Is It Time to End the Detroit Fireworks?

It is difficult to feel sorry for the City of Detroit these days. Most of the troubles the city faces have been, at the root, caused by the city itself. When you elect leaders (a term we use very loosely here) who do not lead, instead trying to protect their own little fiefdoms (which has been the pattern here for almost 40 years) and end up with what Detroit has, it's very easy to say, simply, you get what you pay for, Detroiters. You reap what you sow.

That's about how we feel leading into tonight's fireworks display on the Detroit River. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has said that, with the budget woes Detroit faces, the city may not be able to keep the fireworks going without help. The $700,000 dollars Detroit spends on them could be better spent elsewhere.

Indeed they could. Call it what you will, the fact is that every dollar spent by the city must be keenly accounted for and spent wisely. This means that extravagances such as fireworks, and even such other long standing local events as America's Thanksgiving Parade, cannot be seen through any special lenses. Every area of city spending must be scrutinized, up to and including traditional big time events.

Is the fiscal health of Detroit worth 45 minutes of fireworks? Is it worth two hours of national television exposure once per year on Thanksgiving? To be sure, some local agencies have offered to help. But at the end of the day, it's still Detroit's burden. There's more to the fireworks than the extra reserve police officers which Macomb County has offered in aid. There's the preliminary stuff, the cleanup afterwards, and likely as not line items in the budget which we don't readily appreciate.

We hate to see the death of long term events, particularly those which speak so very well about our city and state. But, despite being conservative, we must recognize that nothing lasts forever, and tradition itself isn't reason enough to keep things going simply because we've always done them. If the fireworks have to be snuffed out, then they must be. There's no saying we can't resurrect them when the money is better anyway. For the sake of the future, ending the festivities may be the best thing Detroit can do.