Business and Democracy
The undermining of democracy is accelerating in Michigan. A new frame is emerging from our business owners and their publicists. They claim that business, supported by public money, is better for people than political decision-making.
The efforts by Dan Gilbert and Bedrock to use public money for their latest projects illustrate this dangerous shift. Major news media is celebrating Gilbert’s plans for the former Hudson’s Department Store. Gilbert is promising a million-square-foot development that will include 400 apartment units, the tallest building in Michigan, and a large complex with retail markets and exhibition spaces. Claiming it will be a “city within a city,” the space will offer a maker’s space for children, a market hall for encouraging new ideas, art, music, dance, and Ted Talks.
Behind all of this media hype are some troubling realities. First, an initial $250 million in tax money, collectible by Gilbert, thanks to the Michigan Legislature, supports the project. The right-wing legislature has put into place a legal framework to allow corporations to collect income and property taxes in designated redevelopment areas. This initial public support for Gilbert’s projects is expected to balloon to $618 million over the next few years, including money that should go to public schools.
The developments, part of more than a dozen scheduled over the next year, are not governed by any substantial community benefit agreements. In fact, the community is being told to be quiet, stop interrupting progress, and be glad you are getting some jobs, maybe.
The Detroit Free Press columnist John Gallagher, who considers himself liberal, uncritically embraces the development. He notes in passing that it will have a “big public assembly space.” What kind of “public space” exactly is he envisioning? Gilbert, who has both a large private security force and state-of-the-art surveillance technologies positioned throughout his emerging fortressed area, has not exactly encouraged robust public discussion. Gallagher’s thinking about democracy appears to extend to offering suggestions of names for the new building. The point of his short article is to invite readers to send suggestions to him so he can pass them along to Gilbert.
Gallagher does say we “need to figure out what to do to ensure that Detroit’s recovery creates opportunity for all.” Opportunity, of course, is not the same thing as justice and is a long way from sustainable, equitable development. His solution for opportunity is to give more tax breaks, this time for historic preservation.
A much more meaningful solution would be a real community benefits agreement. Last year Gilbert and his pals did everything they could to sabotage a community-led initiative. Many of those who fought for this substantial agreement gathered outside the fake groundbreaking event to challenge this use of public money for private gain.
Predictably, instead of engaging seriously with the questions being raised by the group, Gilbert’s media mouthpieces resorted to name-calling in an effort to delegitimize thoughtful discussion.
On the other side of the spectrum, the Detroit News columnist Daniel Howes offered the view that business is better than democracy. Howes argued that Detroiters need to “embrace” business, because “commerce is often more likely to improve lives and build communities—not politics.”
This kind of framing is dangerous to all who care about democracy and justice. The idea that business interests, not public values, should be our only consideration has justified the genocide of indigenous people, the enslavement of millions of Africans for generations, and the continued assault on land and people everywhere.
Gilbert responded to the demonstrators saying, "I don't think they understand” and “I think they should do their homework." It is Gilbert and his cronies who don't understand history and who should do some homework. If the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, they are on the wrong side, and playing a disastrous game.