The Intersection: What Is Detroit’s Business Community Doing to Address Poverty?
Detroit Regional Chamber CEO says thriving Downtown, Midtown does help neighborhoods.
As part of our work with the Detroit Journalism Cooperative, WDET is reporting on the issues the Kerner Commission found contributed to social unrest – some would say “rioting” – during the 1960s. Have things changed? Did we move toward two societies, separate and unequal, as the Commission warned?
One of the key issues presented by the commission was poverty and the lack of jobs. Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy Baruah speaks with Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson about how the business community approaches job growth in a community like Detroit.
“The renaissance that’s happening in Downtown, Midtown, and other neighborhoods like Corktown is directly related to what will eventually happen in Detroit’s historic neighborhoods,” says Baruah. “What this city needs, almost more than anything else, is a healthy, growing tax base. That will allow… our city government to provide more services to all Detroiters – everything from police to fire to garbage to streetlights.”
To hear the full conversation, click on the audio player above.
Original air date: June 30th, 2016
