Why Detroit Will Continue To Suck

It's because of the lousy attitudes of its residents with their City v. Suburbs mentality, exemplified today by Detroit Free Press Columnist Jeff Gerritt.

The Detroit Free Press: Torments and tickets in the D

As a proud and loyal Detroiter, I'm down for anything -- short of triggering a federal indictment -- that puts paper in the city's tapped-out till. That includes parking tickets, which last year netted the city $10.5 million. The city would have gotten even more, except a lot of people don't pay. In fact, unpaid parking fines amount to $50 million.

With cuts in state revenue sharing and plummeting property values, parking tickets may soon become Detroit's only steady income. I'm even happy that some of those getting tagged are smug suburbanites who make bad jokes about my city while speeding back to subdivisions and gated communities where everything looks the same. They can dog-out the D, but no one can dodge its parking platoon.

Way to put out the welcome mat there Jeffy. As if the ever-present crime and corruption that is the "D" wasn't enough, as well as Detroiters constantly demanding money from the state and suburbs while refusing to be transparent in how the money is spent or changing their ways to actually spend that money in a manner that doesn't put cash in corrupt politicians pockets, now we get a dose of self-righteous smugness on top of all that.

As Gerritt bemoans the lack of revenue coming into the "D" perhaps he should quit trying to drive more of it away, lest it be afraid to park there.