James Robertson's remarkable commute

Rolfe said:
The population density goes down and down, and the services disappear. Shops close because there aren't enough customers remaining. The city was built for the car, and if you don't have one of these, you're screwed. I don't know what the answer is, since you can't simply relocate the remaining people into geographically rational population centres and return the rest to farmland.
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Actually, I thought they were trying to do exactly that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/us/06detroit.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
 
Yeah, I know. I read that and some similar articles a few months ago. I don't think they can realistically achieve what they'd like to achieve. I've not seen much sign of real progress. Piecemeal building on random plots in blighted areas ain't gonna help, and I think the planners are trying to discourage it, but it's being done.

The planning isn't holding. People are embarking on individual initiatives in areas that should be abandoned. I mean, what's going on around Penrose Street, with all these new, narrow, rather forbidding buildings dotted around almost at random as the developers have been able to acquire particular plots? Some facing right on to burned-out buildings. The narrow plots and the patchwork of ownership are a problem, and this is perpetuating it.

https://goo.gl/maps/ZA5XZ
https://goo.gl/maps/a5YuB

I see lots of articles talking about fine-sounding plans, and very little of it coming to anything in the face of the difficulties of creating and enforcing an overall vision of where the city wants to get to.
 
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The article has an oddly "feel good" slant to it.
From the original article:
Detroit's director of transportation said there is a service Robertson may be able to use that's designed to help low-income workers. Job Access and Reverse Commute, paid for in part with federal dollars, provides door-to-door transportation to low-income workers, but at a cost. Robertson said he was not aware of the program...
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This part does not sound quite true. Does the paper just accept this as fact or did they look into it? According to the gov site, the JARC program helps fund programs not individuals. If there are no programs - as an individual he would have no access to the funds. Maybe that part slipped the director's mind, or maybe there is a specific state or city program that he had in mind but was not included in the article.

http://www.fta.dot.gov/grants/13093_3550.html

Sounded good though.

I set our attendance standard by this man," says Todd Wilson, plant manager at Schain Mold & Engineering. "I say, if this man can get here, walking all those miles through snow and rain, well I'll tell you, I have people in Pontiac 10 minutes away and they say they can't get here — bull!"
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Gosh and what a nice company he works for, at least they say so. If the company is so great why do they accept that one of their employees gets two hours of sleep a night and can't afford transportation - and then use him as a tool to leverage attendance from other employees? Our company might have set up some kind of employee fund to help out. So, in my mind there's a little disconnect again with reality, but why do any digging deeper when Apple Pie tastes so good?

I agree that the Detroit problems are serious and interesting as problems to solve, and the people living there deserve some compassion.
 
Kopji said:
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Gosh and what a nice company he works for, at least they say so. If the company is so great why do they accept that one of their employees gets two hours of sleep a night and can't afford transportation - and then use him as a tool to leverage attendance from other employees? Our company might have set up some kind of employee fund to help out. So, in my mind there's a little disconnect again with reality, but why do any digging deeper when Apple Pie tastes so good?
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That's what I've been wondering. It might be a little too much to ask that the company give him more money, and other workers might see that as unfair, but they might have been able to adjust his schedule to a time when buses or car pools might be more available. I'll bet he wouldn't have to walk so far if his shift was, say, 8 to 4.
 
I think it might be a difficult dilemma for the employer. He isn't forcing his employee to live where he does, that's the employee's choice. In my last job, it was actually a contractural requirement to live within reasonable travelling distance of my workplace. So if he gives the guy special concessions or extra money, other employees might kick up.

His wife is making him special lunches though!

Bob001 said:
That's what I've been wondering. It might be a little too much to ask that the company give him more money, and other workers might see that as unfair, but they might have been able to adjust his schedule to a time when buses or car pools might be more available. I'll bet he wouldn't have to walk so far if his shift was, say, 8 to 4.
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If he had to start work at 8, what time would he have to leave? 2 am? And get up when? Doesn't sound any better to me. Maybe worse.
 
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Kopji said:
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This part does not sound quite true. Does the paper just accept this as fact or did they look into it? According to the gov site, the JARC program helps fund programs not individuals. If there are no programs - as an individual he would have no access to the funds. Maybe that part slipped the director's mind, or maybe there is a specific state or city program that he had in mind but was not included in the article.
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A reporter trying to follow up couldn't find any information about the program. If it exists, it's no wonder that Robertson didn't know about it. (The story also says a company spokesperson said that Robertson was off due to snow when the reporter called to talk to him.)
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2015/02/detroiters_21-mile_walking_wor.html
 
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Rolfe said:
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If he had to start work at 8, what time would he have to leave? 2 am? And get up when? Doesn't sound any better to me. Maybe worse.
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My point is that if he was traveling at the times of day when most workers are going to and from their jobs, he would have a better chance of getting a bus (in many places some routes only operate during rush hours) or of getting into a carpool with coworkers or somebody else. Hell, he might even be able to hitchhike if there's enough traffic.
 
I don't know. Hard to see what sort of rush-hour there's going to be at 2 am. The original article said that nobody else at his work lives anywhere near him.
 
Rolfe said:
I don't know. Hard to see what sort of rush-hour there's going to be at 2 am. The original article said that nobody else at his work lives anywhere near him.
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Let's try again. I'm suggesting -- I don't know -- that if he had a more typical work shift (and I mean 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) he would have better access to buses and carpools and therefore wouldn't have to walk 21 miles and therefore wouldn't have to set out at 2 a.m. Suppose he could catch a bus or a ride to work, or even within a couple miles of work. It wouldn't take him six hours to get there.
 
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Pass. Since I live about 3000 miles away, I can't ask him whether he'd prefer an earlier shift and if so why won't his employer oblige.
 
Bob001 said:
I'm happy for him, and I wish him luck, but I suspect his $10 an hour co-workers will be on him like vultures. They'll either want "loans," or they'll expect him to treat them to lunch and sodas in the break room, or they'll just sneer at every chance. The smart thing would be for this guy to have his banker friend put him on an allowance, so he can honestly say "The money's all tied up." His problems are a lot like a lottery winner's, except the money isn't really enough for him to never work again. I wouldn't be surprised if he uses his new car to find another job.
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This reminds me of a true, rather dark but also comedic, story about a lottery syndicate in a local government office here in the UK. Their ticket came up and they split several million, enough to quit work which they duly did, en bloc. They left behind just one guy who had chosen not to participate and who consequently had to see all his workmates head off into the sunset to a better life. He couldn't handle it. He took to stealing office equipment and selling it but got caught and ended up in jail.
 
anglolawyer said:
This reminds me of a true, rather dark but also comedic, story about a lottery syndicate in a local government office here in the UK. Their ticket came up and they split several million, enough to quit work which they duly did, en bloc. They left behind just one guy who had chosen not to participate and who consequently had to see all his workmates head off into the sunset to a better life. He couldn't handle it. He took to stealing office equipment and selling it but got caught and ended up in jail.
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What's the comedy part, that he ended up in jail?
 
marplots said:
What's the comedy part, that he ended up in jail?
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The darkly comedic part, if there is one, is that guy's personal circumstances hadn't changed at all. He had the same job and the same place in life that he had before his buddies won and that he would have continued to have if they hadn't won. But somehow their good fortune led him to believe that he was entitled to more, too. It's the delusion -- "they got some, so I deserve it too" -- that's entertaining, and it's probably pretty common in all spheres of life.
 
I wonder if he should just buy a cash purchase annuity with the remainder of the money? The return won't be wonderful, but it will be safe and reliable and just give him that bit extra cash every month for the rest of his life to make life easier. And the capital would be tied up and untouchable.
 
Damn, I hope this is on the up-and-up. Please don't anyone find any dirt on the guy or that it was a scam!

The capper is that the mayor wanted him to attend a city meeting (and I'm a cynic, but I think it's kinda obvious that he wanted to leech some good energy/press off the guy) and he turned him down because he'd have to take off from work.
 
I don't think it was a scam at all. I'm just smiling wryly at the revelation that the whole "girlfriend" thing wasn't what it seemed.

If this good fortune can be managed to give him an extra income stream for life that will make normal living less of a struggle, and he gets out of the blighted area into somewhere moderately respectable, it will be a big win.
 
Max_mang said:
I'm not really understanding the gofundme part, on many levels.

What really makes people donate to these?

25000 for a car? I have a good job/salary and my car cost 17k used. And I felt that was expensive. A friend bought a used Yaris on Craigslist for 6500 cash. It works great.

Once it reached 25000, people kept donating? Enough to get it to almost 300k? Wow.

Good for him though. It just seems so weird you can raise that kind of money for having a slightly sad story. But he's not living on the street, or saving people's lives, or dying of a disease and has a last wish. So strange. To me,anyways.
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When the fundraiser for this guy reached several thousand (after setting a goal of £500 to help with moving expenses), I started suggesting people might think about donating to Scope or Victim Support instead, but I got very short shrift. In the end his family asked for the page to stop taking donations.
 
Let's see. It wasn't a case of, well I really have to live there because my bidie-in inherited the house and it's not practical for us to sell up and move in the current hopeless housing market. Not at all.

He's living in what is essentially a lodging house, paying the landlady $220 a week, leaving him only $97 a week for all other expenses. Walking for hours every day to get to work. And he refers to the landlady as his "girlfriend" although they don't live in the same unit, and her ex-husband also lives in the house. Both refer to themselves as a couple, but Robertson said she "liked to control everyone and everything" and seems to have been only too glad to get away, without leaving a forwarding address for her.

That's some way interesting sociodynamic there.

I read the other day there's a word for the opposite of schadenfreude. Means taking vicarious pleasure in the good fortune of others. Well, whatever the word is, I'm feeling it for James Robertson. It sounds as if he has got out of something that wasn't doing him any good.
 
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