Detroit budget cuts firefighter pay by 10% Detroit police feel pain of city's financial collapse. Feb 23, 2014 By Sharon Cohen Associated Press DETROIT — It has come to this: Even some criminals sympathize with Detroit's cops. Baron Coleman thought he'd heard it all in his 17 years patrolling the streets. But then came the city's bankruptcy, a 10 percent cut in police salaries, followed by support from a most unlikely corner — the bad guys. "When they saw us take a pay cut they were in shock.
Detroit police officers have long known adversity: They've worked in crumbling station houses with busted pipes, driven run-down cars, tangled with balky radios. As Detroit tries to rebound — a plan to emerge from bankruptcy was filed Friday — few groups, if any, have been feeling the pain of the city's financial collapse more than the police. Baron Coleman knows it's hard being a police officer anywhere. Nearly a generation ago, when Coleman traded a factory job for a badge and crisp blue uniform, he had certain expectations: a good salary, great benefits and a pension. She was right. Detroit to get $21 million more for blight demolition.
WASHINGTON — The City of Detroit stands to receive an additional $21.25 million in demolition money from the federal government under a proposal authorized by the Obama administration and approved Wednesday by a state housing board. The money will be enough to take down nearly 1,300 blighted structures if recent averages hold. The Free Press was the first to report that U.S. Treasury officials had signed off on allowing the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to move another $32.7 million of a $498-million award made in 2010 under the Hardest Hit Fund to its demolition account with the lion’s share — roughly two-thirds of the total — going to Detroit and the rest to Flint.
Nowhere in the nation has that argument been used more than in Detroit, which had already received or been promised up to $107 million in reimbursements from the fund for tearing down abandoned, decrepit structures. “This program has always been about allowing the states to determine where their needs are. Vacant and Abandoned Properties: Turning Liabilities Into Assets | HUD USER. The absence of universal definitions of vacancy and abandonment complicates efforts to assess the number of vacant and abandoned properties nationally.Vacant and abandoned properties are linked to increased rates of crime (particularly arson) and declining property values.
The maintenance or demolition of vacant properties is a huge expense for many cities.It is critical to match strategies for combating vacancy to neighborhood market conditions. Vacant lots can be greened and repurposed for new uses, such as this play area in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. Photo courtesy: Sara InnamoratoDerelict houses, dormant factories, moribund strip malls, and other types of vacant and abandoned properties are among the most visible outward signs of a community’s reversing fortunes. Properties that have turned from productive use to disuse are found in cities, suburbs, and rural areas throughout the country, and they vary widely in size, shape, and former use. Volume of abandoned homes 'absolutely terrifying' Detroit — Detroit has had more homes foreclosed in the past 10 years than the total number of houses in several suburbs — or all of Buffalo, New York. Since 2005, more than 1-in-3 Detroit properties — 139,699 of 384,672 — have been foreclosed because of mortgage defaults or unpaid taxes, property records show.
The vast majority are houses, and the tally is so huge it shocked even those who spent years working on foreclosure in Detroit. "When you see it on a map, it's absolutely terrifying," said Chris Uhl, a vice president of the Skillman Foundation that is working to prevent foreclosures. To get a sense of the loss, consider all the houses in Warren, Livonia, Royal Oak, Southfield and Allen Park. Empty them. "Even if you are deeply involved, you can't help but be staggered by these numbers," said Steve Tobocman, a former state representative who served as co-director of the Michigan Foreclosure Task Force. > Explore a database and map of tax-foreclosed homes in Detroit "I'm hysterical. Volume of abandoned homes 'absolutely terrifying'
Detroit pays high price for arson onslaught. Detroit — Arson is a raging epidemic in Detroit, destroying neighborhoods and lives as the city tries to emerge from bankruptcy. Even amid a historic demolition blitz, buildings burn faster than Detroit can raze them. Last year, the city had 3,839 suspicious fires and demolished 3,500 buildings, according to city records analyzed by The Detroit News. Burned homes scar neighborhoods for years: Two-thirds of those that caught fire from 2010-13 are still standing, records show. "Nothing burns like Detroit," said Lt. Joe Crandall, a Detroit Fire Department arson investigator, referring to the city's high rate of arson.
The Detroit News researched arson for more than three months and found that it remains a huge obstacle to renewal efforts following bankruptcy. Few neighborhoods were untouched by arson and the entire city bears its costs. "People don't realize arson is a felony. Arson Chief Charles Simms said the city is making progress in its long struggle with arson. 'Arson is like a cancer'
Pay cuts coming to Detroit police, fire officers - Aug. 2, 2013. The 10% cuts apply to 1,200 police lieutenants and sergeants and 400 comparable officers in the fire department. The cuts, announced this week, will take effect in September. Bill Nowling, spokesman for Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager overseeing the city's reorganization effort, said other city employees took the same 10% cut in 2012. The cuts for these officers was delayed because of union contracts that were in effect.
"We had to make this cut due to disparity between management and rank and file," said Nowling. He said the city will save $4.5 million from these latest cuts. "These pay cuts and the savings have already been baked into the budget. They aren't new," he said. Related: New hockey arena still a go in Detroit Nowling said if the city is able to get the debt relief it is seeking in bankruptcy, it is possible that some of the pay cuts can be restored at the end of the year.
"It's not a promise, but it's one of the things we're looking at doing," he said. Detroit firefighters protesting bankruptcy discuss expanding fight against pension and budget cuts. By our reporters 25 July 2013 Scores of firefighters demonstrated in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Detroit yesterday to voice their anger over last week’s bankruptcy filing by the city’s emergency manager, which threatens to cut up to 90 percent from the pensions owed to city workers and retirees.
With the trade unions offering no way forward, fire fighters have formed an ad hoc organization called the Public Safety Workers Action Group (PSWAG), to reach out more broadly to working people around the city and explain the connection between budget cutting and the undermining of safety for the city’s residents. PSWAG members have been holding a number of small demonstrations at fire stations across Detroit in recent days. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and other public sector unions, including the Detroit Fire Fighters Association, have opposed any genuine mobilization of city workers against the emergency manager and the bankruptcy.
Detroit is going dark - Jul. 19, 2013. And if you're walking around the city, it might make sense to bring a flashlight -- about 40% of the 88,000 street lights don't work. Those are two of the problems highlighted by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder as he approved a bankruptcy filing for the state's biggest city. The problems have fed on themselves, resulting in 78.000 buildings either abandoned or ruined. "Does anybody think it's OK to have 40-year-old trees growing through the roofs of dilapidated houses? " Orr said the city had filed for bankruptcy because it would take more than 50 years to pay off the city's $11.5 billion in unsecured debt while not conducting even the most basic maintenance, such as filling potholes and plowing snow.
Related: Detroit bankruptcy filing came with only 5 minutes to spare Here are some of the other problems outlined in the bankruptcy filing: -- A 40% reduction in police staffing over the last decade, "causing constant strain on the organization" that receives 700,000 calls a year. Detroit plans to sell off closed fire stations. By Bryan Dyne 5 June 2013 Eight vacant buildings once operated by the Detroit Fire Department─seven fire stations and the former firehouse headquarters─are being sold by the city of Detroit to private investors and developers to be transformed into restaurants, wineries or micro-distilleries in an effort to raise money for the city.
The minimum bid for the fire stations are $637,000 while the former headquarters is being sold for $1.25 million. It is not yet clear who has bought the fire stations or for what price, though it is known that Southfield, Michigan developer Walter Cohen has plans to purchase the former headquarters and turn it into a boutique hotel. He plans to have eighty upscale rooms and a Cajun restaurant on the first floor. The stations to be sold include Ladder Nos. 8, 12, 16 and 38 and Engine Nos. 10, 18 and 49.
Putting firehouses up for sale is one of the initial steps taken to restructure Detroit in the name of generating profits for Detroit's bondholders. Suspicious fires plague Detroit's popular Heidelberg Project. The latest in a string of suspicious fires early Thursday destroyed a home in Detroit's internationally known Heidelberg Project, an installation that transformed decaying homes into works of art. The blaze engulfed "The Penny House," a small home adorned with images of pennies, around 3 a.m., fire officials said.
The two-story structure was leveled by the time firefighters arrived. The nonprofit behind that artwork set out to bring new life to Detroit's crime-ridden East Side and draw attention to the community's plight. The project was recently featured by CNN's Anthony Bordain on "Parts Unknown: Detroit. " In the last two months, Heidelberg Project properties were hit with five fires, which destroyed three of the vacant buildings -- "Obstruction of Justice," "House of Soul" and "The Penny House," according to the project. Detroit Senior Fire Chief Larry Gassel voiced his suspicions about the fires to CNN, saying of the buildings, "They're all vacant; it's not like it's wiring. 9 ways Detroit is changing after bankruptcy. When Detroit filed for bankruptcy last July, observers around the world were shocked by how far some city services had deteriorated -- though it was no secret to residents.
Average police response times clocked in at almost an hour. Tens of thousands of broken streetlights meant entire streets go dark at nightfall. And though Detroit has more than 200 municipal parks, the city could only afford to keep about a quarter of them open. How has the city changed since it entered bankruptcy? Detroit's public services have shown some improvement in the last year but still have a long way to go before they're at adequate levels. The Detroit Police Department says it is focused on hiring non-uniformed administrative staff so that it can move officers from desk duty to street patrols to concentrate on high-crime areas and react in real time to crime trends. DPD's response time is improving, but it still lags national standards in responding to high-priority crimes such as homicides.
How to shrink a city. ONE of the biggest challenges for the world this century is how to accommodate the hundreds of millions of people who will flock to cities, especially in emerging economies. Coping with this human torrent will be fearsomely difficult—but at least the problem is widely acknowledged. That is not true of another pressing urban dilemma: what to do with cities that are losing people.
They are hardly unusual. Almost one in ten American cities is shrinking. So are more than a third of German ones—and the number is growing (see article). An abandoned street containing a rotting nursery or primary school is a sad sight. So it is unsurprising that governments often try to shore up their crumbling smaller cities. For the most part, they will not. Policies meant to counteract the dominance of big cities are not just doomed to fail but can actually be counter-productive.
A new kind of garden city Even so, many people will stay stuck in shrinking cities, which will grow steadily older.