Featured Place to Live: 7428 Patton St

7428 Patton St. - Image from Google Streetview

7428 Patton Street is a charming brick bungalow in the Warrendale neighborhood, just 2 blocks from Rouge Park. This 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home has 947 square feet of living space, a detached garage, and was built in 1947.

Among the many amenities for this single family home are:

• Central air conditioning already installed;
• Stove and refrigerator are included;
• Hardwood floors throughout the home; and
• Updated kitchen with cherry cabinets and ceramic tile flooring.

The new roof, furnace, central air conditioning, driveway, and porch make this home an incredible bargain at only $39,900. This home is represented by Keller Williams Realty in West Bloomfield. More information about it is available here.

7428 Patton St. in Warrendale is your Featured Place to Live for this week. Please check in next week for another great place to live.

Detroit Residents Can Save on Prescriptions

Detroit residents can save money on their prescriptions with a drug discount card available through the Detroit City Clerk's office.  These free prescription drug discount cards provide an average savings of 20% off the retail price of commonly prescribed drugs at participating pharmacies.  The prescription discount card is available to residents through the City of Detroit in collaboration with the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C.  

Detroit residents have saved $550,000 through the City of Detroit Prescription Discount Card Program since program's launch in March 2010, according to City Clerk Janice Winfrey. 

This prescription discount card offers savings on prescription drugs to residents who do not have health insurance or a traditional benefits plan. It also provide discounts for prescriptions that are not covered by insurance. The card is free to all Detroit residents, regardless of age, income, or existing health insurance.  

Residents may obtain a card from either of the City Clerk' Offices or from participating CVS pharmacies located in Detroit. The City Clerk's Office is located inside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (2 Woodward Ave., Suite 200) or at the Department of Elections (2978 W. Grand Blvd.).

For more information, call (313) 224-3261. Prescription discounts for Detroit residents is your Warrendale Tip of the Week.

Cool Warrendale Thing: Fish Fries at Chick's Bar

Chick's Bar - Photo by Frank Nemecek

Chick's Bar (18550 W. Warren Ave.) is famous for its Friday fish fries during Lent. And by famous, I mean famous.

I have bumped into random people as far away as Chicago who, when they heard where I live, started talking about Chick's Bar and it's Friday fish fries during Lent. The food is good, plentiful, and cheap. Plus, it's served with a neighborhood charm.

If you haven't experience it yet, I highly recommend trying it this Friday. It is your Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week.

Crime in Warrendale: East vs West

Map Displaying Crimes Reported Near Warrendale

I have been following crime reports in the Warrendale neighborhood and the rest of Detroit for years. One of the trends that I have noticed is that crime is much more rampant in the area west of the Southfield Freeway than it is to the east of it.

It seems to be particularly concentrated in the one-square mile area bounded by Paul to the south, Tireman to the north, Southfield Freeway to the east, and Evergreen to the west. Crime exists west of the freeway and south of Paul, just at a lower level.

I don't know why crime is concentrated in this area. If anyone has any idea, please leave a comment below.

Update @ 10:05 p.m.
Several people have asked me where I got this image and crime data. Everything comes from CrimeMapping.com, which provides detailed crime statistics from jurisdictions around the country.

Also, one of the possible explanations for the east vs. west phenomena that has been suggested is that the Dearborn Police Department might be a crucial factor. Since Paul St. is the border between the cities of Detroit and Dearborn in the area east of the freeway, the Dearborn Police Department does a decent amount of traffic enforcement along Paul. However, they only do that east of the freeway.

I find myself wondering a great police presence from the Dearborn Police Department along that one road really can that big of an impact. It's probably a part of answer, at least. I cannot, however, think of a better explanation.

Again, if you can think of a reason why the east vs. west phenomena exists, please feel free to share it.

Guest Commentary: Things the Emergency Manager Should Do

Erik Drader, a resident of the other fine neighborhoods in Detroit, posted a series of comments on the Facebook page for this blog that outlined what he thinks our soon-to-be appointed emergency manager should do once in office. I agree with some of ideas and disagree with others. However, I think this is a great way to start the conversation about what the emergency manager for Detroit should do.

Therefore, with his permission, I am proud to present his comments as a guest commentary on this blog.

There is no entity or organization in the country that is more wasteful, incompetent, and utterly broken as Detroit city government. Given that, the emergency manager should dismantle as much of city government as possible, and transfer the authority and operations to different organizations and/or units of government. Use Cobo, Campus Martius, Eastern Market, and the Riverwalk as successful examples of the city turning over responsibility to dedicated non-profits, private/public partnerships, regional authorities, or different units of government, and replicate these successes as much as possible. 

I would love to see the city completely get out of the transit business and hand off everything to the new regional transit authority  The city should let Belle Isle become a state park, and then try to find partnerships to help fund and maintain as many other city parks as possible. 

I would also like to see if city airport could be turned over to the county airport authority and expanded. City airport could be a huge asset if the runways were expanded to allow full size aircraft to land there. The City tried to do that while Mayor Coleman A.Young was in office, but there were too many businesses and residents that would have had to move at that time. That area has experienced massive population loss and abandonment, so it should be much easier to acquire the needed land now than it was 30 years ago.

There are many departments that should be eliminated and turned over to state or county control. The departments of health, human services, and human rights are good starting points. The City should also look at turning over property tax collection to the county. 

Any help that we can get from other law enforcement agencies should be welcomed and expanded as much as possible. The county sheriffs department offered to take over responsibility for policing the bus system a couple years ago, and was turned down. The state is willing to deploy more state police officers in the city to help out. Wayne State is willing to help police areas that are a little outside of the Wayne State University district.

If the Detroit Police Department can turn over certain duties and/or partner with other law enforcement agencies, coverage can improve and response times can be cut. Also, there needs to be reorganization within the DPD itself. Shortly before leaving the job, Chief Ralph Godbee said that the DPD had 100 officers working on payroll, which was still being done with paper and pencil. He said that they planned to spend $600,000 on a new payroll system to try to get more efficient. WTF? An organization of 2,500 employees can be properly serviced by a payroll department of 3 civilians. Also, a modern payroll system doesn't cost $600,000 to purchase. Internal restructuring and outside partnering could result in hundreds of additional police patrolling the streets, without any additional expenditure from the city. 

These are just starting points. There is much more that can be done to cut costs and improve service delivery. 

Also, the EM should figure out exactly how much long-term debt is owed by the city and how much of that debt the city can actually afford to pay, and then make a settlement offer to the unions and bond holders. The 2007 United Auto Workers contracts are a good template to work from. The city should set up a union-controlled Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association with a set amount of seed money (negotiated in settlement talks) and then switch over to a defined contribution retirement plan for all city employees.

If the unions and bond holders can not come to a settlement agreement with the city, bankruptcy should then be pursued.

Happy (Chinese) New Year

Chinese New Year - Photo by Irum Shahid

Today is the Chinese New Year. Billions of people will celebrate beginning of the year of the Snake today with fireworks, food, and other festivities. For those who believe in gambling, today is also considered by some to be the luckiest day of the year.

As for me, I will mark this occasion with Chinese food and lots of friends.

In a related note, today is also the day when I usually make all of my New Year's resolutions. When I make them on January 1, I never keep them. However, when I make them on the Chinese New Year, I almost always do.

FBI Launches Investigation into Detroit EMS

I posted a prediction on my Twitter feed last week that Detroit Mayor Dave Bing would likely face his first federal indictment by June of 2014. A lot of people thought I was nuts when I posted that.

Of course, those who think I'm nuts for predicting a criminal indictment against Mayor Bing haven't spent the past few years digging through the City of Detroit's financial records and its budget, attending community meetings, and filing Freedom of Information Act requests.

In a completely unrelated event, Charlie LeDuff of Fox 2 News broke the story last night that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Michigan Attorney General's Office are investigating the Emergency Medical Services Division of the Detroit Fire Department. They are looking at whether or not the Detroit's EMS has been used by the City's administration to obtain fraudulent reimbursements for services from Medicaid and Medicare.

I have to admit that there is a part of me that just wants to sit back with a large bowl of popcorn as this story evolves. Things, my dear readers, are going to get interesting in the coming weeks and months.