"Drop Dead" Detroit!?

By Kenneth V. Cockrel

In recalling the last campaign for Mayor of the city of Detroit, it is interesting to note that one of the points of debate centered upon the subject of whether John Nichols or Coleman Young "best knew the way to Lansing and Washington, D.C."

The last two years have clearly shown us that John Nichols not only didn't know the way, but that he also finds Oakland County a convenient, and apparently permanent, rest stop. (Nichols is now Undersheriff of Oakland County, playing "Tonto" to former Detroit Police Commissioner Johannes Spreen's "Lone Ranger"). 

Moreover, the last two years convincingly established the fact that such knowledge is of little real value to the citizenry of this still-vital city. The resolve of the Nixon-Ford administration to write off the cities as bastions of bedraggled welfare cheats, endlessly siphoning off the fruits of the endeavors of the more solid middle-class citizens, is evidence everywhere.

We have watched the national administration go from "benign neglect" of the nation's cities to a posture as regards New York City that was aptly described in a recent edition of the New York Daily News the front-page headline read "Ford to New York: 'DROP DEAD'!"

The controversy that swirls around the discussion of New York's fiscal plight has accelerated the concern that Detroiters have as to our city's vulnerability to similarly threatening circumstances.

The last two years have seen the city experience an impact fro the current "recession" (a.k.a "depression"), the severity of which is staggering. 

From speculation about the effect of closing down the Chrysler Jefferson Avenue Assembly Plant, we have no reached public discussion about the "imminent bankruptcy" of the entire Chrysler Corporation.

The ominous spectre of "busing" was sought to be "defused" by the much-heralded "limited approach" fashioned by Federal Judge Robert DeMascio, after intense lobbying by responsible civic leaders -- among them, Coleman Young and Carl Levin.

With the desire to avert "white flight" as the official rationale, the "limited busing" advocates were also able to "mitigate" the consequences of seeking enforce the U.S. Constitution in a Detroit whose police force is bitterly divided along racial lines. 

Still, the Federal Court has ordered the busing of approximately 22,000 of the city's 247,000 public school students.

Under the proposed planned, the 23 per cent white pupil population is expected to be minimally involved.

Nonetheless, the demographic trend of "white exodus" continues apace. According to the figures, Detroit is now at about 60 per cent Black, as contrasted to 43 per cent in 1970 and 36 per cent in 1965.

This continuing trend has resulted in an increase in the legislative power of precisely those suburbanites who view Detroit as a nightmare that goes away only if you wake up outside the city limits.

Some of Detroit's citizens, especially those with fond remembrances of a long line of Democratic administrators in Washington, starting with F.D.R., say that the solution begins with the election in 1976 of a Democratic President.

They point to Gerry Ford's escalation of the anti-busing hysteria (during the height of Boston's first year of massive busing, Ford allowed as how he, too, was personally opposed to busing) as evidence of the negativism of the Republican Party.

How the flock of Democratic Presidential hopefuls will fare in 1976 is anybody's guess, but if the record of the sizeable Democratic majorities (in both houses of the State Legislature) is any indicator, then that party is not Detroit's salvation, either.

Governor Miliken has recently discovered that the state faces a huge deficit, and he is urging cuts (up to $150 million) which, if adopted, will severely impact Detroit's population -- with its large demand for public service and assistance. Resistance to the proposed cuts is there to be seen, but the city is not the object of the kind of solicitude in Lansing that one hears expressed in relation to the troubles of former Supreme Court Justice John Swainson, a popular Democrat with a long history as an officeholder in government.

In the city's fiscal future, we are now being told that we should anticipate a possible deficit of anywhere up to $55 million, a condition which is impermissible under the City Charter. 

Accordingly, the Mayor has discussed a probably request to the State Legislature for authority to increase the income tax levy imposed upon residents and non-residents alike. 

The Mayor, himself a former leader of the State's Democrats (and a member of the Party's National Committee) is said to share the common view that the Democratic majority in Lansing notwithstanding, no tax on non-residents is likely.

The legislature, reflecting the suburban-rural view, tells Detroit to "drop dead," but will be happy to permit Detroiters (who already bear the heaviest tax burden in the state) to tax themselves to the hilt.

Detroit's police union, the D.P.O.A., while continuing to challenge residency (as mandated by the recent arbitration panel), is not lobbying Lansing to increase the tax on non-residents -- about one thousand of whom are said to be Detroit police officers.

No doubt they would support an increased tax for residents, certainly, if it would prevent an austerity -- ordained reduction of their considerable fringe benefits and retirement plans.

Coleman Young clearly knows the roads to Washington and Lansing, but when he got to D.C., he found that Gerry Ford has no urge to "Move Detroit Forward."

Since neither Washington nor Lansing is coming to the rescue, now is the time to start mobilizing the non-partisan city governmental apparatus to help ourselves.

For openers, we should resist an income tax increase for city residents only - unless it is accompanied by a plan to end all subsidies of suburban residents by Detroiters, from the Detroit Zoo to water and sewage treatment.

And, by the way, let's start rigid enforcement of police residency.

We should at least charge our "suburban neighbors and employees" for writing us off.