(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Millions more in incentives for the Ilitch companies in Detroit [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-31 A satirical take on the Little Caesars mascot. What Ilitch wants, Ilitch gets. Ilitch wanted Wayne State University to build him a shrine as the Mike Ilitch School of Business near his Little Caesars Arena (LCA), Ilitch got Wayne State University to build him a shrine as the Mike Ilitch School of Business near the LCA. Now Ilitch wants a billion and half dollars in incentives for Olympia Development, and he will almost certainly get it. From Click On Detroit: Detroit City Council approved a plan to provide more state incentives to Olympia Development for projects around Little Caesars Arena. It’s a decision with more than $400 million hanging in the balance. That $400 million in state incentives would have gone away had the city council not approved the plan by Tuesday (March 28). That’s just one part of a package that could total $1.5 billion. Mayor Mike Duggan gave a very inspiring statement with all the right pretty words. Today, City Council voted for a future where all Detroiters who want a good paying job can find one. Our young talent shouldn’t have to leave Detroit for Atlanta or Chicago or Miami to pursue their dreams. With today’s vote, many more of those dreams will be achieved right here in a growing and vibrant city. Thank you to Detroit City Council and to the members of the Neighborhood Advisory Committee who worked so hard to reach an agreement that will benefit all Detroit. I’m profoundly skeptical that these handouts to Ilitch’s Olympia Development of Michigan will lead to long-term good paying jobs for Detroiters. There’s an elevator operator at the LCA, let’s call him “Jamal Booker.” Jamal is in the extremely small group of black graduates of Grand Circus, a “coding” “boot camp.” The fact that he’s black combined with the fact that he graduated from Grand Circus tells you he’s extremely good at “coding,” whereas being a white male graduate of Grand Circus is not very indicative as to ability — but it is very indicative of how much help finding a relevant job the graduate gets. I can vouch that Jamal is very good at Java programming, and so can other people if you don’t want to take my word for it. It’s my understanding that Little Caesars uses C#. Which is not the same as Java, but it’s similar enough that someone as bright as Jamal could pick it up with maybe a week or two of training, if even that. But looking at Jamal’s resume, you’re only going to see a menial job that pays a little more than minimum wage, and you’re going to see a man who stays at that menial job because of his lack of ambition. It doesn’t occur to recruiters that maybe it’s because of racism that he can’t get a higher paying job, and even if he really was unambitious, he still has a family to try to provide for. Jamal is just one example. There are other black and Latino software developers who have to settle for menial jobs because they’re summarily rejected for the good paying jobs they’re qualified for. Officially, racism doesn’t happen. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that blacks and Latinos in Detroit just don’t have the necessary five to ten years’ paid experience that entry level software developer jobs require. Somehow, only whites and Indians have the necessary experience. Nothing the companies can do about that. I’ve told City Council about an idea I have to address this problem, and about how severely understaffed Detroit at Work, and the city in general, is. What if we take some of these unemployed or underemployed Detroiters and just give them the jobs that will put them on the path to the careers they so richly deserve? I could put together a team of four Java developers just with Detroiters who’ve been left behind like Jamal, and if I could pay them the minimum that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says software developers get paid (something like $50K), it would only take six months for all of them to get offers for better jobs. Just three months of experience can be enough for the race requirement for software developers to go out the window. I believe that if I could put this program in motion, I would have complete turnover before the 1-year mark, and be able to offer this opportunity to four others — it has to be an even number, for pair programming, so that they can demonstrate the teamwork blacks and Latinos are supposedly not capable of. And all of their contracts with this program would require them to be mentors to future program participants. This program would cost a quarter of a million dollars annually. If the city has money to just fork over to Ilitch, why isn’t there money for this program I’m proposing? I’m getting very frustrated with Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero (D-Detroit, City Council District 6). She listens, but like she thinks you’re an idiot and she’s thinking about something much more interesting, like whether or not she played Wordle yesterday and what that means for her streak if she didn’t. Supposedly someone in the councilwoman’s office will “review” my “concerns.” That’s very clearly a brush-off. They’re not “concerns,” they’re problems, they affect a lot of people in this city, and I have a proposed solution. One thing is clear to me: Gabriela Santiago-Romero is not “more and better Democrats.” But Detroit City Council District 6 is stuck with her until 2026. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/31/2161353/-Millions-more-in-incentives-for-the-Ilitch-companies-in-Detroit Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/