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An Auction in Detroit

By Rougman, Section News
Posted on Mon Oct 26, 2009 at 11:17:25 AM EST
Tags: Detroit (all tags)

Of the 9,000 Detroit properties put up for auction by Wayne County officials, more than eight in ten went without a single bid, this despite a required low minimum bid of $500. The properties had been seized by tax collectors for nonpayment.

From Reuters:

In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.
After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book as thick as a city phone directory, the energy of the county auctioneer began to flag.
"OK," he said. "We only have 300 more pages to go."

Most of the properties that did sell were scooped up by investors leaving local Detroiters seeking low cost entry level housing out in the cold.

The good news is that some investors have decided that Detroit might be a good place to take a chance again even if that investment is quite small. The bad news is that these investors will most likely have to wait a long time for a positive return on their investments, and the city may have to wait years before these investment worthy properties ever see habitation.

These are the fruits of Michigan and Detroit; a state and city choked by too much regulation and taxation, a state and city where profits are considered almost evil by bureaucrats and labor leaders, and a state and city where generations of individuals have been encouraged to lean on the benevolent hand of government to provide.

Residents who might want to move in will be moving into a city that is not secure and has on many occasions earned the title "Murder Capitol of America." Its schools are among the worst, if not the worst, in the nation. For primarily security reasons, there is not one chain grocery store in the city making the cost of daily staples more expensive than places superstores are common. There are widespread problems with city services while many neighborhoods are littered with debris between abandoned houses.

No, it is not a surprise that a vast majority of these homes and properties went without a bid. What is surprising is that people were complicit for the decades of outright abuse and neglect that it took to turn Detroit into the city that it has become.

Decades of progressive thought have left their mark on Detroit. Will its remaining residents ever choose a better future?

h/t Mlive

< 5, 4, 3 ,2.... | A Crystal Ball? >

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An Auction in Detroit | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden)

Look in the Mirror that is Detroit, America (none / 0) (#1)
by DMOnline on Mon Oct 26, 2009 at 11:41:06 AM EST

Excellent piece, Roug...

Your last sentence is not only pertinent to those that still live in Detroit but in the rest of the country as well.

Detroit is the poster child for what happens when you let liberals/progressives run everything for any length of time.

Show me a city that's been dominated for decades by the Left and I'll show you a city that's a mess - economically, morally, in every way imaginable.

What Detroit is today (and on a larger scale, what Michigan is today) is what our entire country will be tomorrow if we let the Left continue to control all levels of power within our nation.

DCuz

Say what? (none / 0) (#4)
by rdww on Mon Oct 26, 2009 at 02:30:14 PM EST

"Most of the properties that did sell were scooped up by investors leaving local Detroiters seeking low cost entry level housing out in the cold."

????????

Bewildering isn't it by Rougman, 10/27/2009 12:01:27 AM EST (none / 0)

Great article Rougman! On city services (none / 0) (#5)
by maidintheus on Mon Oct 26, 2009 at 03:00:31 PM EST

it's amazing that an area known for a mentality of thinking it's great to pay taxes, they still don't have snow plows for their own streets. Maybe the Snow Man just wants to keep 'em down.

Me, I'd take a look at those entrenched people running things decade after decade. Perhaps results aren't actually important. Looking at the urban areas, this is typical.

Is there still an argument out there as to Dems being more intelligent? These are some of the same people who make fun of Palin. This is all I have to say to Detroit: Pin the tail on the donkey!

This post is just... (none / 0) (#7)
by KG One on Tue Oct 27, 2009 at 05:53:43 PM EST

...one facet of the problems that the City of Detroit is facing.

Detroit is in the neighborhood of $300-million in the red. Declining revenue. Junk bond status. Calling its leadership inept (Bing & Cockrel excluded) doesn't do the term justice (see latest example). And a population that is not interersted in bettering themselves due to government social engineering programs that have failed miserably.

Continuing to prop up the city is only delaying the inevitable.

As much as it pains me to say this, the best thing that can happen to Detroit is for it to fail.

It will be hard on residents, but only then will things begin to turn around.

Not surprising! (none / 0) (#9)
by LookingforReagan on Tue Oct 27, 2009 at 10:02:23 PM EST

I have been trying to give Detroit back to Canada for years and they won't take it either. Of course the catch was Jenny No Jobs had to be part of the deal. It really says alot when you can't even give Detroit away. Me thinks it would be better to resettle those folks in a city that has lost population, say New Orleans and then bulldoze what was once a prosperous region of the country and maybe start over. Maybe it would serve better as a landfill or a prairie dog town. But there is agreement that if the Progressive ideals that led to this mess were an experiment then it is a miserable failure. It should be a very teachable moment. This is what happens when idiots without commonsense run anything. We are now seeing this on the national front. Let us see if the lesson has been learned. Next Tuesday will say a great deal about where we are going. I for one can't wait to cast my vote against Granholm and Obama. I will be voting for Mike Nofs. It will be my distinct pleasure to do this.

It all comes down to politics. (none / 0) (#11)
by KG One on Wed Oct 28, 2009 at 08:56:01 AM EST

If the guv were to appoint an emergency financial manager to fix Detroit's financial mess, the residents would not stand for it.

They would take their frustrations out at the polls by not voting democrat, or gasp, not voting at all.

Pontiac has a smaller population, so what's happening there won't have much political fallout.

But with Detroit, without that large dependent class to support them in the '10 elections, things will look very different in Lansing/Washington.

An Auction in Detroit | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden)

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An Auction in Detroit

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