Your take on Detroit
GnomeWizardd
Member 4 LifeAkron, PA Icrontian
in The Pub
I was wondering to get a take on Detroit from the people who actually live there, Which happens to be quite a few of my fellow IC'ers. By now everyone has hear of Detroit financial problems and the decay of the city itself. Now with the bankruptcy happening. I was wondering if the City is in as bad of shape Physically and what I am reading on several news sites. I know Harrisburg went into bankruptcy last year here in PA but the city inst in as bad of shape as what I am hearing in Detroit
Whats your take on the Motor City
Whats your take on the Motor City
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I can bring anyone to Detroit and show them a marvelous time, and I only recently had fallen in love with the city before I moved to Toronto. It's a big disappointment that I didn't get to explore my new love for the city more before I left it. I delight in returning to ICHQ and experiencing Detroit, along with its social revival.
Detroit is not the abandoned train station any more than the Auburn Gresham is Chicago. But everyone needs a city to dump on, a city that makes others smugly feel better about their own shortcomings--for America, that city is Detroit.
The bankruptcy doesn't change anything except, perhaps, for the better. If Detroit can economically and politically begin to recover in the ways it has socially recovered these last 10 years, Detroit will rise as a metropolis again in our lifetimes. Count on it.
I love Detroit. It's my home away from home. I know I'll never 'get' Detroit like a local, but I will always hold that city in a special place in my heart. I deal with trash talkers all the time when I talk about going to Detroit on trips, and I'm always quick to explain just why that opinion is wrong, but even then, you have to see it, experience it, feel it.
I hate seeing the troubles that plague Detroit financially, but the bankruptcy news is good news. It means change is happening, and progression and recover are on the way. There's so much soul to that city, and Detroiters are really rallying about making things better. That's exciting to see, and should set a precident for the communities of every other major metropolitan area.
Detroit has more life in it than most any other city I've spent time in. A place like Los Angeles, as much as I love it, just seems hollow and dull compared to Detroit. It's that kind of vibe that makes me love Detroit. It's without question one of my favorite places in the United States.
Well.
Have you ever heard of the Heidelberg Project? Have you looked at the architecture of Detroit? There's a lot more to this place than what happened to the auto industry. There's art, and food, and real beauty. Not just physical beauty, but there's definitely a vibe and spirit about this place that you can't help but be proud of when you're there. The hate that the city gets is like any other kind of band wagon. Some people don't really know why they make fun of Detroit, they just know that it's easy and popular to do.
I believe in Detroit. So, you know, the pins stays.
I've also never met a group of people more passionate about their city than everyone that I talked to in Detroit and it definitely says a lot about the social dynamic that everyone I talked to is so involved and cares so much about the city's future both culturally and economically.
It's the sort of thing you don't see in a metropolis like Toronto, New York, or Los Angeles that are in relatively good financial situations the average person won't care because there's no need to and it makes the whole place ultimately boring.
Also, yeah Detroit is ultimately something you need to see for yourself to at least partially understand. My first trip to EPIC I was pensive because of everything the media craps out about it but having visited twice and gotten to experience it for what it is I absolutely can't wait for my next opportunity to visit.
I live in New York now, I moved here almost three years ago. With the news of the bankruptcy, a lot of co-workers and friends have asked how I felt. I should qualify by saying I do not consider myself a Detroiter. I, like most other whites from the area, grew up in a suburb just north of the city.
In high school and especially college, I spent a lot of time downtown: Shows at the Majestic, ice skating in Campus Martius, burgers at Miller's, the DIA, Red Wings games and even taught a semester of art to fourth and fifth graders at Butzel Elementary school near Indian Village.
But, like a lot of people my age (now 25) I left after college. This is after extensive drilling by both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University which rightfully beg you not to leave the state when you graduate. There is a huge attrition of young talent that leaves the state in the first year after graduation, and by their third or fourth year some places cite a figure as high as 80% of graduates leave the city for. The reason is pretty simple: jobs.
Some of the suburbs offer more work, but a great deal of it still revolves around the auto industry. I worked in a studio for three years as an intern, then about eight months after college as a full-time employee, but all we did was car ads. You try to go to places like Team Detroit or Armstrong White it's the same work, just a different car company. Work in video editing? You are probably going to be cutting local car ads.
It's not that the work is all bad, I actually got to do some really cool work for Harley-Davidson, but if you want something else and are in a creative field like design or journalism, it's all based out of NYC, DC or SF.
Detroit isn't an attractive place to live for a lot of people, but the scarcity of work, especially within the cities limits, is a real limiting factor. Combine that with poor schools, limited to no city services and you have a recipe for vacancy.
Yet, I think bankruptcy is in a way a disease the cures -- a necessary part of the process to healing a city that has endured decades of mismanagement. The city has shown signs of progress; each time I come back I see a bit more hope, a few new bars and restaurants. Detroit has a lot to overcome a generation of racial stratification. From what I have seen, there is still a pretty wide cultural and economic gap I think it's yet to be decided if all the white college students moving to the Woodbridge area is progress or just gentrification by another name, but at least they are trying.
I ended up lost in Warren on 8 Mile. Yes, that part of 8 Mile. In a shiny car with out of state plates. And you know what? I survived. Nobody pointed a gun at me, nobody shot at me, and I got the impression they were more annoyed by my presence than anything else.
Out here in Cleveland? Yeah. If you accidentally end up on the wrong part of St. Clair, you will be shot at. Period. Likely robbed. If you are the wrong skin color, you are a literal target. It's so bad there that police regularly stop lost motorists and lead them OUT of the area. Out of necessity - especially if you have a halfway decent car. If you get noticed, you are pretty much going to get robbed or shot. How come the press isn't busy jacking off to that, and the blocks of squatters living in filth, dilapidated and failing infrastructure, and so on, in the ACTUAL poorest city in America. (Look it up. It's Cleveland.)
When I went up to new ICHQ for the first time, I got lost in the "bad" part of Detroit residential proper. I was surrounded by collapsing, burned out husks of abandoned homes and businesses. But it wasn't frightening. Disturbing, sure - but not actually scary. Very much "here's a ton of horrible, horrible blight. It occurred because there is absolutely nobody left here." What made it disturbing was that there really was nobody. I was completely and utterly alone on a four lane boulevard. No cars, no pedestrians, just nothing. It was haunting as hell, but when I got to ICHQ, yeah. Entirely different town.
Around the corner there's a brick duplex. I noticed something on the walls, and kind of groaned, figuring it was graffiti and I was in gang territory. Nope - kids were drawing things with sidewalk chalk. Sure, there's abandoned houses - but they weren't falling down or burned out. No worse than my suburb out here - actually a damn sight better as they'd at least made an effort to secure them. And the rest of the houses, people live in. They take pride in their homes. Next time you're at ICHQ, look at the kitty-corner brick house. Specifically look up at the gray parts. I want that house.
While people are busy jacking off to ruin porn, the real Detroit? The parts people still live and work in? Really is a beautiful place.
Given the prevalence of Chapter 9 filings in California in the past few years (3, for those keeping score), I don't see this as another 'OH LOOK AT DETROIT LOL' - it is what it is, ...a chapter 9 filing, the largest one of any city to date. It's big for that reason alone. Chapter 9 is different from chapter 11 - the transparency and court power are limited in comparison. An oversimplification: you've theoretically got a dude at the wheel that can do as he likes, with little recourse or explanation as to why and how. ...it's big!
Maybe it's because I live in Mexico (practically), but I don't find Detroit to but the butt end of jokes any more than any other city - quite the opposite, actually. I'm not sure if this is a middle-east/east coast thing, or what. It's interesting to see everyone's (rabid, at times) reaction to mention of the city, though. It's a good sign. That's because LA is hollow.
Also lolnomad
I think actively worrying about gentrification in a city that is something like 60% below the poverty line, at 38% of its peak population, and where 47% of property taxes go unpaid is pretty damn silly.
I know little-to-nothing about the place except what I've heard, and I'd love to hear the story from the other side of the fence.
Talking about Detroit is difficult. In fact, it's fucking futile. Generally, many people have made up their mind, so there's no discussion to be had. You want to talk about the role of race in the city, and how racism has effected us? You get slapped back, and told to stop bringing race into it. You want to talk about the city from outside of the racial spectrum? The conversation inevitably comes back to how black liberals can't be trusted to run a city. The narrative on Detroit is an infinite loop, and the propagandists who say they report on the "positive" aspects of the city that "no one else talks about" aren't doing us any favors either.
As an evangelist for the city, the only thing I can do is give 110% of my time and effort, and play my small role. That really just means being a productive member of society. Just being a resident and functioning as a human goes a lot further than a Kickstarter and a video camera ever will. The results will speak for themselves, more and more people with open minds will see what is happening here, and the naysayers will never go away. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Cool find!
East Cleveland: another serial killer and there's one article. What, you thought I was exaggerating? Gods, don't I wish I was.
"NO DOWNSIDE AT ALL! DRIVERLESS CARS AND MANDATORY GLASS FOR EVERYONE! They can just use all the poor people as cheap labor or buy them bus tickets out of town! All part of the Google Residence Policy! EVERYBODY WINS!"
At one point, they played a clip from Orr about his appointment:
Bankruptcy is over. The Emergency Manager has resigned. Unemployment is dropping quickly. So is available office space downtown. Buildings are getting renovated left and right. The light rail is under construction. The Arena District broke ground. We have citywide curbside recycling now. And, Duggan is showing some spine.
Every week we get an update on city services: http://www.detroitmi.gov/DetroitDashboard.aspx
They are so far ahead of schedule on street light repairs that our neighborhood, slated for 2015, already has new LED lights on every corner.
Of course, last night I was on the porch trying to pinpoint where the AK-47 gunfire came from.
Some things take longer to change.
A house down the street listed for $9,000 that's maybe 2/3 the size of ICHQ with no out building. It needs a full kitchen & bathroom renovation (maybe $30,000), but is otherwise move-in ready.
The neighborhood Facebook group is placing bets on what it actually goes for. Most are in the $80,000 - $110,000 range - and this is for needing $30K of work! That's what pristine houses were selling for when I moved here. The theory is the real estate group selling it just did comparables within the zipcode to set the ask, not realizing how desirable Woodbridge is right now. Our two active Woodbridge property rehabbers both tapped out and said it was too rich for their blood.
I commented and said, "That's kinda nuts, I bought a significantly larger home for $45K just 3 years ago. It needed a ton more work, but that's still a huge price disparity." One of the rehabbers replied: "Different times."
Three years counts as a different era in Detroit right now.
I've never been there personally, but if it's anything like the rest of the Midwest expect freezing cold in the Winter and road construction any time else. #Midwestenproblems