Detroit, da -- its neighborhoods, nyet

I'd like to move back to my hometown, Detroit, but there are no neighborhoods left. And what has replaced them scares me to death.

In one weekend in Detroit (June 20-21), 27 people were shot. Three died.

That seems like an overwhelming amount. Then five more people were shot at a block party June 28.

According to the Detroit Police Department, there have been 139 homicides and 475 non-fatal shootings in the city so far this year. The local, and now and then the national, television reporters dip into this every night.

I timed it the other night on Channel 4, WDIV, the local NBC affiliate. It took two anchors the first 14 minutes of the newscast just to list the shootings that had transpired since they were last on the air the night before.

Citizens who were present at the shootings are not cooperating with the police investigation thus far.

And still fresh in my mind is the story of Steven Utash, even though it happened last year. Utash, 54 at the time, was a tree trimmer working for the city of Detroit. He was driving his pickup down a street in the Morang and Balfour area when an 11-year-old boy jumped out in front of him.

Utash stopped and got out of the pickup to see if he’d hit the boy.

Immediately, according to CBS, Utash was jumped by 10-12 men and beaten to smithereens. It took him four months to recover from the shellacking he got.

Tell me again why I want to move back.

Making a destination-oriented beeline for downtown Detroit is what most of my friends and I do. We’re in love with the idea of a big city, so we go to the only one available to us, like moths circling a flame.

Much has been done to attract us. Nice restaurants and a few stores have popped up in downtown proper. There are some areas of Detroit that seem to have been dubbed neutral zones, such as Comerica Park, Campus Martius, the DIA and the area surrounding it, The Fox Theatre area, the River Walk, Eastern Market and Midtown.

And Corktown. Can’t forget that.

That’s about it.

Have you driven the rest of Detroit’s neighborhoods recently? I have.

Houses are boarded up. Lots of houses, just off Woodward, midway between McNichols and Jefferson. Those that aren’t boarded up have grates over most of the windows and doors. Graffiti is everywhere. Garbage is everywhere.

No one is anywhere. I didn’t see a soul on my tour.

A friend of mine was telling me that about a month ago he drove through our old neighborhood, which is bordered by McNichols on the south, Curtis on the north, Evergreen on the west and I guess I’d have to say the Southfield Freeway on the east, though that’s a bit of a stretch.

He said our old homes were in ruins.

So, Mayor Duggan, Detroit’s neighborhoods are not quite yet a selling point for the city. Until things change, we’ll support the city from a distance. That’s the best we can do.

Gemma

When you Google the name Christopher Scott, the results on the first page say he’s an American actor, dancer and choreographer.

That’s not the Christopher Scott I’m writing about today.

The Christopher Scott I’m writing about lives in Lapeer County, is 28 years old and has a preliminary exam scheduled for July 8 in 71 A District Court in Lapeer.

Scott’s in trouble for shooting his 2-year-old dog in the head with a bolt from a crossbow.

Scott, through his attorney, admits shooting Gemma. Gemma wandered for two days with the 15-inch bolt in her head before being found and taken to the Lapeer County Animal Control Office.

She was shot in March. Today, she’s fine. The crossbow bolt missed Gemma’s brain and optic nerve. As a matter of fact, she’s evidence against her former owner. According to The Detroit Free Press, the people taking care of Gemma at the animal control office find her to be a nice dog. A quote from the story says, “If you didn’t know her story, you’d never know.”

Scott said he shot Gemma because Gemma fought with and killed his other dog – a pug – and literally ripped the pug’s throat out. Scott had five children in his home, the youngest being 5 years old.

With the preliminary exam next month, Dennis McCarthy, Scott’s attorney, is going to ask the judge to dismiss the case. McCarthy is counting on the law of just cause.

It would be wrong for the judge to dismiss the case. Dismissing the case would send a message that what Scott did to Gemma was fine.

According to The Free Press story:

•          In Detroit late last month, a cop shot a dog in the face at Tiger Stadium. He killed it. Police said the dog, which was not on a leash, charged the officer, growling. Police have to make split-second decisions throughout their careers, so this officer reached for his gun. Whatever happened to MACE or the officer’s Taser? Would the officer have shot an unarmed person yelling and running at him?

•          Earlier last month in Canton, a man shot and killed his neighbor’s dog because he thought it was charging him. The 4-year-old dog was a boxer/pitbull mix.

No further information is available at the moment on either shooting.

It is clear people are losing respect for life. Not a day goes by when there isn’t a new shooting to report on the television news.

Some experts say people who kill people often killed pets when they were younger.  I am not saying Christopher Scott murders people. Let’s be clear about that.

I am saying that if Scott’s case is dismissed, animal abusers will take it as a sign that they can maim and hurt their pets without fear of reprisal.

If you agree, let the judge know. The court’s address is 71A District Court, 255 Clay St., Lapeer, Michigan  48446.

No way to cut a budget

Apparently, only the Associated Press (AP) was looking earlier this week when Lansing lawmakers on Tuesday approved a $55 billion plan for roads and colleges. The story was published Tuesday by Crain’s Detroit Business.

With the Mackinaw conference coverage taking top priority this week, this plan slipped through with little examination by anyone.

The plan, put together in a span of hours according to AP (amazing what our legislators can do when their summer vacation is at risk), has already passed out of House/Senate conference panels and is set for a vote in the House this coming week.

There’s one specific part of the multibillion dollar plan that is just wrong. There may be others, but this one caught my eye.

To save money and use it to fix roads, the Lansing legislators will close the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake, which is just north of Ann Arbor. Closing the school will save $7.5 million.

The Maxey Boys Training School is where boys 12-21 year olds are sent, instead of prison. It’s a 60-bed facility with about 50 boys housed there right now. The boys sent to Maxey require specialized, intensive rehabilitation treatment and a high level of security to provide personal and community safety.

Maxey’s staff is made up of clinical professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists and certified social workers. Individual, group and family approaches are used to stabilize behavior in areas such as sex offender treatment, substance abuse, criminal behavior and behavioral health (mental health).

I’ve been to Maxey. Once. A kind-hearted guy I used to work with, Lou, used to make a monthly run to Maxey to donate blankets and other supplies. I went with him one month.

Maxey is better than prison, but it’s difficult to go there and see what’s going on. The thing to remember is that it isn’t prison. Yes, it’s a lockdown facility and should be. No, there are no hardened adult inmates there who can move these boys further along a criminal path.

Maxey is there for a reason. As bad as it may be in the eyes of some, Maxey offers a better chance at some level of rehabilitation than prison. Health and Human services spokesman Bob Wheaton was quoted in the AP story as saying his agency will give judges viable alternatives on where to send those housed at Maxey once it closes.

The last time I heard something like that was from Gov. John Engler, known for closing 11 clinics for the mentally ill, including the Lafayette Clinic in downtown Detroit. The ill were just turned out into the street when the closing bell rang. Most of them ended up in prison.

If we’re talking an overall $55 BILLION here, then $7.5 million is next to nothing to keep the Maxey boys out of Jackson Prison and others like it. Think about it – where are the judges going to send these boys?

You know as well as I do.

Tall fences make great neighbors

If good fences make good neighbors, then these builders need to erect a fence high enough to blot out the sun.

Royal Oak has an ordinance stating when construction work on a house can commence. The ordinance says work can start at 7 a.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. Sundays.

On Mother’s Day, work started on this oversize house, which is two doors west of our home, at 7:10 a.m. That was the time the electric saw cranked up and it stayed that way until 8:35 a.m.  After that, the workers took off in a car and didn't return for the rest of the day

Which leads me to the whodunit part of the program. I’m not going to go ask the construction workers about this because I don’t want a drill bit up my nose. (This is where women have it all over men. If I go tell them to quiet down, it’s open season on me. If, as Suzy did, goes and tells them to quiet down, they aren't

 going to lay a glove on her).

Anyway, take a good look at the picture. You don’t see a generator. This picture was taken while the workers were still there. You can see them on the roof.

 So what was the electric saw connected to?

Our neighbors immediately west of us had the answer. They came home one day and found that, without their permission “someone” had plugged into the utility outlet on their garage. After unplugging the cord, they taped the outlet to register their displeasure.

Then, Monday morning, the landlord of the house came over at the behest of his tenants who thought their troubles were over after taping the outlet. It seems they had called the landlord because the air conditioning wasn't working.

On closer examination of the outside air conditioning unit, the landlord found that “someone” had plugged into the air unit and when they were through, had failed to reassemble the unit correctly.

Nice, eh? After another round of complaining, a generator finally appeared on the site.

From time to time, a few of our neighbors, including us, gather on the sidewalk and grumble about this new construction. We think it’s way too big for the lot and isn't going to fit in with the rest of our homes, design wise. Oh – I think it’s safe to assume that our house and our neighbors’ houses were purchased for under $200,000.

The new house is going to be put on the market for more than $500,000.

I hope the eventual owners of this new house have a $200,000 attitude, to match the neighborhood. No one is looking forward to the potential of having someone move in with a $500,000 attitude.

Then again, that’s what fences are for. 

Trouble in the back of the bus

Vignettes

·         

• When the media weren't looking, Michigan’s Senate voted, in one day, to dismantle the monetary protections of no-fault insurance. It’s a compassionless move that overwhelmingly favors the insurance companies while hurting the average person.

What it means: For example, if your child comes out of a car accident as a paraplegic, an insurance adjuster, not a doctor, will decide his course of care. Does that sound right to you?

It also hurts your chances of staying alive once you’re taken to a hospital for care. The bill calls for a reduction in the amount of money a hospital will be reimbursed, which means trauma units will lose jobs and lack of staffing means less care.

The no-fault bill is scheduled to be voted on by the full House this week. Google your state House rep today, call him or her and emphatically leave instructions to vote no on this bill. It’s OK if you get your rep’s assistant – they keep track of which way the calls go.

·         I’m thinking about the case of the 13-year-old African-American Bloomfield Hills student who was harassed and repeatedly called the n-word on a school bus during an outing.

The school administration, the students, parents and the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office have made much of this. Their message is zero tolerance of such behavior. The two kids who led the harassment have been suspended; the Oakland prosecutor is deciding whether to charge them and if so, with what.

It’s nice to have that kind of firepower in your corner. It’s actually quite overwhelming. One question bothers me, though: How is this student going to learn to successfully fend for himself?

Unfortunately, I doubt this is the last time the student will be faced with such an ugly situation. Hating has become a national sport. 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Let’s not forget Malcolm X: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Punishing the students who harassed the 13-year-old is one way to handle this. Another way would be to educate all students at the school about diversity and why what those two students did was wrong.

It’s education, not the prosecutor’s office, which will bring peace to this situation.

Pinocchio tries to pull a fast one

No one likes to be lied to.

If Governor Rick Snyder had come forward and said Proposal 1 contains 10 other pieces of legislation

The Detroit News

he’d like to pass, then I might not have liked it but at least he would have been honest.

Taken individually, the 10 other pieces of legislation could have merit, but we’re well past the point of debating them as a package.

That’s because the governor’s television commercials to get out the vote in favor of Proposal 1 are not truthful. The commercials say, in plain English, that the sales tax increase would be allocated to one thing: fixing Michigan’s roads.

There’s no mention of anything else.

But the proposal actually triggers changes that include more tax credits for low-income families and seniors, higher registration costs for new cars and trucks and, incongruously, greater transparency on public school spending. And while it is billed as new money for road repair, half of the first two years of the new money will pay off bonds for roads that have already been built.

Worse – the governor has been seen in clips shown on newscasts saying there is no Plan B. If Proposal 1 fails, that’s it. We live with the rotten roads.

Not having a Plan B is very poor stewardship on Gov. Snyder’s part. I believe the governor is lying about that, too. He probably does have a Plan B that’s more palatable than Proposal 1, but he wants everyone to vote on the Prop 1 package as though that’s the only thing available to them.

 Then there’s the cost.

During the first year, if the proposal passes, it will cost every household in Michigan slightly more than $500 a year, according to a story carried in Monday’s Crain’s Detroit Business. The story, written by The Associated Press, says after the first year that figure will drop slightly, to about $450 per household annually.

That’s a lot of money to pile on in an economy that’s not very good. Michigan still lags behind about 20 other states in recovering from the recession.

For all those reasons, I can’t see supporting Proposal 1. If you’re still undecided, get on
Google and search Proposal 1 Michigan. If the governor wanted Proposal 1 to pass, he should have offered up a clean bill that addressed the roads, period.

Veterinarians: what happened to reasonable rates?

Pets have lived with us all our married lives and before that, too. I can’t imagine a life without them.

But veterinarians today are not making it easy to be a good person and take proper care of our friends. Yet they insist that you do so, and wag their collective index fingers at you if you don’t do everything they say to do. And pay the associated fees, of course.

Vets are getting greedy regarding fees. There’s no longer anything altruistic about the veterinarian industry. On one hand, they want everyone to adopt an animal. On the other hand, you’ve just handed over a hefty adoption fee and saved a little friend from foul circumstances. That matters not. The vets of American are insisting numerous tests are necessary for your new friend. Expensive tests.

Can’t have it both ways, people.

A friend of mine just recounted on Facebook the passing of her beloved dog. For a diagnosis and then, for a burial fee, it cost her $1,000 to say goodbye to her dog.

Bella, the land manatee 

She’s a good person and would have done anything for her dog. Apparently, her vet was petting the dog with one hand and tallying up the damage on a calculator with the other hand.

I very much emphasize with her.

Shortly after we rescued Bella, my wife noticed a lump in her throat, and Bella hadn’t been watching anything traumatic on television. It was off to the vet for us.

After a little hmmmmmming and probing of the lump, first with fingers, then with a needle for a biopsy, we were told by our vet, whose bedside manners had vanished, that the lump had to be surgically removed. Only then would we know if the lump was malignant or benign.

So, of course, we had it removed. Then came the biopsy. Another expensive item, yet we had to be sure the lump wasn’t malignant. Turns out, it wasn't.

Bella spent the night at the vet’s and I could hear the tote board running for lodging fees. When we picked Bella up the next day, and this is important, she had a drain sticking out of the side of her throat. We were told to leave the drain in for a couple days.

Bella had other ideas. The next day when I came home from work, Bella proudly presented me with the drain, which she had pulled out of her neck. She was fine. I called the vet and said this case is history – we don’t need to come in and have the drain removed.

Oh, but you do, Mr. Sherman, the receptionist cooed. We have to make sure all of the drain was removed. Please bring Bella back as soon as possible.

I did so, reluctantly, as Bella had done an excellent job. All they did was say yup yup yup, your dog got all of the drain.

The cost of all this? Just shy of $1,600, American money. The vet tried to charge for removing the drain, too, and I learned that for a medium-sized overnight cage with no HBO or Internet, we got dinged $80.

I asked our vet about all this. He told me that– ta da – there is now pet insurance, all the while agreeing with me that veterinary care was becoming very expensive.

It must be difficult to talk out of both sides of your face simultaneously. Veterinarians don’t do it very well. I guess it’s one of those talents best left to the professional liars – our politicians.