Detroit Housing Cheaper Than Final Four Tickets

Headed to Detroit this weekend for the men's Final Four?  The city expects hotel, casino and restaurant revenues of $10 to $50 million as basketball fans pack the city's downtown and stadium.  For the first time ever, conscious of hosting such a lavish sporting event in a city absolutely ravaged economically, the NCAA is donating $250,000 to United Way sponsored early childhood ed programs, and coordinating donations of leftover food with Forgotten Harvest, a local non-profit.  But as one retired autoworker puts it: "is that all they can come up with?"

Sadly, yes. But that doesn't mean we can't do more.

Never mind the NCAA.  If we want to do anything about the deleterious poverty in Detroit and cities nationwide, we've got to stop driving past it with our windows up, doors locked and eyes averted en route to our hotels, stadiums, and "safe" neighborhoods.  And cities need to stop wastefully subsidizing developer dollars for these massive, private, exclusive, pricey, and land-grabbing convention-sports-entertainment complexes.

I get that Detroit residents are happy to have the tourist activity, and that any sensible person would hope that it will translate well for the city.  The city and local business leaders will be working overtime to ensure that crowds and traffic flow safely and easily through the city, and that people are free to party and celebrate and enjoy their expensive weekend away.

But that's what it is for virtually every attendee: a weekend away, cloistered in privatized, franchised and controlled hotels, restaurants and casinos, far from the neighborhoods and residents of a city where some homes cost less than the price of Final Four tickets.  The majority of city dwellers can't afford tickets; they won't be rubbing shoulders with attendees.  And I haven't heard of any Gray Line Tours through half-vacant and blighted communities like they offered (offer?) in post-Katrina New Orleans.

I know, you want to enjoy your time and you're going to leave an extra big tip for the hotel and restaurant staff this weekend.  You're confident you're triggering a helpful trickle-down for local residents who will be cleaning up after you've left.  But are you really?  A $500 or $1,000 winning scratch ticket doesn't pull someone out of poverty - the economic spillovers of one fantasy weekend for 100,000 people won't carry the city out of a bleak and uncertain future either.

Of course, it won't, you say.  But the city's image will be improved!  How so?  Many cities have well functioning downtowns or privatized entertainment zones where suburbanites and tourists can enjoy themselves without encountering the unequal and desperate reality for the host city's residents.  Any image upgrade tends not to extend to the rest of the city, in part because the poverty tends to bump up against the borders of these sites.  I enjoy a Red Sox game at City of Palms Park in Ft. Myers, FL, but would I feel all that comfortable getting out of the car in the surrounding neighborhoods?  Not exactly.  Perhaps you've attended a conference in New Orleans in the last two years and have enjoyed the bustling French Quarter streets and paid a premium for your Marriott hotel room.  Would you want to drive over to the Lower 9th Ward?  Do the stories of crime and homelessness there describe a place you'd like to live or do business in?  It's doubtful, I'd bet.

Next time you're gearing up for a major event like the Final Four or a World Series or the Inauguration, ask yourself these questions: how big is the overall city compared to the blocks I'm traveling?  Does all the housing look like what I've seen?  The folks who are waiting on me, are they unionized?  Do I feel comfortable leaving my car on the street, or walking around after the sun goes down?  Could I afford to live here?  Would I want to?  What reminds me of where I live, and what does that mean for the state of my own city or town?  What can I do to improve people's lives back home?  How can we re-direct public funds to more worthwhile projects?

(Photo by Kevin.Ward)