re: #137 Decatur Deb

The trouble is that a city must be a natural, organic outgrowth of it’s economic and cultural environment. It can’t be forced or saved. The thing that made Detroit great—the cheap car—is killing the cities. (Note that topography makes NYC somewhat immune to it. Still a subway/LIRR town.)

Ideally, government and business would work together, because what is in Detroit, still, is a massive number of experienced industrial workers. They could retrain for, say, carbon nano-tube production, which is one of the few industries we still have a chance at busting out as world leader on. They are one of the absolute necessary technologies for sustainable tech, so they’re green energy research and development. We should pour some money into basic science research on them and subsidize the hell out of some carbon nanotube companies.

But no, we have the GOP, who are a party clutching a sack of horsemeat, certain that the financial apocalypse is coming, and refusing to look to any sort of future for America. They’ve become a goddamn apocalyptic party.

When was the last time you heard anything positive from the GOP?