Detroit in ruins

If I was living in Detroit, I'd make sure I'd have a pickup truck because it looks like their is scrap metal everywhere.
Pick that stuff up and go cash it in.

Originally posted by CatfishBob
If I was living in Detroit, I'd make sure I'd have a pickup truck because it looks like their is scrap metal everywhere.
Pick that stuff up and go cash it in.

You'll be fighting for it, The first thing to go on the abandoned houses are the siding, and then the hot water tank, and copper plumbing. The junkers strip them all night long, people who buy the houses cant fix them because as soon as they put something new in, its stolen. A few years ago some tornadoes went through some neighborhoods and devastated a few blocks, Edison couldn't get the power back on because people were stealing the spools of power lines before they could string them back up.

I have lived in and around Detroit all my life. I can tell you there are a lot of race issues.

I am white. My family, on both sides, came to this country legally after WWI and WWII. Despite this, neighbors readily accused my family of owning slaves in the past, among other things. I was unable to ride my bike around the block, not because of other children, but of adults who would throw bottles, try to knock me off and yell things such as, "Get off my street white boy." This was entirely unprovoked from me or any members of my family. Our only crime, in their eyes, was being white.

Jumping ahead 20-some years to when Kwame was first elected. He was losing the election and held a press conference shortly before the polls closed in order to "rally the streets" and to proclaim, "It ain't over! The streets haven't spoke yet!" He had no skills, no knowledge, no anything to lead the city. He only succeeded in milking the city dry in every way, and despite that, if he ever could run again (thank god that won't be able to happen) he would more than likely win again. I wholeheartedly agree with those who said the city brought this upon itself. Be it from the Coleman Young days right on through today.

I still live in the Detroit area. I love the city and what meager offerings, aside from the "ruin porn," that it has to offer. Despite that, my wife and I intend to be out of the Detroit area, and probably even the state, in early 2012.


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Sad but fascinating subject. I am a bit of an amateur photographer myself and there are unfortunately many cities that are chalk full of urban decay and empty and abandoned buildings. Heck I even got to see a set of twin condo towers in Miami that were completed in 2007 only to have one with a handful of residents to this day and the other building still sits abandoned and completely empty. The builder went broke during the project and it now sits, pwned by the bank in this limbo. The few that live there can't get anything for their units and after paying just under a million dollars right before the boom, they now sit on these homes that aren't selling even though they are being offered at just over 200 grand in some cases.

The banks just sit on them too because they don't want to get screwed and they unlike most people can affird to just sit on properties indefinately. I also had the same thing happen to a highrise in downtown Phoenix where I lived for 2 years also. Builder went broke and a brand new beautiful highrise sits virtually empty.

And there are of course abandoned properties of all conditions and stages sitting empty in cities all over. Of course Detroit is as bad as it comes but the whole country has areas like that and especially the rust belt.

There was a web site that offered pictures and information on a whole bunch of places like this and pictures. It was photography site that also like put together tour ideas for other photographers interested in seeing/photographing these properties and also it gave summeries of the properties. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the site now but you can find this kind of stuff all over the net.

Here is another blog like that I randomly found:
www.urbanghostsmedia.com...

With the amount of money the Pentagon "misplaced" (some 2 trillion dollars) they could have turned Detroit into Disneyland.

reply to post by Redwookieaz


Have you ever seen a city in America with as much urban ruin as Detroit?

I can't think of any... two towers in Miami just doesn't come close to the blocks and blocks of Detroit

This was taken in 2008

Originally posted by PETROLCOIN

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Uhm.... The mayors of Chicago have been white and corruption is rampant there as well...

What's your point?

And Chicago is mostly white.

I take it by the tone of your question that you are trying to imply I am making a racist observation. You would be incorrect on that. I am making a realistic observation.

When you elect people based on characteristics that have NOTHING to do with their policies and do NOTHING to correct the situation when they take advantage of you, Detroit is a fine example of the consequences.

Oh ok... see if you look at your original post, it reads like he screwed up everything simply because he was black.... but I think what you meant to say was that lots of black folks voted for him simply because he was black.

The citizens are very uneducated and continue to elect mayors who then rob the city of what little revenue it generates simply because they are black.

Perhaps you should use some commas?

My bad... That I can totally understand especially when there is so much racism and misunderstanding in the north on both sides. Add poverty brought about by requiring only low skill workers and this is what happens.

City planners have a lot of responsibility for this in my opinion. But their hands were tied by the auto industry for so long, because that's what the auto industry did...

It's a sad tale...

One other thing to put here which is kinda weird.

When you run search on news.google.com on simply detroit... you get 98% sports stories, and one that talks about a pipe bursting.

Crazy... like a blackout only because there is no one there to really report on it.

Grew up in Michigan, about 60 miles west of Detroit. Everyone either worked for Ford, GM, or some shop that provided parts to them. A high school graduate could reallistically land a twenty dollar an hour job fresh out of school, apprentice with a tool and die maker and be bringing in 80,000 per year by their 30th birthday. The town I am from once was the home of Good Year Tire and Rubber, Clark Equipment (forklifts), Kelsey Hayes (brake assembly), Melling Tool (oil pumps), shops that employed thousands. Detroits decline spread far beyond the city limits and effected the lives of nearly everyone I know. The nations greatest workforce once thrived here, now alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, lost pensions and the perpetually unemployed fill the gap. Where is Michigans bailout? Japan? S. Korea? The United States quit building things and this is the direct result. Sad

reply to post by authortobe


It sounds like it was a great place.... Once

hard to believe this is a western country looks like something out of a movie its crazy

Just discovered that ultimately it was the stubbornness of the unions which allowed this to come full circle.

When business demands too much, labor forms unions...


When unions demand too much, business fails altogether and everyone loses.

I live in Detroit and yeah it's ragedy, but the funny thing about Detroit is 3 blocks can look like a worn torn 3rd world country, but on the 4th block it can look like a suburb. I live in Brightmoor and the section I live in looks like the suburbs. All brick homes, tracks to jog on a nice park, but then You go 5 blocks over and it looks like nightmare on elm street. I hope to move soon in hopes of finding a better job. The Edison district has Mansions, but then there is blight not far away. So partly that's the reason why some people stay. I mean there are lots of trees and hills in my neighboor and we have a block club, bunny rabbits hoping around and new cars and it's quiet. It's just sad because if Detroit looked nice all over I would surely stay.

OOOO I want those art deco chandeliers Be worth a small fortune

This is really a sad sight.

Those empty avenues with only pedestrians and no cars are telling to say the least.

This is a side of the USA that we from outside the USA NEVER see..

It's worse then i thought already.

I'm sorry you have to see our City in ruins. Where to start for answers?
(1). Michigan is a Home Rule City form of Government(See New Jersey, Ireland). That means that all powers not expressly retained by the State, are given to the smallest form of local government (Exclusio Est Unis), as opposed to "Dillon's Rule"(Where all those powers not granted to local governments are retained by the State) . The Irish Mob that retained power from 1899 to 1967 instituted this to enrich themselves ALA "La Cosa Nostra"(Sic/"Our little thing"). They milked the golden goose, but did not kill that Golden Goose. This form of government made Detroit its own little "City State" with it's own taxes, it's own Courts,and In fact-it was more powerful than the whole rest of the State of Michigan Combined.
(2). Detroit was a prosperous 19th Century City before the Auto Industry arrived. It's super-density of large middle-class "Charleston Townhouses" could hold 4-5 poor families. These homes were built for the turn-of-the century "Horse and Buggy" economy of "Milk-Men, Ice-Men, Coal Men, Hay-deliveries, and Horse Manure removal. The Neighborhoods and Streets were laid out for trolley cars and bicycles. These later became impossible to Police with modern Patrol-Car Law enforcement Methods. The Working Class became burdened with rising crime and taxes, and began to leave in the 1950's.
(3). The Auto Industry brought Immigrants for Higher Wages. But the Auto Industry was cyclical with high employment periods, followed by deep recessions. The Michigan Legislature sought to allow workers to survive from one bust/boom to the next, by granting extremely generous Unemployment/Welfare benefits. It worked for a while, but many people came for those payments alone, whether they ever worked or not. Pretty soon the whole City filled up with a "Welfare Class" of 2.5 million people. Detroit became a "Welfare Destination City". In 1967 this class went on a Riot-Looting Spree that burned-down much of the City to cover their thefts. This began a final exodus of the Middle Class with people walking away from their homes.
(4). In the 1970's, with no residential tax-base, the City of Detroit's New "Black Power" elected officials went on a putsch of "Tax-Terrorism" against the Industrial Base Properties still in Detroit. Most businesses moved their heavy machinery across city-lines and walked away from their Factories.
(5). Today, the corrupt City Shake-Downs are still there. The buildings of old are deteriorating and burned-down with few places left for the Welfare Class to still live. You can't "Urban Pioneer" here because what the remaining citizens won't kill you for, the City will still take with outrageous taxes. Despite the confiscatory taxes, there is no real Police or Fire Protection. 70% of Murders are never solved.
(6). The Moral of the story is that there should be time limits on Welfare, like 2 years. If you can't survive, hunger is a strong motivator to move on to greener pastures. Some people in Detroit have lived for 7+ generations on Welfare and Crime. You can live pretty well in Detroit on Welfare. You can buy a house for $1,500. You can game the system for Free Health Care, Free Transportation, Free Home Heating Vouchers, Federal Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing Vouchers(Free Rent), then commit crimes of Vandalism and Theft during your plentiful free time(you see the cumulative results from the photos of our "Ruin-Porn").
(7). Detroit will only Change when there are no structures left standing for People to take refuge in while on the Public Dole, since welfare has become a legally Public Entitlement.

The on-going decay and brick by brick destruction of America.. one republican & democrat at a time.

"Land of the free, whoever told you that was your enemy"- Rage Against The Machine

Originally posted by maythetruthbeknown
reply to post by HunkaHunka

 

Was just looking at this on the guardians website. Was deciding whether to post, but got caught up looking at other threads while searching, you know how it goes.
The city is near on derelict ,such a shame.With most of the industry gone and a spiralling crime rate not much can be done......hmmm thinks to self *if only the US government had not wasted all that "bail out money" or maybe not spent so much on arms* then things could be different.
Detroit could go two ways in my opinion. Either total abandonment (apart from the dregs) or a massive redevelopment project which would take years.
They could in the future just tear it all down and develop the first ultra modern city in the USA. Cut a small percentage of the defence budget for a few years that should cover it.
Anyway good post. take care.
regards

Of course they could have bailed us all out, but why would they do that? We are their slaves. Why would they set us free? It was all just posturing at the highest levels, most of us too dumbed down to realize it. Some of us who know things are fishy have no idea what the end game is so we just go on. Keep bitching and complaining about the 'economy'.

This is all calculated. Planned.

Rats in a a cage

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Just discovered that ultimately it was the stubbornness of the unions which allowed this to come full circle.

When business demands too much, labor forms unions...


When unions demand too much, business fails altogether and everyone loses.

edit on 2-1-2011 by HunkaHunka because: (no reason given)

That's not exactly true, not sure how you 'discovered' that.

Reliance on one major industry is what killed Detroit. Look at Milwaukee and Chicago. They suffered some in the Rust Belt fall, but not nearly as bad as Detroit because their economies aren't based solely on one thing. Detroit relied solely on the automobile for their economy. Basically, Detroit was the largest pre-fabricated company town in America. When cars from overseas were found to be of better quality and having better gas mileage, the automobile companies started to decline because few people wanted American automobiles. The people who could find work elsewhere found work elsewhere. The ones who couldn't stayed in Detroit.

To blame Unions for the death of the automotive industry in Detroit isn't fair. Especially when you acknowledge successfull automotive industries in Asia and Europe that are heavily Unionised, yet, by some bizarre chance, are doing fine.

On another note, here's one of my favourite Hip Hop songs. About the fall of the steel industry in the North of England. Somewhat fitting.



Still craving carnage and infamy
But even parasites starve in this carcass of industry

Detroit looks like the aftermath of being bombed - War Zone