Detroit Real Estate - an update

And the leadership in some rustbelt cities is more than willing to help.

Sincerely,

Kwame Kilpatrick

 

I can vouch for the Detroit prairies. I've driven through it and it's eerie. One block with only a house or two and it's like that for miles.
There has been a big pheasant population boom because nobody hunts them and they enjoy the prairie.
Urban planners are talking about taking over the land back to agricultural and wildlife uses. Imagine having a 50 acre farm in the middle of Detroit where 40-50 years ago thousands lived.

 

Sacrificed?
Or were they murdered by the featherbedding unions? Honestly, the UAW gets a say in what kind of cars a plant produces? No wonder American auto makers went to heck.
Could look at this both ways.

 

http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2004/13-UrbanPrairie/St-Cyril.htm

Here's an aerial before and after photo of one Detroit neighborhood illustrating the urban prairie phenomenon. Formerly vibrant city neighborhoods transforming into vacant wastelands.

 

That's a stunning photo.

I've been in pretty much every major midwestern city, and while there are small urban prairie sections in most, Detroit is off-the-charts when it comes to the sheer magnitude of how much it has. Even Detroit's inner suburbs are affected.

It must be what Rome or Athens was like in 500 or so.

 

The pics are from 2003 - so this is not a new phenomenon.

Thanks for the link (btw, that link has a link to another urban prairie in Detroit). Fascinating stuff.

 

I'm going to Detroit tomorrow......I normally buy a t-shirt or some other tourist crap when visiting a city, maybe this time I'll use that money to buy a house.

 

Its not just the rust belt. there are small/mid-size cities throughout the northeast that have been struggling for 30 years or more. A lot of factors are in play, loss of industrial jobs, the urban renewal craze of the 1950s that tore down entire neighborhoods, redlining, white flight and f**ked up city management. Anybody who lived in New York in the 1970s can tell you how bad it was--not just the Bronx, but Brooklyn, Manhattan, everywhere.

 

Let's turn Detroit into the Buffalo Commons of Michigan.

 

For about the 200th time, labor accounts for LESS than 10 percent per UAW-produced vehicle while, according to the New York state comptroller, benefits and wages accounted for more than 60% of 2007 revenues for the seven largest financial firms in New York. So how come you're not calling for huge wage and benefits cuts for the white collar idiots who brought about this economic mess?

The fact is that UAW salaries are the same $29 - $30 an hour as those working in Southern states for Toyota or Hyundai or Mercedes. The competitive inequity comes in with the Big 3's higher legacy costs and the fact that car manufacturers in foreign countries have government-subsidized R&D and, in plants outside the U.S, government-subsidized health benefits.

Toyota and other foreign manufacturers only pay wages equal to UAW wages to keep workers from organizing. In fact, the Detroit Free Press reported in 2007 that Toyota has a plan in which it would slash $300 million from its labor costs by 2011 in great part by indexing its labor costs to "prevailing" manufacturing wage in the state of its plants. The Free Press story quoted the prevailing wage in Kentucky, for example, as $12 per hour, which means Toyota can't begin to implement the plan until the UAW brings its wages down to a comparable level.

That's where people like Sens. Vitter, Corker and Shelby come in. They would like their states to continue to be the cheap labor leaders of the U.S.

 

Never seen anything like that...that is wild. And sad.

 

Not quite. Most of the places that sell for those prices come along with the back taxes. Not to mention current taxes. And you're gonna need to buy all new piping. The copper has probably been stolen. Along with the doors, and anything else of value. You're basically buying four walls and a roof that may not be in good condition and some land. But this land, is in a place where you would not want to live. So it's not worth anything.