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Subscribe to RSSThe documentary 'Burn,' which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, follows Detroit firefighters facing a staggering problem: the city has three times as many structure fires as Los Angeles, a city more than five times its size. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
Cash-strapped, arson-prone Detroit could let fires in vacant buildings and homes burn themselves out to save the city Fire Department money.
The fiery notion from Detroit’s Executive Fire Commissioner Donald Austin surfaced as the documentary “Burn,” chronicling a year of Motor City firefighters’ camaraderie in the face of declining budgets and increasing fire calls, made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
“We are in no way looking to 'let the city' burn, this is about saving lives and money,” Austin said, according to a report Tuesday by NBC station WDIV in Detroit. “My department is strapped, the budget is strapped, and it’s time to look at a new way of doing things.”
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is looking to trim $250 million and cut more than 2,500 jobs from the city’s 2012-13 budget. The cuts would lower the fire department budget below this fiscal year's $183 million.
Austin's proposal would allow vacant buildings to burn if they're more than 50 percent ablaze — as long as they're not a risk to inhabited structures and the weather is favorable.
Max Ortiz / The Detroit News via AP file
An arson investigator photographs a fire at a Detroit building complex at Sycamore and Grand River on March, 28 2012.
Bing’s office is not taking any position on Austin’s idea until he makes a formal proposal of his annual budget request, the mayor’s spokeswoman, Naomi Patton, told msnbc.com.
Detroit Fire Fighters Association President Daniel McNamara said he opposes Austin's idea of letting vacant homes burn, unless they're on a predetermined demolition list, WDIV reported.
“This is a long overdue idea, really,” Jo Robins Davis, a Detroit-area lawyer specializing in fire insurance claims, told msnbc.com. As long as they can keep the burns controlled, the idea would work for her, she said.
“They’re going to be torn down anyway,” she said of the vacant structures.
Austin has other ideas to save money, WDIV reported: Ask the U.S. Navy's construction division, the Seabees, to level 10,000 vacant and dilapidated homes; or create a demolition unit in the Fire Department to use heavy equipment to level the remnants of newly burned buildings.
Detroit has 80,000 abandoned structures, "Burn" filmmakers Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez say.
Film-makers Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez discuss the hardships facing Detroit's fire department, as documented in their upcoming film, "BURN."
Austin said 40 to 60 percent of the fires in Detroit are in vacant structures. Last year alone, the Fire Department fielded 30,000 fire calls. The city of 714,000 sees 30 structure fires a day. In contrast, Los Angeles, a city of nearly 4 million, faces just 11 structure fires a day.
Watch US News crime videos on msnbc.com
To illuminate the obstacles that Detroit firefighters face, filmmakers Putnam and Sanchez documented a year in the life of the men and women tasked with saving their beloved city. The film features video shot by the firefighters with cameras attached to their helmets.
“On our first two nights filming, we went to 21 structure fires with one engine company,” recalled Putnam, who said that he and Sanchez were inspired by the 2008 death of Detroit firefighter Walter Harris.
Burned on purpose
Arson in Detroit rose in 2010 to 1,082 incidents, up from 636 the year earlier, according to FBI crime statistics. Insurance companies paid $237.8 million for damage caused by arsons or suspicious blazes in 2010, the Detroit News reported.
Why is arson so frequent?
“I think Detroit's a place where people feel disenfranchised and there aren't a lot of ways to express themselves,” Putnam told NBC News. The filmmaker broke the reasons down into categories: arson for profit, homeowners who are upside down on their mortgages, and arson for revenge. Other times it’s just arson for kicks. “Like one of the firefighters says, ‘a gallon of gasoline is cheaper than a movie ticket,’” Putnam said.
Scrappers, who strip vacant buildings of valuable materials, are also a problem. After stripping away all metal piping, they can leave an exposed gas line to catch fire, which is what happened April 10, when fire destroyed two abandoned buildings and damaged the occupied family home of Tiffanie Alston, 31.
She grabbed her children — 9, 10 and 11 years old — and then headed to the basement to help her 61-year-old father.
"People go in there and scrap all the time, and it was just a matter of time till it got set on fire," she told The Detroit News.
In the 1980s, Detroit was known for Devil’s Night fires, which peaked in 1984 with more than 800 fires over Halloween. In 1985, an Angel’s Night campaign began to counter the arsons. Firefighters responded to only 94 calls Oct. 29-31, 2011, according to the mayor’s office.
'Katrina without the hurricane'
Wide swaths of Detroit consist of scattered occupied homes surrounded by boarded-up structures, burned-out buildings and weed-covered vacant lots, WDIV reported.
The city’s population, which peaked when the post-World War II auto industry boomed in the 1950s at nearly 2 million people, has dwindled. Now Detroit’s population has plummeted to 714,000, the Census reported last year.
As one firefighter in the film put it, “This has been Katrina without the hurricane.”
Now Bing’s planned budget cuts could make firefighters' jobs even tougher. With starting salaries at approximately $30,000 a year, most firefighters already have second jobs.
From their extensive time with the Fire Department, Putnam and Sanchez saw firsthand the real impact the city’s budget problems had on the firefighters. Many of their boots were secured with duct tape, some were missing gloves, and they were still cutting holes in roofs with axes, the filmmakers said.
“I think we think that's all being taken care of, and it's not being taken care of,” said Sanchez. “We need to be there for them because they're always there for us.”
Funding for the film came from corporate sponsors like General Motors and an outpouring of donations from supporters who saw preview clips online. To do their part, Putnam and Sanchez are donating portion of any proceeds from the film to the Leary Firefighters Foundation to help supply firefighters with equipment.
For Putnam, the story of this one city’s firefighters is symbolic of what the rest of the country’s fire departments may soon be facing, as budget are slashed in almost every state. And Putnam and Sanchez want people to remember that, as heroic as their work may be, firefighters are human after all.
“People tend to think of firefighters as being indestructible,” Putnam said. “They're not indestructible. If you don't give them the equipment they need and you send them into situations they shouldn't be going into, they can get hurt and they can get killed. And it's easy to forget that.”
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What a mess and tragic story. Unfortunately it's coming to a city near you....
Detroit, the end game of rampant liberalism.
Dunkin, you are full of $h!t
Such a sad current situation for a once great and beautiful American City.
Detroit's greatest asset, however, largely remains; its amazingly resilient people. If you have ever known someone from Michigan, you know exactly what I mean.
Although downtrodden by two decades of bad news, and then clobbered by a crippling recession the people of Detroit (and Michigan) still have the creativity, talent, hope and determination to make Detroit rise again to be even better than ever before.
Don't give up. Detroit will be great again!
Gary,
If the cities leadership didn't lead to this once great cities downfall, what did?
LOL libtards hate cold hard facts.
This sounds like a good proposal. There is no reason to spend money and risk firefighters lives trying to put out a fire in a building that is going to be a total loss anyway. This will save demolition costs and reduce the amount of demolition debris going into landfills. This will also help pave the way for some urban renewal once the economy starts turning around. A vacant lot is far more attractive to a developer than one with a derelict building on it.
DunkinH ... did you know that the Detroit hospitals were segregated until the late 50s ....
The decay of the inner cities can be traced directly back to racism ... but as you say ... facts and real life are hard to swallow ... especially for people who would use an idiot word like "libtards" ............
Gary, the last time Detroit had a republican mayor was 1962. 50 years, all down hill.
@newscover
Kind of pathetic how liberals have had over 50 years to turn things around, yet they have failed miserably. You're right about institutionalized racism. Welfare programs have kept minorities dependant on the government for all this time. What a waste of potential human resources and tax dollars. And it was all done for a few more democrat votes.
Will Detroit cover the extra money the insurance companies will need to pay out? Yeah, I know, I don't care about them either.
DunkinH ... like like trying to make sense to a rock ...
@newscover
Look whose talking. All you've done is regurgitate the liberal party line by blaming it all on racism from a half-century ago. Can't expect much more from an airhead moonbat though.
JS/SD, absolutely!
My first thought was win-win : urban renewal and firefighter training in one package. Detroit will be a Phoenix (and I don't mean the city)
newscover, my hometown was segregated into the '60's. It It flourished, prospered, and was considered one of the most desirable places to live in the nation.
Could we have your explanation for this?
And. . .I hope Chicago does the same thing. Mayor Emanuel?
The good news is that fire fighters will do it for nothing if you can't pay them. Most of them like to fight fires, just as most police like to be cops, they don't do it for the money.
newscover it was the democrats that fought against integration ( Robert Byrd), it has been democrats raising taxes more and more in Michigan. Why dont you explain why if democrats policies are so good Detroit has failed under democrats and almost all manufacturing has left Detroit? Other states like mine Texas are gaining manufacturing jobs that we are able to keep from going out of the country. I guess that wuld be too hard for you to figure out and understand as it goes against everything you believe in and spout. Maybe if people were no longer able to recieve handouts for extended periods of time they would get out and acomplish something.
As far as Gary goes there is no hope for stupid that deep.
Maybe we should look at buying some of those abandoned buildings for cheap get insurance and wait for the city to let them burn.
Why is it that when budget cuts are needed, it is always vital systems like fire and safety that has to go first? Could they get rid of some of the dead weight at the top? (i.e. supervisors that are really doing nothing but collecting a paycheck.)
Hoping our little neighbor to the east "Gary, Indiana" takes the same advice! We don't need no water let the mutha *ucka burn... burn mutha *ucka... burn! LOL! :)
How about cutting some of the dead weight in the department of transportation? I have lived in 3 states in the past 20 years and in all 3 have observed road repairs. Usually one person would be working and 7 would be standing around doing nothing. All usually make more than $10 hourly. What a waste.
Enough of the political whining, please. It's getting old.
People need to remember how firefighters put their lives on the line. Why should they risk it to save a building that is abandoned and will be torn down anyway?
This "political whining" needs to be done. Too many people see no connection between the failure that is Detroit, and it's long, recent history of very liberal leadership. This is ALL about the overall economy and how a flood of liberal politics, liberal policies, and welfare programs insure absolute failure when times get hard. Open your eyes man and think about the future the next time you vote for a well-connected politician who has no care for the future, only the now and encouraging and enabling the recipient class to remain that way.
Now look at this, the typical liberal mantra is; "Repugs want us to breath polluted air and drink dirty water", wonder how Detroit liberals make that burning so clean. It's OK if liberals do it, Left!
Liberal Hypocrites!
Perhaps we should return to the practice of "homesteading," and let these homes be occupied by people who don't have one. It could easily be included in the mortgage settlement in which banks were fined for their illegal behavior. Let people assume the property and the responsibility of fixing it up within a certain timeframe. A good way to save this city as well.
STexan...this woman believes that the reason we have so much trouble w/politicians is because everyone picks a side...no one stands w/a person...what that person will do or what that person believes in...it's always liberal/conservative/republican/democrat, and it gets old when all it is is a bunch a children calling each other names.
Detroit's demise is the result of America's failed trade policies, there are many more cities just like it where manufacturing has left, regardless if they were run by R's or D's. The problem is our politicians have sold us out for there own profit and most of us Americans are too stupid to realize it. Unfortunately many cities police officers and Firefighters will have to bear the cost in lives lost.
Calm down Gary. Dunkin is right. Try looking at Gary, Indiana. The first time black mayor Hatcher, said it was going to be the greatest black city this country has ever known, as white flight was gripping American cities due to pressure from the black communities for more power and say in urban government Then voila. Gary Indiana is now a prime example of urban blight and is considered this country's greatest urban failure. Google something and check it out. Check your demographics now too. I guess the community and the mayor didn't realize that it takes a lot of work and getting hands dirty to keep a city running.
JS in SD said it right too. Let the fires burn out. It's easier to scoop the ashes and cheaper too, than to hire demo crews.
And bluepanther, I'm sorry if you don't like the political banter. I suggest you read another article then. Those of us "whiners" are sharing ideas and makings points to maybe solve problems or just vent feelings. It's why we post. If it bothers you, go somewhere else.
Ah paul it's very simple, burning only causes polution when jobs are created by it and conservatives are for it.
Won't it look neat when all these burned out shells are left standing? What a movie set?
One more question, are property taxes gonig to increase after they are burned?
Ah DETROIT!! The perfect miniature example of Democrats-gone-wild and Liberal values at full control.
This once great industrialized city, was turned to rubble in a wild socialist experiment that no Liberal and especially the Lame Stream Media will ever admit. It has been under the DIRECT control of Democrats for longer than any Liberal is ever going to admit. Not that long really, but long enough to tell the tail of what Obama brings to you and your family, while he and his crony's live the high life off of your blood, sweat and tears.
READ IT and weep socialist liberal hypocrites aka Progressive Democrats... http://www.onecitizenspeaking.com/2011/07/welcome-to-detroit-a-city-run-by-socialist-democrats.html
You're so right Ken. I just hope you're wrong about the last sentence of your post.
Sues...actually, this is an article on the Detroit firefighters...every article on here seems to take on a political bent...maybe you should go to a political forum.
Not just yet soaz, they are erecting quite a few new buildings here.
Well bluepanther, you might try opening your eyes. When the nations population is increasing and a state or city is decreasing, you ought to begin to figure out that there is a reason for it and it's likely political or its people, probably both.
Before these buildings burn to the ground, use them fro free government housing. That will provide housing for those who demand free housing, thus the tax dolaars saved from the government paying for section 8 housing, could be used to save 2500 jobs.
Just a thought.
You politics people are idiots. Keep blaming libs.
#1 that is not even what the article is about.
#2 what kind of idiot does it take to think that the city of Detroit makes its own welfare policies. It's the state of MI that is responsible for welfare. Case closed and thank you for playing, but thats BS.
Detroit has been dying for a long time along with the auto industry in the area. As the motor companies moved away Detroit died. Same thing happened to Flint. The Rouge steel plant/Dearborn assembly plant (not in Detriot but still fuels it) used to be amazing. Henry Fords dream. They made every part of cars there. Even the glass and tires. Dirt comes in...cars come out. The assembly line is still there, but the steel mill is no longer part of it and it is owned by the Russians. That alone shut down numerous other suppliers and manufactureres that were fueling the economy in that area. Stop living in fairy-tale land. The only politics that caused this are the ones that take place around the board table at the auto plants.
newscover, what does segregation in hospitals have to do with a city going belly up? The high school I went to in Orlando was segregated until 1969, it didn't stop Orange Co. & Orlando from growing.
Sues--why not look at the state of the entire country bankrupted by your great white president George Bush who put two wars on his chinese credit card as well as a prescription drug benefit that benefitted nobody but insurance companies. Who created a deficit out of a surplus on the hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction. If you want to play the race card, that's the biggest one of all.
The BANKS own the houses....LET "EM BURN!!! They Older factories were replaced by modern factories in other cities in the South, Canada and Mexico. "Motor City" is no more. Time to find a new industry so the City will rise from the Ashes and soar again. The people of Detroit are ready to work. Is America big enough to re-invent itself? Romney would have let a Dozen Cities, who depend on the Auto Industry, Fail. Do you want a Quitter and a Flip-Flop, like Romney, to run this great country or a tried and willing to help America President like President Obama? Four More Years ! Lets re-build America.
America's future in the hands of the Libs. Nice job Detroit. Sort of reminds me of Mad Max.
BlueB no wonder you don't want politics here, you know nothing about it! Pretty obvious, you are just another follower.
The 50s? As in 60 years ago?
So free assistance is to blame for people not trying to better themselves or their situation? The government forced them to not work and pop out kids every 9 months?
Tell me what exactly is wrong about my comments on George Dubya Bush, who took office with a country in great shape and low unemployment and by the end left it nearly bankrupt based on his own decisions and his own proclivities to allow banks to rip off everybody. George Dubya Bush bankrupt his own personal companies, including a baseball team he owned, before he got into govt so this tendency to drain his own assets was a tendency. Probably if he hadn't gotten into Yale on an affirmative action deal (for whites, called legacy admission), we might not have been victimized by him. All that coke and alcohol fried his brains...a terrible thing to lose.
As for welfare...there are more whites and corporations dependent on govt than black people have ever been. Google it.
Only if you look at total numbers and ignore percentages of the individual groups, but you knew that. Google it.
And who drains the coffers of the most money way beyond those proportions? Google it
New York State is the worst. As far as taking more than they put in. I'm not counting DC (which is the worst)because it's not a state. 7 of the top 10 were in northern states. The 3 in the south were Alabama, Mississippi, & West Virginia. I don't consider WV a southern state.
Gary-2423250, you're suspended for a day for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
DunkinH banned, rereg of KiloByte1339.
Think of the cost savings. Respond to make sure there are not other worthwhile buildings at risk. It saves the arsonists money by not having to buy their own can of gas, people can show up with packages of hot dogs and bags of marshmallows - dinner, dessert, and entertainment.
"ustin's proposal would allow vacant buildings to burn if they're more than 50 percent ablaze — as long as they're not a risk to inhabited structures and the weather is favorable."
In most cities you might have one or two qualifying fires a year, so the cost savings would be minimal. But on the other hand this is Detroit and its residents have been burning down buildings to collect insurance checks for years.
We have had evenings in Detroit where 30 to 100 buildings were set on fire. They had to put patrols of 4 people on the streets walking around with flashlights. If you want to know about Detroit read the Free Press for a week. lookup Kwame Kilpatrick, just about every member of his admin is in prison or up on federal fraud/theft charges. The cities going broke, there appear to be very tense weeks ahead as the Mayor as part of the new State consent agreement is going to void all public union contracts and cut across the board. And the Citizens scream.....Mr.Obama please bail us out and the New Black Panthers scream in city council meetings....."We will burn this MFing city down!"
I'd like to see East St. Louis burn. That would be wonderful. Steamin' craphole!
How does an abandoned building catch fire?
They spent half the article answering your question. They also forgot to mention crackheads which is why in most cases firefighters will still have to enter the dwelling and clear it.
Which, John, I have a bit of a problem with. Why put productive citizen in an essential service at risk looking for bodies? They can be located after the fire is finished.
This kind of reminds me of the movie "The Crow" when they'd burn down the city on Halloween night
Funny you say that. If I remember right, The Crow was based in Detroit during Devils Night and filmed partly in Detroit.
Either way, The Crow is a good representation of our current city. I've lived in the area my whole life and its about time they let the place burn. The firefighters will respond to a call, put the blaze out and be back later in the week to put the same place out again. Its really pointless. Just let the places burn if you can do it safely. No more fires there, no more crime going on behind the walls, no cost of demolishion etcetera.
Anyhow, good luck Detroit. I still love you. Go Tigers!
So sorry for you to have to see this and read about it, Kadams. What a heart break.
I grew up in Detroit when it was still a great place to live. When Coleman Young replaced Jerome Kavanaugh as mayor, things started sliding down hill. My last visit to Detroit was in 2007. My church is closed, the school was vandalized, the high school was sold to the city to use as a Junior High. It has been trashed.
Whenever race becomes an issue in a race, people need to look at Detroit as a stunning example of how African-American mayors "take care of their own". They don't. Since 1972, every mayor has been Black and the city is NOT better off in any way.
Black Americans, is your life really better under Barak Obama? Have things really improved for you?
Detroit is a great example of racism gone wrong.
It grieves me deeply to see Detroit turning into a ruin.
I do not know what it will take short of bulldozing entire city blocks and forcing people to move from one shack to another and recentralize the population of the city. I am sure that Dave Bing has the interests of the city at heart and is trying his best. I hope the people around him are smart enough to come up with working solutions that will turn it around.
I agree, why save these buildings? If they are insured then the owner is protected. Why should I as a fire fighter risk my life to save a building that can be rebuilt? Risk alot to save alot, risk little to save little. A life, that has a good chance of being viable, yes we need to go in and save them. If there is little chance they are going to be alive, why risk our own? Crackheads or not, if their life can be saved save it. But let the building go.
Let that dump of a City burn and then force Obama and his illegal clan to move there after he's laughed out of his current job in a few months. Here's hoping 2012 brings about some real change. Enough of this Socialist Pig
Does the RNC pay you to be retarded or is it more of a hobby?
Actually, I would think that the DNC is paying you - people like you make independents vote D in a heartbeat...
Huh!
wayback...honey hush. You're still upset he won the first time...better get used to it, he's gonna win this one, too.
And I bet he even tries for a third. bluepanther.
It's cheaper than tearing them down, asbestos, lead paint, hauling debris to land fills....
Better to just let all that asbestos and lead go up in a column of smoke? I'm glad I don't live downwind from Detroit.
Most of the East Coast does.....
Does this mean that those empty, forclosed homes, after they are allowed to burn to the ground, the banks are allowed to write them off at the value that they have them on the books for, or do they have to write them off at current market value, before burning of course.
This could be another wind-fall for the banks if they can claim insurance losses at the value they are keeping them on the books for. I say the banks should be forced to value their forclosed homes at current market value, not what they last sold for.
If this continues, the insurance companies will no longer insure vacant or "at risk" structures. They are a lot smarter than that. The banks, finance companies, and others holding leins on these types of properties will begin demolition and sell off the vacant land to limit their losses. They would then be able to write off the difference between their investment and the selling price of the property after expenses. They won't have a windfall from this situation.
The upside could be that the banks may start working harder with families to try to keep them in their homes. That would certainly be less of a loss than demolition and the selling of the vacant land.
How many buildings does Detroit have anymore? Soon enough it will only be the GM building and the fire department building.
What a hell hole we have created for ourselve, we Americans don't like or respect our cities much.
GM was able to dump all their old buildings under Obama's bankruptcy plan. Here is an idea! Use those old building as a national fire training course. Wisconsin is next once they dump Walker! Indiana and Ohio not far behind. We need dems back in control so we can hit the bottom faster and start are way back up.
@USMC1969-5804432
Love your post! You tell it like it is!!
It's interesting to see what a great city WELFARE creates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With the sheer number of homeless people in this country, all those vacant structures could be used to provide free housing for the poor. Right now in this economy, nothing is more precious than having ones own house and for scumbags to light fires for kicks is a crime against people who can least afford shelter.
I see what you are saying,>On the other hand,i could totally renege on my mortgage and make a hell of a place in some of these old areas needing gentrified
The vacant structures are not safe for habitation. Many of them have been stripped of absolutely everything and no longer have running water, electricity or gas (we heat homes with natural gas, not fuel oil). These are not just boarded up places, they are completely gutted and the siding removed (brick, too).
Obama's desire to remake all of America into Detroit is proceeding as planned. Hugo Chavez's nude photo hangs in Obama's bedroom.
We are seeing the self fulfilling prophecy of the plutarchs. Drive taxes down so services can't be provided and then blame the city for lack of services. Then use that as a reason to take over the city, privatize the services and raise taxes. Don't believe me, look at the private prisons and the laws that keep them full.
All the while, the plutarchs agents rile up the right wing and feed them lies on what really happened. You can see it plainly in the comments on this article such as the distorted view in comments like "LOL libtards hate cold hard facts." by DunkinH. Cold hard facts? Nope, just cold hard lies you swallowed whole.
You can't take your logic, reason, and astute perspective elsewhere buddy. Around here we figure out ways to call people names by adding "tard" to words. You got that?
While attending a conference in Akron, Ohio ( which is like a mini-Detroit 1980's era) a few years ago, I was able to attend Andrew Moore : Detroit Disassembled photography exhibition at the Akron Art Museum. The exhibition detailed a giant sized photo-documentary of the state of Detroit proper. It's become so vacant, that the prairie fields have reclaimed entire neighborhoods.Schools and tech preps rot from the inside out, entire sections of the city house very few, and the Michigan Central is a total shell. It's not just a little down trodden ... it's a walking dead city.
I've asked this before & never got an answer. Where are all these private prisons at? What states have them? I've never seen one, on here is the only place I hear about them.
stc1993,
The same machine and Internet connection you're using to type comments here give's you the ability to do research. I'll give you a hint to start. Look up the juvenile youth facility in Pennsylvania where the judge was getting kickbacks from the private company for sentencing kids indefinitely. That's a good place to start.
Wait till Zimmerman is found not guilty, then we can watch all the black cities burn.
He probably will actually, because he can't honestly have a fair trial. Most likely he will be acquitted due to an idiot juror or two.
I seem to recall not too long ago that Greeks were rioting and burning things down too. Spain had a problem with rioting as well. So, Black people ain't the only ones to burn, riot and act a fool.
1ad-1602146- I didn't say that Blacks wer the only people that riot. I said that Black cities will burn.
I highly doubt the you will see fire in the streets of Denver or Omaha, but I will bet a hundred bucks that you will be able to toast marshmallows in LA or Detroit.
Hell...
How about this idea?
Ask Obama to send all those workers that couldn't find work in his "shovel ready jobs" gambit to Detroit to tear down those fire traps. I mean these ARE really shovel ready jobs afterall.
Better yet have the people on unemployment or welfare WORK FOR THEIR CHECKS!! It would kill two birds with one stone. Tear down firetraps and save money by not paying anyone other than the support checks they already receive.
if you made all detroit people who got welfare work for their check......the productivity of detriot would 10 fold in a day......
please do not let your enthusiasm for your project delude you....no way the busiest fire dept in the nation....FDNY still answers nearly 400,000 calls a year or isn't that considered busy enough.....
where do people get this silliness.....simply more quality reporting from msnbc
Why don't you re-read the article.
Then come back and STFU.
Union greed killed Detroit.
Guys named "Jim" who drape themselves in the flag and parrot things they've been told about "union greed" are killing America.
Bill...I saw what union greed did for Cat in Peoria...so get off it...
Eh, most of Detroit is trash anyways. They're actually doing the city a favor beyond saving cash.
Firefighters should scrap the buildings themselves to finance their functioning and then control burn what ought to go.
Some have tried and have been caught on TV, stealing doors and placing them on their fire engines to take back to the station.
You make it sound like they illegally stole stuff. What I suggest is that they legally be allowed to recycle what they can to make money and finance the fire department.
Guys doing this kind of work without proper equipment is BS when their health and life is at risk as it is. It takes a pretty high caliber man to be a firefighter and those are rare and need to be protected like endangered species. It seem to me that they are sending soldiers on the front without guns.
If unemployment is so high in Detroit they could use people to do the recycling and pay them with the recycle proceeds. I'd be surprised if it is not happening already. If manufacturing is going to come back to America then maybe new modern plants can be built where they old ones stood. A Renaissance of Detroit is not impossible.
Union greed didn't kill Detroit, CORPORATE greed killed Detroit.
My father moved there in 1950. He saw GM buy out the street cars and effectively kill foot traffic in Detroit, which in turn killed the city's businesses--big and small. Owning a car was once an option; it became a necessity and now in America, it's almost something we feel entitled to own. He saw (and I saw, growing up there) thousands of workers cut from the work force as the big car companies shipped their activities to Mexico and focused more on the overseas market and government contracts. Factories were closed and knocked down as the work went elsewhere... and Detroit crumbled because not only did it no longer have local business to rely on, the big business had decided it was more profitable to look elsewhere than the city.
The possibility of Union work (not only in the auto industry but in the food service industry as well) is what has kept a lot of the population hanging around when they would otherwise abandon such a derelict area of America. People who stay are stuck financially and desperate to obtain those jobs. The Unions in Detroit were, and are, about the only things going for a city that is in an abysmal state.
StandUpJokeOff actually both union and corporate greed killed Detroit.
I was gonna say that, maybe they both ramped up the conflict and corporate said enough, we go abroad. Being that they had the capital they could and did.
Union greed priced them out of their jobs. These people don't care about their workers. I've seen it before, we had a company here that made plastic parts for cars. I knew the owner from the local watering hole, he told me if his employees voted in a union he would just close down & open in another state.
In many ethnic urban neighborhoods, letting buildings burn to the ground is just an inexpensive means of remodeling.
In Detroit's case, it makes one less den for drug addicts and child molesters to hang out. The problem isn't the burning of buildings, it's leaving the remains there. The city doesn't have the money to clear them out and whenever neighborhood residents make a go at it, they can get a ticket for that. Nice system, innit?
60 years of stagnant wages, three decades of deregulation and tax breaks for the rich, 2 illegal wars and outrageously overcharged medicare part D, thirty years of Reaganomic's and this is the end result. The real story of trickle down, infrastructure decay, destruction, fire and ruin.
Take a look at what party has run Detroit for the last 50 years. In case you don't know it is the Democrats which goes to prove that the liberal element has destroyed another city.
Your just talking out of the wrong hole
Deb take a look at who runs the industries! Repotards. Timken got a job as ambasator to Germany for supporting Bush. Guess where the bearing mill is Now!!! Stark Co. Ohio used to be a thriving industrial area until all the execs got greedy and sold out. Hoovers, Republic Steel, White Motors, J&L Steel to name a few. The de-regulated utility industry has taken it tole too; why hire skilled imployees when contractors can do it cheaper right or wrong' it's done. Hundereds of jobs lost. Trust Me it all Started with Raygun Ronnie!!!
60 yrs ago minimum wage was .75 cent an hour, about $4.50 in todays dollars. it is $8.25 now I think.
When I look at Detroit, Gary, Benton Harbor and other places like that I feel sorry for the people who live there. Then I thank God that I was able to move to a safer place to spend whatever time I have left until I die. Please don't get me wrong. I know there are plenty of good and fine citizens in those towns but they cannot overcome the riff-raff. The trashy people are reproducing exponentially and taking those fine places down. I could see this coming but it is moving faster than I had thought. Those cites might recover in the future but I will have been dead many years before that happens.
Let them all burn. OBama should have spent about 20 billion or so to buy up these houses. It would have worked wonders,..wait ! Lets give it to the banks instead. That will help us all.
No, that was Bush's call. He's the one who bailed out the banks in '08. He's also the one who left office with 7 million Americans unemployed and absolutely NO plans in place to reverse that trend.
26 Billion is the money received from a recent settlement on improper foreclosures from the banks
the real cost of the foreclosure crisis is several Trillion, well beyond what the government can solve by simply throwing money at it, so not Obama's fault, but the continuing legal action against improper foreclosures may provide some additional releif
Yes. Let them burn and let these people live with their own destruction. And let the World see who supports obama.
Good goat man - how did you manage to work Obama into this? Geez.
gooddoctor...if their tuna salad in their fridges went bad the Obama haters would find a way of blaming him
The BANKS own the houses....LET "EM BURN!!! They Older factories were replaced by modern factories in other cities in the South, Canada and Mexico. "Motor City" is no more. Time to find a new industry so the City will rise from the Ashes and soar again. The people of Detroit are ready to work.
Is America big enough to re-invent itself? Romney would have let a Dozen Cities, who depend on the Auto Industry, Fail. Do you want a Quitter and a Flip-Flop, like Romney, to run this great country or a tried and willing to help America President like President Obama? Four More Years ! Lets re-build America.