Heart and sole: Detroiter walks 21 miles in work commute | Hacker News Reader

Heart and sole: Detroiter walks 21 miles in work commute

freep.com

23 pointsevo_939 comments

Why is it that everyone's first response seems to be along the lines of patting this guy on the back for his dedication to getting to work (an applaudable work ethic, to be sure) but no one condemns his employer for his abysmal hourly wage, which is what forces this ridiculous commute? According to TFA, he's a favorite of the company owners—but apparently not such a favorite that they can bump the wages of a worker who's been there for at least ten years into something approaching a living wage. They don't seem to have a problem with the healthcare problems this man is almost certainly creating for himself from the numerous ill effects of sleep deprivation.

We should all be disgusted by this.

And then they try to make up for it with free meals and a "family" feel while underpaying his work ethic and loyalty. It's a common trick.

Talk about an abusive family.

His direct boss probably has little or no say in how much he gets paid, and the person who does influence that has probably never met him or even heard of him. Welcome to corporate America for the working class.

Just because you like somebody who works for you doesn't mean it makes financial sense for the company to pay them more.

Given the man's dedication to his job and impacts his actions has to health, it makes financial sense for the company to help him out financially in either securing a car or a closer place to live or risk losing a valued employee.

Or they could fire him and just hire somebody closer to their office.

I'm playing devil's advocate here, because I also sympathize with the story. But money really does rule all and cold business decisions are often unpleasant.

Don't exaggerate. Show me how many hours Todd Wilson, the plant manager mentioned in the article, walks or even works a day and how much he earns. Then we can talk cold business.

I'm as liberal as the next guy, but stop pretending that companies are the most efficient, overhead-hating entities around and as such cannot deal with the poor common man, because we all know they're not.

Just because we like a company's products doesn't mean it makes financial sense for society to allow it to externalize many of its costs such as transportation of employees, roads, social welfare, and health care.

Why should I be disgusted that a man is getting paid a sum he and his employer agree is fair?

The journalist writes 2000+ words, but doesn't even bother asking the guy the most obvious question: why doesn't he buy a bike?

In Detroit, biking is doable at least during the 7-8 months of the year with no snow. The guy probably has access to secure locking facilities at home and work as bryanlarsen pointed out. He is paid $84.40 per day at his hourly rate of $10.55/hour so he can definitely afford a working used bike starting around $50.

This was the question on my mind, is biking not an option in Detroit?

I bike to and back from work daily 14 mile round trip using a cheap 2nd hand city bicycle. Snow and cold only makes it more fun.

Of course, I am lucky that I am doing it by a choice and could take the bus or drive my car.

His round trip would be 46 miles.

For me, there's some sort of qualitative difference in a bike ride that goes over something like 10 miles, so I can see why it isn't a first thought for a 23 mile trip.

No his round trip is 23 miles.

I can't possibly fathom why your first thought to travel 23 miles would be to walk? Biking is OBVIOUSLY so much faster, easier, less straining, etc.

Getting to and from his factory job 23 miles away in Rochester Hills, he'll take a bus partway there and partway home. And he'll also walk an astounding 21 miles

He walks about 3.5 miles, takes a bus to the edge of its service area, and then walks another 7 miles to the job.

I meant to write 21 miles (not 23 miles) round trip:

"Detroiter James Robertson, 56, walks about 21 miles a day"

So he would only have to bike 21 miles per day.

I grew up in metro Detroit. I used to work summers as a programmer in one of the factories in the Rochester area near where he works.

The lack of public transit is one of the reasons I left the state. As the article alludes to - the cause is intentional. By removing public transit, rich suburbs can keep out the people from the city. An ambituous plan to add light rail down the iconic stretch of Woodward Ave extending out from the city to the suburbs was scrapped mostly because of this discrimination. It has turned detroit into a modern ghetto.

The only hope is that the downtown revitalization going on in Detroit breaks down this type of balkanization by encouraging traffic in the opposite direction (from the suburbs to the cities).

You mean the M-1 Rail Project? If yes, its still very much alive and is under construction now: http://m-1rail.com

One of the earlier plans for the project called for a light rail line all the way up to Pontiac, or at least out to 8 Mile.

The current plan calls for a 3 mile out-and-back that barely gets out past downtown and serves a tiny percentage of the population[1]

http://detroitography.com/2014/12/05/map-will-the-m1-rail-st...

I'd like to point out the infectious nature of determination. This gets back to motivation vs discipline discussion on HN lately.

It seems like human nature, when you see someone leaning in so vigorously, to either join their cause or do something to help them personally. The manager's wife cooked James meals, the banker was giving him rides, and now as nwilkens points out, someone's crowd funding a car for him. Think how the guys at that plant feel working alongside someone like that.

For those keeping score with discipline and motivation, here's another tool for that toolbox.

> "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!"

I say someone with that attitude should help this guy get a car. Good grief.

Is this guy respectable and noble, or an excuse for demanding more from his fellow workers? As in "look how determined your coworker is, you should all be doing more".

>Echoes the plant manager Wilson, "We are very much trying to get James a vehicle." But Robertson has a routine now, and he seems to like it, his coworkers say.

Looks like he may end up with a pretty nice ride! http://www.gofundme.com/l7girc

Or an okay ride with an operating fund.

That can buy one expensive bike!

I have very little sympathy for anyone in this story.

There are so many things that could solve this guy's problems.

1. He could buy a bike.

2. He could move closer to work.

3. He could buy a crappy car.

4. He could move to just about any city other than Detroit. I guarantee he could find a labor-based job making $8-10 an hour that wouldn't require him to walk 20 miles every day, if he was just willing to move.

The fact of the matter is that this guy has been deliberately choosing to live this way for more than ten years straight, even though he has numerous ways of getting out of his situation.

On top of that, the guy is apparently "picky" about who he will ride with, refusing help from co-workers who would otherwise give him rides, because he likes to be "independent".

The whole story is mind-boggling, sure, but if there's one thing I know, it's that this guy doesn't need our pity or our donations.

How can he afford to move?

I didn't say it would be easy, but it's definitely doable, and I know plenty of people who have done it (including myself).

This seems like a good application for a bicycle.

Biking in the snow / slush (especially on public streets since Detroit doesn't have the money to clear sidewalks) is an extremely precarious proposition.

I can't speak to Detroit as a cycling venue, but I can to Buffalo. True year-round cycle commuting in a snowy region seems like an epic accomplishment, but just isn't that big a deal once you've actually done it. First, you should already be a competent urban cyclist. By competent, I mean you should have trained in the practices from Forester's Effective Cycling[1] or a similar resource. Second, prepare your bike and yourself for the climate in your area. Icebike.org[2] is a great resource for this.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Cycling-John-Forester/dp/026...

[2] http://icebike.org/

Suggested reading: How To Ride Your Bike All Winter – And Love it by Mr. Money Mustache

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/11/03/how-to-ride-your-b...

The 7 mile leg close to the job is in Rochester Hills. Who knows what the road conditions are there, but Detroit's budget woes aren't a factor (It's even a different county).

So apparently half of the problem is that Oakland county doesn't have as much public transit as Wayne county.

Good point, I was mostly assuming the 'Detroiter' in the headline was accurate. Rochester Hills (and Oakland County) is a much more affluent area than Detroit -- Plows shouldn't be in short supply.

For the unaware, the 'Somerset Collection' they mention in the article is a mall with Cartier / Burberry / Salvatore Ferragamo stores inside. There's a certain amount of symbolism that the Detroiter has to commute past vast affluence that was once local to Detroit to chase a factory job.

My brother rode a bike from Warren to Madison Heights for work for almost a year. I think it was about 8 miles each way. He at least got in good shape doing it.

Too likely to get stolen.

He probably has secure locking facilities at both ends: he lives in a house, and is good friends with the factory owner at work.

An update on the various fundraisers set up for James:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015/...

It's a crime that he only sleeps for two hours a day.

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