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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The Motor City in Ruins

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 21st, 2009 at 06:56 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Detroit was supposed to be a liberal utopia. Designed and built on federal dollars and federal-private collaboration for big business, the place has collapsed in on itself.

Steven Crowder has headed to Detroit to show just want happens when liberals get everything they ask for.

You really, really need to watch this video.

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  • marshmom

    under the Obama administration.

  • izoneguy

    n/t

  • http://www.dcworksforus.com Kenny Solomon

    That’s not from a blog, or some loon spouting off……. It’s a real news article, researched and developed.

    http://www.detnews.com/article/20091216/METRO01/912160374/Nearly-half-of-Detroit-s-workers-are-unemployed

    Mayor Dave Bing recently raised eyebrows when he said what many already suspected: that the city’s official unemployment rate was as believable as Santa Claus. In Washington for a jobs forum earlier this month, he estimated it was “closer to 50 percent.”

    ===========

    Let’s all pray it’ll be just an electoral bloodbath, not a real one……… Because if the SHTF there, it’s gonna be fast, hard and very VERY bad for everyone.

  • NeoKong

    See for yourself.

    The US government is looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature Photo: GETTY
    Headquarters of General Motors: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
    Headquarters of General Motors Corp. in Detroit Photo: BLOOMBERG NEWS
    Old house in Detroit: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
    An empty house in Detroit Photo: DEREK BLAIR

    The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

    Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

    Understand…? Someone thinks that razing whole neighborhoods of homes that were once filled with families is “pioneering
    A once bustling industrial area is becoming an empty field.
    If you watched that whole video you saw massive, gorgeous and beautiful buildings abandoned in a desolate wasteland caused by Democrats.
    Everything liberals touch they destroy.

  • grumpy_old_soldier

    Well done. This is our brain on Obama.

  • izoneguy

    Read this and you will see the problem….is not just electing
    democratic politicians.

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/detr-f02.shtml

    Kilpatrick came to prominence long after the black Democrats abandoned any pretense of liberal reformism. The son of US Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and Bernard Kilpatrick, the chief of staff of former Wayne County Executive (and Democratic Party machine boss) Ed McNamara, Kilpatrick has been hailed by the media as a part of a ?second generation of black leaders.?

    These black Democratic politicians, who include US Representatives Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn), reject the policies associated with the civil rights era and have embraced the reactionary politics of ?personal responsibility? and the capitalist market. Summing up their outlook recently, Cincinnati Councilwoman Alicia Reese told the Detroit News the civil rights movement had been fought ?to open the doors to the marketplace.? The struggle today, she said, was about establishing ?a new generation of entrepreneurs. We?re talking about venture capital.?

    Kilpatrick epitomizes this grasping and reactionary social layer. In his State of the City address demanding sacrifices from Detroit workers, he quoted approvingly from the prescriptions of the Mackinaw Center, a right-wing think tank in Michigan that promotes unrestrained free-market policies as the solution to every social problem caused by the profit system.

    The recent revelations about his administration constitute one more refutation of the claim that the Democratic Party speaks in the interest of the working class and expose, in particular, the bankruptcy of racial politics. Black workers cannot defend their interests by electing black capitalist politicians, whether Democrats or Republicans, but must join forces with white, Hispanic and immigrant workers in a common struggle against capitalism.

    The struggle is still socialism vs. capitalism….
    Capitalism made Detroit and Socialism ruined it…
    Any questions???

  • izoneguy

    Hmmmm, do we see a pattern here:

    Kwame Kilpatrick’s profligate spending impairs restitution obligation

    http://www.examiner.com/x-19336-Detroit-Crime-Examiner~y2009m12d11-Kwame-Kilpatricks-profligate-spending-impairs-restitution-obligation

    Spendthrift practices by ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick have convinced Wayne Prosecutor Kym Worthy that he has violated the terms of his probation requiring him to pay $1,000,000 in restitution. This revelation came Wednesday at the close of a six day hearing to determine an appropriate monthly payment on the amount.

    The proceeding, which Wayne Circuit Judge David Groner called a restitution hearing, produced evidence that Prosecutor Kym Worthy believes warrants the filing of a probation violation motion that could land Kilpatrick back in jail. She contends that Kilpatrick was not truthful about his finances, failed to provide records documenting his assets, and has moved thousands of dollars through various bank accounts to obfuscate his actual worth.

    Worthy paints a portrait of a man reluctant to allow his million dollar obligation to interfere with his high brow lifestyle. The prosecution subpoenaed many of Kilpatrick’s financial records; they showed monthly cash withdrawals and debit payments in excess of $3,000, and purchases including green fees, Gucci shoes, $158 nail salon visits, as well as leases of luxury vehicles and a suburban Dallas mansion.

  • Flagstaff

    I left in 2000. Things were bleak then, but never as bleak as this looks now.

    My ophthalmologist is from the Detroit area. He told me today that the Fairlane Town Center, which was built about 1974 just across the Southfield Freeway from Ford World Headquarters, is now practically a Ghost Town Center.

    There was a famous case of eminent domain takings that preceded Kelo by many years. It was called “Poletown,” and it was an entire neighborhood razed so that GM could build a state of the art assembly plant for B-O-P. It was a project concurrent with the modernizatin of Buick City in Flint. You know, the place that Michael Moore made famous. So that whole thing didn’t work out too well, but we own them now to some extent, don’t we?

    Detroit has enjoyed a terrible reputation for many years, and now it looks like it is truly deserved.

    This video makes me sad. Lord have mercy on Dave Bing.

  • michigan

    and taxpayer dollars via government programs and grants, the City of Detroit would be no longer. You drive past 7 mile road and it gets a bit post apocalyptic or like the History Channel show ?Life After People?, many scenes of the like that Steven Crowder highlights and is quite accurate. The Detroit public schools have been under State control for years. Corruption, malfeasance, thuggery and theft have decimated the city and its coffers. Dave Bing is now Mayor. He?s a Democrat, an ex pro basketball player and seems like a decent fellow, totally unlike the ?Kwamster?. There has been much hope placed in him, so everyone here hopes he sees successes and not scandals. The city of Dearborn has seen much change. With the automakers folding their tent and seeking greener pastures, tens of thousands have lost jobs and moved on; so you know the old saying how ?nature abhors a vacuum?, so what has replaced the customs, traditions and values of the people that have gone? Islam.

  • stixxxnstones

    Some see here the fall of a great city, and shake their heads in sadness at the plight of the poor, poor people suffering under the velvet-gloved iron fist of liberalism.

    I see a job opportunity.

    Here’s what the job is: Documentarian.

    I know we’ve got somebody out there who is willing to do this — think Breitbart, or that guy who made Indoctrinate U. This is the sort of thing that just begs to be expanded into a full-length documentary. So I’m gonna see if I can find someone to help me make this.

    First one to produce it wins. I say we skip the movie theaters and go straight to Hulu or some other internet-based launch system. If marketed correctly (and, of course, made correctly), it could be a game-changer. Liberals should be forced to see the ends of their means.

  • Ausonius

    I would estimate – and this would NOT include welfare checks to individuals – somewhere between 25 and 50 Billion.

    You would have to adjust previous decades’ money for inflation.

    And what did that money buy?

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    From the article:

    “Detroit has 80,000 abandoned lots and buildings, according to the city’s planning department. Old housing projects, homes, strip malls and even high-rise buildings sit empty across much of the city. Motown has more vacant office, retail and industrial space than nearly every other big city in the country.”

    Here’s the article:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125745924791631907.html

    Thank you.
    ColdWarrior

  • avgamerican

    How do you convince the voters who need to be convinced of this truth? There comes a point when debate is lost through obstruction and propaganda. The MSM and the statist education system are the biggest culprits here. There is another reason the left is against school vouchers besides a loss of revenue. They don’t want school children learning free market and Judeo Christian values.

  • makemyday

    You may think that Steven may have cherry picked the worst there is in Detroit, let me assure you he did not. Oh yes there are some neighborhoods (Indian Village or Palmer Park) in Detroit that are beautiful, but for the most part you can shoot a video like Steve’s anywhere within the city limits. You can’t imagine how beautiful this city used to be from these shots of present day Detroit. The areas that Steven was in I can tell you he was in mortal danger. The one shot of the tall structure sitting in complete ruins was the old train station. I used to catch trains out of there to all parts of the country. A few years ago they found a body in a elevator shaft frozen and encased in pool of water at the bottom. It was left there until the spring thaw if I remember the story correctly.

    Not to be picky about Steven’s of using Detroit as an example of liberal ideals, I have said for years the same thing. The Michigan motto is “If you seek a beautiful pennisula, look about you”. In Detroit “If you seek a liberal utopia, look about you.”

  • archer52

    http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/12/22/you-wont-see-this-video-on-cbs-pjtv-shows-the-underside-of-detroit/

    From my website. In my book I have a character, a Senator, that is on board with the takeover of the nation for one reason, he is afraid. Afraid the Ponzi scheme of the federal government giving away money and free stuff in exchange for votes was going to fall down- soon. I believe the left gets that the train is coming to the end of the tracks and wants one of two things. They want money to build more track in order to delay the inevitable, or enough money so they can just jump off and watch it crash.

    Either way, us regular folks riding on this train are screwed.

  • Warrior

    I’m convinced conservatives really DO need a TV channel all their own, and none of that fair and balanced stuff either.

    Videos like this would be standard fare. Also, frank and free discussions, in depth, regarding the hacked EAU/CRU e-mails and so many other topics would fill the airwaves.

    Segments would be devoted to deconstructing left wing “news” reports from the alphabet networks. Even now, without half listening, I can destroy, show as false or describe the slant in the coverage of alomst every story they broadcast.

    And it would be FUN as well as enlightening.

    Even with Fox news in ascendency, the Public still isn’t getting the message, as you point out avgAm. I talked to a couple the other day who were in favor of Obamacare until I laid out a few simple facts — like rationing (or even denial) of dialysis, transplants, life-saving (but expensive) meds, etc. They were obviously horrified.

    Oh man, we could explain why raising the min wage makes it worse on those wage earners; why we NEED rich people in this country; why gubmint dependency is a BAD idea; why we NEED big oil, big pharm, etc and so much more.

    All we need is some serious money, and TehWon has outlawed money for us low-class rednecks…

  • Warrior

    I couldn’t agree more. Socialist schemes are doomed to failure from the start. Either they cannot continue the level of benefits they promised (due to many things, but mostly from politicians piling on benefits) or becasue they didn’t take human nature into account (folks will only work for so long w/o being allowed to reap the rewards of their labor.

    But you’re absolutely right. Unless drastic measures are taken NOW to dismantle the socialist aspects of our state, it can’t end well. And no one will want to take the blame either, as you point out. So it’s every man for himself and no one wants to be lefy holding the bag.

    The choices are: prop up the status quo long enough to rob it, take over and enforce draconian laws to supress opposition, or throw the bums out now and start repealing laws and shutting down gubmint nonesense ASAP.

  • redpens

    but the left thinks it needs to do more. What more could they do to Detroit? This is America’s future, under Obama and the Demo-communists. We have to stop it.

  • Achance
  • Common_Cents

    That the greedy car companies didn’t heed Obama’s brilliance and make high MPG cars, electric cars, car that run on fairy dust etc…

  • 6eorge Jetson

    The extra $1,200 the Big Three needed to charge to cover union benefits, did however. As did poorer quality for the same price.

    On your next trip out, look to your left & to your right and try to pretend that you don’t see any SUVs.

  • Warrior

    My Dad always used to say it depended on whose ox was being gored.

    However, I think conservatives could agree on a few cuts right off the bat: Dept of Education; Dept of Energy; EPA; Natl Endowment for thr Arts, etc….

  • Warrior

    Somehow, management was fine until the unions became so rapacious.

    Right after WWII, we were essentially the only country in the world producing marketable cars. However, as the Japanese powerhouse started cranking out quality autos, the Unions would not give any concessions to allow management to compete.

    And thus the Soviet traktor factories we have now masquerading and automobile manufaturing companies.

  • iamtrue

    I had came into to the game late and yes i am very peeved at myself but i’m also glad that obama came into the picture cause it helped me to understand the hurtful and painful things that took place in my life from the time of graduation to now, well i’m done talking i’m going to do everything in my power to turn this GREAT STATE OF MICHIGAN from BLUE to RED. And put it back on the map. I just have to figure out how, and i will.

  • Achance

    Before WWII, the car companies made cars and little else. They were hardcore holdouts on unionization even in the face of the New Deal and strikes, sitdowns, and all sorts of violence from the very communist-influenced UAW. They were all but nationalized in WWII and turned into defense contractors making whatever the government wanted and the government wanted it done under a union contract with a no-strike clause and grievance arbitration. These big industries set the patter for US labor relations that persisted until the ’80s and still persists structurally.

    After WWII, the car companies did not go back to being just car companies, they stayed in government funded work, mostly defense but also other things, particularly GM’s foray into railroad locomotives. It is lost to memory pretty much but the first really regulated and unionized industry was railroads.

    With Democrat control of Congress and about alternately the WH in the ’50′s, through the ’70′s the automakers could not get crossthreaded with unions because the Democrats controlled the pursestrings for buying things they made. Consequently, the automakers reached a truce with the UAW; patter bargaining. The automakers were willing to do this both because it prevented UAW whip-sawying and because it prevented any one company from having a significant labor cost advantage. Letting the labor costs be quite high had the additional advantage of being a barrier to entry and pushing out the lesser competitors such as Studebaker-Packard and American Motors.

    I don’t know that the Japanese and other foreign cars were expecially better made but they enjoyed all sorts of taxation and regulatory advantages under American law and the US government not only did nothing to level the playing field regarding taxes and regulations, it refused to protect the US makers in the guise of free trade.

    Long story short, I’m no great fan of the UAW and I think their influence on this Administration borders on criminal, but there is plenty of blame to go around for the demise of the US auto industry and it can be allocated to labor, management, and government and to Democrats and Republicans alike.

  • Achance