description. We're getting our comeuppance for this. Unfortunately, its unfair to punish the governed for the mistakes of the governors, but life a fuckin' fair.
I don't see how this is a race issue at all. I'm not blind to the fact that there are some deeply rooted race issues in Detroit, but this is about corporate greed, government corruption, and mismanagement of funds. At what point did this become a black/white/greek/polish/ issue? ugh. Detroit. was hoping for a more brightly lit future.
You have to consider that Detroit is 82% black while Michigan as a whole is 76% non-hispanic white. At the same time, the Detroit City Council is controlled by Democrats while the Michigan Legislature is controlled by Republicans. From the perspective of Detroit, this is a bunch of people coming in to govern them that don't represent Detroit. Although this is true on many levels it is easiest to see on a race level. This is not to say that this is the right way to view it, but it is hard to escape that framework considering the demographics at play and the US's history of denying representation to blacks (some of these people in Detroit grew up during the civil rights movements and probably have the scars from it as well and those who didn't learned about it from their parents).
Isn't planning to insight a riot a crime? Agreed in regards to Frederick Douglas. FD was a pretty amazing man, just finished the Ken Burns Civil War Documentary and whenever they read from his writings, I was moved. In no way should a man like that be associated with Kwame Kenyatta. Be safe b_b. I'm worried about my sis.
They aren't really inciting a riot. They're inciting civil disobedience, which is totally fine. That's part of free assembly. I worry about how fast things can degenerate when there's a lot of anger involved. If there's a street protest, and the cops get involved, things could degenerate quickly. This city can't handle a riot. Its taken a half century since the last riot for some areas of the city to finally experience some real, positive growth. Another one would kill us.
I've been predicting the race war ever since they started talking about this. Hopefully they will keep their eyes on the new government and not on whites in general. Maybe I should buy that high capacity shotgun after all :( Seriously though, this will blow over. Its a minority of people who feel this way, and the city council, an overly corrupt bunch of political hacks, stands to lose the most. That's why they're stirring the pot so much.