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The Debate on Demolition

Back about two years ago Mayor Duggan celebrated the 1,000 house demolition under his administration. This incident caused various people who have studied the phenomenon to weigh in on it. Some say that demolition is good, others claim that areas of the city that are seeing demolitions now have more empty housing than before the demolitions began. So what should we think of demolition. First off, the fact of the matters is that neighbors are almost always in favor of demolition. When I was was a group walking to determine how to make a neighborhood workable with project safewalk, we were told by neighbors which house to take down. Others have written of the demolition crew being confronted by multiple requests as they come to take down one house and outrage at what houses are not going down. I have even seen neirghborhoods stage marches to have more abandoned buildings destroyed. So clearly demolition needs to take place. At the same time I have seen multiple rotted out, sides fall
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Scouting

There continue to be lots of debates about the direction of scouting. Some important ideas to keep in mind. It was not until 2003 that scouting required background checks on volunteers. It was not until 2008 that this was required of pre-2003 volunteers. Two-deep leadership requirements evidently in some troops mean they always bring 3 adult leaders on camp outs. I think a bigger threat to scouting is the culture of fear we live in. Some people think it is beyond the pale that my daughter lets my grandson walk out the door, down the hall, go down the elevator, and come out the front door of the apartment to me when I am waiting in the car. He is 5, almost six. When I was his age I walked home from the bus stop a quarter mile to my house all by myself. As crime rates have declined over the last 30 years the level at which parents micro-manage their children has increased. This means that letting scouts hike off on their own is frowned upon, meaning more close supervision, and makin
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Round one: Detroit from where the houses are no more

Detroit is a physically large city that is hard to understand and is too often written about by people who have far too simplistic and understanding of the city to do it justice. Detroit has an area of 138.75 square miles. This is bigger than San Francisco, Manhattan and Boston combined. In 2010 it had 713,777 people. By 2017 it had fallen to 673,104. This put Detroit as the 23rd largest city in the USA. In 1930 Detroit was the 4th largest city in the US, and as late as 1960 it was the 5th largest city. Even in 2000 it was the 9th largest city in the country. In 1950 there were 1.8 million people in Detroit, and maybe in 1948 the population had hit 2 million. While at times much of the population loss has been to the surrounding suburbs, most cities that border Detroit have also seen population loss for decades. Dearborn, the place that shares the longest border with Detroit, has seen its population stabalize with immigrants from Iraq other parts of south-west Asia, but it is r
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