If you’re gonna be tortured, what better time to have done?
A good friend of mine is from the suburbs of Detroit, but has lived in Detroit proper for the past 3 years or so. He currently lives near Wayne State. I went out to visit him in early April. I noticed the roads were a lot shittier than what I was used to, and when we went to a Tigers game (we walked downtown, evidently passing by a pretty burned out neighborhood, though I forget what it was called), I was a bit depressed to see all the abandoned buildings and skyscrapers. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I had a good time. His attitude is that anyone can have fun in cities like New York or San Francisco, but if you live in Detroit you have to work at it.
I’m from Detroit, moved away 15 years ago but still go back twice a year to visit family. Of all the cities I’ve ever been to Detroit has the most abandoned houses and businesses of anywhere I’ve seen. If they could get a law that any building that is unoccupied for a certain SHORT amount of time must be torn down it would be a step in the right direction. It’s bad enough they should get some sort of federal disaster relief funds. To me it has always just been a dying city.
The only hope I see, and it’s just a small hope, is that the suburbs are getting so expensive and full that people might have to move into the city of Detroit just to live. My mother bought a house in a fairly nice blue collar neighborhood in Detroit 15 years ago. She paid 21,000 dollars for a brick, three bedroom bungalow built in the 40’s. Houses in her neighborhood are now selling for well over 100,000 dollars. It is just a couple of blocks from Dearborn so that helps. I never feel afraid in her neighborhood even walking around at night. We did go pick up pizza for her and we were handed our order through a bullet proof tunnel, never saw that before, but I still didn’t feel afraid.
I suppose I can’t talk since my dad’s family has always lived in the suburbs, but according to them, yes, it is a hellhole. Once my brother made it clear to me: “Don’t EVER tell anyone that we’re from Detroit. We’re from DOWNRIVER!” And I’m sorry, but when you’re proud to live in Lincoln Park, you’re not saying much.
The family goes way, way back in River Rouge - the family farmstead is long gone, replaced by a crack house, but the street in front of it bears my last name. But even these suburbs have gone sour. My grandmother was murdered in the jewelry store she worked at in 1975 and it’s only gone downhill from there. Most of the family has fled to Allen Park, Ypsilanti and the northern suburbs.
It’s not impossible to raise a family in the metro Detroit area and be relatively close to the city. My sisters and brother are all raising families in Allen Park and have very nice homes with good (Catholic) schools. But I remember when my dad and I drove back from Greektown along either Fort Street or Jefferson Avenue… I’d never seen anything so quiet, so desolate, so completely sad and empty. Sure, lots of inner cities are grungy and dirty and broken-down, but there’s an odd, post-apocalyptic feel to parts of Detroit that I haven’t felt anywhere else - and I’ve been all over North St. Louis, so I think I can speak from some experience in that regard.
Well, they are trying. There are some condo projects and various urban redevelopment efforts. Borders just put a store in a neighborhood where there was almost zero retail. Wayne State U is building residence halls, which is going to have more young people in the city proper 24/7. That’s going to be a good thing. And there are pockets of decent neighborhoods. You never see those on the news, of course.
But as others have said, Detroit has many, many problems. My husband’s father is a “native” but lives out of the city now. They go back only for the opera and symphony and theatre. Then they promptly leave again, back to Bloomfield Hills. I think that’s how a lot of people interact with the city–go in for a few attractions, be they sports or entertainment, and then get the hell out.
I hope they can overcome the problems. There is a lot of money around the area, so there are plenty of people to patronize anything revitalized. But I don’t know if they can pull it off. It’s pretty depressing.
The sad thing about Detroit is that it went from boomtown (in the 1890-1910 period,) to a wealthy industrial city, (in the 1940’s) to death and deacay by the 1960’s. Tha’s a pretty short lifecycle. What puzzles me is, in any declining area, usually once houses become dirt cheap, then urban pioneers like artists and gay people move in, renovate, and bring the neighborhoods back to life. The reason this didn’t happen in Detroit: Mayor Coleman Young kept boosting property taxes, so people gave upand left.
What the city ought to do: see abandoned property to new owns for $1.00, with the promise that they rehab the property, and keep it for at least 5 years. Of course, you also have to shut down the drug gangs. who make urban areas dangerous. Urban blight CAN be reversed…if you have competnt city governments.
I’d like to expand and clarify my earlier comments by noting that my dad’s in Detroit now, visiting family, and they did go into Detroit. My brother-in-law got seats behind home plate for the game on Friday, and they had a lot of fun. Dad also mentioned a classic car rally along Fort Street, but I don’t know whether that was in the city or farther downriver. It was fun for him, since he grew up on cars and even has his own fully-restored '57 Chevy. So I just want to be clear that it’s not like my family thinks they’ll be eaten by zombies if they go into the city, but they do tend to avoid it if there isn’t a sports event or something going on at Cobo Hall.
And there are other things to do in Downtown Detroit. My dad and I ate at a restaurant in Greektown. He bemoaned the fact that they took a great ethnic neighborhood and sanitized it and put half of it behind guards where we couldn’t go since I’m not 21, but we felt safe in the building itself. Driving around downtown trying to find it, though, was rather scary, at least to me.
My Detroit story:
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas and I met a lot of Detwat City folks in the '80’s when seemingly everyone in and around Detroit moved to Texas.
In July of ‘99 I went on a vacation touring around Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan etc. and I stayed a week with folks in a suburb of Detroit (15 mile & Telegraph I think), while I was there I wanted to visit Windsor, Ontario and Bell Isle so after my little tour I was headed back to Sarah’s house when I saw Woodward Avenue and I thought to myself “self, this was the birthplace of hot rodding, I’m gonna see the sights” so I turned on to Woodward at the Ren-Cen and OMG!!! it looked like a freakin’ war zone!!!, I locked the doors and stayed alert at stoplights, it was burned out buildings, grafitti, cars on blocks and vandalised and scary looking people.
When I got back to Sarah’s house the locals were all lauphing at me, they told me that the cops didn’t even go there unless they had to.
What is that monorail train supposed to give you a view of anyway?
Unclviny
The reason is that there are no jobs. Trendy Soho-esque neighborhoods are great and all, but art galleries and Banana Republics don’t drive an urban economy. You need major industries to provide jobs and a tax base for improving the infrastructure and fighting crime. When it becomes desirable to live in the city, THEN you will have the gays, artists, and young professionals moving in to rennovate the old neighborhoods.
Zoning is key too. Cities like Boston, New York and to a lesser extent, parts of Philly and DC are great walking cities. People live AND work in the downtown areas. When you have a situation like in Atlanta, most Connecticut cities and Detroit I imagine where the city core is abandoned at 5:00pm when everyone disperses to the suburbs, there is no incentive to maintain the urban center.
Ever been to the Detroit airport? That place is absolutely hideous, from te bare walls to the smoke-stained windows.
ALSO,
Detroit’s one of the few cities in the United States where the suburbs are more important than the city itself.
Despite what I said earlier about Detroit, I have to report that Woodward is much better than it apparently was in 1999. I drive the section you mentioned a couple of times a week and haven’t ever seen a car on blocks. There are lots of boarded-up businesses and more than a few substance-abusing individuals, but the only burned out businesses I can think of are several miles up Woodward, in Highland Park, and there aren’t many.
Geez, is that faint praise or what?
I’m from Detroit (actually Highland Park), I left in 81 so my memories are as a child and a bit dated however. I rmember it as being a pretty good place to live. There were bad sides of town, of which Detroit had plenty. I was mugged three times before my 13th birthday, but it never killed my sense of adventure. My friends and I would spend the summer exploring Detroit on our bikes. There used to be plenty of of things to do, like the Freedom Festival, the boat races and Belle Isle. They also had an Indy race that went through the downtown area.
I do remember largely burned out areas, and am sad to hear it hasn’t changed much. I know large sections of Rosa Parks Blvd were burned out but I thought that deveopment was on the horizon for that area when we moved. Funny Coleman Young was Mayor and had been for sometime when I left.
You mean The Mugger Mover?
[QUOTE=Entropy at Work]
Ever been to the Detroit airport? That place is absolutely hideous, from te bare walls to the smoke-stained windows.
I was in the Detroit airport recently for the first time in years. It was amazing, like the old one was torn down and a new shiney clean, interesting one was built in it’s place. I know what you mean about the old one. Dark dirty hallways permanantly under construction. Bare wires and pipes everywhere. Nowhere to eat or sit.
The new one: Shops and restaurants and a cool tram thing to get from one side to another. A huge beautiful fountain. I couldn’t believe it. We had the best time waiting for our plane.
Detroit City Airport or Detroit Metro Airport? There’s a world of difference between the two.
I’ve never been to Detroit City Airport, but Detroit Metro is gorgeous. I had to spend a few hours wandering around it waiting for a flight to Toledo, and I had a pretty good time. I’ve never spent much time in Detroit proper, but a friend of mine used to live on Bedford, over by Grosse Pointe, and I used to visit her every year. I always really enjoyed it there, going to Greektown, maybe seeing what was happening over at St. Andrew’s Hall… I never felt afraid of anything or anyone when I was there.
It’s kind of surprising - I’m way up here in Northern Michigan, and it’s pretty rural and pretty safe. I always thought Detroit would be scary, but it wasn’t to me. Of course, maybe I’m too naive to be afraid when I ought to be.
There are multiple terminals at Detroit Metro Airport. Northwest Airlines built their own terminal a couple of years ago, and it’s pretty nice, with a couple of exceptions:
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The security area is way too cramped, even though the airport didn’t open until after Sept. 11. It’s much worse than other airports I’ve been in. For example, to get to the elevator, you go through security and then backtrack through and across the security, navigating your way through the tables and x-ray machines.
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They didn’t make a clear provision for rental cars, from what my dad told me. You have to go halfway across the parking lot in order to get to the shuttle buses - they don’t have their own lane at curbside. That’s just poor design.
The older terminal, the Smith Terminal, is still where you’ll end up if you fly Southwest, Sprit, American or Delta. They’ve improved it over the years, adding more gates and an area for security. (The security used to be sandwiched into this long, 20-foot wide hall, leaving about a 4-foot-wide path for anyone trying to get to baggage claim.) It’s still very sucky to fly out of, however.
I, too, was surprised at the assertion that the airport was awful. I don’t remember which one I was at, but I had to call my husband to tell him how cool it was. Is that the airport with the people mover up in the ceiling? (I may be thinking of another airport–I’ve been to too many in the past year.)
I did some consulting work for a printshop in Detroit earlier this year and I was a bit nervous. As I was making plans, people told me to stay in the suburbs, but I just couldn’t resist staying in the city…I wanted to see what it was like. I’d been to other companies in Southfield and some others I can’t remember off the top of my head.
So, I did a little research and found these renovated mansions near Wayne State. I didn’t think it was that bad, but wandering a little outside this area made me uncomfortable. It seems like there are “pockets” of good and scary everywhere. In any case, it was very interesting. I felt somewhat comfortable walking 3 blocks to the gas station/convenience store, but I did slip out one evening to Ann Arbor to go to Seva (restaurant) due to my inhibitions about wandering to find a good restaurant.
I grew up next to Gary, IN, which is in a similar situation. I think there are hidden gems in Gary in it’s current time and history, and probably are in Detroit as well.
That’s the Northwest terminal. The other terminals are still pretty dingy, unfortunately.
Unclviny, you started your Woodward tour about 10 miles south of where you should have. Woodward Cruising was a suburban thing, starting at 9 Mile (one mile north of the City proper) and heading North.
Every year there’s a “Dream Cruise” that draws cruisers, wannabe cruisers, spectators and enthusiasts to the Woodward corridor for some good old high-octane leaded nostalgia. Woodward Avenue is gridlocked for a day with vintage hotrods, most driven by old farts who remember when gas was cheap enough to do it every weekend.
The Dream Cruise started out informally, then corporations and towns glommed onto it and made it a big deal. It’s gone from a one-day drive-by to a week-long event, and (I’m told) a million people participate in one way or another. We live just a mile from Cruise Central, and we usually bike over to spend a day watching the cruisers, wandering through the crowds, etc. It’s very cool.