Well, DUH!

[SEMIJim]

Years ago Detroit, MI, "motor capital of the world," had a problem: Come Halloween time, Detroit would burn. Not satisfied with soaping windows, ringing doorbells, TP'ing things, and the ever-popular ring-the-doorbell and run prank on Devil's Night, Detroit's children took to burning-down abandoned homes. It got to the point that reporters and other observers from around the world would come to Detroit to witness it first-hand.

Several years ago Detroit decided it had had enough of being a world spectacle. The city was determined to eliminate the problem. So, for two days leading up to Halloween and on Halloween itself, it established a 6 p.m. curfew for children under a certain age (16 or 18, IIRC), put all its police on the streets, established a huge "citizens' patrol" event and initiated a campaign to rename "Devil's Night" (the night before Halloween) to "Angel's Night."

It worked. Fires in the City of Detroit during those three days decreased to less than average for any particular day or night. The spectators stopped coming. The "news" people stopped covering what had become a non-event.

Yes, it worked. That is, until the little darlings figured out "Hey, I'll just burn something down in celebration of Halloween and Devil's Night before or after the Angel's Night push!"

Oops!

The fact that it took Detroit's vandals this long to figure this out is telling. The fact that Detroit's leaders were caught off-guard by this "unexpected" turn of events is even more telling.

One suspects the latter somehow influences the former.

Jim

[sailingdog]

Not too bright...but whaddya expect from government..

[xort]

jim
your story isn't quite complete. the kids did start the whole thing by burning down some abandonded houses. but then the owners of a lot of abandonded houses saw an opportunity to get rid of their tax burden & liability property. so arson became a big business on devils night, masked by the initial situation

The real shame is the huge number of abandonded properties which are now vacant lots. drive through the neighborhoods and half the lots, or more, are vacant. detroit is a wasteland in more ways than one

[sailaway21]

At the current pace, the last actual homowner in Detroit is due to move out next year. I think there's a backlog on the U-Hauls or it'd be sooner. The city is effectively non-existent. No one will willingly move there. A brief examination of the history of government within Detroit will shed some light on the matter.