How do you solve Detroit’s financial problems? Unfortunately, emergency management has been the clarion call of local corporate media, the business elite and uninformed citizens. If measures were in place to ensure steady and improve incoming revenue, collect taxes and strengthen small business ventures, there would not be a need for an emergency manager to oversee the city’s finances. We’ve been asked what ...

New leadership is emerging in Detroit. State Rep. John Olumba, Rev. D. Alexander Bullock and Krystal Crittendon are a few who seem to be working outside current systems and may be well positioned to takeover — power is always taken. They represent the new faces challenging Detroit’s tired old guard. ...

The city of Detroit is in a financial emergency. This announcement, given at a press conference Feb. 20 by State Treasurer Andy Dillion and the Financial Review Team appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder in December, is not surprising. The emergency management trajectory began years ago. Suburbanites will say it began the year of the “riots” in 1967 when Black leadership began to take over. We agree but for differe ...

It is time for Mark Brewer to go. That’s the sentiment of most the party’s politicos. The Michigan Citizen talked to many people for the story on the upcoming election of a new state Democratic Party chair. Most wouldn’t go on the record but agreed it’s time for change. Many stated they didn’t want to make this an anti-Brewer campaign. Others said, simply, “It’s time for new energy.” All, however, want resu ...

Michigan Citizen writer Steve Furay says Detroit is a cultural capital and much of our resources, public policy and planning must be devoted to supporting this city as such. What if the schools, the administration and City Council all worked together to make sure Detroit thrives as an important cultural destination? That may mean music and instruments return to schools, computer programming is offered so st ...

The proposed contract or lease that the state had proposed for Belle Isle is bad for Detroit. This is the mayor’s office and the city recreation department stating that they don’t have the competence to care for city parks. What’s being proposed in the lease? ...

In the upcoming year, Detroiters will pick a new mayor and elect council persons by district. Hopes are high that the cannibalizing of the city will stop if some strong persons are elected. That will only happen if voters demand a strong message and platform from candidates. ...

Billions of dollars will flow into Michigan transportation projects in the next few years and Black contractors will, again, be left out. Gov. Rick Snyder’s announcement of dollars for transportation will undoubtedly be met with cheers. Yet, his pronouncement will be meaningless for most African Americans. ...

Detroit civic organization, Citizens For Detroit’s Future (CFDF), headed by Detroit accountant Tom Barrow, delivered letters to Detroit’s elected leaders Jan. 8, calling on them to accept that the railroad is running towards the city and is controlled by conservative interests seeking to take the city’s coveted resources and assets. ...

If you think the billionaires aren’t rich enough, women have too much control of their bodies and workers get paid too much, this GOP is for you. As the 112th Congress prepares to go down as the least productive in modern history, we in Michigan can remind you that the only thing worse than a Republican legislature that won’t pass laws is one that will. ...