A Dream Still Deferred AT first glance, the numbers released by the Census Bureau last week showing a precipitous drop in Detroit’s population — 25 percent over the last decade — seem to bear a silver lining: most of those leaving the city are blacks headed to the suburbs, once the refuge of mid-century white flight. But a closer analysis of the data suggests that the story of housing discrimination that has dominated American urban life since the early 20th century is far from over. In the Detroit metropolitan area, blacks are moving into so-called secondhand suburbs: established communities with deteriorating housing stock that are falling out of favor with younger white homebuyers. If historical trends hold, these suburbs will likely shift from white to black — and soon look much like Detroit itself, with resegregated schools, dwindling tax bases and decaying public services.
Anesthetist job fight reflects health outsourcing trend Almost 70 Metro Detroit nurse anesthetists are set to be out of work Friday due in part to a nationwide trend in which hospitals are increasingly contracting out to private firms entire departments to trim costs. Sixty-eight certified registered nurse anesthetists at St. John Providence Health System hospitals in Southfield and Novi expect to be out of a job because they didn’t agree by a 11 p.m. Southfield attorney David Shea, who represents the group calling itself the “Michigan 68,” said nurse anesthetists were privatized at McLaren Macomb Hospital and Detroit Medical Center hospitals without acrimony because employees were included in the process. Health care providers around the country have been consolidating and contracting out services to improve efficiency in the wake of the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act, which has put pressure on systems to reduce costs because of reductions in reimbursement rates for Medicare services. According to a St. kbouffard@detroitnews.com
Detroit’s white population rises Detroit’s white population rose by nearly 8,000 residents last year, the first significant increase since 1950, according to a Detroit News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The data, made public Wednesday, mark the first time census numbers have validated the perception that whites are returning to a city that is overwhelmingly black and one where the overall population continues to shrink. Many local leaders contend halting Detroit’s population loss is crucial, and the new census data shows that policies to lure people back to the city may be helping stem the city’s decline. “It verifies the energy you see in so many parts of Detroit and it’s great to hear,” said Kevin Boyle, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian who studies the intersection of class, race, and politics in 20th-century America. “The last thing I want to do is dampen the good news, but the problem is Detroit is still the poorest city in the U.S. “I think it’s a trend. “It’s not creating an even playing field.”
How Detroit Went Bottom-Up In the spring of 2005, David Stockman at last reaped the reward of the monopolist. Stockman, who once served as Ronald Reagan's budget director, spent two decades on Wall Street preparing for this moment. After stints at Salomon Brothers and the Blackstone Group, Stockman in 1999 set up his own private investment fund, Heartland Industrial Partners. He then used Heartland to shape a set of companies -- mainly in the automotive sector -- each dedicated to dominating a particular group of production activities. Of all Stockman's efforts, his most audacious centered on a firm named Collins & Aikman. When the time came to choose his first target, Stockman took aim at Chrysler. Not many years ago, it was all but unthinkable that a mere supplier would dare to hold up one of the Big Three in such a blatant manner. Unfortunately for Stockman, he appears to have mis-timed his play for a big payday. This type of consolidation is not limited to the automotive sector. Advertisement PinIt
Detroit’s Bankruptcy Reflects a History of Racism This is black history month. It is also the month that the Emergency Manager who took political power and control from the mostly African American residents of Detroit has presented his plan to bring the city out of the bankruptcy he steered it into. This is black history in the making, and I hope the nation will pay attention to who wins and who loses from the Emergency Manager’s plan. Black people are by far the largest racial or ethnic population in Detroit, which has the highest percentage of black residents of any American city with a population over 100,000. Detroit’s bankruptcy plan calls for the near-elimination of the retiree health benefits that city workers earned over the years, as well as drastic cuts in the pensions that retired and current workers have earned and counted on. It’s important to view what is happening to Detroit and its public employees through a racial lens. Government was involved at a more micro level as well. So, why is Detroit bankrupt?
How Detroit, the Motor City, turned into a ghost town | US news Try telling Brother Jerry Smith that the recession in America has ended. As scores of people queued up last week at the soup kitchen which the Capuchin friar helps run in Detroit, the celebrations on Wall Street in New York seemed from another world. The hungry and needy come from miles around to get a free healthy meal. Though the East Detroit neighbourhood the soup kitchen serves has had it tough for decades, the recession has seen almost any hope for anyone getting a job evaporate. Neither is there any sign that jobs might come back soon. "Some in the past have had jobs here, but now there is nothing available to people. Outside his office the hungry, the homeless and the poor crowded around tables. Officially, America is on the up. But for tens of millions of Americans such things seem irrelevant. Added to that shocking statistic are the millions of Americans who remain at risk of foreclosure. For them the recession is far from over. The city has a shocking jobless rate of 29%.
State prepares to collect city income taxes for Detroit Detroiters and people who work in the city will be able to pay their individual city income taxes electronically starting with the next tax season after the state Treasury Department begins processing the city’s income tax collections in January, officials said today. The state is taking over Detroit income tax collection as part of the city’s post-bankruptcy efforts to improve its bottom line, and the Treasury Department will begin processing the taxes in January. The move will make it easier to file taxes while also boosting compliance, likely resulting in increased revenue for the city, the officials said. “Taxpayers deserve an easy and convenient filing process and the ability to e-file directly with the state will do just that,” Detroit Chief Financial Officer John Hill said in a news release. Income tax – 2.4% for residents and 1.2% for nonresidents who work in Detroit – is the city’s largest revenue source, estimated to raise more than $250 million a year.
Crain's Detroit Business : Subscription Center Photo by St. John Providence Hospital Most of the certified registered nurse anesthetists at St. John Providence Hospital and Medical Center in Southfield and St. The 66 nurse anesthetists who lost their jobs Dec. 31 at St. Over the past couple of years, a number of hospitals in Southeast Michigan have signed contracts with regional or national anesthesiology groups that employ both CRNAs and anesthesiologists. The outsourcing of hospital employees — also including housekeeping, food service, laundry, information technology, supply management and emergency services — is driven by the broader need to reduce costs and improve efficiencies because of federal and private payer reimbursement cuts stimulated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The latest and most contentious example of outsourcing CRNAs occurred Jan. 1 at two local hospitals owned by Warren-based St. Jean Meyer: St. Officials for Ascension Health declined interview requests for this story. St.
Detroit, General Motors and the American Dream In 1953 GM President Charles Erwin Wilson sat in front of a committee of senators during his confirmation hearing as President Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense and famously said that “for years I thought that what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.” The comment caused a brief firestorm of controversy because it seemed such a shameless expression of corporate greed and self-interest, and it forced Wilson to divest himself of a considerable amount of GM stock so as to avoid a potential conflict of interest. Sixty years after that quip, however, it is becoming more and more apparent that Wilson was exactly wrong: what was good for General Motors has not proved to be good for the nation, nor, ironically, has it proved good for Detroit. What was good for General Motors in the post-war period was, simply put, suburbanization. In the 1950s and ‘60s we became a nation disproportionately dependent on our cars.
The rise and fall of Detroit: A timeline Sign Up for Our free email newsletters On Thursday, Detroit made history — and not in a good way. The heart of the U.S. auto industry and home to the Detroit Tigers, Eminem and the White Stripes, Motown, and (maybe) Jimmy Hoffa's body became the largest city ever to file for bankruptcy. In many ways, this financial crisis is 60 years in the making. As the Motor City faces an uncertain future, here's a look back at some key dates in the long, storied past of one of America's great cities: July 24, 1701Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac establishes a French settlement, Fort Ponchartrain du Détroit (the strait), along with 100 French soldiers and an equal number of Algonquins. 1760Britain wins the city from the French. 1796U.S. forces capture Detroit from the British. Feb. 1, 1802Detroit becomes a chartered city, covering about 20 acres. 1827Detroit adopts its forward-looking city motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (We hope for better days; it shall rise from the ashes). 1899Ransom E.