Archive for the ‘Robert Laurie’ Category

Robert Laurie

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Detroit bore the stigma of being the most dangerous city in America.  Then, things seemed to get slightly better.  For a while, Washington D.C., New Orleans, Chicago and Los Angeles tossed the “most dangerous” title back and forth like a hot potato.  Not to be outdone, last year Motor City criminals reclaimed their crown.  In 2011 Detroit was once again the U.S. city in which you are most likely to be murdered.  So far, in 2012, things are getting worse.  Crimes like robbery, rape and non-lethal assault are down, slightly, but still far ahead of most cities.

So the city has taken the bold step of cracking down – on the victims.

Earlier this month, to combat auto theft, Detroit police banned parking on certain streets in the downtown entertainment district.  Violators who chose to park in normally legal spaces had their vehicles towed away, at their expense.  In short, the city banned parking in public parking spaces, because the vehicle owners might be the victim of grand theft auto.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

We are, apparently, living in the third evolution of Michigan.

Michigan 1.0 lasted through the 1800s. Michigan 2.0 encompassed the 1900s. Welcome, everyone, to the 21st Century’s Age of Innovation – Michigan 3.0. Your guide to this strange, futuristic land is Governor Rick Snyder, a man who infuriates Democrats, baffles Republicans and refuses to be pinned to any particular ideology.

If his second State of the State address is to be believed, it’s a strategy that seems to be working – albeit barely.

Yes, we have a budget surplus. And, yes, unemployment is down. These are two big facts upon which Snyder can hang his hat. However mediocre the rest of his report may seem, the fact is that, to a degree, he’s right. Michigan is improving. It’s doing so at a snail’s pace, and we’re still lagging the national average, but it is better.

The problem going forward is that the rate at which we’re turning things around is simply unacceptable. For example, Snyder singled out two Michigan job creators in his address. One of them had added 15 people to the workforce. The other – five. If these were the two best examples of how his administration is spurring the entrepreneurial employer, we’re in trouble.

The Snyder administration simply has to come up with a more cogent plan. Perhaps Rick Snyder is just too distracted by cultural issues to come up with one.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

Detroit has always been able to put on a show. From tickertape celebrations to Thanksgiving parades, from music festivals to Red Wings victory laps – when we decided to do it up, we did it up right. A YouTube search reveals nearly 100 years of historical footage, all pointing to the fact that however good, or bad, things might get, Detroit loves a party.

This is nothing new to the people who live here. We were always in on the secret. Outside the state, however, the image was something different. For decades, we were the city that couldn’t get an audience clapping if we filled the theater with mosquitos.

What a difference a few years makes.

In 2006, the national perception began to change. With the city struggling financially and storm clouds circling Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, many predicted that a major event would bring Detroit to its knees. According to outsiders, we just weren’t capable of handling big crowds and big events. We just weren’t cosmopolitan enough. Still, somehow, we managed to get it together long enough to treat visitors to a fantastic Super Bowl. Sure, the game was boring – but the Seattle Seahawks were playing and you can’t blame the Motor City for that.

Sports writers, journalists and tourists came away from Super Bowl XL stunned. Detroit, the dumpy little city they’d written off years before, had vastly exceeded expectations. The good will we earned in 2006 created momentum that carried us through the Kilpatrick administration, and is pushing the town forward, even as we face possible fiscal doom this April.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

Pundits love to say that the Iowa Caucus doesn’t matter.  They’ll offer all sorts of reasons, from the non-binding nature of its results to its remarkable ability to pick presidential losers. But whatever evidence they offer, in the end, they rejoice in telling you not to pay attention to it.

To a point, they’re right.  A quick look at the illustrious campaigns of previous winners like Huckabee, Dole and Gephardt will confirm this.  Yet there’s not a single political watchdog who isn’t glued to the TV every four years, waiting for the Iowa results.  The reason is that, while Iowa may not always pick winners, it will teach you a lot about the overall political landscape.

Tuesday night, we learned that the Republican Party is hell-bent on destroying itself.

With one exception, the GOP offered a slate of candidates who refuse to veer from a course set by the party almost 25 years ago.  They are, almost uniformly, big-government 1990s-style Republicans who place social issues above the fiscal disaster that threatens our country, and would expand the size of the federal bureaucracy in a failing attempt to reign in America’s decay.

Yet for some reason, the Republican establishment is amazed that no one has managed to emerge as a favorite.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

Throughout the past 45 years, there has been one constant in Detroit. Denial.

It began as the signature platform of the Coleman Young administration, and went on to survive the eras of Young, Archer and Kilpatrick. It was still in full force when Mayor Bing took office in 2009, and it looked as though it might be preserved, intact, for whoever follows him. Fortunately, 2011 was different. This was the year that Detroit hit financial rock-bottom. As a result, something happened in Detroit that hasn’t occurred since the aftermath of the summer of 1967.

In an uncharacteristic bout of introspection, 2011 saw the City of Detroit forced to abandon its steadfastly maintained state of denial.

On Wednesday, the Michigan Treasury Department released the results of its initial investigation into Detroit’s finances. There was no sugar-coating the findings. According to the report, Motown holds long-term debt of $12 billion dollars – which is $2 billion more than the city had previously admitted.

The report is just the latest in a long string of very public admissions, each of which has become part of a very grim mosaic. Taken as a whole, it’s become impossible to ignore. Motown’s problems are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light. The city is being compelled to admit that it needs outside help in the form of an Emergency Financial Manager.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

I’m here to report that I survived childhood with 10 toes and all 10 of my fingers. You should also know that I maintain the proper number of limbs, bear no major scarring, and my eyes are intact.

This may not seem like a big deal, but, believe me, it is. You see, despite living in a state that had banned explosive fireworks, my father was undeterred. He committed the unthinkable act of supplying my Lexington-based youth with a steady stream of buckeye explosives.

Now Gov. Snyder has realized what everyone else already knew: Michigan’s fireworks ban was a worthless, easily circumvented law that sent money to Ohio while accomplishing nothing. This week, Snyder did the right thing. He signed a bill allowing the sale of louder, more powerful fireworks within Michigan’s borders.

Detractors, killjoys and nanny-staters have taken to the airwaves, using the mainstream Michigan media to whine about the dangers these devices pose. If they’re to be believed, next summer our state is going to look like a snapshot of World War I trench warfare – only louder and more colorful. Our emergency rooms will be bursting at the seams with screaming, mutilated children. There’s a good chance that, thanks to Snyder, none of us will survive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

“Detroit needs to be run by Detroiters.” – Dave Bing

It’s become the mayor’s battle cry in a last ditch effort to rally his city to – well – some sort of action. He and many others throughout government and the media claim to know what needs to be done. No one’s done anything, of course, but they swear they can see the proper path forward. Unfortunately, they’ve only managed to articulate the first step in their recovery plan: The outright rejection of a state-appointed Emergency Financial Manager. Their reasons are verbose and filled with lofty platitudes about the importance of local government. It sounds nice, but if you do a little digging, you’ll eventually discover the truth.

They fear the appointment of an EFM because he’d be the one person with the power to undo the city’s unsustainable union contracts.

These contracts, and the pensions they contain, were created at a time when the city boasted a population of nearly two million. They’re the by-product of an era when the Motor City had a booming tax base that could support higher salaries and cushy retirement funds. Those days are long gone. Now, these perks are killing the city.

Today, Detroit is a city of less than 700,000 people. Officially, our unemployment rate is just under 30 percent, but when you factor in those no longer seeking employment, the real number closes in on the 50 percent mark. In other words, assuming everyone who can is actually paying their taxes, only 350,000 Detroiters pay the bill to support pension plans created with two million resident taxpayers in mind.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

Rochester, MICHIGAN – Against a theatrical backdrop of Ebenezer Scrooge’s counting house, fat cat filmmaker Michael Moore donned his finest sweatpants and took the stage at Oakland University Wednesday night before hundreds of adoring fans. That the school had recently played debate host to what he called “eight Republican crazies” was an irony not lost on the Icon of Occupy. Billed as a reading, lecture and “Here Comes Trouble” book-signing, Moore’s 90-minute, expletive-laced address was actually an exuberant tour of the Michigan filmmaker’s ideology.

While his audience already knew what Moore believes, the best parts of an evening organized as part of his “Here Comes Trouble” book tour may have been a surprising willingness to admit the failures of his elected fellow travelers. Michael Moore is terribly disappointed in the Obama Administration, admits that the youth vote has abandoned The One and fears that he may be the ultimate Crony Capitalist.

Oh, yes – one more thing. Moore also has a deep disdain for a web site called The Michigan

View.com, and would like you to know that he doesn’t own a $2 million mansion on Torch Lake. In fact, he says he’s never even seen the house that he and his wife own, according to Antrim County public tax records, Antrim County officials, local real estate agents, local contractors and neighbors.

Okaaaay.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

The Detroit City Council has been busy.  First, it enacted an oh-so-important anti-bullying ordinance.  Later, it held a secret meeting to discuss the city’s impending financial apocalypse.  Then, it passed a resolution allowing the “Occupy” protesters to hold onto their precious tent city for one more week.  Finally, fearing that it would be eliminated when the state took over the city’s fiscal difficulties, it decided to work through the holidays in an effort to prevent the aforementioned doom.

It’s nice to know that it managed to find time, between bullies and occupiers, to deal with the economy, even if its real goal seems to be self-preservation.

The secret meeting was the direct result of a new economic audit, funded by the city’s taxpayers, which finds that Detroit will be completely broke by April of next year.  Keep in mind, we’re not talking about the “deficit spending” kind of broke.  This is the unequivocally destitute kind of poverty that will render the city unable to pay its employees or meet its debts.  Mayor Bing has floated the idea of privatizing city services and eliminating 2,200 jobs in order to free up money.  Unfortunately, this would only delay the inevitable, pushing the implosion back to mid-July.

Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Laurie

From staunch conservative, to libertarian, to middle-of-the-road RINO – the Republican Party has proven itself to be a big tent. As long as the tent sits center right.

But as we head toward the primaries, it’s becoming clear that a few of the GOP presidential candidates are simply taking up space. For some, Wednesday night’s Oakland University debate was a chance to shine. For others, it was a last gasp before collecting their copy of the home game, a year’s supply of Turtle Wax and a one-way ticket to Gary Johnson-ville.

In no particular order, here are the candidates teetering on the brink of political disaster:

Ron Paul. Deep down inside, we all know it would be a lot of fun to see Dr. Paul elected president. Considering his isolationist foreign policy, it may not be pretty, but it would be entertaining. We’ll never find out. Paul’s perennial candidacies are more of a statement than an honest endeavor. While his insistence on states’ rights and staunch constitutionality are refreshingly idealistic, his “let Iran have the bomb” approach to world affairs means he’ll never get the nod.

Read the rest of this entry »