Posted on 04/20/2026 7:22:41 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
What is considered the Vatican City of free marketers and entrepreneurs may be coming to life. It will cost any prospective resident $350k up front for the right to live on Belle Island, Michigan. The island is meant for entrepreneurs and the self-employed. Residents would be exempt from state and federal taxes but would pay property taxes along with a 6% sales tax. It would require acts of Congress to create a "special economic zone" to permit this. It also would require the city of Detroit to sell the property to an investor group.
"Elitist," "far-fetched," "a work of the conceited" are among the epithets critics are likely to use to describe the proposed "capitalist paradise."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
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Am I the only one on to this?
One bridge going to the island. You’d think it would be better used as a Motor City Alcatraz or Motown Rikers.
No caes? Sounds more like a 15 minute city. Only a bridge? I do not like single points of failure. I told my wife that I would hate to live on an island for that reason. Imagine you are on the eastern side of Long Island, and a tsunami is coming. Good luck getting away.
Do they have a temporary Race Track there?
Belle Island ???
Interesting. I was there many times in my youth. I would go on Sunday with my best friend Dave and his older brother Ray. Ray could drive and he would drive his father’s Oldsmobile to the Isle to wax the car, after we had it washed at Paul’s car wash on Fort St. near downtown. The were lots of shady trees that you could park under to wax. Many people on Belle Isle to enjoy a sunny Sunday in the summer. Great days, great memories.
Foreigners.
It’s Belle Isle.
Better to stop wasting time and land resources and m9ney and fix Detroit for the regular citizens of the entire state instead of the criminal few, the local and state politicians.
Meanwhile decent citizens just try to get by.
It’s like the rat experiment from decades ago. Put a bunch of them in a crowded space and most retreat to their own self made corners. Next, young marauding males roam around causing trouble for the rest. It’s human nature too wouldn’t you say? So these folks with $350k get to build their own corner. At some point it becomes like Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies.
Belle Island ???
Newfoundland , they used to mine Coal ,I think the Germans suck a few ships around there ,LOL
Detroit Grand Prix...
The origins of the event date back to the Formula One Detroit Grand Prix on the Detroit Street Circuit. The CART series began headlining the event in 1989, and in 1992, the race moved from downtown Detroit to Belle Isle, a park situated on an island in the Detroit River, which is the longest serving venue of the race. The IndyCar Series took over the race beginning in 2007. The race has been supported by Indy Lights and Formula Atlantic and top-level sports car series such as the Trans-Am Series and the ALMS. From 2023, the race returned to the downtown streets around the Renaissance Center using a circuit partially based on the original one used by Formula One and CART.
I think the romance of Galt's Gulch and "going Galt" gives some conservatives a misplaced interest in seeing things go completely to hell. Atlas Shrugged ended before the long-term economic and social dark age that would inevitably have resulted from collapse took place. Instead, the book ended right when the people from the Gulch re-entered the rest of the world to "bring back the light."
But the reality is that if that kind of collapse actually happens, it is going to take a very long time to turn things around. Decades at a minimum, not just a couple of years.
I worked That race back in the day. Willie T. RIBBS and Robby Gordon were the Drivers. Beautiful venue!
Yesterday’s race at Long Beach California was Always a good Show. Lot’s of Celebrities and Parties! QE II docked in the background.
Good Times,long Gone.
A casual observer the last couple of years myself.
Spent some time at Las Vegas Motor Speedway watching the Cup Cars we built for Steve Saleen (The S1).
We built 25 then Covid hit and that was the end of that.
RACE 1 - LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY - Saleen Cup 2019
https://www.youtube.com/live/HEb_569CoM0?si=3c5EbpM7Clb-y5qy
Too bad the “race” was just a parade. I assumed they were just conserving fuel and tires, and that the last 20 laps or so the REAL race would start. Nope, it looked like a “lift and coast-o-rama” the whole race. :-\
Fortunately, the state leased in from Detroit in 2014 and turned it into a state park. They did a remarkable job in cleaning it up, refurbishing the casino and the park aquarium.
My grandfather was a sergeant with the Detroit Harbor Master located on the island during the 1950's and into the 60's. In the 50's, I would spend the summers with my dad and grandparents in Detroit.
My grandmother and I would take the bus down to the island and spend the entire day with my grandfather. It always included a drive around the island in his police car, then a trip to the stables where they kept the police horses and they would give me a ride on one. Then to the Harbor Master where they would take me out for a boat ride on the river. Then to the pony rides.....In between the adventures, my grandmother and I would play gin rummy in the small police station there.
Best days of my life.
The island is currently under a 30 year lease from Detroit by the state of Michigan. There is no way it's going to be turned into a rich person's Martha's Vineyard in the Detroit River, nor should it.
Didn’t this have a HUGE Dance Hall?? I think I was there many decades ago....like 6 of them!
Belle Island.
Sounds like a great place to be.
If you want to forfeit your Social Security.
👍🤷♂️ not sure.
Do you remember when it was the Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit for 3 years?
Black people can swim. Are you kidding?
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