**DETROIT – **Mayor Dave Bing has offered renovated homes in Detroit for as little as $1,000 to Detroit police officers who live in the suburbs under a plan aimed at improving neighborhoods and safety.
Bing said during a news conference Monday that the city will tap federal stimulus funds to repair up to 200 abandoned houses in the Boston-Edison and Indian Village neighborhoods.
“Police officers living their neighborhoods have the potential to deter crime, increase public safety and increase the relations between the community and our sworn officers,” Bing said.
He’s dubbed the initiative “Project 14.”
“Live where you work,” Bing said.
Residency requirements for city employees were wiped away by state lawmakers more than a decade ago.
That opened the door for many Detroit police, firefighters and other workers to flee the city’s high taxes, crime and poor schools.
Bing said 47 percent of Detroit police officers live in the city.
Detroit faces a budget deficit of at least $85 million amid a steadily shrinking residential tax base and exodus each year of more people to the suburbs.
It tells me if they do not like it they should give their salary and pension to a real resident .
If cops are afraid of city crime then they should stop hassling old ladies for parking 6 inches too close to a fire hydrant and concentrate on stopping real criminals.
The real crime is they were allowed to move and crooked pols force them to spend time writing parking tickets so they can create a bigger treasure chest for them and their buddies.
Chicago which only know about from the news is a safe and livable city thanks in part because Police and city workers do live and play here.
Like all major cities it has bad pockets ,but they mostly just have fun shooting each other.Lots of it has to do with the fact drug dealers get involved in gang wars and sell their stuff right in front of those spy cameras with nothing done to stop them.
Are there payoff’s? Do government officials turn the other way? “You tell me”.
Well known fact is you do not snitch and there is a reason for that as residents fear the police will let the gangs know who called.All true.
Chicago is on its way to becoming a Detroit. In many areas, it already is. As is Philadelphia and every major city where you have had one-party rule for generations.
Philadelphia has lost 1.5 million residents in my lifetime. It has been able to survive only because Ds controlled the House and the Governor’s Mansion and the state kept subsidizing their D constituents. That has ended with the national revolt against tax-and-spend Dems.
Making cops live in the city will not improve it. Getting rid of Dems will. Eventually.
Joe I am sorry to say you could not be more wrong as the good neighborhoods have increased in Chicago.
I know for a fact and can provide tons of detail on every neighborhood having been in literally thousands of homes and lived or played in every area.
Chicago is still the greatest city on earth in my opinion.
Guess there’s a sucker born every minute. Not a bad deal if you want to be a cop in Detroit, no special education required, no experience required and now you get a house to.
You can’t honestly believe that yourself being an educated man.
Have you ever even been to Detroit? And I’m not talking about downtown around Cobo hall or right outside the casinos. Walk 2 or 3 blocks off the beaten path and thats what you’ll get beaten.