Regional school districts, regional public safety districts?

Peter Karmanos owns Compuware, a computer software company. Many years ago, he relocated the company from the suburbs of Detroit to Downtown Detroit, and the business' entry into the city was a key component of Downtown's strengthening. The area around Compuware has added retail, including a Borders, and the Campus Martius park has been rehabilitated and expanded to great success.

The Detroit News reports on a recent Karmanos speech, in "Karmanos takes knife to sacred cows -- unions, schools, regional cooperation." From the article:

George Jackson, president Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said today he's encouraged that Michigan's sacred cows of unions, public schools and suburban-city cooperation were finally being openly discussed.

Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos took a knife to those cows in the same conversation this morning. He called for Michigan to be a right-to-work state, said Detroit and its suburbs should form a regional school district and public safety service, and even called out Detroit lawyers who drive foreign cars.

"Anyone who lives in West Bloomfield and thinks they are not part of Detroit lacks brains," he said at the Michigan Chronicle's Pancakes & Politics breakfast. Karmanos said the decision to move his technology company's headquarters from Farmington Hills to downtown Detroit proved to be a wise one, and he said others have and will join him in efforts to revitalize the city.

Not only does his headquarters have better surrounding infrastructure -- he say's its safer. "There is nothing scary about downtown," he said. "What's scary is walking into a dark parking lot at 3 a.m. in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Criminals know where the supposed rich people are."