Commentary: Southeastern Michigan braces for safety net to break

[Bozita]

Monday, December 15, 2008
Amber Arellano
Commentary: Southeastern Michigan braces for safety net to break
Will Washington fund jobs or welfare?


The social levies are breaking in my city, my metropolitan region, my home, my heart.

An economic Katrina is hitting metro Detroit, devastating dozens of square miles and tens of thousands of families.

As Washington ideologues banter about Detroit Three automaker loans, they should heed a warning: The small-minded Senate Republicans from the South -- one of the most bailed-out, subsidized regions for decades -- who argue government shouldn't help the Detroit Three automakers should heed a warning: either you invest in jobs, or you invest in welfare, pension guarantees and the reconstruction of a regional economy not unlike that of New Orleans and the American South.

That is exactly the kind of scenario which we are facing here in Southeastern Michigan, ground zero of an economic Katrina that began in 2001. Already we have lost more than 350,000 jobs. In 2009 we anticipate we will lose at least another 100,000. By 2010 add at least another 60,000 jobs, wrecked and gone.

And that's if the automakers actually survive.

Other states are just beginning to feel the wrenching losses -- and its impact to families and social networks -- that we have for seven straight years. And the worst hasn't hit yet.

Unlike New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina, there is no stinking Superdome providing refuge for the newly displaced here. No federal swat teams are coming to help. No helicopters are swooping in to rescue the sick and suddenly-homeless.

Unlike New Orleans, our story lacks a dramatic one-month narrative arc of death and survival. Our Katrina is ravaging families more slowly, as a kettle of water warms and turns to a boil, gradually killing its lobster.

But our region is being devastated, nonetheless.

Rising need

Our equivalent of New Orleans' levies is our tattered safety net, which local leaders wonder how long it will hold.

Tent cities are sprouting up like winter grass in public parks here. Suburbanites in Oakland County flock to shelters overwhelmed by the influx of new refugees.

Doctors say they're seeing suicide and depression skyrocket.Local food banks are going dry for the first time in history. Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan reports a 70 percent increase in need this fall compared to fall 2007.

"The suburbs are really where you're seeing the need grow, as jobs disappear," says Gerry Brisson, Gleaners' senior vice president.

In Plymouth recently, Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church heard of growing hunger in its community and recently hosted an event with Gleaners.

They prepared for 250 families to come for food donations, and 700 families showed up. "And that's in Plymouth! Plymouth!" Brisson said of the upscale suburb. "That is far removed from the really poor folks in the city and older suburbs."

Days later, a Warren church invited Gleaners to come and distribute food to 150 families -- and 1,700 families showed up.

more...

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081215/OPINION03/812150301


Editorial Board Writer Amber Arellano writes a column on culture and politics each week. Find her columns anytime at:www.detnews.com/arellano Email her at:[e-mail]

[gizmo1979]

1. A sad state of affairs

Those pricks don't think there politics hurt real people,when will it sink in?Maybe when their Toyota and Volkswagen plants close.

[CitizenPatriot]

2. Breaks my heart

and it is enraging that the Republicans would use this crisis to further their anti-union/labor agenda. I'll never forget this for as long as I live.

In some areas in Michigan, they are now closing libraries in poorer areas at 3PM, so poor children can't use the computer to do their homework. While this isn't as critical as food and home, the long term ramifications of educations being denied are horrific to contemplate. It means NO WAY OUT.

I urge DUers in southern states whose senators voted against the bail out to write and call if they are so inclined. I have done so with the Despicable One who rules my state.

[sarcasmo]

3. Wait until the unemployment money runs out, we still have a long way down before it gets better.

The first quarter of 09 is going to be ugly here in Michigan.

[Faygo Kid]

4. Grew up there; spent half my life there.

It will always be Home, but I weep for it at a distance now.

Gleaners' Food Bank has been around a long time. They are good people. Donate if you can.

[TripleKatPad]

5. I live in SE Michigan

Today my boss told me to prepare for bad things. He told me this as he gave me my year-end bonus check. He said not to expect another one next year, that even tho my firm has usually weathered economic downturns, the big bosses are now openly expressing that they are scared poopless the coming Katrina in Michigan will drown my firm, too, along with the rest of the State. I'm doing what I can with my last bonus check to help others: donations to Gleaners, COTS, THAW, Capuchin Soup Kitchen, other local groups who help people in need (plus the Michigan Humane Society, because animals are people, too).

I am trying not to feel despondent. But it keeps creeping in around the edges.

[tomreedtoon]

6. Michael Moore's documented this...

...the only thing that could be worse would be a nuke going off in Detroit. Come to think of it, if the economic news is that bad, a nuke might be a blessing to those poor people.