Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal wrote about the efforts of the Michigan-based Kresge Foundation to revitalize the City of Detroit.
I have previously written about the Kresge Foundation, endowed with the K-Mart fortune. Its current head, Minnesota's Rip Rapson, took over the foundation five years ago, after a stint running the Minneapolis-based McKnight Foundation, endowed with 3M money. Under Rapson's leadership, Kresge has continued to send funds to Minnesota, to promote the climate change agenda.
The Wall Street Journal writes about the friction between Krege, based in a Detroit suburb, and political leaders in the City of Detroit, notably Mayor Dave Bing, regarding the direction of the city's revitalization effort. Krege has put more than $100 million into Detroit's revival.
Quoting Mr. Rapson,
" 'Philanthropy has emerged as the sector best able to provide the long-term vision and shorter-term investment of capital the city needs to right itself,' Mr. Rapson said at a private gathering of urban experts in Detroit this spring. That foundation-knows-best attitude exasperates Mayor Dave Bing and City Hall officials, who have sought to reassure Detroiters that their voices, not outsiders, will guide efforts to rebuild the city."
And what is the Kresge solution to Detroit's well-documented problems? Why, light rail, of course! But that's not all,
"One pillar calls for a 'green economy,' supported by a 'suite of coordinated investments' including 'neighborhood sweeps' to assess the environmental strengths and weakness of an area. Another promotes the idea of 'neighborhoods of choice,' which to some activists echoes the convulsive urban-renewal efforts of Detroit's past. He sees vacant land, a scourge to many in the city, 'as a canvas of economic imagination.' "
The green economy and environmental sweeps reflect the blinkered thinking of our liberal elite. I continue to advocate for the Charter City approach to Detroit's revival.
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