What Killed Detroit (Warren, Livonia, Dearborn: amusement park, mortgage, hotels)

[and the]

Rather than live in an integrated neighborhood, most whites fled leaving the city without a tax base.

How did whites leave the city without a tax base by leaving and/or selling? Didn't the people who moved in or the people who bought their houses still have to pay taxes?

[alluralisa]

It is a shame that you see people living in houses that are a stiff wind away from falling over and drive ridiculous automobiles. I have always wondered why someone would have that backward mentality.

[Slappy san]

White flight killed the tax base. Less taxes equals less services.

[Ronald120]

Originally Posted by and the

How did whites leave the city without a tax base by leaving and/or selling? Didn't the people who moved in or the people who bought their houses still have to pay taxes?

Why assume that those houses are moved in as quickly as they were moved out?? And doesn't people constantly moving out of homes decrease the value of those homes; thus, decreasing the amount of property tax assessed on the houses??




That's of course assuming that these houses were sold as timely as they were moved out of.

[and the]

And doesn't people constantly moving out of homes decrease the value of those homes; thus, decreasing the amount of property tax assessed on the houses??

Nowadays if you move out of a house you've been in for 20 years, the new owners are going to pay about 3 times the amount of property taxes you're currently paying....All the more reason to "flip that house". The city gets to rape the new owners on the reassessment.....As far as a high turnover decreasing value, I guess that would depend on who's moving in. Are you saying that they should have tried to stop the people who moved into the white flight vaccuum from moving into those areas?

I think the first "wave" of houses made available on the market as a result of white flight were occupied fairly quickly. I don't think it was like it is now. The demand for well built housing in good neighborhoods was pretty high back then. The supply didn't remain available that long in the better areas. Did it? For example the lower middle-class to middle class Jewish areas off of Livernois?

Spontaneous trivia question: What's link does Livernois have with the assassination of John F. Kennedy?

[fine_where_I_am]

Many of those houses (that had people who had plenty of income to make a tax base decades ago) simply do not exist anymore.

[Coldjensens]

A lot of the houses no longer exist. Many many houses have been foreclosed on for unpaid taxes. The City of Detroit owns a lot of homes. As real estate values fell, so did the tax base. as people moved out, not that many were replaced. Remember there are less than half as many people in Detroit now as in the 1960s, but they still have the same amount of geographically area to serve using a fraction of the tax income. Couple that with a corrupt and incompetent city government and it is no surprise that the state has to kick in millions to keep Detroit afloat.

What Detroit needed to do was to take steps then (in the 1960s to make people of all races and income levels feel comfortable safe and welcome. Instead it seems like the City was glad to drive out those rich white so and sos. Even now, there is resistance to their return. In reference to the efforts to get people to move to the downtown condos, I have heard comments like "this is our city, those rich white people want to come in and take over." that attitude is what killed Detroit. Detroit needs a mix of races and especialy of income levels if it is to be healthy as a city.

The tax does not triple when a new buyer comes in. that happens often in California under prop.13, Michigan does not have prop 13. taxes are based on current assessed value.

[downthathighway]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

A lot of the houses no longer exist. Many many houses have been foreclosed on for unpaid taxes. The City of Detroit owns a lot of homes. As real estate values fell, so did the tax base. as people moved out, not that many were replaced. Remember there are less than half as many people in Detroit now as in the 1960s, but they still have the same amount of geographically area to serve using a fraction of the tax income. Couple that with a corrupt and incompetent city government and it is no surprise that the state has to kick in millions to keep Detroit afloat.

What Detroit needed to do was to take steps then (in the 1960s to make people of all races and income levels feel comfortable safe and welcome. Instead it seems like the City was glad to drive out those rich white so and sos. Even now, there is resistance to their return. In reference to the efforts to get people to move to the downtown condos, I have heard comments like "this is our city, those rich white people want to come in and take over." that attitude is what killed Detroit. Detroit needs a mix of races and especialy of income levels if it is to be healthy as a city.

The tax does not triple when a new buyer comes in. that happens often in California under prop.13, Michigan does not have prop 13. taxes are based on current assessed value.

Jarvis and Tisch amendments, homestead tax exemptions.
In 92/93 The Michigan sales tax was raised from 4% to promote property tax reductions and to cap millage tax increases.

The richer and upwardly mobile have long migrated from urban areas to areas allowing larger properties, less density. Then when that changes, they move again. Example- Highland Park.

Detroit is landlocked. In the 60's, 70's many of my classmates moved from Detroit for the suburbs. Most moved to new subdivisons,(ugh cookie cutter, to each their own) something Detroit could not offer. Its tiresome to hear over and over someone claim the flight is 100% racially motivated. There is a percentage, but not 100% ! Now, however, I do not know why anyone would be compelled to move into a city that embraces one ethnic group, even implies noone else should have a voice in its affairs. Why would one move into a neighborhood that is 100% (Polish,French,German,Mexican,Asian,etc) if they were not welcomed? In fact if the neighborhood desired to maintain its ethnic flavor, why change it by diluting the mix of residents? So the suburbs just kept growing and growing.
It certainly does not have to be that way. Other urban cities such as Chicago and NYC have tried to stay diversified enough to keep and attract new urban dwellers to replace those that move to the suburbs.

Detroit had corrupt and stubborn government going back to the 50's. They failed to plan for the future. It was becoming obvious that there was no more land to build on. Hence no more growth. And the suburbs were luring away hordes of city dwellers offering what Detroit no longer could- new tracts of housing, the 'American dream'. The spending in Detroit continued as it did in growth years without seeing a future with less residents and tax revenue.(A pattern not yet broken). That's why you are now paying an income tax to live and/or work in Detroit. The income tax was passed, a desperate and unsuccessful measure to rebuild Detroit's city coffer

R/E landlocked- Here in Omaha I used to visit my relatives that built a new house 'in the suburbs', on the edge of town. Before long they were annexed into Omaha.That city was once 6 miles wide, it has since annexed out to be over 15 miles wide. Very little opposition. The city provided services desired by the 'suburbanites'.

The Depression halted Detroit's annexations. In Detroit where I lived, it was part of Redford Twp until mid-20's. The Twp was growing fast and built new schools, even a new town hall. However Detroit had services and better education (1920's)to offer so residents were happy to become part of a growing city. Ah, if only they could have seen the future also.

[Ronald120]

Originally Posted by and the

Are you saying that they should have tried to stop the people who moved into the white flight vaccuum from moving into those areas?

No. I was providing another reason as to why that would have caused Detroit to lose its tax base. Stopping "the people who moved into the white flight vaccuum from moving into those areas" would be fundamentally forced segregation -- something I'm aganist.

[kobraf150]

What killed Detroit? A number of things, it's not the blacks it's not the whites but their fighting didn't help and many corrupt individuals didn't either, here's a timeline. If I've left anything out, forgive me I only lived there from 83-93 and I'm only 25.

1. Early in the 20th century people from the south move up, many include blacks. Racial tension begins.

2. 1929 the Great Depression begins, that doesn't really help any city.

3. 1943 in a span of 36 hours 34 people are killed in a race riot that began on the Belle Isle bridge.

4. 1952 the construction of major freeways begins and some houses (particularly in black areas) are to be demolished.

5. Late 1950s white-fight escalates and tension goes up as blacks move into previously white neighborhoods.

6. 1967, the 12th Street Riot kills 43 in 5 days and very much property is stolen or destroyed.

7. 1970's Developing suburbs are looking better and many whites move out.

8. 1973 Coleman Young is elected and seems to forget all about the west side neiborhoods of Detroit as there is a total lack of maintenance.

9. 1983 the JL Hudson building closes.

10. 1984, the Tigers win the World Series!...But the city riots and causes very much damage.

11. October 31st 1984, the worst Devil's night ever burns down many houses and causes very much terror, more move out of the city.

12. 1989, several Catholic churchs w/in city limits close and/or relocate out of the city. Polish and Italians (who are mostly Catholic) flee the city. Many of Detroit's black Catholics (including myself) are forced to go to Catholic schools in Redford or other suburbs and cause them to be too crowded.

13. October 24th 1998 at 5:47 pm, JL Hudson is imploded! I cry, many are pissed off and even more leave the area.

14. 2001 Kwame is elected...you know how that's goin'!

It's sad that so many of us including my family left the city, but it was better for all of us. Keep Detroit alive, for it will always be my true home.