Detroit in ruins

My hometown of Flint, Michigan isn't much better. Flint, like Detroit, used to be an automotive town, but has suffered from the de-industrialization of America.

If people want to bash an area then they need to know what it currently transpiring, otherwise take your tripe somewhere else.

Many things are happening in Detroit, we are the mirror for the rest of the world and the mental state.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by LarryLove

Where else in the states?

New Orleans, for sure.

reply to post by Realtruth


You can dress a pig up all you want
in a pretty little dress, in a wig, with shoes,
but that animal is still A PIG..

Originally posted by thecinic
reply to post by Realtruth

 

You can dress a pig up all you want
in a pretty little dress, in a wig, with shoes,
but that animal is still A PIG..

Analogy's like this show the level of depth that our country is now burdened with.

Sigh's and shakes head.

Only in America.

Only in the world's largest economy and richest nation
can this kind of sickness and depravity occur.
There's nowhere else on Earth that the abandonment
of entire neighbourhoods, nay entire towns could happen
without it being a forced evacuation due to nuclear fall out.
Please America sort yourself out before trying to be
the world police.

You know what? A few tens of thousands of Asian
immigrants would have that place bustling with life
and commerce in no time flat.

I have to agree wholeheartedly with the first
comment at the 'slums of detroit' link:

exiledonline.com...

“One local church pastor recently said that the only way to save Highland Park is to pave the way for subsistence farming.”

You Americans are so lucky to have this oppertunity. That pastor hit the nail on the head. Dirt cheap land, services less than 10 mins bicycling away. And unlike other countries you are allowed to protect yourselves with guns. If i was a yank Detroit would be golden land of oppertunity and adventure you wouldn’t be able to keep me away from.
(I’m not being sarcastic, Billions around the world would give their kidneys for a chance like this)

Its actually getting better, more and more young people are moving to the area. I love driving through Detroit its so amazing to see everything gives ya creepy feeling.

Originally posted by DEMCAD
My hometown of Flint, Michigan isn't much better. Flint, like Detroit, used to be an automotive town, but has suffered from the de-industrialization of America.

I am from Flint also, north end cops wont even go to some of those areas.

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Such amazing buildings left to rot.

Reminds me of Logans Run when they go "outside". So sad.

this is what happens when the mindless progressives and greedy predatory capitalist's have their way.

reply to post by In nothing we trust


Who cares if they outlawed arson. Burn the buildings down anyway, just don't get caught doing it lol. Think about how much money it would save the government in clean up costs? Not to mention the time it would take to tear down all those buildings and all the labour to remove them. Burn them all down, then clean up the ash. Fast, easy, simple.

I admit I see some beauty in those pictures.. but it's a completely different thing to live there. Techno music was basically invented in Detroit. Cyberpunk anyone?

I still feel sorry for the people who happen to live there. Dystopia ain't pretty.

reply to post by Cablespider


With all due respect, it doesn't take a genius to look around at what has happened to GM and its employees and agree to cutbacks JUST TO HAVE A JOB. So I don't take your nice little story as an example at large. My sister works at the GM plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They have people who commute to that plant from all over the midwest....just to have a job....because their local plants have shut down. This is the same story whether you are talking about the midwest or Wisconsin, Kansas, Pennsylvania, etc... I have yet to see a case where a union didn't affect a company's ability to be flexible to the changes of business.

Manufacturing is no longer king. Due to the political climate (right or wrong), labor, regulations, and taxes are better in other countries, locations, etc... If business cannot meet their margins, they have to cut expenses and that means finding cheaper or more efficient ways to do the same job.

Therefore, Americans and American business must think out of the box and find better and revolutionized ways to fill the gap. THAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE. Detroit has not yet realized that or found a way to do it on a large scale. How many of those out of work people went back to college to learn something relevant to new industry - such as biotechnology or nanotechnology??? I'm guessing very few....

I'm sure this is how the people who ran the horse-and-buggy industries felt when Ford rolled out the Model T. Everything changes. Life is progress. If you want to stay stuck in a "Golden Era," be prepared to live in the crumbling past, literally...

I don't see this as a bad thing, if something can not be sustain as neighborhoods why leave it that way?

Everyone sees this a a tragedy because of a "Victim" mentality, but when something does not or can not function then it needs to be retooled into something that will work.

In this case many area's of Detroit are turning into farm plots, has anyone even stop to think that maybe that is how the world should actually be. Communities that can actually sustain themselves with tillable land and less unsustainable concrete parking lots.

Maybe kids will actually start to learn that grains come from plants, instead of boxes, and that they can grow their own food instead of waiting for government subsidies.

P.S. Why is this in Breaking new?

I live in Detroit

While there is undeniably a decline going on in Detroit, all these pictures and and videos just show Detroit's bad side and some of them arn't even Detroit lol. The worst areas aka "ghetto areas" are actually on the outskirts of Detroit, hardly what I think of when I think "Detroit". Go into the city and take pictures during anytime between 3-7pm, tons of people and things going on. Not nearly the city it was 30 years ago, which is what people want to compare it to, but still not gone yet by any means. I'm sure you could make pictures and videos like that for any major city.

And everyone knows why the decline happened, our genius taxes made it a penalty to make things here in America, great idea tax breaks to outsource, so American company's left, Foreign companies came in, people buy foreign cars....Detroit was run on the AMERICAN auto industry.

I'm surprised Detroit isn't actually like how they portray in all those pictures and videos

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Great post! Americans in general need the entrepreneur spirit. Even though some states and cities in the USA are still pretty to look at, the country as whole is failing.

reply to post by CIAGypsy


I have read a couple of your posts and must agree with your assertions. The manufacturing industry in the US went the same way as the UK, however the level of urban decay is not on par with that seen in Detroit and other American cities.

There has to be a way for communities to prosper through small business ventures that provide goods and services. If there was ever a time for entrepreneurs to grasp the manufacturing ball by the horn, then it is now. Somewhere like Detroit calls out for spirited people to reclaim the streets and build for themselves a new future. That might sound too idealistic, but how difficult would it really be? We can all talk about all the challenges in doing this, but with enough will, I am sure it could be done.

All I ever read about on these boards is how the alleged powers that be are constraining our lives. America, you might only have a modern history that's 200 years old, but can you all have forgotten that frontiers spirit so quickly?

reply to post by Tryptych


Yeah I'm down with cyberpunk and I live Detroit, I'm currently in a techno/punk, hiphop band. The underground music scene is the only think keeping me sane here.
Just yesterday my friend and I were riding down Grandriver and she said "Damn it's desolate it looks horrible" and I looked up and sure enough it looked like a bomb had went off! Looking foward to moving, but while I'm here I'm turning lemons into lemonade.

Originally posted by archasama

If it was near my home I would totally take some of those books from library and piano too.

I bet theres a ton of stuff laying around Detroit you could scavenge and hawk on Ebay or in a scrapyard.

Think theres any copper pipes in those buildings?

reply to post by LarryLove
Another city that self-destructed a long time ago and which is not getting rebuilt is East Saint Louis, Illinois. I don't know whether there are pictures of ESL online. But I can tell you that ESL was a waste land when Reagan was accepting the Republican nomination in Detroit.

Originally posted by NadaCambia

Originally posted by NeverApologize
reply to post by NadaCambia

 

I owe Unions my life? You mean these Unions?
www.youtube.com...
Check your facts and go get your Brain Washed head checked...

That's right. You'd be working right now, on a Sunday, if not for Unions.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Many people would love to be earning today. And you're proud that unions took that away from us?

Make your own choices, don't choose for everyone.

The fact is Detroit fell because of unregulated industry. It had nothing to do with Unions.

Industry = Management + Labor. With Detroit, Labor = UAW and others. You cannot seperate them when the mess they helped create begins to hit the fan.

You conveniently ignore the numerous massive, successfull automotive industries around the world. The ones that replaced Detroit. You know the ones, they're thriving, despite heavy unionisation.

Why don't you mention the overpriced products caused by union demands?

Detroit fell because of greedy capitalists who the government left unchecked. Because of lack of regulation.

Wrong. Over-regulation is like dumping sand into the gears of industry. Having a federal bureaucrat who sits in DC holding the power over when you can take a crap is a model for stagnation and failure.

Unions are like that dew claw on a dog. Useful at one time but now useless and more trouble than they are worth.