Metro Times - Rolling on the Riverwalk

Metro Times - Rolling on the Riverwalk

This comes to me from a good friend of mine that works for the State of Michigan - sometimes as a volunteer, apparently.

"The MI Nat. Resources Trust Fund helped pay for this project. I got to shake the Governor's hand the day after she cut 6 days pay from my income via "furloughs"! This park area is not patrolled by Detroit PD, but private security co. 24/7/365 security cameras, panic phones marked by blue beacons every 8th mile or so. No serious crimes, ever, with this system in place! Gave me the creeps! However it is an improvement; but the little veneer of redevelopment here and there still covers the great rot that is the rest of the city. 60% of the City is vacant; I mean NO buildings, infrastructure, etc. The "prairies" near City airport have the highest pheasant densities per square mile in the State. A series of articles last year, which I will send to you, super-imposed the maps of San Francisco, and Boston over the map of Detroit. All 3 of these Cities have similar populations of around 800,000 to 900,000 people. Yup, you guessed it: Detroit's incorporated area is about 3 times larger than the other two. Of course mere comparison takes a lot of things out of context, but the fact remains that most of the vacant land in Detroit is land nobody wants to develop."