Detroit, MI – The mayor of New York says Detroit should lift its lamp as a beacon for new immigrants as a way to counter its drastic population losses.
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Mayor Michael Bloomberg floated the proposal during an appearance Sunday on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”
Bloomberg says there’s a “crisis of confidence” among business people about the nation’s economy.
He says the “most obvious” response to economic growth is encouraging immigration, particularly to places like Detroit.
The city has seen its population fall from 1.8 million in the 1950 U.S. Census to 714,000 in 2010. The population dropped 26 percent in the last decade alone.
Bloomberg says the U.S. should admit immigrants who agree to live for five or 10 years in the city and work or start businesses.
I think they should also take Bloomberg to Detroit,raise their taxes,ticket the motorists as much as he can get…We can live with Bill Thompson or any other candidate…
“Take a look at the big old industrial cities, Detroit for example,” Bloomberg said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They’ve a great mayor, Mayor (Dave) Bing, but the population has left. You’ve got to do something about that.
“And if I were the federal government, assuming we could wave a magic wand and pull everybody together, you pass a law letting immigrants come in as long as they agree to go to Detroit and live there for five to 10 years, start businesses, take jobs or whatever,” Bloomberg said .
“You would populate Detroit overnight because half the world wants to come here … you could use immigration policy at no cost to the country to fix a lot of the problems that we have.”
Bloomberg made his comments while talking about the economy, and how jobs are needed but there is a crisis of confidence among business people looking at Washington politicians, who are too focused on small issues and can’t come together on larger ones such as immigration.
“This is a country that was built by immigrants,” Bloomberg said. “This was a country that became a super power because of its immigrant population. And unless we continue to have immigrants, we cannot maintain as a super power.”
Immigrants won’t settle there for the same reason half the population left – there are no jobs. If it was a place to live, people would live there already.
Bloomberg has it right. Canada did this many years ago with great success. Immigrants arriving in the 1910-1938 era where told where to settle.
Yidden should come to Detroit, buy homes, start businesses. Grocery stores are urgently needed! You can buy a beautiful home in Detroit (or in the frum Jewish neighborhoods in the suburbs) for less than $200,000!
There are jobs here, the economy is picking up. I work at Ford.
“This is a country that was built by immigrants,” Bloomberg said. “This was a country that became a super power because of its immigrant population. And unless we continue to have immigrants, we cannot maintain as a super power.”
Perhaps you were correct oh short stubby socialist liberal one, but the immigrants that built the country were LEGAL immigrants as opposed to the multitude of ILLEGAL immigrants here now.
Whoo-hoo! What happened to the “This city embraces its immigrants, it’s a melting pot of cultures etc etc etc ” drivel he has been spouting for years? All of a sudden he wakes up & smells the weed along with the incense?
Detroit has many undocumented people most non-Latino, most not our friends
Mr. Mayor keep your “ideas” to yourself