The Suburbs Are Suffering Too.

Time is ticking for Detroit and suburbs like Warren.

Warren is Michigan’s third largest city.  It grew fast during the last half century.

In 1950, Warren was a still a village with an official population of just 727.  Ten years later it was a bustling city of nearly 90-thousand.  By 1970… the population had doubled to almost 180-thousand.

But then…the growth stopped.  The population dropped ten percent each of the next two decades.

Warren had become a city with a population that was shrinking, aging and practically all white.  Warren was a city with an uncertain future.

Then money problems entered the picture. Warren was in trouble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOOFuxhWlm4

Warren Mayor Jim Fouts explained, “Every year we have a rapid reduction in revenue coming in because of the economy, foreclosed homes, economic downturn in the automobile industry and things of that nature.”

A big part of the solution is to unify – to work with Detroit and other nearby suburbs.

Many of the issues are the same and some of our solutions are going to be the same as well.

Melanie Piana is a Ferndale City Council member.  She is also Associate Director of Michigan Suburbs Alliance – an organization of 31 of Detroit’s inner-ring suburbs. The alliance is designed to unite and strengthen individual suburbs to maximize their resources.

Piana says, “Most cities are looking at how we maintain our services with drastic decline in revenue.  What I say is the inspiration is in the city. It’s there; the cities need to tap into it.”

For example–Roseville and Eastpointe are working together to improve transit along Gratiot Avenue.  Ferndale and Hazel Park are working on consolidating their fire departments into a joint fire authority.

Piana and others realize, “Those are very difficult and complicated conversations and it takes a while to get through them.  How do we provide the same level of service, perhaps at a reduced cost and more efficiently?”

Mayor Fouts would like to consolidate city services with Center Line – a city completely surrounded by Warren.  “We could take care of their fire department for them. And if we took over those particular departments we could save probably the city of Warren two million dollars and Center Line two million dollars.”

Businesses also must form alliances in today’s economy.

Bradley Benigni is owner of Taylor door in Center Line.  For years the company operated without knowing or needing its neighbors.  But a couple years ago, Bradley became a member of the Van Dyke/ 8 mile Gateway Collaborative – or V8.   It helps businesses in Warren, Center Line and Detroit work together to benefit each other

According to Bradley, “It was developed basically for us business owners to get involved in the local community and try to re-develop and revitalize our area that we live in.”

We can all improve our individual communities simply by getting involved.

Melanie Piana suggests, “Understanding what’s going on in your city, understanding that the residents and businesses have a voice, an important one about how the city is changing and what those changes can be for the future.”

And Mayor Fouts says there’s one more thing we can all do to help Warren, and the entire region – practice what he calls economic patriotism, “I think in Michigan and in the United States we have to look at the companies that support us and pay taxes and provide us with jobs, those are the people we should be supporting.”