Update - Detroiters Raise $50,000 for RoboCop Statue

DETROIT — On a list of Detroit’s biggest problems, the lack of a statue honoring RoboCop would seem to rank rather low. Yet in a city where some of the most prominent buildings have sat vacant for decades and booting a scandal-plagued mayor out of office took eight months, raising $50,000 to produce and install a 7-foot-tall iron replica of the crime-fighting cyborg was accomplished in a mere six days. More than 1,600 people agreed to chip in an average of $17 through a Web site, DetroitNeedsRoboCop.com, and half of the target amount was contributed by a San Francisco company that specializes in turning fake consumer products from movies and television shows into reality. Not coincidentally, the company, Omni Consumer Products, shares its name with the villainous conglomerate that tried to turn a dystopian Detroit into Delta City in the 1987 science-fiction film.

Who says this city can't get anything done? Up next, school reform.