The deterioration of Detroit

[micropolitan guy]

Pretty interesting photo series about parts of Detroit returning to urban prairie.

http://homes.yahoo.com/blogs/spaces/a-stark--unsentimental-look-at-detroit-s-rapid-slide-202246171.html#

 

[joe]

Reminds me of the History Channel (?) series about Earth without humans. Nature takes over pretty quickly when people are gone.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

There have been earnest suggestions to turn these parts into sprawling urban gardens.
Growing mustard, salad greens and other produce- and eventually biodiesel.
Detroit's transformation from industry to agriculture would be one of the most remarkable in our history.

 

[SFIND]

Amazing and sad. I remember the last time I was up in Detroit a couple of years ago for a game at Ford Field how I saw so many deteriorating buildings downtown. I wonder what some of those older ones look like now.

 

[poindexter]

I knew what was coming, but that was still utterly shocking.

Thanks for posting.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Watch the doc Detropia. Great stuff.

 

[heyabbott]

I blame Donald Sterling

 

[Boom_70]

Wooptee *** doo

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

I drove around the city for three days last summer. It was definitely bizarro world. Apart of the abandoned properties, it just felt empty. I mean I was on four-lane roads with no other cars or trucks within sight (this is kind of awesome to be honest). Driving there is more than a bit of risk though as many of the traffic signals and signs just aren't there or don't work anymore. Driving at night was scary as hell too because most of the street lights weren't working. It I didn't have GPS, I would have crashed or gotten lost.

 

[TwoGloves]

Flint is even worse. Two cities hit really hard and plagued for years by incompetent leadership

 

[Bubbler]

In a lot of respects, I think Detroit is one of the most fascinating cities in the country because of its deterioration.

 

[Colton]

Wow, was that sad to see. Looked like some scenes from The Walking Dead.

Thanks for posting.

 

[Tarheel316]

Wow, was that sad to see. Looked like some scenes from The Walking Dead.

Thanks for posting.

You beat me to it. Very post-apocalyptic. Sad.

 

[WolvEagle]

I left journalism in March to accept a PR job in downtown Detroit. The contrast on the drive to and from work is amazing. It looks like a war zone as you're in the city, but with the skyscrapers in the distance - albeit a war zone with lots of very creative spray-painting ("vegan coke head" is a personal favorite). (I've been taking surface streets vs. freeways because of a major freeway closure.)

Downtown, though, is hopping. So many good things are going on. On days I have a little bit of time, I like to walk around. It's so alive with professionals - mainly young professionals - walking around. The RiverWalk is so cool. And my co-workers are a cool mix of white and black, city and suburbia, and we all get along. We joke about racial differences, and there's never any malice. It's an eye-opening, learning experience.

Then there's the drive home through the war zone back to my suburban home. Bizarre.

 

[KJIM]

I left Detroit in 2007, and it was the same thing. Revived downtown but everything else looks like, as I've posted before, a nuclear zone. We're at seven years later and it sounds like it's still the same thing.

But I just don't think reviving downtown Detroit is going to work. Geographically speaking, it's a large city. There are a lot of residents who haven't been affected by the improvements.

My former neighbors, who live in a nice part of Detroit (East English Village -- not a suburb), have had vacant neighbors' homes broken into (as in stealing copper from basements.) Even when I was there, they heard gunshots a couple blocks away on a nightly basis. It's much worse now.

Rebuilding the downtown doesn't help them much. They're the good taxpayers, too. They pay incredible property taxes to make up for the property owners who don't pay for whatever reason.

It's just so sad to me. I'm so glad I got out.

 

[micropolitan guy]

"Detroit City Is the Place to Be," by Mark Binelli is a great, recent read about Detroit, its problems and possible solutions for the future. I highly recommend it.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I remember a few years ago, someone on here posted a satellite image of the city about40 or 50 years ago and then another image from that day. It was stunning how many houses had disappeared.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I read a few things recently that startled me.
First is the crime rate. Only about 20 percent of the homicides are solved.
There is little indication by the media about how truly dangerous the city has become.
Second is the high school graduation rate - twenty-fkin-five.
A young student is more likely to wind up in prison than in college.

 

[dooley_womack1]

I've seen pictures of the interiors of abandoned office buildings and schools in Detroit. As if a bomb made a bunch of messy people disappear with their stuff left behind.

 

[Cyrus]

I left journalism in March to accept a PR job in downtown Detroit.

If you don't mind me asking, how much was your salary bump going from journalism to PR in the Detroit area?