Detroit Free Press / Letters to the Editors Speaks Volumes

Letters to the editor

FROM OUR READERS: Detroiters, clean up your city

May 12, 2006

I have to admit I am amazed that someone needs to be appointed to clean up Detroit ("Dear Mr. Penske: Clean this first. Readers weigh in: Every corner of Detroit could use some attention," May 10). I don't get to Detroit often, but when I do I am always amazed at the litter embedded in the chain-link fences, broken glass on sidewalks and other junk.

I am also amazed at the efforts to get people who don't live in Detroit to clean up the place. If you want to clean up Detroit, Detroiters need to clean their yards. To the many people who keep their homes immaculate, take a garbage bag to the nearest intersection, clean up the junk and put it out for pick-up.

You don't need Roger Penske, you don't need Dave Bing, and you don't need me to clean up Detroit. All you need is some elbow grease.

Randy St. Laurent
Lapeer

Get inmates to help out

We could have had Detroit cleaned up long ago if people on welfare and non-dangerous prisoners were used to clean the streets, remove graffiti, etc., as a way to pay back society.

We have a huge, untapped workforce receiving money for 26 weeks or three hots and a cot for the duration of their sentences, paid for by taxes. It's not too much to ask for a little elbow grease in return.

Pauline Costianes
Canton

Focus on the neighborhoods

What wonderful news to hear that millions will be spent on spiffying up Detroit's downtown. The sustainable value reaped from the millions spent on the Super Bowl fell short of expectations, so why not do more of what does not work? Entertainment and sports venues are important, but they should not be the primary consideration.

Until we put equal resources into more complex needs of the neighborhoods, it is futile to think we have any future as a city.

Mary Therese Lemanek
Allen Park

Change may be under way

In response to your article on cleaning up Detroit, I would like to compliment Roger Penske on his fine efforts and the work he has done in Detroit. His leadership with the Super Bowl should be praised not just for showing the world a cleaner Detroit, but also for starting a revolution. After seeing what Detroit could be like with a little bit of effort, more people are taking action to clean it up. Penske started what could be the transformation of Detroit from a trash-covered place, to a cleaner, safer and better city.

Nathan Yu
Troy

Penske is the man for the job

I read with great interest your May 9 article, "Super Bowl czar to help clean up Detroit," and must say I'm extremely glad to see that Roger Penske has chosen to stick his flag, his stake, right here in the city of Detroit. Penske did a remarkable job with putting together Super Bowl XL and cleaning up downtown Detroit. I have no doubt that downtown Detroit will look like a scintillating star with him at the helm.

Thomas A. Wilson Jr.
Detroit

Let's also have clean water, air

Just one word for Roger Penske's decision to put his energy and reputation behind keeping downtown Detroit clean: Bravo! His investment should be a catalyst not just for clean streets and sidewalks, but for healthier air and water to make downtown and its neighborhoods great places to live and work.

David Howell
Chairman
Friends of the Detroit River

Lana Pollack
President
Michigan Environmental Council

A waste of resources

As someone who has worked cleanups in the city before, I can tell you it is a waste of time, money and effort when you are confronted by residents sitting on their porches, saying it is about time someone cleaned up as you pick up trash at their lawn and curb. Residents need to care about their own property and city before anything will change.

Mark Levis
St. Clair

Take personal responsibility

While I am excited about Roger Penske's involvement with the city, I can't help but think of the cliché "putting perfume on a pig." Too many of my fellow residents are thoughtless pigs, constantly leaving their trash for others to clean up.

This conduct is condoned by others who step around the trash because "it's not mine." Until there is personal responsibility, Detroit will have more than its share of sties.

Lee W. Astrauckas
Detroit

KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL Pictures by John Iras

Keep On.........Keeping On!

Detroit

MOTOR CITY JOURNAL: Dear Mr. Penske: Clean this first

Readers weigh in: Every corner of Detroit could use some attention

May 10, 2006

BY BILL McGRAW
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

After learning that Super Bowl Superman Roger Penske's next assignment for Detroit is to marshal forces to keep downtown clean, the Rev. Donald Lutas had a thought.

Why not clean up the entire city?

"And keep it clean," Lutas, a Detroiter, wrote on the Free Press Web site, answering a request for readers' comments on urban cleanliness after Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick announced Penske's new role Monday.

Lutas, hardly the only reader who suggested that Penske work his magic beyond downtown, continued: "Go through any section of the city, and one is confronted with garbage, mess, dirt and more of the same. Clean up every corner of the city. Give us clean grocery stores, clean convenience stores, clean gas stations, clean strip malls, alleys and streets. Give us clean post offices and schools and police precincts."

Penske is the self-made billionaire nearly deified for masterminding Detroit's superb showing during Super Bowl XL. As some readers hinted, the decision to have him concentrate on keeping a chunk of downtown tidy is a curious one.

You don't have to be an urbanologist to see that the central business district is virtually litter-free compared to the rest of Detroit, especially since the Super Bowl helped spur a massive downtown makeover and an influx of new restaurants, bars, housing and retail.

As the new chairman of the civic group Downtown Detroit Partnership, Penske will have more on his plate than just garbage.

But tackling the debris problem across the vast city outside downtown is more in keeping with the talents of a man with his brains, ability and track record.

"Thank you, Roger, for your great leadership efforts. As soon as you get the downtown cleanup going, please move quickly to the neighborhood cleanup efforts," wrote Joey.

"Primping up downtown is nice, but Detroit's a city of real people, not just structures and commerce," e-mailed CEE.

In describing Penske's new gig, Kilpatrick said he would announce a second cleanup, aimed at neighborhoods, later this year. Industrialist and sports legend Dave Bing is expected to lead that effort. No details were available Tuesday.

Driving the west side Tuesday from 8 Mile to downtown, many neighborhoods appeared tidier than they had two months ago, but it wasn't hard to find significant piles of trash even on well-tended blocks: Clarita and Freeland; Ohio and Fenkell; Tuller and Ellsworth, and even on Leslie, not far from the home Kilpatrick occupied before he moved into the city-owned Manoogian Mansion after being elected mayor.

Kilpatrick has acknowledged illegal dumping is a major problem in Detroit, and he said it is not necessarily connected with his decision to end the city's bulk-trash pickups due to budget problems.

In his budget address to the City Council last month, Kilpatrick promised to mount an aggressive effort against dumping, and he has asked the council to approve the creation of 33 additional positions in the Department of Public Works to do nothing but clean up dumps. June 1 will mark the start of the city's most aggressive effort ever against code violations and dumping, he said.

Mayoral spokesman James Canning said Tuesday that city workers have cleaned up 905 illegal dumps since January.

Other readers, in e-mails and phone calls, urged leaders to fix Detroit's streetlights, do a better job illuminating buildings, demolish decayed structures and institute free parking after 5 p.m.

A couple of readers suggested the cleanup should start in the offices of elected officials in city hall. Others took their frustrations out on each other.

Then there was the message from an e-mailer known as "Unknown from GR." It advocated firing Lions general manager Matt Millen.

Contact BILL McGRAW at 313-223-4781 or journal@freepress.com.

VARIATIONS on a THEME or IMITATION is the Sincerest Form of Flattery!

Super Bowl czar to help clean up Detroit
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
May 9, 2006

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had a simple, happy message for Detroiters on Monday:
"Roger Penske is back!"

Confirming news reported in Monday's Free Press, Kilpatrick announced at a noon news conference in front of the "Spirit of Detroit" statue that businessman and auto-racing legend Penske will take on a major new downtown cleanup effort as the new chairman of the civic group Downtown Detroit Partnership.

With a budget of $1.2 million for the rest of this year and $1.5 million next year, Penske will oversee the effort to keep the downtown business district as clean as it was for Super Bowl XL.

"This is bigger than the Super Bowl, as far as I'm concerned, because this is sustaining value for this city and the future. So for me, it's an issue that I want to be sure I'm part of," Penske said.

The money, to be raised by private donations, will pay for daily patrols of uniformed workers to pick up litter, power-wash sidewalks, remove graffiti and posters and otherwise keep downtown looking clean. The area to be cleaned is bordered by Jefferson on the south, Beaubien on the east, Cass on the west and Adams on the north.

If there were any doubts about the need for a cleanup effort, a short walk along Woodward after Monday's news conference could dispel them. Sidewalks and the grassy median showed litter strewn about.

Penske said that Goodwill Industries, a nonprofit agency that lines up jobs for poor and disadvantaged people, would provide and supervise the workers. The cleanup effort, part of the mayor's Next Detroit series of initiatives, will start around June 1. Plans call for workers to clean from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and for shorter hours on weekends.

Kilpatrick was clearly pleased to have lined up the charismatic and popular Penske for the role. As chairman of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee, Penske led a six-year effort that recruited thousands of volunteers to greet visitors during game week, that hosted the Motown Winter Blast and that partnered with the city in a massive downtown cleanup.

"He is the kind of guy that, if it's not being done right, he jumps right in and says, 'Let's just get it done. Let's do it,' " Kilpatrick said of Penske. "And we need that kind of aggressive, tenacious, positive attitude pushing a movement like this."

Penske, who will serve for an undetermined period in a volunteer capacity, said his new role follows from the Super Bowl effort.

"I think it's a natural transition for me to set new deadlines and achieve new successes for the city of Detroit," he said. "This is a continuation of the spirit and the execution and the movement that started with Super Bowl XL."
Evoking such fabled partnerships of the past -- including that of former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and Henry Ford II -- Kilpatrick said Penske could have chosen anywhere to make his mark.

"Roger Penske -- a global competitor who does business all over the world, who can partner with any city on the planet, who can give of his service and himself and his resources anywhere -- has chosen to stick his flag, his stake, right here in the city of Detroit," Kilpatrick said.

As the downtown partnership's new chair, elected Monday by the partnership's board, Penske takes over from outgoing chair Matthew Cullen, a General Motors executive who will remain as vice chair.

Penske will also lead a revived effort to create a Business Improvement District, or BID. BIDs are districts dedicated to cleanup and marketing efforts, supported by a special tax on downtown property owners.

Many other cities have revived their downtowns using the BID model. Efforts to create a BID for downtown Detroit have failed because of political opposition. The new cleanup efforts are designed to bridge the gap between now and the time when a BID can win approvals from the City Council and property owners.

Kilpatrick said he would announce a second cleanup effort soon, aimed at neighborhoods. Industrialist and sports legend Dave Bing is expected to chair that effort.

Contact JOHN GALLAGHER at 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Detroit Free Press Article Sunday May 7, 2006

Spring cleaning starts in areas around Detroit
Litter, dumping sites get attention

BY CHASTITY PRATT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

May 7, 2006
Motor City Makeover

Enrico Carter and Rodney Curry pulled trash from a pile behind Liberty Liquor store on Detroit's east side that included mattresses, burned wood and had a barnyard stench.

After nearly an hour, the Detroit men had shoveled a path through the alley. "It might take two-and-a-half or three more hours to clean," Carter, 35, said.

The annual Motor City Makeover litter-removal effort kicked off Saturday on Detroit's southwest and near-east side while the Great American Cleanup swept through the east side to the south side.

For the first time, the city was divided into sections to be cleaned during the first three weekends in May. Last year, more than 60,000 volunteers participated, officials said.

More than 800 volunteers joined Carter and Curry as they took part in the Great American Cleanup, an annual, one-day national effort by an organization called Keep America Beautiful and organized locally by Keep It Moving Inc.

They mowed grass and piled trash into a bin. Some focused their efforts on cleaning up illegal dump sites. Carter and Curry especially wanted to clear the trash behind the store, whose owner donated supplies.

"We want people to take ownership," over their little area, said Sondra Yates of Columbus, Ohio, a representative for Keep America Beautiful.

Leslie Holsey, who works at Barbour Magnet Middle School and coordinates programs for students, said 115 students and volunteers with Keep It Moving picked up litter and planted flowers at the school. "The kids who helped do all of that, they're not going to let it get messed up," she said.

The cleanup is to continue May 13 for much of the east side and May 20 for the west side.

Individuals and groups can register to help by calling 313-224-4415 or by visiting www.ci.detroit.mi.us.

Individuals and community groups are required to register with the City of Detroit to get information on where to drop off bagged litter. There will be no curbside pickups.

Contact CHASTITY PRATT at 313-223-4537.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

PRIME TIME "KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL" CLEAN-UP EFFORT becomes NEWS at CHANNEL 7

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Gives "BIG THUMBS-UP" to Clean-up Effort!

WE are the MOTIVATORS!

Keep It Moving Host's KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL V.I.P. RECEPTION at "Friends of Detroit & Tri-County"