A City of People Lost to Corporatehood

Opinion from Stephen Boyle,

Detroit has its share of darling corporate investors that some believe to be the knights bringing a future of prosperity. However we need to look closer into the "benevolence" of these investments. Proposals for development are brought into the city offices with the promise of creating jobs through redevelopment of land to usable spaces for corporate, entertainment, and residential interests. The city is hungering for these proposals, although that hunger isn't being satisfied.

The problems in development lay in the concessions that are requested and sometimes rewarded without request. The hunger of the city for meaningful development has to translate into tax dollars as these are being built. Tax abatements are not helping the city maintain or grow services that are required for business to find success. Lets look at the three interest areas seeing development as noted.

Corporate developments need to have utilities provided to the facility, the building of the pipes and drains up to the property doesn't magically happen without investment. Its great that the building is created functional within its space, but the surrounding area often needs improvement as well. Public lighting gives employees peace of mind working at the facility during early morning and late evening hours. Transportation is needed to bring employees in for work, and that means mass transit and public roads. The infrastructure of the city has to be addressed for your business to succeed and that requires taxation during and following development.

Saying you are creating jobs doesn't often translate to jobs for Detroit residents, and at present there seems to be little assurance through current administration of regulating abatements to ensure Detroit residents have preferred status in getting employment. We need an ordinance that says when you meet a certain percentage of workforce with residence in the city, THEN you get an abatement and it will be reduced taxes not tax-free. Tie the abatement to residency and time as a factor. It doesn't work to bring in just enough residents to meet your abatement requirement then let them go once the city reduces your tax burden.

Entertainment projects need to be able to draw people in, keep them safe with needs provided, and ensure that when departing people feel safe as well. All of the reasons in the prior paragraph need addressed, with an emphasis on transportation. You can hold a great event, but if safety concerns prevent people from coming it isn't going to bring in a return on your investment. We also need to remember if patrons don't move closer to the events then they have many more miles of roads to travel reaching the destination, which should mean higher taxes to cover maintaining an extensive network of roads coming from whereever to your noted destination.

Lights OUT on Oakland St in Northend neighborhood, 

a demonstration zone for Detroit Works Project

Finally we come to residential developments and these have obvious requirement for strong neighborhoods that corporations and entertainment partner in fostering a community that lives, works, and plays together. Public lighting, roads, waste pickup, transportation, and more need to be addressed now. The infestation of cut services is driving people away. We need developments that bring people together face-to-face, reduce driving times that emit tons of fossil fuel waste, and restore the health of moving around instead of sitting in a chair gathering weight from a diet that contains few living, vibrant foods. Detroit's community gardens are a wonderful thing to celebrate, bringing people out for healthy activity, meeting others, and enjoying the produce.

The Detroit Works Long Term Planning has stated on a poster that "many of Detroit's sewers, power lines, and phone lines will reach the end of their lifespan by 2030." The only way those will be improved is with infrastructure investments derived from taxes paid during development.

In closing, I'd like to encourage taxing businesses setting up shop in Detroit. Should abatements be required, they need to be tied to ordinances requiring residency measured over time. The services we need don't show up without funding from development.

The above post was written to my personal blog on the Detroit Free Press website.