The film is a documentary, shot from December 2010 to October 2011. It's labelled as being produced by "General Motors Entertainment Marketing" and I wondered if GM was getting into the film business, but that just means that when PBS, which initially was going to fund the project, pulled out, GM stepped in with the funding. Here's the website, and here's a newspaper article. It follows the crew at one firehouse, and also features scenes of the new fire commissioner trying to fix the department (and even shows him vacuuming his office, because the janitor was let go).
The sad thing? As the website says, "part of every movie ticket you’ve purchased, every DVD, Blu-ray, poster and T-shirt — went toward new equipment for Detroit firefighters. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to donate more than $310,000 of much-needed new equipment."
Another movie, about the Chicago Fire Department, or the New York Fire Department, would probably fund scholarships for the children of firefighters injured or killed in the line of duty. Detroit needs the cash just to have enough equipment to fight the fires.
And it is certainly an illustration of the unfairness of things that suburbs like my own have all the shiny new equipment they could ask for, used so seldom that it's major news, locally, when there's a fire -- and the Detroit firefighters, make do with duct tape repairs.
Per Wikipedia,
In 2011, the DFD responded to over 9,000 working structural fires. Over 95% of the structural fires the DFD faces are caused by arson, fifty times the national average for arson-related fires. About 85% of the arson fires that occur daily in Detroit occur in vacant homes. There are no accurate statistics considering the arson rates in Detroit, due to the fact that only a fraction of the fires can be investigated by the highly understaffed arson unit. Only investigated fire scenes can be ruled arson. The others just remain "suspicious" fires.By comparison, New York City has about 25,000 fires per year (again, Wikipedia). But bearing in mind New York's larger size, Detroit has over 4 times as many fires as New York when calculated on a per-capita basis, or on a per-firefighter basis. Put another way, there are 37 stations in Detroit, so, on average, each fire station fights 243 fires per year.
But here's the other thing: Detroit is, it's true, a disaster of a city. But having grown up in the Detroit area, and now living in Chicago, I do feel like Detroit has more of an identity, a feeling of "hometown-ness" for its residents (whether Detroit proper or the region) than Chicago, which may be far more prosperous but is still pretty much "meh" in terms of what makes it special, good or bad. I get more emotional about its fate, and can't just write it off as "serves them right."
But, then again, maybe one always feels that way about one's hometown.
Most whites, given the choice, choose not to live around blacks. There are a variety of reasons, but Detroit could serve as Exhibit A.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to disagree with the previous poster. Detroit is not an example of whites not wanting to live near blacks. It is an example of the exact opposite. The Reign of Coleman Young was a specific policy of driving whites out of the city because blacks vote black.
ReplyDelete"...he made a cynical decision to make Detroit a majority black city, largely for his own political benefit. Whites had left the city in large numbers following the riots in ’67, but Young, I believe, was happy to see them go and subtly let them know they weren’t really wanted there anymore. The higher the black to white ratio in the city, the tighter was his grip on power." http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/07/how-coleman-young-ruined-detroit.php?PageSpeed=noscript
A few years back, before the city finally collapsed into bankruptcy, a white attendee was thrown out of the city council meeting because she was white. Which, of course, the Democratic Propaganda Media ignored. Exhibit A. Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans declares the city a "Chocolate City". Exhibit B. Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teacher's labor mafia and Mayoral possibility declared that "Chicago belongs to black people." Exhibit C.
The real source of racism in American is the hyper racist Democratic constituencies.
And, sorry Jane, Detroit made its own bed and really has shown itself unfit for self government. (Yes, Democratic Party is an oxymoron) This is what the Democratic Party wants to do to the entire country and I see no reason for rewarding them for it.
And to your question, I live in St. Louis (suburbs) and always felt that there was a lot of identity with Chicagoans. Of course I went to college in Illinois with a whole pile of Chicogoans.
I've got a friend who worked, for a few years, as a Detroit Fireman.
ReplyDelete(Medically retired, after the surgery/therapy on his rotator-cuff didn't bring him back to full strength/mobility.)
He didn't live in Detroit, he lived in one of the first-ring suburbs on the South Side.
What I heard from him was similar: old equipment, short budgets, lots of suspicious fires.
At least he wasn't a cop: most people are happy to see a Fireman show up when called.
It was bad. I doubt it's gotten much better since then.