MUCKRAKING ALERT: Detroit spent $45 million on sidewalk ramps to nowhere while sinking into debt
The city can’t afford emergency services but installed 27,000 curb ramps, many of which are on impassable sidewalks.
Mayor Bing: Detroit won’t compete for 2024 Summer Olympics; cites severe budget crisis
The decision comes a day after the mayor said he has accepted the inevitability of Gov. Snyder appointing an emergency manager in Detroit.
City failed miserably to protect residents from downed power lines during windy, icy night
On one of the windiest, iciest nights in Detroit in over a year, the city had just one Public Lighting Department crew overnight to handle countless downed, sparking power lines and fallen street lights spread across 139 square miles.
Aerial view: Demolition levels 10-block area of east side, clears way for progress
Crews recently wiped out a 10-block area that included decaying buildings, thick overgrowth and discarded tires and needles.
Demolition of 10-block area on Detroit’s east side was teeming with dope, prostitutes, homeless
The cost to demolish six houses, level trees, till the land and clean up discarded tires and trash: just $200,000.
Read entire text of Mayor Dave Bing’s State of the City address
Don’t miss a word of Mayor Bing’s speech.
City Council won’t give up Belle Isle, snubs Mayor Bing’s threats to close 50 parks
Council President Charles Pugh said the city can improve the nation’s largest municipal park on its own by charging entrance fees, opening up a winery and launching events such as concerts.
1 dead, 8 injured in firebombing at home in Detroit; investigation is ongoing
Now some are questioning whether the victims’ fate would have been different if the closest rigs – Engine 47 and Ladder 30 – weren’t out of service, which has become a grave and growing problem.
Mayor Bing delivers bonuses to high-level police after rank-and-file cops get pay cuts
It’s the second time in less than two months that Bing’s administration has handed out bonuses to nonunion employees.
What’s Mayor Bing hiding? Crews flatten 10 city blocks in 10 days. Church, school, houses gone
In just two weeks, demolition crews flattened 10 blocks on the lower east side, leveling homes, a 19th-century church, school, and trees on the lower east side.