Michigan Policy Network - Detroit's Dilemma

Written by Corey Brown

Wednesday, 09 December 2009 22:34

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is now seeking help from the federal government. He was stated as saying that President Obama should focus more governmental effort on helping out struggling cities. Bing raised the fact that Michigan has an unemployment rate far higher than the national average, at 15% as opposed to around 10%, with Detroit at an unbelievably high unemployment rate near 30%. Bing suggests that the federal government, in particularly Obama, should enact more federal help to "cleaning up" Detroit. With over 70,000 abandoned buildings in the city and plenty of other rebuilding and construction jobs available in the city, an incentive or funding to start up these projects would have a great potential to provide jobs.

Bing's plan, almost reminiscent of FDR's New Deal, would not only help the economy by creating more available jobs and lowering unemployment, it would also renew and refresh the city of Detroit. The plan would invest in Detroit's infrastructure, tearing down multiple abandoned and blighted buildings in the city which currently make up over 40 acres of Detroit. Bing suggested that a project of building a bridge would create up to 10,000 jobs.

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Should legislative term limits in Michigan be extended?

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The Michigan Policy Network is a student-led public education and research program to report and organize news and information about the political process surrounding Michigan state policy issues. It is run out of the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University, with participation by students from the College of Social Science, the College of Communication, and James Madison College.

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Michael Raley is a fourth year Sociology and Public Administration/Public Policy student at Michigan State University. He is especially interested in the public policy, politics, and sociology of urban space, as well as transportation systems and public transit. A native of the Grand Rapids area, Michael is currently an intern in the office of State Representative Roy Schmidt, who represents the west and northeast sides of the city. He also aspires to pursue a career in urban and regional planning, and hopes to attend graduate school for such a course of study.

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