Detroit: A Dying City

Detroit is one of those cities that may never recover. It's not like it was a popular place to live even in the best of times.

The prices of homes in Vegas are down about 60 percent as well. I would think that would be the better investment.

 

It was before the riots. Everyone my age had parents who grew up in Detroit.
My grandpa owned a shoe store. It was a every enjoyable place - 50 years ago.

 

The other day, I Googled my HP house, the one I sold in 2007 for $115k. My cash loss on the home, which I owned for five years, was about $30k.

Now, houses on my old block are listed at $35k.

I was sick to my stomach.

The city of Detroit is bad, but it's also pulling down a lot of the suburbs, especially the entry-level ones.

 

I only know Detroit from covering sporting events there. After the way things used to be, I always thought the city had done amazing things with Ford Field and Comerica Field (is it still called that?) in the downtown.

Ford Field is definitely one of the better indoor facilities in the NFL.

 

As a lover of Detroit since I first saw it in 1986, despite its flaws, all I can say is Robocop was way ahead of its time.

 

This Freep writer notes that Time's discussion of Detroit as a "dying city" sounds a lot like what was written in another Time project -- in 1961.

http://www.freep.com/article/20091004/COL33/910040419/1322/What-Time-and-time-really-demonstrate-about-Detroit

For anyone who wonders about the good ol' days of the American auto industry, the writer notes that the 1958 recession was a death blow to Packard, and that Chrysler chopped its employment ranks from 130,000 to 50,000. Of course, the Edsel flopped as an upmarket car in a downmarket era. White flight was already well under way -- all the 1967 riots did was chase people out who hadn't already left.

It seems like the big difference today is not that Detroit is a "dying" city. It's that the whole metro area is coughing up blood. This is the endgame, not the start of a trend that may or may not be reversed. The only question left is, is there enough fight and might left in the Detroit area to turn things around in the absence of a strong auto industry, or not?

The Detroit project by Time is certainly based on what MSNBC.com did by buying a house in Elkhart, Ind., to chronicle life there. I did a story for that project (though I didn't stay in the house), and one thing that hit me with Elkhart was that it wasn't a city that was feeling totally beaten down. Unemployment was suddenly up to 20 percent, and the RV industry doesn't look like it's going to come back soon, if at all, but the people of Elkhart (this was as of this summer) sounded hopeful and positive that they would find a way to turn things around. Unlike Detroit, Elkhart sounded like a middle-class community going through a rough patch -- not a city where economic failure was ingrained. Heck, the plants hadn't been closed long enough for any rust to gather, and the stores weren't closed long enough for weeds to start growing in the parking lots.

Of course, that attitude could change if Elkhart stays at 20 percent employment for the next 30 to 50 years.

 

Read this last Wednesday in the Freep. Interesting read...

http://www.freep.com/article/20090930/OPINION05/909300360/1231/opinion05/European-idea-could-work-in-Detroit--too

 

No, it wouldn't work. People can't afford to buy flowers. And nobody can afford to employ 400 security guards to watch a plot of veggies.

 

Comerica Park.

That's the area my friends and I refer to as the green zone. It's where the safe bars are, the best music venues, the best events. Near Greektown, the Riverfront, the Casinos. It's the only thing the city really has.

 

And don't stray too far from there, either.

 

What might help Detroit, and this is a thin hope, is that we're in a recession where people can't flee. What with so many houses in foreclosure, and so many people upside in their homes, Detroit and other cities are going to have to come up with strategies to make things work with what they have. The best thing might be to figure out ways to get college grads (and I don't mean Jennifer Granholm's "Cool Cities" program) and, yes, immigrants to flock to the city to give it a shot in the arm. If Detroit can sell itself as a cheap place to start and grow a business, that might be its best shot. As some of the reports have noted, with the auto industry in the toilet, Detroit, in theory, is more open to new ideas that it's been for some time.

 

I don't know if you meant to have blue font there or not but if not, your statements are completely false.
The buildings that stand in Detroit that are abandoned are owned by owners who cannot afford to knock them down. Illitch has done great things for Detroit. He revived the Wings and Tigers. Got an entire new ballpark for Detroit, revamped the historic Fox Theatre (maybe his best accomplishment yet) and opened the Fox Bar and HockeyTown Cafe.

Moreover, there really are not any charred out buildings in the blocks surrounding Comerica. If you are standing in the Comerica Park parking lot, looking at the main entrancem to your left , a brand new parking garage, some gated parking lots and an immaculate church. Behind it is Ford Field and the the 75/375 interchange. To the right is another church, a Detroit Tigers Souveneir shop, Chelis' Chili Bar, the Detroit Opera House and a bunch of corporate buildings. Further down to your right is a street full of bars and shops, the only real business district there is. It leads to the riverfront and goes past Greektown.

Behind you is the majestic Fox Theatre, HockeyTown Cafe, the Fox Bar, the State Theatre and some other pretty neat bars.

To your left beyond the expressway is huge lot of new luxury condos that were built about 10 years ago. Next to those are the Magic Stick Pool hall a famous spot in Detroit. Across the street from that are the ONLY empty lots near CoPa. They are owned by Illitch, but they are empty lots, and they cost money to park in (but not in 2003). It gets a bit shady around there but it is not deserted. Wayne State University is down the road and they recently added dorms.