Letter sent to Detroit News on January 21, 2011 regarding the mandatory stickers on grocery items, and the Governor's plan to repeal it.

Dear Editor:

Just as the Luddites were threatened by the mechanization of knitting mills, Michigan's neo-Luddites are fighting to maintain the anachronistic and expensive jobs of grocery store sticker placers. Apparently, Michigan consumers (along with similar folks in Massachusetts) are too stupid to read the posted price above the items. Perhaps we should prohibit people from pumping their own gasoline - as is the case in New Jersey. Maybe we should dispense with automated traffic lights, and return to the old days of officers standing in the middle of intersections. Think of all the great jobs that would create!

On the other hand, if the individual pricing sticker law was repealed, prices could go down. Profits could go up. More people could be hired. Unemployment would go down! Sounds like a Win, Win, Win, Win situation to me.

Thomas E. Page

American Routes ~ Motor City Music of Detroit

American Routes ~ Motor City Music of Detroit

Citizens Fed Up With Crime

The following was sent in response to an article highlighting citizens being fed up with crime.  Here's a link to the article:  http://detnews.com/article/20101026/METRO/10260322/Fed-up-with-crime--Detroiters-fight-back

Letter to the editor, Detroit News, sent on October 26, 2010

Dear editor:

The typical Detroit Police Department three-part response to crime is this: (1) Blame the victims;  (2) Complain about how busy they are, citing the number of 911 calls; and (3) Whine about how short of officers the Department is.  Here's what the Department should do: Blame the criminals, seek them out, and arrest them. Screen 911 calls and only dispatch officers when an on-scene response is actually needed - not "24 minutes" from the time of the call, but now. Finally, better deploy your officers. Detroit has more officers per capita than many cities, including Los Angeles. Use uniformed civilians to tow vehicles, direct traffic at sporting events, and lift fingerprints.

Chief Godbee discourages citizens from making arrests. The difference between the TV Detroit Police Officers on "Detroit 187" and real officers is that the "Detroit 187" officers actually seek out criminals to arrest them.  In spite of many dedicated, hard-working, and innovative officers, I have no confidence in the willingness and ability of the Detroit Police Department to have an impact on crime. It's time to consider merging the DPD with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. An elected sheriff in charge of law enforcement would bring accountability to policing.

Thomas E. Page

Retired, Los Angeles Police Department

I e-mailed the following letter to the Detroit News on September 27, 2010. The letter is in response to a Nolan Finley opinion article that appeared in the September 26th paper. Finley's article follows my letter.

Hallelujah! I think Nolan Finley and others are finally getting it. The last things many of us want for our City is a big box store or a chain grocery store surrounded by acres of asphalt or cement. We also don't want a blinged-out SUV or gaudy pick-up truck parked in a driveway on some life-sucking suburban cul de sac. Our porches, actual as well as metaphorical, are in the front rather than tucked in the back of a tri-level ranch. We welcome, and in fact seek out, the strange, the different, the colorful, and even the weird. Yes, Detroit is changing rapidly, mostly for the good. We don't know what the future Detroit will look like, but I guarantee you it's an absolute blast getting there.


And by the way, the "creative class" isn't always young. I moved back to Detroit a few years ago after retiring from the Los Angeles Police Department. I wouldn't live anywhere other than the "Fun Side of 8 Mile." (My winning slogan from a 2009 Detroit News contest).


Thomas E. Page

Finley's article:

A new vision for Detroit

Ididn’t expect much from a documentary hosted by “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville and produced by a company that sells work boots to people who don’t need boots for work.

The 32 minute “Detroit Lives” film from Palladium Boots is hardly a sophisticated examination of the seeds of Detroit’s rebirth. Mostly, it’s just Knoxville driving around in an old convertible chatting with some of the city’s creative underground — the young artists and entrepreneurs who are homesteading an urban wilderness.

But the conversations jarred me into rethinking some assumptions about what form a new and improved Detroit ought to take.

I’m part of a generation that sees Detroit’s future in reclaiming as much of its past as possible. Our version of renewal comes in billion-dollar packages funded by big sugar daddies. So I rolled my eyes at first when a young artist told Knoxville, “Detroit doesn’t need a savior. Detroit doesn’t need a big box store.”

That’s the difference in mindset between the corporate class and the creative class.

It’s also revealed by Phil Cooley, owner of Slows Bar BQ, as he guides Knoxville through the wreckage of the old Michigan Central train depot. I look at that mess and say with disgust, “Only in Detroit.” Cooley says the exact same thing, but with “Wow!” in his voice.

These kids see the city as a found object, beautiful in its natural form. They, too, have dreams of a more vibrant Detroit. But they’d rather have the ruins than another empty field.

Where the smug urban pioneers of my generation settled in the best neighborhoods, this new breed thrives on Detroit’s gritty side.

They’re scraping and painting old houses and moving in.

They’re tearing boards off empty storefronts and opening micro businesses. They’re mowing parks, planting gardens and painting murals without asking permission or waiting for master plans.

They have none of their parents’ fear of the city, venturing well wide of downtown.

They’ve discovered Detroit is just the place for those with more ideas than money.

Their faces are often covered with beards and tattoos, but they get the same resistance as the suits do because those faces are mostly white. They break through by embracing Detroit for what it is, and staying in it day and night.

I’m still not sure they’re the answer for renewing Detroit.

But as downtown businessman Larry Mongo says in the documentary, “They’re filling some

of the gaps.” Whatever plan emerges from Mayor Dave Bing’s landuse hearings shouldn’t choke off their energy and enthusiasm with red tape. What we’ve done for 40 years hasn’t worked; we may as well give them their shot.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The Detroit News. The News is sponsoring the local premiere of “Detroit Lives” at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Burton Theater, 3420 Cass. To reserve a seat, e-mail RSVP@notedcomm.com with “Detroit News” in the subject line, specifying which screening you want to attend.

Video: 'Detroit was the fastest-growing city in the world. It's also the fastest to disappear' | World news | guardian.co.uk

Video: 'Detroit was the fastest-growing city in the world. It's also the fastest to disappear' | World news | guardian.co.uk

Letter to editor, Detroit News, May 22, 2010
I submitted the following letter to the editor in response to an article that promoted the legalization of marijuana in the City of Detroit.

Here's the letter as published in the Detroit News on Saturday, May 22, 2010:

No pot law in Detroit
The last thing Detroit needs is more stoned people. And thanks to Tim Beck and the proponents of the legalization of marijuana, that's what we'll get should their latest initiative pass ("Initiative would allow pot in Detroit," May 7). Marijuana impairs attention, alters depth and time perception, and causes a decrease in motivation. The impairing effects of marijuana can last 24 hours and more, even though the person doesn't feel the effects. Do you want your doctor, dentist, teacher, police officer or bank clerk high on marijuana?
Thomas E. Page, (retired) Los Angeles Police Department,
Detroit

Good Traffic Enforcement and Crime Reduction
Letter to the Detroit News
Sent on March 3, 2010

I commend and support Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans for recognizing that aggressive traffic enforcement, including equipment violations, is a proven approach to combat crime.

For example, the Manual of Police Traffic Services of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, of which I am a life member, clearly supports the Chief's use of proactive traffic enforcement to detect criminals and contraband, including illegal weapons. The manual, in part, says:
"Today, police departments have become increasingly aware that alert and proactive traffic law enforcement is also an excellent tool to detect and apprehend those who have committed criminal acts, as well as to deter crimes before they happen, by “looking beyond the license plate” in every traffic stop."

Criminals usually drive to and from crime locations. They carry weapons, contraband, and often the evidence of their criminal acts. There's a reason the media reports on "drive-by shootings" but rarely "walk-by shootings."

I find Ron Scott's (the director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality) supposed concern about officer quotas for traffic stops laughable. The Chief has the right and responsibility to require his officers to be productive, to account for their time, and to administer discipline if they aren't productive. Even more laughable, Scott says that the Chief's approach may lead "...to racial profiling of young African-American men who happen to be driving in a high crime area..." Take a look at the demographics of the perpetrators of crime in Detroit, Mr. Scott. It's not the gray-haired church ladies who are committing armed robberies behind the liquor store.

Thomas E. Page
Brush Park, Detroit
Retired, Los Angeles Police Department

Michigan State Fair Suggestion
March 3, 2010
Letter to the Editor, Detroit Free Press


Make it a Great Fair Again

I support leasing the former Michigan State Fairgrounds to the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority. Although Michigan’s state fair was the oldest state fair, for many years it was a second-rate fair. For example, the Michigan State Fair paled in comparison in size, displays and excitement to the Los Angeles County Fair and the South Florida Fair.

Perhaps the Huron-Clinton Authority could partner with the Henry Ford Museum to create an industrial and agricultural exposition on the fairgrounds that could develop into a year-round attraction. Either privatize the fair, lease it to the Huron-Clinton Authority, or keep it shut down.
Thomas E. Page
Detroit

Monday, November 23, 2009
This morning I cleaned up a pile of broken window glass from in front of the Carlton.  Here's the e-mail I just sent out to the 48201 Google Group:

In my opinion, nothing says "don't move here," "don't invest here," "don't visit here," and "don't start a business here" like piles of broken auto glass. Today, I swept up a pile of glass (AKA "road bling," "Detroit diamonds") from in front of the Carlton on John R.  The window smash could have occurred during yesterday's Lions game.  I know that other residents of 48201 (and probably other areas) regularly clean up the road bling.

I'm developing an aggressive plan to counter these window smashes. My plan is to kick this response off before the Tigers' opening day in the spring.  In the meantime, I've started a spreadsheet to keep track of the window smashes.  So, here's what I'm asking of you:

If you see a pile of the bluish auto window glass on our streets, either drop me an e-mail, call me, or post it to this forum.  

Here's what I'm tracking:

Date discovered; time discovered; address or interesection; side of the street; who reported; who cleaned it up (if applicable); any other miscellaneous info, such as, "during a Tigers game"

I'm concentrating on Brush Park, but I'll log any that are reported.  

And don't forget that there's an old police saying:  "No report. No crime."  So please report these crimes to the DPD. 

Detroit Synergy: Stories from the City

My Three Short Stories

St. Clair highball

My father was a part-time TV serviceman who would make service house calls in the evenings and on weekends.  I often went with my father, and helped by lugging his tool box and tubes from the car to the customer’s home.  I was fascinated by the different neighborhoods, the people who spoke different languages, the strange street names, and the different architecture.  I was amazed that my father could navigate his way back home through the myriad neighborhoods of Detroit.  One hot Saturday afternoon, after we completed a service call in the Southwest part of town, we stopped at an old-fashioned beer and wine bar on Michigan near Livernois.  We sat at the bar and my dad ordered a Stroh’s.  The bartender looked at me – I was about 10 years old – and said, “How ‘bout a St. Clair highball for you?”  My dad nodded and I was served water on the rocks in a highball glass.  On the way home I asked my dad why the drink was called a “St. Clair highball,” and he told me it’s because the water comes from Lake St. Clair!  Even today, I refer to a glass of water as a “St. Clair highball.”

The Coolest Subway

A sudden winter storm rolled in from the west with such ferocity that airports from Chicago to Buffalo were totally shut down.  Many passengers who had intended to just catch a connecting flight through Metro Airport unexpectedly had a couple of days to spend in the city.  I was riding the standing room only Detroit People Mover when I heard the man standing next to me excitedly say to his wife, “Honey, look at these buildings!  This is the coolest subway I’ve ever seen.  You aren’t underground.  You can see things!” And then he exclaimed, “And look over there!  There’s Wrigley Field.”  I then pointed out to the obvious visitor that the ballpark he saw was Comerica Park, the home of the Detroit Tigers, and that he was in Detroit!  He gave me an astonished look, then laughed and told me that they were supposed to fly to Chicago after connecting in Detroit, but that their flight had been cancelled.  He assured me that they were having an unanticipated great time in Detroit.

“I’m very sorry.”

I was a young Detroit Police Department officer, assigned to the 16^th Precinct on Grand River.  One Sunday morning about 7AM I was dispatched to a single family home.  “Dead person” was the only information I was given.  It was fairly common to get these calls on Sunday mornings.  An elderly relative wouldn’t show up at church and concerned family members would go the home, only to find that the person had passed.  That’s what I was anticipating this call would be about.

I walked up to the door and was let in by a very solemn couple accompanied by a minister.  I respectfully asked the couple where the deceased person was, and they directed me to a closed bedroom.  I entered the bedroom, but at first didn’t see anyone.  I turned the light on and saw what looked like a pillow in the middle of the bed. The “pillow” was the six-month old infant son of the couple that had let me in.  I had heard about “SIDS,” or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, but had never actually encountered a case.  I conducted my investigation.  “I’m very sorry” were the only words I could think to say as I left.

TIME Magazine, November 23, 2009

What the Jesuits Taught Me

 I graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, the prep school you profiled, one month before the apocalyptic riots of 1967.  I am most proud of the fact that U of D chose to stay in the City of Detroit, and not abandon it as the other Catholic schools did.    My class continues to contribute to our namesake City in many ways.  We have purchased two bricks on the world-class Detroit Riverwalk walkway, the only school that has done so.

A few years ago, I moved to downtown Detroit after retiring from the Los Angeles Police Department.  I wanted to be part of the solution to Detroit's problems. There is no doubt that the Jesuits  inculcated in me a responsibility to serve as a "man for others."

Thomas E. Page, Detroit

In response to the TIME magazine article, I sent this letter to TIME Magazine:

November 3, 2009

I graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School one month before the apocalyptic riots of 1967. I am most proud of the fact that U of D chose to stay in the City of Detroit, and not abandoned it as the other Catholic schools did. I would have disavowed U of D had it moved to the suburbs. My class of 1967 continues to contribute to our namesake City in many ways. For example, our class has purchased two bricks on the world-class Detroit Riverwalk walkway, the only school that has done so.

A few years ago, I moved to downtown Detroit after retiring from the Los Angeles Police Department. I wanted to be part of the solution to Detroit's problems. No doubt, the Jesuits of U of D inculcated in me a responsibility to serve as a "man for others."

TIME Magazine highlights my high school Alma Mater, the University of Detroit High School Here's the article.

Assignment Detroit
The University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy is the last Catholic college-prep school left in the city.
Jesuit Message Drives Detroit's Last Catholic School
By Amy Sullivan / Detroit Monday, Nov. 09, 2009
The University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy is the last Catholic college-prep school left in the city.
Corine Vermeulen for TIME

Lunch period at an inner-city all-boys school is an event associated with the sounds of chaos, not classical music. And yet there are definitely strains of Beethoven coming from the piano in the cafeteria at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. Behind the pianist, another student waits patiently for his turn. Upstairs in the art room, a senior is using the lunch hour to apply more brushstrokes to a portrait. A few kids are playing pickup ball in the gym, but more are crowded in the library.

In a city where 47% of adults are functionally illiterate and only 25% of high school freshmen make it to graduation, U of D is the chute through which bright young men can get to college. The school boasts a near perfect graduation rate and sends 99% of its graduates on to higher education. (In 2009 the one student who didn't go to college turned down a scholarship from the University of Michigan to sign a seven-figure contract with the Detroit Tigers.) (See pictures of Detroit's beautiful, horrible decline.)

Catholic high schools have long provided a way out for high-achieving urban students. But in Detroit, most Catholic schools either closed down or left the city decades ago, after the race riots in 1967, when white Catholics fled to the suburbs and the city's population dropped by half. Only the Jesuits stayed, maintaining U of D's imposing stone structure on the corner of 7 Mile and Cherrylawn. The Catholic order is known for its education systems and its missionary work. In Detroit, they have become one and the same. (See more on TIME's Detroit blog.)

Detroit was once heavily Catholic, dotted with parochial schools in well over 100 parishes that served the Irish and East European immigrants who built the city. Of those, the oldest was the University of Detroit, founded as a Jesuit high school and college in 1877. Elmore Leonard wrote theology papers there before the detective novels that made him famous. The school produced Congressmen, state supreme court justices and a president of CBS.

Then came 1967 and the race riots that lasted five days, took 43 lives and changed the composition of Detroit almost overnight. The trickle of white ethnic Catholics to the suburbs that had started after World War II became a flood. Within seven years, the city's African-American residents had become a majority. But only 50,000 or so were Catholic, which meant the archdiocese could no longer support the same network of parishes and schools. (See the top 10 religion stories of 2008.)

The tectonic shifts threw U of D into crisis. In less than a decade, the school's rolls plummeted from a high of about 1,100 students to no more than 500. In 1976 the Jesuits found themselves beset by parents, alumni and faculty arguing that the school should follow the lead of Detroit's other marquee Catholic institution, Catholic Central, and relocate to the suburbs. An intense internal debate was followed by consultation with Rome and finally a decision: not only would the school remain in Detroit, but it would also start investing its resources in the city and increase the racial diversity of its student body.

Today approximately one-quarter of the school's 780 students are city residents, with the rest spread across the inner and outer suburbs. The school allocated $1.4 million in financial aid this year to students who could not afford the $9,990 tuition. "We will not turn away any student who is qualified to come here," says U of D principal Gary Marando.

Jesuits tend to roll their eyes at portrayals of their order's missionary zeal. (Jeremy Irons' action Jesuit in The Mission, says Father Patrick Peppard, one of the school's theology teachers, was "a bit romanticized.") Still, by any measure, U of D's service to the city of Detroit since the Jesuits decided to remain has been remarkable. During a period in the late 1970s and early '80s, the school's president, Father Malcolm Carron, was even made a Detroit police commissioner. (See pictures of the remains of Detroit.)

U of D's continued presence in Detroit offers inner-city boys a way out. But it also gives affluent suburban students a way into a city that has long been neglected by its neighbors. For them, an education at U of D doesn't involve just driving across city lines to attend classes. Seniors are required to spend every Wednesday morning on a service project in the city. And students in all grades (7 through 12) volunteer their time for no credit. Last year they spent more than 3,500 hours in activities from tutoring public-school kids to delivering food to disabled residents. "We made a commitment to stay in the city," says Holly Bennetts, the school's full-time service director. "We have a responsibility to make it better." (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

Students are told hundreds of times during their education at U of D that they are training to become community leaders, what the Jesuits call "men for others." The phrase comes up in nearly every conversation with current and former students. "It's kinda corny," says Keith Ellison, class of 1981 and a Democratic Congressman from Minnesota, "but that motto really made me think about service. And it set a course for what I'm doing with my life now."

The Jesuit ideal can also be found in more recent graduates like Will Ahee and Tom Howe. Both grew up in tony communities — Grosse Pointe and Birmingham — that may be geographically close to Detroit but are worlds away culturally. Through U of D, they volunteered with Earthworks, an urban garden project that is reclaiming for sustainable agriculture some of the thousands of acres of abandoned lots in Detroit. When they graduated a few years ago, Ahee and Howe could have had their pick of universities. They chose to stay in Detroit and attend Wayne State University, where they study comprehensive food systems. How do these college kids spend their weekends? Working in a community garden they started near Elmwood Park, nine miles from U of D.

Hell IS other people


Today's designee is: Kwame Kilpatrick, former Mayor of Detroit

Basis: At a October 29, 2009 court hearing regarding his failure to pay required restitution, KK said with a straight face that he doesn't know who pays the rent on his mansion in Texas. He also said, under oath, that he doesn't even know if his wife, Carlita, has a job! For these and countless other reasons, Kwame Kilpatrick has earned his very special place in Hell.

New Detroit video on Youtube

A great new inspiring video on Detroit. Thanks to Phil Cooley of SLOWS in particular for doing this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3z0A7BHlr0

Council By Districts
Letter to the Editor
Detroit News, April 14, 2009

Wards foster accountability
Changing Detroit's City Council from an at-large to a district or ward system would be the single most important step to reinventing Detroit: ("Council wards could revive 'forgotten Detroit,' " April 2). Our at-large system means that no one on the City Council is held accountable. Council members routinely say Detroit's "strong mayor" form of government makes council districts unnecessary, since council members have no real power. If that's true, then we should disband the entire council and rely solely on the mayor. I need someone to be responsive to my neighborhood's needs, and to be held accountable. And politicians are held accountable through the ballot. Thomas E. Page, Detroit

Letter to the Detroit News
April 13, 2009

Dear Editor,

The old Michigan Central Train station must not be demolished. It is an iconic building that's become an international tourist attraction. It's also become a frequent movie setting as well as a print advertising element. There's an old saying that when you have lemons, you should make lemonade. Detroit has many ruins of the industrial 20th century. Those ruins that can't be adaptively reused should be cleaned, the grafitti removed, and converted into architectural and industrial museums. We can make them into great ruins.

If the Detroit City Council were the Rome City Council I predict they'd want to demolish the great Colliseum since it's a ruin that's outlived its economic usefullness.

Here are two suggestions for adaptively reusing the Michigan Central Station: Make the grand lobby into a transportation/auto museum; An alternative use would be a market/bazarre similar to the Philadelphia Terminal Market.

The gear logo for the Ich Bin Ein Detroit Ts

Reflected skyline logo, Ich Bin Ein Detroiter, on T-shirt. Available at the Woodward Ave. Welcome Center!

Detroit Metro Airport Transportation a disgrace

October 19, 2009

Last week, the taxi contract for service to and from Detroit's Metropolitan airport was canceled, supposedly due to delay in payment of the contract fee.  That leaves limousine service through Metro Cars as the only transportation service serving the airport.  Here's my letter to the Detroit News:

Re: Taxi contract cancelled at Metro airport

Let's review one's ground transportation options to downtown Detroit from Metro Airport. There are no trains. No express buses. No door to door vans like Super Shuttle.  No hotel shuttles.  And now, a traveler doesn't even have the right to take a taxicab, at $50 plus one-way, to downtown. The only option left, outside of renting a car, is the Metro Car limousine. Laughably, Detroit fancies itself as a transportation hub, even a so-called "aerotropolis."Heck, the ground transportation alternatives at Metro Airport don't even rise to Third world status. This is an absolute disgrace. And one more reason to say No to Michigan.

On October 28, 2009 the Detroit News printed this letter:

"Airport choices a disgrace

"About the Oct. 14 story "Taxi drivers ask judge to block airport contract cancellation": Let's review the ground transportation options to downtown Detroit from Metro Airport. There are no trains, express buses, door-to-door vans or hotel shuttles. And now a traveler doesn't even have the right to take a taxicab, at $50-plus one-way, to downtown. The only option left, outside of renting a car, is the Metro Car limousine. Laughably, Detroit fancies itself as a transportation hub, even an "aerotropolis." Heck, the ground transportation alternatives at Metro Airport don't even rise to Third World status. This is a disgrace.

"Thomas E. Page, Detroit"

Also, I returned to Detroit today (Oct 28, 2009)after a week in Boston. Sure enough, there were signs posted at Metro Airport stating that no walk-up taxi service was available. Ground transportation options listed were the limousine service, rental cars, and SMART (buses). Truly a disgrace.