Detroit's horrifying collapse accelerating beyond belief

originally posted by: lpnjeff
I lived on the out skirts of Detroit for 8 years. A sad state of affairs. Let the US government take over the city and replace it with something better. Detroit is dead.

Yeah, the US government is good at fixing all kinds of things (not so much)!

A whole bunch of dudes with painted faces jammed inside a clown car would have a better chance of fixing things than the US government would!!

The US government is a big part of why Detroit is the way it is today!! Detroit doesn't need any more of that kind of help!!

a reply to: Missmissie173

I don't think Detroit has any large Asian communities really. Just across the bridge in Windsor maybe, but I doubt they care about us here in Detroit.
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There has been a huge change in attitudes in the last five years in my neighborhood. People that used to fight for fun are now organizing "peace walks" in the local parks. There are concerted efforts to clean up the local parks so it's safe for kids (broken glass, drug paraphernalia) which draw more and more people each time. I see far more parents now when I go to pick up my nephews up from school, both mothers and fathers which is a huge change.

Maybe it's too little too late. Maybe everything is gone and there is nothing left for the gangs to fight for. Maybe people are starting to wizen up and understand the importance of children for our future. It's my home town so I will stay positive

originally posted by: 200Plus
a reply to: Missmissie173

I don't think Detroit has any large Asian communities really. Just across the bridge in Windsor maybe, but I doubt they care about us here in Detroit.
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There has been a huge change in attitudes in the last five years in my neighborhood. People that used to fight for fun are now organizing "peace walks" in the local parks. There are concerted efforts to clean up the local parks so it's safe for kids (broken glass, drug paraphernalia) which draw more and more people each time. I see far more parents now when I go to pick up my nephews up from school, both mothers and fathers which is a huge change.

Maybe it's too little too late. Maybe everything is gone and there is nothing left for the gangs to fight for. Maybe people are starting to wizen up and understand the importance of children for our future. It's my home town so I will stay positive

Hey 200- all of the above is great. You go boy or girl and keep the faith..You seem to have the pulse of the city, maybe you should get involved politically...just a thought.

Question and kinda off topic, but with all of the moving in and out, is Detroit a good place for resale? I am a designer/resale buyer and seller of Mid Century and Deco...bet there are some awesome estate sales. Perhaps I will make a trip up North and pump a little money into the economy, maybe help somebody facilitate a move onward and upward.

Bests.

MissMissie

originally posted by: nfflhome
Unions, why pay someone $25-$75 an hour when someone else will do the same job
for under $25 an hour.

Uh-huh...and how much cheaper is your car? Those wages used to be disbursed in your neighbourhoods...now they just make some rich puke richer...and Detroit dies.

if getting from A to B was cheaper a lot of this wouldnt happen.

People who say oh it was more balanced 50 years ago didnt have to pay 80% or whatever tax on already expensive fuel.

I can pay for half a movie ticket with the return bus ride it cost me to go 7 miles and not even directly to the cinema.

Try going to work everyday on a bus or a train, even in a car you have tax, MOT, insurance and then fuel costs. Its literally draining you before you even get in the door to work.

a reply to: Missmissie173

LoL I am far too "light skinned" for local politics

I help out with what I can around the neighborhood. Strange as it sounds I am a positive role model here as I served 20 years in the Army and have never been to prison. I try to harness the respect I get and focus it as best I can towards the kids doing the right things. Maybe some of them will listen, can't hurt either way.

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I forgot to mention the neighborhood project gardens. There are several small co-op gardens (some right downtown) that have been started over the last few years. They have been gaining a small following and might help a little with the blight eventually. I saw someone mention all the wasted ground and thought I would mention it.

Drugs, crime, gangs didn't directly cause towns like Detroit, Gary to self destruct. Those are symptoms of hopelessness. The remaining population can't keep the riffraff/rot at bay when the support system is gone.

Corruption is the cause, as the economy worsens corruption escalates. Pretty soon anything of value has been pillaged. If you don't act fast you're left holding an empty bag.

Right next to my in-laws was a small neighborhood grocer. He was a good community member/businessman, made a decent living for decades. When Gary was going down he tried/failed to sell his biz. He had it firebombed nearly took out my in-laws house. Good people will do low down crap to self-protect when the SHTF and that's what happened in Gary and Detroit imo. The firebombed wreck of a building lowered everyone's property values on the block, meh the store owner didn't care he got his. This attitude quickly spreads.

Society/infrastructure no longer works according to plan. It's a free for all, a feeding frenzy. Those left behind know they've been screwed and become bitter. Hell we got out but I still felt somewhat bitter. We were young, worked hard/followed our parents lead, lost it all ran for our lives. We were little more than economic refugees.

I can see how such an environment quickly changes people. An outsider trying to apply normal logic to fix the situation doesn't work because absolutely nothing functions normally. People lose hope/give up/just try to survive according to the new rules of the changed environment.

I never imagined Gary's rot would leak out but apparently it has. I can't blame the folks of Gary/Detroit for not doing a better job cleaning up the mess they were left with. The problems are insurmountable for the remaining population's dwindling resources.

Placing blame on the riffraff gives a false sense of security. As long as you're not surrounded by "those types" you have nothing to worry about. That's true as long as if your society/infrastructure actually works/keeps them out. Heaven help you if it all starts to fail. We're grateful we found a hidey-hole but not everyone has the opportunity/gumption.

a reply to: 200Plus

The same can be said of Redford Township, Oak Park, Southfield, Royal Oak Township, Harper Woods, the south section of Warren, to name a few suburbs that ring the city to the west, north and northeast.
The decay may not be as absolute, but nonetheless it is creeping past the city limits.

Much of this decay got worse after 2008......

Detroit is the 'guinea pig'...the practice City...
(hey revisit the series of movies by Charles Bronson about a struggling enclave of good people trapped/victimized by the gangs/punks/radical extremists whom preyed on the citizens...)

I guarantee that after the Obama Administration, there will be policies and developments created especially for Detroit which will result in a revival of the City so that Detroit will could be like the Mythic Phoenix & rise-from-the-Ashes
--- 4 years min 8 years max...(after Obama is sent to Pasture) for that miracle to happen ~~~

a reply to: flucker

The liberal dream you mean, when all the payers leave all the takers starve. When you drive the working class out who will pay for the endless social programs? Welcome to America 2.0

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

There was a theory passed around called the "Ripple Effect".

Basically, you start out with a city that's high in crime - Like what the actual city was like.

The basic effect starts out like the below:
1. City starts to take a turn for the worse (blame politicians, drugs, economy, crime, bronies, etc).

2. As the city starts to get worse, more people start to move out into the suburbs. This creates a minor disturbance, or ripple. Now, not everyone from the city is moving out with better intentions - some of them bring the lifestyle of the city to the suburbs.

3. Eventually, the main part of the city, noticing that the population is declining, puts more protective measures to reduce the decline. This might mean more funding for schools, more police presence, a new hockey arena, or even maybe a welfare program.

4. While the city itself is getting better, the "blight" (incoming wave of newcomers to the suburbs) start to get worse. The cause is the same: Whatever was going on in the city is now going on in the suburbs.

5. As the suburbs get worse, people start to look at the suburbs farther away; another couple years, and the "blight" follows.

Right now, we are at #5 - There's a reason why certain cities are actually pretty decent right now: They cost more to live in. For example, Troy used to be one of "the" places to live in, just as Bloomfield Hills, Royal Oak, Birmingham, and even parts of Sterling Heights. With the economy being as it is, it means that people that wouldn't normally be able to afford to live in those communities can now do so. I found even I could own a dump of a house in Birmingham now, whereas 6 years ago someone with my salary could not.

-fossilera

Here is the real reason detroit fell. It does have to do with our manufacturing infrastructure being sold to China.

Really it could have recovered except for Mayor Coleman Young and his racist and detrimental policies. He was the driving force behind this once great city falling into ruin.

The Real Reason the Once Great City of Detroit Came to Ruin
The politics of Mayor Coleman Young drove out the white and black middle class.

online.wsj.com...

HOW COLEMAN YOUNG RUINED DETROIT
Many observers, including us, have written about how Detroit’s slavish devotion to liberalism, unions and the Democratic Party ruined that once-great city. But one malefactor stands out above all others: Coleman Young, former organizer for the UAW, whom the union booted for being too radical, and who went on to become Detroit’s long-time mayor. A reader with first-hand experience recounts Young’s role in Detroit’s downfall:

www.powerlineblog.com...

a reply to: tadaman

I'd have to disagree. While Coleman Young might not have been a great Mayor, it was the 1967 Riots that sealed the City of Detroit's fate. After the Riots, the exodus, mainly of white Citizens to the suburbs started.

Race relations is the main cause of what happened in the failing of Detroit. Detroit was polarized by race ever since then. Once the "White flight" started, it ripped the carpet out from under the City.

I'm not saying Politics didn't play a big role, but it was the bigotry of both the White and Black communities in Detroit that sealed the City's fate.

You could have a poor mayor, but with the state of race relations in the City after the Riots, it really wouldn't have mattered who was in charge. The Iceberg had already hit the City.

a reply to: pavil

Sure. What you say is true.

You should consider this:

I pin the extra race tensions on Young. He is well known to have encouraged the white and black middle class to leave. The less of them there were, the stronger his hold over the remaining base was because it all fell into his camp.

If 7 out of 10 support you and then those 3 that dont support you leave, you then have 10 out of 10 people supporting you. It is how he was able to remain in office for so long. Young kept encouraging his opposition to leave the city. He then targeted the suburbs in outright class warfare. The "them from the suburbs VS us from the city" was the hinge pin to his politics.

The riots sure didn't help but instead of constructing a community to rebuild, Young made Chicago politics the example of ruin that it is. Instead of encouraging a "Chicago state of mind", he made a class warfare state of mind. He destroyed what remaining sense of community there was. That is the divide and govern style of politics Obama was a good student of. The country has never been so divided over race, class and party lines. Coincidence?

Look at NYC for example. We had riots and all sorts of race tensions. We had corrupt police, city leadership and all sorts of official offices rotting from the inside out. We were knee deep in Prostitution, drugs, different mobs, union thugs, etcetera. NYC was rotting and almost a lost hope.

I dont like the mayers that cleaned it up very much, but they did their Job very well. NYC is a shining beacon of hope again for its residents. Race and politics aside, the community survived because its leadership regardless of agendas and vested interests wasn't so blind as to destroy the sense of community out of spite.

We still have race issues, poverty, class divisions creating huge social stress....we also have the "I LOVE NY" mentality. New Yorkers feel each other as being the same people. Our leadership took a cue from us and encouraged it.

Chicago? They wanted an all black and poor city so as to secure elections for politicians and federal aid in lieu of paying taxes and encouraging private investment. The result is that Chicago should be demolished and reset. Its citizens should be deported to an island somewhere so they can't influence other strong communities for the worse. Its leadership should be shot.