Is My City's Demise a Precursor to What's to Come? The Dissolving of Small and Local Government.

I live in Pontiac, Michigan.

Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 66,337. It is the county seat of Oakland County. [3] Despite the poverty level in the city, it is surrounded by some of the wealthiest suburbs in Metro Detroit.

More info on Pontiac

Despite being the county 'seat', Oakland county will not merge with the dying city.

Stampfler indicated he will be making recommendations concerning the budget in the coming days and mentions bankruptcy. It’s unclear if a merger is possible, although early indications from Patterson’s office is the county is not interested.

Emergency Manager: Merge Pontiac With Oakland County

This will be another first as well. Pontiac's Police and dispatchers unions have been dissolved.

For the first time, a state appointed emergency manager has permission to void a union contract in a Michigan city.

Pontiac police dispatchers union contract can be voided by emergency manager

Is anyone else going through this with their city? I am not even sure what's going to happen. I am certainly done paying city taxes.

Now that I think about the title and one of the following news post. There might be a contradiction, if the county does not absorb the city, then who will? The state? This is a first from my understanding, I just hope we're not for sale to China or something.

On the surface, this may sound bad but it seems like a good idea.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Department is to begin patrolling Pontiac streets in July. That consolidation of services is expected to save Pontiac $2.2 million dollars a year starting next year.

Consolidating government services and expenditures will cut out redundancy and save tax money. Included in that would be courts and such. I found a link to a Michigan Gov't blog that describes this.

Gov Efficiency Blog

Yes but how will saving 2.2 million a year help? By June the city will have a deficit of $12.5 million, it's expected to double by 2013.

Michigan is far worse off for a variety of reasons than most of the other country so to answer your question, no it's not a sign of things to come. Michigan certainly needs help though.

Originally posted by PontiacWarrior
I live in Pontiac, Michigan.

Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 66,337. It is the county seat of Oakland County. [3] Despite the poverty level in the city, it is surrounded by some of the wealthiest suburbs in Metro Detroit.

More info on Pontiac

Despite being the county 'seat', Oakland county will not merge with the dying city.

Stampfler indicated he will be making recommendations concerning the budget in the coming days and mentions bankruptcy. It’s unclear if a merger is possible, although early indications from Patterson’s office is the county is not interested.

Emergency Manager: Merge Pontiac With Oakland County

This will be another first as well. Pontiac's Police and dispatchers unions have been dissolved.

For the first time, a state appointed emergency manager has permission to void a union contract in a Michigan city.

Pontiac police dispatchers union contract can be voided by emergency manager

Is anyone else going through this with their city? I am not even sure what's going to happen. I am certainly done paying city taxes.

www.cubitplanning.com...

I think the fact that Pontiac is half Black and almost a quarter Hispanic has more to do with anything than anything else. Basically the Suburbs, which i am guessing are predominantly "white", don't want to share power over their own communities. Can't really blame them for wanting self determination though(Like how black South Africans wanted self determination, or how black Zimbabweans wanted self determination).

P.S
Only Michigan is dumber then California so chances are no, no one else other than the people in your own area are dealing with similar problems.

Originally posted by korathin

I think the fact that Pontiac is half Black and almost a quarter Hispanic has more to do with anything than anything else. Basically the Suburbs, which i am guessing are predominantly "white", don't want to share power over their own communities. Can't really blame them for wanting self determination though(Like how black South Africans wanted self determination, or how black Zimbabweans wanted self determination).

P.S
Only Michigan is dumber then California so chances are no, no one else other than the people in your own area are dealing with similar problems.

You are most likely correct. The Suburbs around here are more or less cities too, even though this is not Warren county, it is a megatropolis and considered Detroit Metro. So the division of cities is only noticed by the "welcome to 'insert city here', home of blah blah blah." Auburn Hills and Lake Orion seem to be the only growing cities. There was Great Lakes Crossing built in Auburn Hills about a decade back, it is a big mall. It was another nail in the coffin for Pontiac and Waterford, with already declining business and working population.

So I too can't really blame anyone for wanting to take a non-willing to work, drug and violence infested city under their wing.

The future of the city is up in air.

The whole Detroit Metro area is at risk. The inner suburbs between Pontiac and Detroit are being squeezed and the tax base is fleeing. Warren is big enough to last for a while, but South Warren (Emenem's old hangout) was in decay since the 70's and 80's. There wasn't much difference between the Warren north of 8 Mile and Detroit south of 8 Mile. In fact some of the neighborhoods on the south side of 8 Mile were in better shape than those in Warren. Urban decay is like a cavity in a tooth, you need to clean out the dead parts and put a filling in it to save the tooth.

When I began to see gang signs (folks and peoples signs) in Warren, East Pointe, Roseville, etc., back in the early eighty's, I knew the end of my neighborhood was coming soon. A friend of mine in high school grew up around 7 Mile and Gratiot. His family moved north to the suburbs a number of years before we met. A couple years after we graduated, we took a ride through his old neighborhood. When his family left the area, the houses were in good shape and was a somewhat safe neighborhood. When we drove through, every other house was burned down, boarded up, gutted or entirely missing. Only poor black people lived there. It was after the Iraqi's put in party stores (with bullet proof glass inside and out) that area had any stores doing business. Another friend of mine moved into the house I grew up in near 10 Mile and I visit form time to time. I can see the process at work there that destroyed my other friend's old neighborhood near 7 mile. It's not my hood anymore. I'm glad I moved when I did, I think my friend is stuck there now.