It looks as though the Detroit Zoo might be “saved” after all, though not without the City Council first imposing the same destructive demands that have crippled the city itself.

Under the proposed new deal, the City Council wants to force upon the Zoological Society the kind of union requirements, employment quotas, and potential goodies for Detroit friends and family that have destroyed city government and brought Detroit to the brink of receivership, the kind of fiscally insane demands that will also likely drive many donors away from the zoo, knowing that their money will be wasted on patronage.

Talk of a vote on a regional tax to fund the zoo has resurfaced, similar to the vote that failed in 2002. But that ballot initiative tanked because nobody in their right mind wants to put Detroit’s incompetent leaders in charge of more money, either directly or indirectly. Yet even with that well-founded fear, almost half the hopeful voters in Wayne and Oakland counties voted idealistically for the initiative anyway the last time around. If there were a vote to fund a zoo owned and controlled not by Detroit it would probably pass overwhelmingly.

It’s likely once again that there will be lukewarm support for a regional tax if Detroit owns or controls the zoo. The state’s residents have seen first-hand what happens when Detroit government is in charge of something. The things the City does have control over – its neighborhoods, its finances, its services, many of its large skyscrapers downtown — are crumbling. Having the City of Detroit own anything is often the kiss of death for it. The things that are surviving are due to the efforts of suburban outsiders (as with the Detroit Institute of Arts), and private entities and individuals within the city.

The City owns the Belle Isle Aquarium. It owns the Belle Isle Zoo. And because of Detroit’s ownership, those jewels no longer exist. And this same city government demands continued ownership of the Detroit Zoo? If it cannot afford to fund the zoo or manage it yet demands that the suburbs finance and manage it, what reason is there for the City to maintain ownership?

In the meantime, in response to the outcry against their actions, council members keep resorting to the race card, the tried-and-true method of the incompetent to deflect attention from their own intellectual and professional shortcomings:

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson called for Detroiters to stage an economic boycott of the suburbs in response to what she calls blatant and institutional racism that has been exhibited amid the zoo fracas.

“Detroiters should spend money where they live,” Watson said. “It is clear there are layers of disrespect, racism and white supremacy. It’s not about getting along. Racism is a disease in this country. A lot of black folks walk around and deny it. This country got rich on the backs of black folks.”

People like Watson, insulated from the rigors of real life, characterize any criticism as racism, anything that contradicts them as bigotry. And good luck with that boycott; a city where one-third of its residents are in poverty is unlikely to cause hardship launching a boycott against a neighboring county that is among the richest in the nation.

The dysfunction and ineptitude of city leadership is endemic, even when the faces on council change. New members like Monica Conyers, whose first act after being elected was to get into a bar fight, and Martha Reeves, whose first official action was to try to corral Super Bowl freebies for herself, are no different than the petty criminals, career bureaucrats, and intellectual hollow-points who have always populated the council. Lose a few, and there’s a large pool of others waiting to fill their spots.

We will never, ever have a World Class City with people like this running things. And we’ll never have a World Class City because the people running things were put there by equally unserious people, who don’t have the sense or self-esteem to demand a livable city with basic standards of civilization – a modicum of safety, a degree of cleanliness, transparent government by honest leaders, and reliable. effective city services such as sanitation, lighting, police and fire. The basic notion that a city government should take care of the people and things within its borders, not destroy them, is lost on these docile voters, who lap up the racial emotionalism spoon-fed them in lieu of actual municipal services.

This city is kept from total collapse only by a minority of well-meaning people toiling anonymously, people in non-profit groups, in quasi-public agencies, in charities, in neighborhood associations, in struggling small businesses, and lone individuals, all working their asses off to make this a better city despite being constantly thwarted by the ignorant buffoons in charge. It’s these people who keep the city alive, against all odds. It’s these people who keep hope alive for the rest of us, who think, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the city can be great once again. But the deck is stacked against them.