Detroit’s woes extend beyond auto industry

DETROIT (AP) — One measure of how tough times are in the Motor City: Some of the offenders in jail don’t want to be released; some who do get out promptly re-offend to head back where there’s heat, health care and three meals a day.

“For the first time, I’m seeing guys make a conscious decision they’ll be better off in prison than in the community, homeless and hungry,” said Joseph Williams of New Creations Community Outreach, which assists ex-offenders. “In prison they’ve got three hots and a cot, so they commit a crime to go back in and come out when times are better.”

For now, better times seem distant. Even with no hurricane to blame, Detroit has, by many measures, replaced New Orleans as America’s most beleaguered city.

The jobless rate has climbed past 21 percent, the embattled school district just fired its superintendent, tens of thousands of homes and stores are abandoned, the ex-mayor is in jail for a text-messaging sex scandal. Even the pro football team is a pathetic joke — the Lions are within two losses of an unprecedented 0-16 season.

And overarching these woes is the near-collapse of the U.S. auto industry, Detroit’s vital source of jobs and status for more than a century.

“We’re the Motor City,” said Scott Alan Davis, who oversees community development projects in one of the worst-hit neighborhoods. “When the basis for that name collapses, that’s started to scare people.”

Among the worried is Warlena McDuell, 81, a retired surgical technician who shares a home with her cancer-stricken daughter. On a recent weekday, she was among hundreds of Detroiters, most of them elderly, filling orange-plastic grocery carts at a food bank run by Focus:HOPE, a local nonprofit.

“It’s a depression — not a recession,” McDuell said, with the authority of someone who has lived through both. “It will get worse before it gets better.”

The roots of Detroit’s current plight go back decades. Court-ordered school busing and the 12th Street riots of 1967 accelerated an exodus of whites to the suburbs, and many middle-class blacks followed, shrinking the city’s population from a peak of 1.8 million in the 1950s to half that now.

About 83 percent of the current population is black. Detroit’s crime, poverty, unemployment and school dropout rates are among the worst of any major U.S. city. Car and home insurance rates are high. Chain grocery stores are absent, forcing many Detroiters to rely on high-priced corner stores.

“There’s always been a real can-do spirit among our people,” said the Rev. Edgar Vann, pastor of Second Ebenezer Church. “That’s being beaten down right now. ... These times, unlike others, have sapped a lo Another civic leader, William F. Jones Jr., worried that the inevitable auto industry retrenchment might reduce corporate support of local nonprofits.

“Detroit is a very giving community, but it’s hard to reach out beyond your capacity,” said Jones, who recently retired as chief operating officer of Chrysler Financial and will become head of Focus:HOPE on Jan. 1

2008, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.