Detroit's Population Continues To Dwindle

Detroit's population continues to decline, dropping below the 700,000 mark.

The Detroit News: Database: Suburbs gain while Detroit population drops below 700,000

The 60-year exodus from Detroit is continuing but may be slowing, as the city’s population has fallen under 700,000 residents, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The government pegs the city’s population at 688,701 as of summer 2013, down nearly 10,000 residents from 2012. The rate of decline, though, has slowed to an average of 7,500 per year since 2010 compared with 24,000 per year in the 2000s. Suburban counties — Oakland, Macomb and Livingston — gained about 1 percent in population, while Wayne County lost about 1 percent, the records show. Its decline is fueled largely by Detroit, which had 1.9 million residents in 1950 and is now smaller than it was at any point since before 1920.

They already had to amend the law that allowed Detroit to levy its own income tax in 2012- they reduced the minimum population to 600,000 to make sure Detroit could still levy its pernicious income tax.

They also almost had to amend the law allowing Casinos to be built in Detroit. Luckily for Detroit, some legislative assistant had some foresight and drafted the law to say that a city may have a casino if it was a city defined as:

(l) “City” means a local unit of government other than a county which meets all of the following criteria:

(i) Has a population of at least 800,000 at the time a license is issued.

(ii) Is located within 100 miles of any other state or country in which gaming was permitted on December 5, 1996.

(iii) Had a majority of voters who expressed approval of casino gaming in the city.

Yes, only Detroit qualified in 1996 when the law was passed, and it wouldn't qualify today.

It probably also doesn't help that Detroit's abortion stats are way out of proportion to the rest of the stat eif not the country. Almost one third of all pregnancies in Detroit are aborted or 37.9 per 1000 women, compared to the rest of the state's rate of 11 per 1000.

The stats are described as third world, and yeah, that sums up the D all right. Detroit has a third-world culture complete with corruption, disregard for human life and a nihilistic outlook and until that changes were not going to see a real recovery in Motown.

Detroit Has Gone To The Dogs (And Cats)

The Detroit News: 7,500 stray dogs, 18,000 cats roam Detroit streets, MSU researcher says

Understand that the study is based on a survey the researcher sent to animal shelters in Detroit.

Other studies suggest there may be as many as 50,000 stray dogs roaming Detroit.

No one really knows the actual amount.

Surprise, Obama's New Promise Zones Ignore Detroit

Obama's new "Promise Zones" conspicuously did not name Detroit, which by any standard needs all the promised help and access to programs that a dying Democrat city can get.

However, when you have a 90% Democrat area that consistently votes lock-step Democrat as does Detroit, why bother trying to buy more votes with a "Promise Zone"?

Let's see where these miraculous promise zones will be, as noted in The Detroit News:

San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

Los Angeles is a Democrat safe-zone, but it likely gives some patronage sinecures, as is Philadelphia (but Pennsylvania itself is a mite purple). But Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma are certainly areas where some Democrat money may buy more votes and some Democrat Senate seats come the 2014 election.

Then again, for all the fanfare with which these Promised Zones are announced, it needs to be remembered that all of Obama's promises come with an expiration date, so the recipients of these Promised Zones probably shouldn't expect all that much.

So, How Bad Is It In Detroit? So Bad That Serious Crime Covers All

When you try to answer the question "So, How Bad Is It In Detroit?" Your answer may just be underestimating how bad it really is there.

Looking at the interactive map provided by the Detroit News of the reported murders and shootings that have taken place in Detroit since May 2012 is rather sobering. The dots indicating a murder or shooting cover, well, just about the entire city.

Even zooming in makes the city look like it has a case of multicolored measles, with no vaccine in sight.

But some bright news is set for the future.

After decades of neglect under one -party rule and being quite unable to account where millions of dollars for repairs have disappeared rather being actually used for restoring the street lights - they may just get the city's streetlights back up and running by 2016!

More Detroit City Council Idiocy

It's not enough to the Detroit City Council that Detroit is so broke and has been so neglected by them, the fomer mayors and the rest of the Detroit political class that a recent survey of two neighborhoods in Detroit found at least 50% of all the streetlights didn't work, and its estimated that at least 40,000 of 88,000 streetlights in the city in total do not work.

When faced with a deal from the EFM that would settle the insane debt swaps the Kwame administration and city council went for that ended up costing the city dearly, and free up money for the city as a result, the City Council voted NO.

The deal would free up about $11 million per month in casino revenues currently tied up in the swaps.

It's a no-brainer and hopefully the EFM can overrule the city council on this one as they continue to play politics to cover their malfeasance in this affair and to play to their base and continue to ignore reality.

In Detroit It's So Bad That The Few Good People Left Are On Their Own

An astonishing article in the Detroit Free Press, at least for those who don't live in Detroit, about how flagrant burglaries and home invasions have become in the city. So frequent that they're not even considered a high priority crime by the Detroit PD.

The Detroit Free Press: John Carlisle: Even in Detroit's best neighborhoods, home invasions steal residents' sense of peace

There were more than 13,000 burglaries in Detroit in 2012, according to FBI statistics — but the true figure is hard to gauge because residents say they often don’t report burglaries anymore, because police are slow to come out, or don’t come out at all.

In a city with so much violent crime, burglaries fall lower on the priority scale. “We don’t try to belittle the crime at all or pass it off, but we do have to prioritize,” said Sgt. Michael Woody, spokesman for the Detroit Police Department.

But burglaries in the city are so frequent that some people’s homes get broken into over and over, usually by the same thieves who come back to either steal their replacement items or get the second-tier things they didn’t get the first time.”

It's so bad that criminals are openly occupying abandoned houses or porches on streets to case the neighborhood to wait for law abiding citizens to leave their houses so they can break in and rob them.

Detroit has adopted the reverse-broken window theory, namely ignoring, under-reporting and indeed tolerating crime until it gets increasingly serious. As anyone could have told them, when you ignore serious crime and declare it a low priority, you get more of it.

Detroit - When A Gift of $300 Million Is Not A Bailout

Three hundred million bucks don't go as far as they used to.

The Detroit News: Feds to bear gifts, but not bailout

In what other country is $300 million in "gifts" not considered a bailout? Perhaps not when Detroit is 12 Billion in the hole in underfunded liabilities alone.

Still its not all bad, after all Obama got the Detroit vote already, doesn't have the political clout nor money to bail it out further and doesn't really need the city anymore, so instead of a bailout he's offering passion:

An Obama administration official Friday vowed the White House will bring “a lot of passion” to an aggressive effort to help Detroit recover from its economic crisis.

In other words, Obama's administration just offered to stick its tongue in Detroit's ear.

After all, it's nice to have a little passion when you're screwed.

So, How Bad is it in Detroit? It's So Bad, Even The Employed Detroit City Workers Are Making Unemployment Claims.

They're fraudulent unemployment claims of course, but that's never stopped them before.

The Detroit Free Press: Report finds Detroit employees profited in unemployment benefit claim fraud

An Auditor General’s report on the City of Detroit’s employee benefits has found significant likelihood of fraud in the administration of unemployment benefits, including what appears to be some active city workers in human resources creating fraudulent unemployment benefit claims for themselves.

At least half of the unemployment claims made are deemed either fraudulent or highly suspicious. Does anyone still think we don't need to investigate fraud (including voter fraud) in Democrat-run cities....

So, How Bad Is It In Detroit?

It's so bad, they're seriously considering replacing the lawn maintenance crews with goats and sheep, that's how bad it is.

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit to look at goats, sheep for trimming grass

That's because nothing says you've got a thriving (yet bankrupt) Democrat-run city like having goats and sheep wandering about eating the bountiful weeds sprouting up amongst the abandoned lots and overgrown parks.

So, How Bad Is It In Detroit? So Bad They're Even Stealing Bodies And The Money is Now In Demolishing, Not Building Homes

Two stories that illustrate how messed up Detroit has become:

The Detroit Free Press: Confessed body snatcher ordered to stay on medication, serve probation

A Detroit man accused of stealing his father’s corpse from an east side cemetery earlier this year was sentenced this morning and ordered to take medicine for mental health problems.

And:

The Detroit Free Press: About 4,000 blighted Detroit buildings being demolished with $52M in federal cash

The officials gathered on Turner Street off Puritan near Livernois to trumpet $52 million in federal funds the Obama administration is making available to Detroit to help stabilize neighborhoods. It’s estimated that the city has as many as 78,000 vacant and abandoned buildings, and neighbors say the homes become magnets for crime — from drug dealing to thievery of materials inside — pushing down property values and making neighborhoods unsafe.

Note that this grant of $52 million in taxpayer money only demolishes 4,000 homes. In other words, it costs $13,000 to demolish a house in Detroit at prevailing union wages. One would think they could do it for less, given the urgency of the crisis, but people must be paid off after all.

With 78,000 abandoned buildings, it will take at least $962,000,000 to demolish the remainder -- essentially a billion dollars -- that the bankrupt city doesn't have, nor do the Feds really have it to give it. Even if they did, it will not be enough to revive this shattered, Democrat-dominated corrupt mockery of a city.

Son, You're On Your Own

You know its bad when Detroit's police, fresh off having their chief suspended for internal affairs, warns visitors that they're entering the city at their own risk and candidly admits they can neither serve, protect nor prevent the violent crime engulfing the city.

In Detroit, you're now on notice (if you hadn't figured it out already) that you're on your own.

The Detroit News: Detroit police union warns visitors city is 'more dangerous'

Before the Tigers took on the Oakland Athletics at Comerica Park Saturday, members of the Detroit Police Officer's Association passed out fliers to "let the public know they enter Detroit at their own risk."

Let this be Exhibit A to answer all those who say you don't need a gun because the police are there to protect you.

CBS has more, including a copy of the flyer the officers were handing out at Enter At Your Own Risk: Police Union Says ‘War-Like’ Detroit Is Unsafe For Visitors