The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Detroit-ification Syndrome

Posted on | July 20, 2024 | Comments Off on The Detroit-ification Syndrome

“‘No American city ever fell as far or as fast as Detroit,’ Julia Vitullo-Martin has observed, and the man who presided over Detroit’s descent into depression and decay was a former radical labor activist named Coleman Young. . . .
“Young was elected mayor of Detroit in 1973, narrowly defeatingthe city’s police chief, John Nichols. . . . The mayor’s reputation for racial hostility hastened ‘white flight’ fromthe city. When he took office in 1974, about half of Detroit’s population was white; indeed, the support of white liberals was crucial to his election. But the steady exodus of whites from the city became a deluge under Young’s mayoralty. Between 1970 and 1980, the white population decreased by 418,000, from 56 percent to 36 percent of the population. During the ’80s, the trend continued, with Detroit’s white population decreasing by anothger 199,000, down to 22 percent by 1990.”
— Donkey Cons, pp. 151-152

Having written thousands of words on this subject — there’s a whole chapter in Donkey Cons about the damage that Democrats have inflicted on urban America — perhaps I mistakenly take it for granted that other people understand this problem as well as I do. But then I look at current trends and realize that white liberals continue to vote for Democrats who pursue the same path of destruction that made Coleman Young infamous.

Permit me to state bluntly what we’re not supposed to say out loud: People who think that white racism is the explanation for every problem afflicting the black community are not merely wrong, but are in fact actively contributing to these problems. Malcolm X remarked during the early 1960s that black people had more to fear from the sympathy of white liberals than from the hostility of Southern segregationists, and white liberals have since proved that warning to be prophetic.

Did you know that there are more than 2,800 vacant properties in Columbus, Ohio? I didn’t know that until just now:

 

The people living on Safford Avenue in the Hilltop neighborhood are fed up with a vacant house on the block and the squatter who keeps breaking into it.
“No matter how many times they came and boarded the house up, he just wouldn’t leave,” said a neighbor named Adrianne.
Anthony Celebrezze, the deputy director of Building and Zoning, said the vacant home came onto Columbus Code Enforcement’s radar after it caught fire in 2023. Celebrezze said it’s not illegal for the home to be vacant, but it must be secured and boarded to code.
“That’s for your own protection because when you’re not around a structure like this, someone’s going to come in and remove the plumbing, the wiring and cause a general mess,” Celebrezze said.
A mess is exactly what neighbors say their experience living next to the home has been.
“We’re tired of it. There’s trash all the time. There’s trash this high inside of the home,” a neighbor said. He declined to share his name.
People have called 911 about the vacant home 29 times between November 2023 and May 2024. They’ve often reported a squatter who keeps returning to the property.
Columbus police have arrested that squatter five times for breaking into the property. 10 Investigates is not naming him because the squatter has been charged with misdemeanors connected to the home.
“We don’t need that disturbance,” a neighbor said. “The firetrucks, the cops. I bet the cops have been over here 20 times. Code Enforcement has been over here 20 times.”
The property is owned by Otis Ray and his sister who inherited it from their parents. Neighbors say they’ve called Ray multiple times for help with no luck. Columbus Code Enforcement officers have been in touch with him, but he hasn’t remedied the violations on the property.
“I have spoken with the owner before and explained to him all of the violations and what needs to be done, but we haven’t had any movement on getting those things addressed,” Columbus Code Enforcement Area 2 Supervisor Cory James said. . . .
The city can take a property owner to environmental court if they do not fix code violations. The city attorney’s office reopened a case against Ray and his sister in court and scheduled a contempt hearing for July 9. That hearing was continued and rescheduled for July 31.
10 Investigates was at the July 9 hearing and spoke with Ray in the courthouse. He declined a formal interview but blamed the squatter for the home’s condition.
“There’s no trouble keeping it up. The squatters, the people – I don’t want to talk. This stuff pisses me off,” he said.
As of Jan. 4, there were more than 2,800 vacant properties in Columbus, according to data collected by Code Enforcement. . . .

You can read the whole thing, but just think about that number for a minute — nearly 3,000 homes are sitting vacant in the capital city of Ohio. Why would there be so many vacant houses? Is it perhaps because nobody who can afford to buy a house wants to live in Columbus? Could this be related to the fact that Franklin County is a Democratic Party stronghold that in 2020 elected Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty to Congress and went for Joe Biden by a nearly 2-to-1 margin?

Malcolm X could not be reached for comment.



 

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Category: Ohio, Racism

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