Automakers' Troubles Add to City's Misfortunes

DETROIT’S WOES ARE SEEMINGLY WITHOUT END

Automakers' troubles add to city's misfortunes By DAVID CRARY and COREY WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT -One measure of how tough One apartment complex, for the elderly, is times are in the Motor City: Some of the rising near two grade schools recently closed offenders in jail don't want to be released; by the city that now sit empty and ransacked. some who do get out promptly re-offend to "It's death to the neighborhood," said Vann, head back where there's heat, health care and some anger in his voice, as' he gestured to three meals a day. homes that had been abandoned and "For the first time, I'm seeing guys make a vandalized since the schools shut down. He conscious decision they'll be better off in worries that despair may take a toll. prison than in the community, homeless and "Somebody needs to hear us before we hungry," said Joseph Williams of New begin to see a rise of social upheaval," 'Vann Creations Community Outreach, which said. "I hate to say that. It's a God forbid assists ex-offenders. "In prison they've got reality." three hots and a cot, so they commit a crime For all its woes, Detroit has no shortage of to go back in and come out when times are residents offering to tackle them. There are better." "We're the Motor City," said Scott Alan unemployment and school dropout rates are 15 candidates for the Feb. 24 special mayoral For now, better times seem distant. Even Davis, who oversees community among the worst of any major U.S. city. Car election necessitated by the conviction of with no hurricane to blame, Detroit has, by development projects in one of the worst-hit and home insurance rates are high. Chain Kwame Kilpatrick for trying to cover up an many measures, replaced New Orleans as neighborhoods. "When the basis for that grocery stores are absent, forcing many affair with a former America's most beleaguered city. name collapses, that's started to scare Detroiters to rely on high-priced corner top aide. The jobless rate has climbed past 21 people." stores. Steve Tobocman, who represents a Detroit percent, the embattled school district just The roots of Detroit’s current plight go back "There's always been a real can-do spirit district in the state legislature, praised the fired its superintendent, tens of thousands of decades. Court-ordered school busing and the among our people," said the Rev. Edgar slate of candidates, but added, "I don't think homes and stores are abandoned, the ex- 12th Street riots of 1967 accelerated an Vann, pastor of Second Ebenezer Church. there's a concrete vision on how to deal with mayor is in jail for a text-messaging sex exodus of whites to the suburbs, and many "That's being beaten down right now." the real challenges." scandal. Even the pro football team is a middle-class blacks followed, shrinking the Vann, in addition to overseeing a 5,000 The challenges are daunting. A City pathetic joke - the Lions are within two city's population from a peak of 1.8 million member megachurch, founded the Vanguard Council fiscal analyst projects that Detroit's losses of an unprecedented 0-16 season. in the 1950s to half that now. Community Development Corp., which budget deficit could surpass $200 million by And overarching these woes is the near- About 83 percent of the current population under Scott Alan June. The public school district faces a collapse of the U.S. auto industry, Detroit's is African American. Detroit's crime, pov- Davis's leadership is building . homes ,and deficit exceeding $400 million, prompting vital source of jobs and status for more than a erty, offering education programs in the North the state to declare a financial emergency. century. End. The district's superintendent, Connie Calloway, was fired on Monday. Several Another fundamental problem is the gap Average sale price in neighboring Oakland dozen schools have been closed in recent between the city's circumstances and those in County is $153,695. years. the surrounding region, which includes many * 47.8: Percent of Detroit children in 2007 The latest FBI statistics show Detroit with relatively affluent, predominantly white who lived below the poverty line of $21,000 the highest violent crime rate of any major suburbs. for a family of four. For children nationally, city. Yet Jeriel Heard, chief of jails and court Mark Douglas, 41, is among the metro the rate was 18 percent. Detroit's overall for Detroit's Wayne County, said jail area's most successful African-American car poverty rate of 33.8 I percent was highest of conditions may deteriorate because of dealers - he succeeded his father in 2005 as any major city. pressure to eliminate a quarter of the deputies president of Avis Ford in suburban * 21.6: Detroit's unemployment rate, who guard them. Southfield. according to latest Census Bureau figures for Heard confirmed that some offenders are "Detroit has got to figure out a way to make 2005-07. Of all U.S. cities with more than now reluctant to leave jail when their people feel it's safe - if people don't want to 20,000 residents, only Muskegon, Mich., had sentences are done. live there, it's tough to develop any kind of a higher rate, at 22.1 percent. Trying to combat blight, the city has applied tax base," Douglas said. "Whites have to * 3 Days each week that Detroit's two for $47 million in federal neighborhood move back in. You've got to have the inte- newspapers will offer home delivery, as part stabilization money, with half earmarked to gration factor. Everyone has to come of new cost-cutting plan. tear down more than 2,30,0 vacant homes. together." January, 2008 Overall, the residential real estate market is Some statistics conveying the breadth of catastrophic, with the Detroit Board of Real- challenges facing the city of Detroit: tors now pegging the average price of a home * 916,952: Detroit's latest official at $18,513. Some owners can't find buyers at population, down from peak of about 1.8 any price. million in the 1950s. In a city of 139 square Looking ahead, Detroit civic leaders miles, that gives Detroit a population density express long-term optimism but acknowledge about half of Chicago's. the shift away from a heavy manufacturing * 201,000: Residential taxpayers in Wayne economy will be painful. County, which is dominated by Detroit, who "Up until the '70s, you could come to the were tax delinquent in October, out of a total city without education, without speaking of 857,000. English, and get a job in the auto industry * 19,708: Violent crimes recorded by FBI and instantly be in the middle class, . for Detroit in 2007, giving it highest violent economically speaking," said Mike Stewart, crime rate of any major U.S. city. San Diego director of Wayne State's Walter P. Reuther and San Antonio, each with 50 percent more Library and an expert on the auto industry. people than Detroit, had less than half as "A lot of folks in the city depended on these many violent crimes. jobs for generations - they don't exist any- * $18,513: Average sale price of a Detroit more," he said. "A lot of Detroiters are home so far in 2008, down from $40,011 in unprepared, educationally and technologi- 2007, according to Detroit Board of Realtors. cally, to cope."

- ASSOCIATED PRESS