Ford to remake Detroit's most famous ruin

Now this is cool. Don't know who's money is going to be used just yet

Ford to remake Detroit's most famous ruin

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If you've ever been to Detroit, you've probably seen Michigan Central Station. And you've probably wondered why someone didn't just tear it down.

Visible from miles around, the 18-story building has been abandoned for decades and is, literally, a mere shell of its former self.

Now Ford has purchased the crumbling building and on Tuesday will announce plans to make it part of a major technology center.

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http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/17/news...ion/index.html

Imagine what it would be like to have a private company step up with a plan for the Central Terminal, one that doesn’t involve wads and wads of taxpayer money, the elixir that fuels the corruption in WNY.

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Originally Posted by grump

Imagine what it would be like to have a private company step up with a plan for the Central Terminal, one that doesn’t involve wads and wads of taxpayer money, the elixir that fuels the corruption in WNY.

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Wouldn't happen. You can bet your lunch there is not some group of entitled non-profit pests trying to tell Ford what they can and can't do with the Terminal.

From Tim Kennedy Facebook

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New life for an old train station; it's a concept I believe can happen here in Buffalo. Progress like this is exactly why I pushed to secure $5 million for the Buffalo Central Terminal: to shore up the site and get it ready for development. While we wait for that day to come, the site's immediate future is more secure now that we have this funding in place.

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He referred to this page

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Ford Motor Co. (F) is now the owner of Detroit's architecturally grandest, if most dilapidated, transportation hub. A spokesperson for the automaker confirmed that it has purchased the Michigan Central Depot, which opened in 1913 and closed in 1988.

Vacant for 30 years, the 500,000 square-foot train station -- designed by the same architectural firms behind Grand Central Terminal in New York and with a main waiting room built to resemble an ancient Roman bathhouse -- is widely seen as a symbol of Detroit's decades-long industrial decay.

Ford is reportedly planning to convert the blighted 18-story station into a technology campus. The company recently started relocating members of its electric and self-driving vehicle units into a refurbished factory near the station.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ford-bu...on-2018-06-11/

Kennedy is already pissing away $5 million, that’s right, $5 million, to “shore up” a site for which there is no prospect for redevelopment. As I said before, Kennedy is a stooge. Anyone know who owns Central Terminal? Seems to me the only thing “Terminal” about it is it’s condition.

You can be sure that Ford intends to make a lot of money on this move. They wouldn't be spending otherwise. If the city had invested in it, they would be keeping the building. If Ford does it and uses various grants and preservation money, they can essentially rehab an asset, partly on the taxpayer dime and then sell it and return zero to the investors. Since the decay occurred as a result of disinvestment Ford is in a win-win situation. They got out of investing to keep Detroit's assets from decaying in the first place and then they buy the asset for a song, invest some money into it and then sell it for big $. It's a pretty obvious pattern that has bee repeated in the history of the US cities.

Genoobie, you crack me up. Of course Ford plans to make money on it. This may come as a surprise to you but someone actually has to make money to keep failed public operations like the Detroit public schools and Buffalo public schools merrily wasting millions every year. Why didn’t the city buy it if they gave a **** about it? But they didn’t and they were broke in any event due to truly stupefying mismanagement. In fact, Ford is headquartered in Dearborn, not Detroit, and it’s investment in this relic in a city where it’s not headquartered is a firmer commitment to the infrastructure and this facility in particular than the City of Detroit has ever shown.

Don't worry, with all the tax cuts that Ford and others got with this last round of tax reform, I except massive growth in the next few years. Jobs will abound and Detroit will grow!
People will move there in droves and Ford's stock will explode. The CEO's there will tax the massive profits and reinvest them because that what the shareholders will want. The shareholders don't want large returns, they want sustainable growth. Right? Then all the graduates of BPS / DPS can be gainfully employed because there will be so many jobs, the jobless rate (not unemployment) will go down pretty close to zero.
Oh grump, you're the one who cracks me up! It's like you don't have any understanding of markets, speculation and short-selling. You probably think Ford makes money by selling a product. You're too much!

Genoobie, my guess is that almost none of the “graduates” of the BPS or DPS will get jobs there. You see, many, in fact most, employers want workers who can read and write a little bit and those “graduates” will be disqualified. When the sole goal of a school district is to prepare its students for a lifetime of welfare dependency skills don’t mean too much. And I think you have Ford confused with Tesla, which not only can’t sell its products but can’t even manufacture them.

That's odd, because to graduate, you need to pass New York State Regents Exams which allegedly verify those skills of reading and writing. Are you suggesting that the graduation rate, that depends on these exams, isn't an accurate metric of how well one can read and write?

Well, I doubt grads of the DPS have to pass the New York regents. With respect to the graduation rate of the BPS the record speaks for itself. With respect to the regents exams there’s little sense in getting into the dumbing down of educational content and the exams keyed to that content. Nor, for that matter, on the accuracy of the scoring of those exams.

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Originally Posted by grump

Well, I doubt grads of the DPS have to pass the New York regents. With respect to the graduation rate of the BPS the record speaks for itself. With respect to the regents exams there’s little sense in getting into the dumbing down of educational content and the exams keyed to that content. Nor, for that matter, on the accuracy of the scoring of those exams.

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Odd, because on one hand you suggest that graduation is a valid metric and is useful in determining the success of a district. On the other hand you disparage "graduates" as being unable to read and write. So you appear conflicted on your interpretation of this word. Perhaps you should sit back in the Barca and let the blood get back to your head for a little bit before posting again.