(Noel Coward, urbane composer of the classic “Just One of Those Things.”)
“There are influential people out there who would like you to believe that Detroit’s demise is fundamentally a tale of fiscal irresponsibility and/or greedy public employees. It isn’t. For the most part, it’s just one of those things that happens now and then in an ever-changing economy.”
– Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, writing of Detroit in the New York Times
I almost burst into song when I read the conclusion to Paul Krugman’s latest column in the New York Times. Well, not so much. It is too personal.
I made it back safely from Indiana yesterday in a drive with only one brief stop for fuel. I can’t write another piece about how awful traffic is around here. It started 68 miles out from the city, still coming down the big hill that marks the beginning of the Pennsylvania highlands.
Or rather, the end of them on this trip. Traffic came to a halt completely miles before the I-270 junction. The sprawl caused by the boom in Big Government here has completely outstripped the infrastructure to support it.
I have seen it North and South (the I-95 corridor), and to the West (I-66). The bulwark of the District, guarded by its moat (the Potomac) makes it impenetrable from there. Local activists stopped the cross-city throughways years ago, and what is left is nightmarish on the exits out to Maryland.
This is insane. I was lucky not to wreck the car- and yet the 500 miles before the last bit were effortless.
America- what a country. I made the mistake of reading the comments to Prof. Krugman’s analysis of the Detroit debacle. There were literally hundreds of them. It stopped me short, though it should not have. I know that Times readers are overwhelmingly Blue, and the lamestream media is an adjunct of the progressive movement.
But as a native-born Detroiter, former resident and frequent visitor in the long decades of its decline from greatness, I read Mr. Krugman’s words with astonishment.
I gaped in astonishment. One of those things? Noel Coward, yes. Economics, no.
You can argue that the demise of Detroit is combination of a whole bunch of things. The failure of the courts to order cross-district bussing in the schools, investing the suburbs in the city. The lack of revenue-sharing between the suburbs and the city. A commuter tax, though that would simply have prolonged and fueled the corruption. But there is a chicken-and-egg thing here, as well.
The last time there was not a Democratic mayor and city council in the Motor City was 1962, when Louis Miriani finished his term in office. Before you accuse me of blaming the Dems exclusively for what happened, I would remind you that Louie was busted for Federal Tax evasion after he was out of the Manoogian Mansion.
He was deposed by the charismatic Democrat Jerry Cavanaugh, supported by a wave of African American voters who were fed up with years of institutional oppression, poor housing and general discriminatory practices. Jerry was ambitious and moved on.
He was followed by Roman Gribbs, a Democrat and the last white mayor of the city, who declined to stand for re-election in 1974.
That set up former Top Cop John Nichols in a race against activist Coleman Young. Nichols was most famous for his STRESS unit, which conducted sting and other operations against a largely black population. “Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets” was the acronym. Brings back a lot of memories, not many of them good.
(Mayor for Life Coleman Young, in 1974).
I left the city not long after Mr. Young’s election, and the next twenty years of the Mayor’s rule marked the decline of the city into a desolate kelptocracy. So I do not agree with Mr. Krugman.
Nelson Mandela, had he been available, might have been able to save the city by uniting its people. Mr .Young was many things, but he was no Mandela. His policies confirmed the belief of half the city that it was insane to stay, and consequently, only those who could not leave remained.
Blame the unions? Nah, that is happening everywhere. Those chickens are coming home to roost in most of the cities of America. Blame the mayor and the council? Sure. They are responsible for the disaster.
But the voters are responsible, too. They voted the crooks in, and kept them there. But should our fellow citizens pay the whole burden for the corruption? Should we who escaped?
I can’t quite bring myself to agree with Mr. Krugman. Detroit is not one of those things.
It is the synthesis of everything.
Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com