How's that "change" working for ya?
1)
At this point, the city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors.
2)
Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities.
That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.
3)
Back in 1960, the city of Detroit actually had the highest per-capita income in the entire
nation.
4)
In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit.
Today, there are less than 27,000.
5)
Between December
2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of
Michigan were lost.
Detroit circa this week
6)
There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less.
For the low, low price of 499.95...
7)
At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.
8)
About one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either
vacant or derelict.
9)
An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of
Detroit are functionally illiterate.
10)
Less than half of the residents of Detroit over
the age of 16 are working at this point.
11)
If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit
are living in poverty.
12)
Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, but over the past
60 years the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.
13)
The city of Detroit is now very heavily dependent on the tax revenue it pulls in
from the casinos in the city. Right now, Detroit is bringing in about 11 million dollars a month in tax revenue
from the casinos.
14)
There are 70 "Superfund" hazardous waste sites in
Detroit.
15)
40 percent of the street lights do not work.
16)
Only about a third of the ambulances are running.
17)
Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have
more than 250,000 miles on them.
18)
Two-thirds of the parks in the city of Detroit
have been permanently closed down since 2008.
19)
The size of the police force in Detroit has been cut by about 40 percent over the past decade.
20)
When you call the police in Detroit, it takes them an average of 58
minutes to respond.
21)
Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed
to the public for 16 hours a day.
22)
The violent crime rate in Detroit is five times higher than the national average.
23)
The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times
higher than it is in New York City.
24)
Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are
committed in Detroit.
25)
Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to
"enter Detroit at your own risk".
It
is easy to point fingers and mock Detroit, but the truth is that the rest of
America is going down the exact same path that Detroit has gone down.
Detroit
just got there first.
Every time I see the before and after shots of Detroit, I go all Charlton Heston.
ReplyDelete"YOU MANIACS!! Damn you all to Hell!!!"
An appropriate reaction, to my way of thinking.
I can SERIOUSLY relate! I was raised in Michigan, and worked for 2 years at a hotel in the Detroit Metro Airport area.
ReplyDelete