Response to NY Times - Detroit Bankrupcty

Response to Detroit Bankruptcy Ruling, NY Times, Dec 3rd

I have a tough time watching the gentrification of downtown Detroit occur while the surrounding area has been shoved further and further out of view. Money focuses on what it knows and the marketing pulling into the city spins like a vortex on downtown & midtown. Detroit has beautiful areas that have been languishing, waiting and deteriorating, they need recognized and prodded forward.

The plan from Kevyn Orr (aka Bing's old plan, not quite the Future City plan) will be scrutinized in these ways most specifically:

1. Transparency - the city and state get failing grades on bringing the public in during pre-planning and planning. City Charter requirements from 2012 need to be fully implemented, including extending the council to interact with the neighborhoods (CACs were supposed to have happened in 2012 election). The Mayor (and EM) should be available to the public, not locked up in a office talking with the media offering well-timed press conferences on continued corporate domination of the city.



Check Revolve Detroit for info
about the "Avenue of Fashion"

2. Equality - the city has a lot of land for the number of residents. The people are asking for COMMONS to be formed that would not be corporatized or privatized. Places for gathering in education, entertainment, and exchange. We need community land trusts all over the city - so the people own it and have a place to gather.
3. Clean Up Pollution - corporations chose Detroit for polluting and willful destruction of environment. Public oversight on regulatory activities is needed - the people need to know and be cared for. Profit over people is a risky game. We need to reassess all tax abatements and the rationale for them - most need removed and taxes are what a city needs to operate.
4. Ensure Access - public transportation across a broad city is a MANDATORY NEED. Income levels, insurance red-lining, and continual redistricting/zoning makes mass transit vital. Mass transit must visit the community commons - not the corporate shopping malls.
5. Embrace New Ways - high tech infrastructure has been driven down in cost. Green energy is cheaper to produce than dirty energy. Bicycling & walking is healthier. Detroit needs walkable neighborhoods with full services - grocers, clothiers, shops, offices, and light portable industry scattered across the city. City gardens and farms need to be endorsed and supported - give them the watering and feeding needed to grow. That means commons for markets, resources, and growing young gardeners.
6. Education For All Ages - not just traditional education, this is knowing how to live in an progressive, forward thinking, creative realm. Learning how to work smarter with what you know you have and having access to find what you don't know, partnering it in. Stepping out of corporate mentality into community coops. Make sure our elders and youth discover lifetimes that last an eternity by learning together.

There is more that needs mentioned. There is an active movement around the city that is exploring and supportive of what is mentioned above and the "more" I've alluded to. It may be talked about as a focal few, but that number has been growing from hundreds to thousands who are putting their feet in the street, bodies in the chairs, and speaking their minds in public forums.

Detroit as a Kleptocracy

Imagine waking up and finding your city is no longer under a government structure we have known as Representative Democracy. What we are waking up to finding is Kleptocracy and elite capture through a Consent Agreement. These words are more common in third world countries as they strive to find democracy enabling the lower class equal opportunity to participate in government. Although now we have these here, in Detroit, and found in other Michigan communities, including our schools whom the State has placed a review team to determine their financial stability.

The first step is to qualify the community as financial unstable and that can be accomplished by bringing officials that are told to work within a system that supports elite capture. The review team commonly has members whom are affiliated with the organizations writing and litigating the law, seeing those persons as authority on the matter. Commonly missing from a review team are humanitarian industrial engineers that identify problems in organization and process as would be found through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The underlying interest by the State Treasury is to maintain a debt burden through use of the Emergency Manager Law and Emergency Financial Manger Law (Public Act 72 of 1990, repealed May 2011 to allow Public Act 4 to be brought into law). The manner of working these laws is direct opposition to bankruptcy law which negotiates debt down during restructuring. Instead additional debt is added to "avoid the financial emergency", assets are sold off to corporate/foundation/state-controlled intersts, and the money disappears as one would expect in a kleptocracy. 

The State Treasury even went so far as to claim the Detroit Review Board was not a public body per the Open Meetings Act, however that claim was denied by Judge William Collette on February 2, 2012. The Detroit News reported the story incorrectly until a February 6 correction was released.

Once under control the new fascist regime established through the Consent Agreement departments can cook the books and remain unapproachable in process by the public whom are ruled. The city's assets in will be sold to corporate interests to cover a shortfall in finances that has been caused by leadership that has been cornered into reckless abandonment as they are placed in office. Quite often restructuring is not consistent with industrial engineering practices. This would include absence of organization charts and claims of urgency that evade defining processes existing to find flaws and waste. These restructuring practices are required through bankruptcy processes. This kleptocracy ensures the War on the Poor continues at an ever quickening pace.

A Journalist's Perspective on the Raid On CAID

by Stephen Boyle, Fuzzytek Photography
written June 5, 2008
originally post to Facebook - my profile on Facebook

The "Raid at CAID" is an interesting incident that I had not heard of prior to today. I understand the police raided the art gallery at 2:20am and served 130 misdemeanor tickets and impounded 44 vehicles. My regrets and consolation to those who have been grossly mistreated by law enforcers who don't understand civil rights and act against the belief that in America you are innocent until proven guilty. THEY are our internal terrorists and I hope homeland security starts acting to take away the 'priviledge' of being law enforcers when they are found guilty.

Explaining My Absence from CAID
I wasn't there and I have to say that it has been months since I have been there. It isn't that I have been avoiding the place or anything of that manner. Transportation as it is for me via bus, makes CAID a difficult spot to get to on my own without some odd paths to take. I have to admit that while I'm a resolute believer that mass-transit requires support and use by the public to make it viable in the eyes of officials for funding. Sadly there are routes for the bus that I'm a bit leery about since I've not traveled them much. Funny how taking a route a few times has you feeling easy though. The bus is simply not the best spot to be messing with people -- the drivers and passengers do look out for each other. The only altercations I've ever witnessed were common-place quarrels likely between people that know each other. That is in keeping with statistics that cases of crime are most commonly acted out between people who know each other prior to the act of crime.

So yes the reason why I haven't been to CAID, and for that matter quite a few other places is a matter of our mass-transit system grossly under-serving our citizens. Your tax dollars go into a system where you can make a trip to the airport from nearly anyplace in the metro Detroit area for at most $2.00. AND you don't have to pay for parking, insurance, gasoline, maintenance on the vehicle, and the stress of driving!

AND IF YOU HAVE BEEN DRINKING - The BUS is a great way to avoid driving under the influence!! Now why is it we don't have MORE buses running between 1am and 3am?? I'm stll confused as to why the lack of support and scheduling for mass-transit CONDONES DRUNK DRIVING!

Enough transportation rant, back to the story about the raid at CAID ...

Are We In A Police State?
I hate to hear when the police act as if we live in a 'police-state', that 'they are the law'. I have heard stories about a police mafia of sorts - SWAT behaviour with taped over badges, masks, and inappropriate brutality. If you don't know the stories, they are being collected in the group for Raid at CAID. If you are a law enforcer that is hazed into being a member of these activities please report it to internal affairs or homeland security. That is your responsible action supporting the public which you are serving. Nobility is a matter of personal integrity. Can you stand proud in your job with your nobility and integrity in tact? It is a personal matter and it offers insight into why the world appears to be so "messed up". Your perception comes from a personal space... think about it and more importantly DO SOMETHING. The world has so many great THOUGHTS and few people acting on them.

Are you BORED, WHY?

I Am A Journalist
I can't condone illegal activities such as sale of alchol after-hours, or use/possession of illegal substances. My activities as a photographer become precarious at best when covering establishments after 2am, because any photos taken may contain evidence. That evidence can lead to suspicion and further action. I am a neutral party as an agent of the press would be by oath to the trade. My activity when at a function which I'm covering is that of an observer and employed person. You don't find me getting drunk when working. As an 'employed person' that can blur the lines of my responsibility on events. I would highly recommend to any host of an event that has issue with me capturing photos at an after-hours event please consider whether you want me doing that when employing me. Sadly the public can be the ones that mess up what you've intended to be a clean after-hours. There is a lot of risk when extending hours, and if you bring this up when insuring your event you'll find the price of insurance skyrockets. Sadly we can't trust the public to act in our best interest.

If you are a firm believer that what you do is your responsibility then take the after-hours drinking and illegal substance activities HOME and LEAVE THEM THERE. Realize that you are not safe and you jeopardize those around you by failing to comply with the law. Act as an adult, act responsibly.