In an earlier issue of the Black Label Detroit project, this publication discussed at length the situation that the city of Detroit is going to find itself in after it gets on the "other side" of the Covid pandemic (that report had a bunch of broken links littered throughout it at the time of publication, they should be all fixed now, sorry about that btw). Namely, the concern about how these massive losses of money caused by the pandemic puts the city not only on the road towards a replay of the 2014 bankruptcy, but also on the path of doubling down on the same failed policies that has caused radicals to raise questions about how "real" the city's comeback actually is.
Right now, thankfully, it seems as if most of the economic experts out there who aren't completely blinded by ideology understand the fact that, despite one of the biggest the effects of the Covid crisis being the spectacular rise of public sector debt, it would be a monumental mistake to encourage the return of austerity after the worst of the crisis is finally over. Unfortunately for us Detroiters however, mayor, and walking "white savior" complex, Mike Duggan really doesn't seem to get the memo. Last year, Duggan was featured in a story by the Detroit News where he attempted to spin his inability to come up with any creative ways to restart the city's struggling economy by suggesting that his passage of a budget containing $350 million dollars worth of cuts to city services and employee payments was just a bit of "hard-nosed fiscal responsibility". In an interview that can be basically summed up as "I've done nothing, and I'm all out of ideas" Duggan tells journalist Christine Ferretti:
"If we run a deficit, the review commission pops back to life and stays for a minimum of three years again. If we don't handle this deficit ourselves, the state of Michigan is going to be running this city again and I'm going to do everything I can to ensure that doesn't happen.[..] If the review commission is in place, they run the city of Detroit's life,"
Instead of doing the obvious thing during a time of crisis and using his position as mayor to speak out against the restrictions that the city of Detroit faces from building a genuine recovery, or, maybe even utilize his carefully crafted relationship with national political celebrity Governor Whitmer, and using her inexplicable popularity among his own citizens to persuade her to abolish the racist and undemocratic budget review commission as an act of good faith to right a past wrong, Duggan, would rather just do absolutely nothing.
Of course, those suggestions are just spitballed ideas, and there could be the very real possibility that maybe the author of this publication is just an uneducated amateur observer who wouldn't know the first thing about the finer points of municipal politics. After all, since the Duggan administration has more than five hundred appointees making more than six figures in the nation's second poorest big city, he likely has more than a enough over-compensated political advisors telling him, unironically, that this was the best move for the mayor to take (Just as a small aside: these same consultants were exempt from the recent budget cuts btw).
The go-to tactic for today's urban neoliberal mayor is to allow yourself to be seduced by the conservative logic of TINA, or, "There Is No Alternative" since, after all, you can't be blamed for incompetence if actual decision-making powers are completely outside of your hands. Your best bet is to just sit back, relax, publicize your perfectly crafted and expertly spun press releases clarifying why your government is incapable of doing anything on it's own, be sure to make a bold show to the public with performative actions like calling up all the local journalists, standing up in front of your camera in your expensive, pressed suit and asserting to the bright lenses that you personally "won't let this happen" or, "I won't take this anymore!" is even better! If the journalists know what's good for them, they'll almost trip over themselves to rush to their laptops and give your aggravatingly vague and contentless speech and press release some positive coverage. If not? well, they'll just have to wait to get their new from the journalists who you actually like, won't they?
Well, that characterization may be a little unfair. Maybe neoliberal mayors do actually accomplish something. If we take Mike Duggan for an example, these type of mayors like to pride themselves on being "turn around artists" who've gained some level of "popularity" due to their role in the public/private sector (now, it doesn't really matter if they didn't turn anything around while in their position, or, really made a enterprise's situation even worse, it's moreso the aesthetics of competency that matter more than someone genuinely being competent. That's a short lesson in modern politics 101). They use their earned reputation to turn to the public after getting elected and make statements that go something like: "You see all these jobs moving into town? You wouldn't have any of this if I wasn't here.." . These types of politicians usually pull this stunt with the hope that no disgruntled voters will actually try to replace them with someone different.. Once you peep this strategy, you'll recognize it more often. Accepting this version of municipal "great man" theory might be enough to satisfy access-obsessed local media journalists, but the context that they chronically fail to include in all of their glowing tales of turnarounds and revivals is the fact that this specific brand of local politics is the logical end-point of a type of a political project that has made our cities more financially fragile in times of crisis.
As we already know at this point from the previous issue on the topic, "austerity" is an academic term used to describe any reduction in government spending on social services. So, a spin-off of this concept, one that's relevant to get to the point of this report, is another academic term called "austerity urbanism". The practical implications of "austerity urbanism" is basically the idea of how those same government cuts are absorbed by cities, implemented by local politicians, and ultimately transferred into the daily lives of citizens. Unfortunately for the people of Detroit, it's not at all hyperbolic to say that not only are we one of the world's leading examples of how austerity urbanism works, but also how this destructive agenda is inflicted upon the working public.
So, what what are some examples and day-to-day effects of this type of policy? Well, before we can even get into the details of this hypothetical question, we've got to take the time to understand what the people who're tasked with implementing this type of agenda actually believe. Okay... well... what is "neoliberalism" anyway? Simply put, it's a term whose definition changes completely based on who you ask about it. A businessman like Dan Gilbert will probably tell you that it's the purest form of implementing "free market" ideology that a government can achieve. While a radical who isn't too ideologically consistent might vaguely describe it as a combination of all of capitalism's most shitty aspects rolled into one terrible package. Since, this is a publication authored by someone who considers themselves to be an ideologically consistent radical (like I'm sure all the other radicals do), Black Label Detroit will tell you from the jump that neoliberalism is basically capitalism's concept to full communism. When we get into the textbook definition of the term and begin giving some real world examples of neoliberalism in action, you'll start to see why.
According to Oxford dictionary, the most basic definition of neoliberalism is: A political ideology that believes in a completely unrestricted and regulation free "global market" which would exist without any government regulations, which, would allow capitalists and industries in general to exist to solely seek a profit and give "value" to their shareholders. Put into plain English: neoliberalism's end-goal is to implement capitalist markets and spread the workings of it's ideology into every economic sector that exists, and fill every aspect of the world around us. As we analyze how this concept intersects with austerity urbanism, we'll begin to see just how completely fucking insane the implications actually are..
So, back to our hypothetical: what does "austerity urbanism" really mean for your average city resident anyways? Well, if we take what's happened in the city of Detroit since 2014 as an example, neoliberal politicians and their policy "experts" genuinely believe that since places like Detroit can't really afford to provide the high quality services to their residents like the used to in the past, so, the only logical solution according to them is: just let those services be run by private companies instead. Everything from trash pickup, to the public school system, the lights that you see while walking down the street, to the "affordable housing" that you or a family member might live in, and even the security force that you count on to keep you and your family safe, are all fair game to either be privatized or provided by a private entity that isn't held accountable by the democratic process. It doesn't really matter if these types of mass privatizations don't actually save a city money in the long run, or, doesn't make it's government run more efficiently, that isn't the point. Privatization, just like the political project of Neoliberalism itself, is nothing more than an ideological pursuit that needs to endlessly be chased after rather than a real, pragmatic, solution for struggling cities to follow. This publication would encourage the reader/listener of this report to think about how all of these projects were allowed to fall into place by their elected officials, and then, imagine the reaction that someone like a radical political candidate, for example, might receive from the political class, or, even the local news media, if they earnestly suggested that all of these services be brought back under public ownership as we travel farther along, just as some food for thought..
By far the biggest hammer in the neoliberal politician's toolkit however, is a pretty boring-sounding yet, profoundly important political tool called "municipal consolidation"; Which, is basically just a fancy way of describing the process of how two or more cities/counties merge together to become an even bigger entity. According to them, this type of government reform is supposed to represent a "silver bullet" when it comes to solving the credit issues of the inner city while saving citizen's tax dollars in the suburbs, since, according to "political analysists" at least, the cost savings found from trimming down services and cutting government staff would make a city run more efficiently... despite the fact that a city government would have to provide those same services to more people.. over a wider geographical area.. If you're becoming a little more than confused by that line of logic, don't be, that's because it's pretty much just bullshit. There's been multiple studies conducted over the years to see if municipal consolidation really does achieve the goal of cost savings, and those same studies show that they almost always fail to do so.
If we wanna know what the real intentions behind consolidation are, it would be completely irresponsible to talk about this subject without touching upon what happened to a city of Toronto in 1998; That's when then conservative Ontario Premier (Canadian governor basically), and leader of the ironically self-described "Common Sense Revolution" , Mike Harris, single handedly merged the old city of Toronto with five surrounding suburbs to form what was dubbed as "the megacity". This strong-arm move would prove to be a fateful decision that Torontonians would go on to debate the effects of nearly twenty years after the fact. On top of innovating the lie of cost-savings, the sheer magnitude of Harris & his Conservative Party's coup de main can really only be understood if we analyze the contemporary politics of the city today: ever since the city of Toronto amalgamated with it's suburbs, three of the last four mayors have all been card-carrying members of the Ontario Conservative Party, and only one of those mayors got into office without relying exclusively on conservative suburban voters. Even in recent years, Conservative politicians have sought to run up their score in this new "megacity" into a indefinite and insurmountable political lead. Like, when current Ontario Premier Doug Ford successfully cut the representation of Toronto's city council from a total of 47 wards (districts) to only 25. Keep in mind, the city of Toronto is a place that's already experiencing a massive crisis of citizen under-representation, and this move only serves to make that crisis even worse.
With all this analysis in mind, it's the opinion of this publication that the city of Detroit and the wider metro region in general is on a sort of unprecedented and equally massive collision course with consolidation sometime in the near future. Black Label Detroit doesn't come to this conclusion based on guess-work and the usual media bullshit however. Believe it or not, it's something that's been in the pipeline for decades now, but, based on the slow pace of progress, one can only assume that the powers that be don't really know how, or, when exactly to pull the trigger.
This "wild" conclusion is backed up by a couple of facts: if any reader/lister has their hands on a little book called Michigan, Visions of Our Past, they'd know that the book was originally published way back in 1989 to commemorate the state's 150th birthday, and even includes a photocopied signature from a man named Richard J. Hathaway; who, was Michigan's Secretary of State at the time. In the very first chapter of the book, Ferris State professor and Michigan historian Richard A. Santer openly advocates for the process of consolidating the state's eighty-three counties down to just fourteen while using current school districts to form new townships/cities. He justified his assertion by suggesting that the new municipalities would "not be as dependent on Lansing or Washington to solve their own problems" (verbatim quote). There's even more evidence that consolidation has been on the establishment's radar for a while: in 2010, Michigan's state Senate released notes on how feasible municipal consolidation would be, citing a report from the state's Emergency Financial Advisory Board (which, the same board Duggan was referring to earlier in this report) advocating for the reform to be implemented. Even more recently to add credibility to this claim: in 2017 the Citizen's Research Council of Michigan produced a sixty-six page study that went unto great lengths to discuss the effects consolidation would have on county governments. And, if you, dear reader, knows where to look, you even have informal movements in this direction also. For example: this post on /r/Detroit, which, despite being the internet's largest discussion board for all happenings in and around the Metro Detroit area, doesn't really have very many working class residents (or Black residents) commenting on it in any significant number. But, is instead dominated by paid marketers and local advertisers. Here, users are seen A-B testing maps of a hypothetical rework to the region's bus system using software that would obviously only be available to transit planners. (one of the forum's moderators is literally employed by the local chamber of commerce, and the creator of Black Label Detroit has actually been indefinitely banned from participating on any Michigan-related forum just for pointing this out as a small aside... Kurt, if you and the mod team are out there reading/listening this right now: fuck you and have a nice day).
I'd imagine it'd be pretty hard for this publication to fabricate all these clues just so it could come to a wild, unsubstantiated conclusion to boost clicks and attract internet clout.
So, at this point, if you're from the area you're probably thinking to yourself: "Okay... well, that's just it then??? The city's more or less destined to be taken over by businessmen, politicians, and suburban voters just like Toronto was? I mean, all of this info is some pretty wild shit, but I'm not really sure what you want me to do with this information". To that point, speaking unprofessionally in the first person, I'd say this:
Black Label Detroit wouldn't have any of the attention, or eyes of the local establishment on it if this publication just pumped out stories that, while providing accurate context & information, signal-boosted a sense of dread among it's readers. So, this is the part of the story where this publication tells you that there's a pathway for other young radicals can take so we can collectively make sure that when this shit finally does hit the fan, the shit in question actually shakes out in our favor. And, in order to appreciate the golden opportunity that's inevitably bound to fall into our laps, we have to reach into the distant past to search for the seeds of future success by the generations who came before so that we can rediscover them and reap their rewards when the time is right. The crown jewel of "Lost Futures" that'll allow us to illuminate the real possibility that lies ahead was commissioned during the heights of the city's power in 1966, one of it's chapters would be released the very next year during the city's darkest hour in 1967, and, the comprehensive study would be finally all said and done in 1970. It's findings would prove to be so thorough that it still remains the most in depth analysis of the city of Detroit, the Metro Detroit region, and, the surrounding area to this day: The Emergence and Growth of an Urban Region commissioned by the Greek urban planning innovator Constantinos Doxiadis.
Even though there's a common belief among the city's elite (who, haven't actually read the study themselves, a point that'll be vividly apparent in a couple of moments) who believe that the study's findings were "inaccurate", usually like to suggest to the press that the study existed to either: A) Solely help the Detroit Edison Company (which is modern day DTE) plan out future electrical grid expansion, or, B) that is was used to predict down the "T" where Detroit and it's wider region would be, or how it would grow in the future.
This publication publication is here to tell you that those assertions are...not surprisingly, bullshit. After spending nearly $200 of Black Label Detroit's own finances to get the entire three-part collection on hand, and, dedicating countless days to analyze the data and findings cited throughout the study's 1,000+ pages, it's actually very explicit as to what purpose it fulfilled. Page 8 of the third edition even has three easily digestible bullet points to detail those very same reasons: First, it's job was to analyze the extent of urban growth that the city of Detroit & it's metro area influences (the extent of which was calculated to be a hundred miles north and south starting from the city's center and 75 miles east and west). Secondly it's task was to grasp the full scale of problems the city was facing (and still very much is to this day). And, finally, it's last goal was to suggest policies and methods that could be utilized to solve the problems that the study identified.
If you're a normal person capable of utilizing critical thinking skills, you might rightly feel like there's absolutely nothing wrong with those objectives. Which, not surprisingly, is the official position of Black Label Detroit as a publication. However, in the collective mind of our region's celebrated "great thinkers", the study was nothing more than a gigantic waste of time, completely unworthy of analysis or any repurposing. How can this publication assert such a claim so strongly exactly? Well, there's the fact that in the 50 years that the study's existed, only ONE article exists that supposedly touches upon it's conclusions or findings. And, even then, the "veteran journalist" who's job it was to analyze the information that he was literally paid to write about doesn't even seem to have done his own homework.
Recently laid off Detroit Free Press columnist and the paper's appointed bootlicker for Motown's landed gentry, John Gallagher, penned what can only be loosely described as an "article" back in 2017 blaming the study for.. destroying suburban shopping malls and sports stadiums .. In Gallagher's impossibly uninformative "article", he alleges that the study paved the way for Metro Detroit's trend of mass suburbanization by citing observations from a retired urban planner, who didn't even participate in working on the study himself. On top of that, he "interviews" (read: gives free advertising to) a real estate developer who goes on to describe, completely unironically, what he genuinely believes the "Millennials" want out of city life. There's some real hilarious gems in that piece too if you're interested in having a bit of a laugh. Such as the part of the piece where he genuinely thinks that "Millennials" prefer taking Uber/Lyft to get around the city as opposed to owning a car because they supposedly consider it to be "more efficient". Or, possibly the worst take of the entire article, where, he seriously asserts that "Millennials" "want grittiness, character, and old authentic buildings that they can bring back to life", as if the people renovating those massive office spaces downtown into 600 sq. foot "micro lofts" running $2k/month are any type of demographic of young person; as opposed to some bald, middle aged, suburban developer splurging daddy's money who owns probably twelve dozen other properties just like in other cities across the Midwest (which, would probably be a pretty accurate representation of the Freep's main readership demographic).
Some key bits of info about the Doxiadis study that was intentionally left out until now, since, it would be better to include these facts & stats while debunking Gallagher's article, just so we at Black Label Detroit could fully illustrate the fact that he very likely had no idea what he was even talking about. Edward Hustoles, the retired urban planner cited in Gallagher's story, suggested, referring to the study, that: "We got fooled, there was supposed to be a string of people from Detroit to Lansing and Port Huron, and there was gonna be 10 million people here". If Gallagher actually attempted to do his own research, he'd know to correct Hustoles by citing the quote on page 14 of the study's third edition that says (verbatim):
"The long-term perspective cannot be a specific plan except for some particular features such as natural resources. It should definitely not lead to commitments for investments 150 years ahead. Who can tell exactly what the population would be then, or what it's needs will be and the means by which it can be served? Reasonable predictions can be made, but the degree of their validity will not be such to justify their investment."
Again, that's a quote literally lifted from the page of the study's first chapter, it says explicitly that the numbers presented in the study shouldn't be taken literally.... Gallagher somehow manages to go further though, doubling down on his obviously fabricated findings by suggesting that the study was "a stunningly inaccurate bit of forecasting". Again, just to emphasize the fact that Gallagher more than likely never laid eyes on the study, he'd know that on page 221, there's a little chart that also refutes his own point. Even though the table projected that the population of Metro Detroit was gonna be around 15 million people in the year 2000, the hypothetical employment figures cited is bizarrely accurate for some supposedly unscientific study.. the study came up with the number of 5,760,000 people by the same hypothetical projection for the year of 2000 as opposed to the actual population of the wider Detroit-Windsor area: 5.7 million people according to 2010 census data.
Why any self-professed "journalist" would try so hard and, reach to such great lengths to intentionally attempt to bury such an important work of research might appear nonsensical if you're someone who isn't too familiar with Detroit's incestuous political culture. It's this author's hypothesis however, that media figures such as Gallagher only serve the purpose of preserving the state of play that young radicals find themselves in. Their editorial slants serve as a specific type of means to the neoliberal politician's desired ends. Especially for people such as Mike Duggan. Since it's the job of the politician to respond to public opinion, and it's the job of the journalist to shape that same public opinion, when those two social forces decide to achieve some sorta "special relationship" with each other, they have the effect of shaping (or, in our case, shortening) the horizons of our collective futures. To them, it's completely irrelevant that the Doxiadis study was doubtlessly one of the most innovative undertakings ever attempted in the history of urban planning. A combined effort that utilized the resources of economists, graphic designers, social workers, professors, conservationists, architects, mathematicians, engineers, and even some of the first computer programmers in existence, painstakingly sifting through 49 million data points (yes, the study originally started out that broad), narrowing all that data down to 40 possible alternative futures, before, finally, agreeing to propose one specific future to the powers that be of this region to comb over, do a bit of self-reflection upon, and talk among themselves to see if they're genuinely interested in turning the city around. As it turns out, they're absolutely not. Under no circumstances are young people allowed to want more out of this place. It's essentially our moral obligation to put up with the presence of perpetual decline, and, if we're lucky, maybe at some point in the distant future we'll finally be able to see the city genuinely come back in time to be one of the last desirable places to live because of climate change, then, and only then, will we be allowed to dream big and dictate where the city of Detroit will go.
Some pretty inspiring shit ain't it?
That's why Black Label Detroit is encouraging any fellow local radicals reading/listening to this report, to use the Doxiadis study as our own little skeleton key, Not only to craft consolidation in our favor, but to also open up a path we've been destined to walk upon for a generation now. There's much to be said about what a consolidated city could or, really, should look like. This publication has it's own ideas about that, but to fully analyze what such a plan could mean for the nearly 4 million people who live in Metro Detroit, as well as figure out how it would change our lives (for better or for worse) forever, would fundamentally necessitate a deep dive into what it would be like for this beautiful place to be at the cutting edge of urban politics. The author of Black Label Detroit can tell you with absolute confidence that modern city planners are currently theorizing about how a fully elected regional government would turn out, and, if Metro Detroit followed the example of the Stockholm model, where there's a mathematical correlation between the number of people who actually live in the city and how many representatives it has, this new "regional city council" could have as many as 150+ members representing a landmass of nearly two thousand square miles. That would make the "municipal parliament" of this new American supercity larger than both houses of Michigan's legislature combined...
How this hypothetical new city would shape the policies of other places in Michigan, or, interact with the state government, what it's formation would mean for neighboring established "global cities" like Toronto or Chicago, and by what means radicals could to ensure that consolidation isn't just a glorified suburban takeover of the city will undoubtedly be the topic of further analysis. In the meantime, this publication completely encourages any and all readers/listeners to let their imagination run wild with those prospects and have those possibilities be the subject of much calculation. To help eliminate some of the variables inherent to this calculation, Black Label Detroit will give it's readers a couple of tips: there's already provisions in the state's constitution that actually allows for a public vote on consolidation, this method should absolutely be utilized to avoid top-down reorganization. Under no circumstances should you accept any appointed "leaders" in the consolidation fight, there needs to be a genuine grassroots effort to see this process through to success. And, if a consolidation proposal comes out the doesn't include voting reforms, or, worse, the fake promise of political reform through the "alternative vote" system, it's a dead giveaway that the proposal in question would ensure the very same suburban domination that we're trying to avoid.
Having Detroit be the first city to enact proportional representation isn't just some "idealistic ask", it'll be necessary to make sure that the political project of consolidation is a long-lasting and meaningful change to our broken system, and not simply just a band-aid approach. We'll keep it at that for now on the topic of political calculation.
With all that being said, if you're from this city, you know that Detroit is a place with a profound soul. That's probably why it's people take so much pride in being able to say that they're from here. We know that we live in the shadow of historical greatness, and always will. No matter how bleak the material conditions of today are turning out for us. The very same soul that allows us to have our own unique brand of city-slicker courage has a corollary though: a specter, which exists as an entity that has seemingly haunted this city as the days and decades have come and gone. The specter that haunts the city's citizens, and hangs over the heads of the (not so) politically almighty men who've found themselves completely powerless to fight against this phantom, it represents the accumulated weight of lost futures that this city has failed to follow. The heavy burden that such Lost Futures carry are probably the reason why every supposedly "anti-establishment" and "political outsider" mayor who's been elected since 1994 had made it a point of claiming ownership over the very concept of "the future" in a futile attempt to reverse what might feel like some ever-present generational curse. It only seems like Dennis Archer's demand of: "Let the Future Begin!", Kwame's command of: "Our future, right here, right now!", and Mike D's ideologically meaningless message that "Every neighborhood has a future" had done nothing more than to just jinx and delay the day when we can finally put the curse of constant decline behind us.
That's exactly why this publication's specific advice to any local radical and young visionary is to bide your time, play the waiting game, and start planning. With Duggan's current contender playing the sad, and yet, shockingly common political practice of co-opting valid criticism against a government without actually presenting a pre-packaged alternative political vision (even going so far as to parrot shockingly similar talking points to another failed candidate four years ago, we'll just keep it at that when it comes to discussing the topic of machine politics). It would probably take some sort of act of god, or, some unexpected disturbance for Duggan to actually lose his bid for a 3rd term in the mayor's office. This prospect shouldn't stop us from preparing to spring into action when all of the findings outlined in this report finally come to pass. When things actually do start getting set in motion, we'll be there to trip-up and frustrate the hostile takeover before it has time to even get off the ground. We will be just as loud and obnoxious in our demands for the city to commit to our radical platforms and manifestos just as our creditors will be when they inevitably come to us again and demand that we "just find ways to do more with less" or, to "live within our means". And, finally, if everything does go according to plan, when those 150+ seats go up for grabs in what's bound to be one of the most mesmerizing political spectacles in modern American history, we'll finally be on the path to exorcising the spirits that've haunted this city by offering a genuine cure to lost futures: A rediscovered & defined destiny.
Then, we'll be able to explain with full clarity, how: the typical politicians we've trusted for so long have failed to revive the phantoms of the future into something useful through their old, worn out ideas. We can tell the public how, the very concept of the "future" is nothing more than an avoidable variable, who's outcome is entirely dependent on whoever's creating the equation, as opposed to the inescapable constant of destiny, who's inclusion is necessary for life's operations to work. And, we can illustrate to our opponents the fact that if "the future" is the vague anticipation of a long drawn out campaign, then the knowledge of how the most decisive blows will be inflicted in that campaign's final hours will be a clear example of the power that the concept of "destiny" holds over the future.
It's then, and only then, will we be able to articulate an alternative politics that completely breaks with what's been presented to us, and finally show for the first time in generations that a different order is possible.
To all who read/listen to this report, whether you be a young radical, hater, artistic visionary, journalistic "story-teller", "political consultant, or, even an elected politician, there's nothing more to say on the subject other than this: a long dormant, and delayed destiny is finally on the verge of being born. In a place historically known as the Arsenal of Democracy, destiny represents nothing less than an ideological weapon of mass destruction that has the capability of finally destroying a decrepit political machine that has sought to do everything in it's power to derail it's delivery, and demoralize the prospect of genuine change. In light of these revelations, you can do whatever you'd like, this author assures you though, you won't be able to dodge the effects of destiny.
Links & Sources:
9. Clark, Anna "Can Mike Duggan Save Detroit?" Politico Magazine 2013 (as a corollary: Betteridge's law of headlines)19. Reindl, JC "Detroit streetlight repairs ahead of schedule" Detroit Free Press 2013 (OLD) (citation included because it is the only major reference to the lighting authority's privatization in the news. Would recommend reading newer articles about Detroit's streetlights for full context)25. "Insourcing often leads to better service and cost-savings" Study by In The Public Interest 201926. Suzuki. Kohei "Politics of Municipal Consolidations"Quality of Government Institute, Sweden 201651. B. Allen Jr., Eddie "Jury selection opens in former Detroit mayor's corruption trial" Reuters 2012
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