It took me five years and $1 million to get the right to mow the lawns that hadn’t been mowed in 15 years.

This is so typical of Detroit, and I hope I can believe the current mayor at his word that things like this will stop going forward. There are a group of guys here who got a cease and desist order form the city a while back, because they had been mowing the old Tiger Stadium field in order that they could have a place to play soft ball on Sundays (not to mention that they kept it up as a park for the poor neighborhood kids, as well).

I was one of a very few Detroiters who would speak openly about supporting the bankruptcy fully, and I think it looks like it was a very good choice for the city. The status quo sucked--it still sucks, but it's improving. One positive that's happening is that the city is seizing abandoned homes, and selling them at next to nothing to anyone who signs a contract that they will live there and maintain the property. It looks like a drop in the bucket when you examine the numbers, but I think it shows a commitment to trying to shed the image of being a giant road block.

We can't have a thriving city whose primary business model is graft, bribery, thuggery, and inefficiency. I know we've gone back and forth about Shinola's marketing, but you won't ever hear me saying that any type of job in the city is a bad one. We need to move past just restaurants and bars to create real, sustainable growth, which is the only way to move past the cycle of poverty and decay (and don't get me wrong, the more bars and restaurants, the merrier--we just need more than them).

Edit: The article isn't totally right when they refer to Hantz as a suburban business man. He might live in the 'burbs, but he owens a large business in the city, so he has every incentive and every right to neighborhood improvement as anyone else.