Oxymorons on C-D (Detroit, Harper Woods: sale, renting, felony)

[detroitlove]

is it me or is it pointless to complain about a city you don't live in, don't visit, have no ties to etc? or to complain about abandonment and decay when YOU or your parents, grandparents etc abandoned it? to talk about Detroit's problems when aren't doing **** to fix them? to make assumptions about people you don't come into contact with on a regular basis? to care what the **** our neighborhoods look like when you don't even drive through them? to talk about "our drug problem" when the very same people who are buying the drugs live next door to you in some little wack ass suburb? do their dirt in Detroit but go home to Harper Woods?

[danwilsonbsee]

Originally Posted by detroitlove

is it me or is it pointless to complain about a city you don't live in, don't visit, have no ties to etc? or to complain about abandonment and decay when YOU or your parents, grandparents etc abandoned it? to talk about Detroit's problems when aren't doing **** to fix them? to make assumptions about people you don't come into contact with on a regular basis? to care what the **** our neighborhoods look like when you don't even drive through them? to talk about "our drug problem" when the very same people who are buying the drugs live next door to you in some little wack ass suburb? do their dirt in Detroit but go home to Harper Woods?

That's right! Only people who live within Detroit city limits at this current time are allowed to post. From now on - show your drivers license before pressing submit. It's ridiculous!

[djmilf]

nevermind...I just saw your contributions to the other post that most probably sparked this one...I don't bother engaging people who are throwing temper tantrums.

[us66]

...or the moderators could change the name of the forum to "Metro Detroit," a good idea considering there really is no one truly dominant city in the region.

P.S. My parents/grandparents/et al never abandoned the city. They never lived there in the first place. My grandparents came here from the suburbs of Cleveland as a result of a corporate transfer, a day I rue to this day.

[zthatzmanz28]

Kind of like everyone complaining about Washington D.C and who the heck lives there anyways?

All you hypocrites whining about governement..If you do not live there DO NOT COMMENT!!

So if you do not live in Detroit just leave it alone and see what happens....sorry I din't literally mean leave--come back with your money and just stay for a few hours? PLEASEEEEEEEEEE??

[animatedmartian]

Well...the DC analogy is different. The US government affects all of the US, therefore by living in the US people can say something about the US government.

From what I've read, DC does have it's own city government. They probably have issues that are completely separate from national politics (like residents of DC don't have representatives in government and their taxes aren't the same as the rest of the county or something like that). That is something that Joe Schmo in Detroit doesn't need to spend energy on unless he plans on moving there or something...

I've never been one to think of complaining as productive anyway unless you're offering a rational solution for a particular problem. Don't like Detroit because of it's crime? Then what are some options to help reduce crime? What works and what doesn't work? Just proclaiming "WELL THIS CITY SUCKS BECAUSE OF X" is a bit childish and doesn't really do anything other than to get other lazy-minded people to agree with you.

[Huckleberry3911948]

honest lawyer
troubled youth (felony juvi)
joyriding (grand auto theft)
gooning (wasp mugging)
bad choices (violent felonies)
late term abortion (premi murder)
relationship (affair)
cohabiting (shacking up)
car 4 sale no games
internet dater honest sincere no games

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by detroitlove

is it me or is it pointless to complain about a city you don't live in, don't visit, have no ties to etc? or to complain about abandonment and decay when YOU or your parents, grandparents etc abandoned it? to talk about Detroit's problems when aren't doing **** to fix them? to make assumptions about people you don't come into contact with on a regular basis? to care what the **** our neighborhoods look like when you don't even drive through them? to talk about "our drug problem" when the very same people who are buying the drugs live next door to you in some little wack ass suburb? do their dirt in Detroit but go home to Harper Woods?

It depends. If someone says something like "your city is 'some little wack ass suburb'", then yes, I would say that is pointless. But if someone is making a legitimate and constructive criticism then I think that could be helpful.

I think the moderators intended this forum to cover all of metro Detroit, not just the City of Detroit proper.

I think that everyone that lives in any suburb of Detroit is tied to the City in some way so they are qualified to complain.

I don't think that people who left should be criticized for leaving if they had a legitimate reason. My mom and dad left when they got married and moved to the suburbs because that was the thing to do in the early 60s. It wasn't out of hatred for the city as much as availability of new housing in the suburbs. The nicer areas of Detroit were pretty fully occupied at the time as there was a great demand for housing (Baby Boom). My dad's parents left because their house which they were renting was is very bad disrepair. They were the last whites in their neighborhood and my aunt who lived with them was a target of verbal intimidation from blacks in the neighborhood. My mom's mom (her dad had already passed away) left after the '67 riots after the neighborhood had severely deteriorated and after being the victim of burglars. She was also elderly and sick, so she moved in with my parents. My grandparents didn't abandon the city; the city abandoned them.

I don't know why suburbanites should be doing something to fix Detroit's problems. Are Detroiters doing anything to fix the problems in the suburbs? Have the suburbanites caused the social problems in Detroit? Are Detroiters willing to accept advice from suburbanites?

There is some stereotyping and prejudice on both sides, but I think there is also enough interaction that many people can make fair assessments of the problems in their surroundings.

I think we have all driven through enough of the various areas of the metro area to make reasonable guesses as to what the social conditions are like there.

The drug problem isn't isolated to the City, but it is certainly more prevalent and detrimental there. I think that anyone with compassion can recognize that drugs are a problem in the City and that that can not be minimized by pointing out that it is also a problem elsewhere.

detroitlove, I appreciate you standing up for your city. I do think there is some unfair criticism of the city. But let's be honest: Detroit has some major, major problems. If Detroiters are happy with the condition of their city, then they shouldn't feel insulted when others criticize it. But if they are not happy with the condition of the city, then they too have a legitimate right to criticize their own city and work to make it better (instead of being so very, very defensive when "outsiders" point out the obvious).

There are many black Detroiters who are very distraught over the condition in their neighborhoods (no, I'm not referring to East English Village). When you come out so defensively against suburbanite critics, please realize there are many black Detroiters who are suffering unnecessarily because of the actions of other black Detroiters. In my opinion, you should be standing up to defend Detroiters against Detroiters, not suburbanites.

[MS313]

It's one thing to have just a negative post on Detroit. It's a WHOLE nother thing to make completely false and ridiculous statements like "It's the most dangerous city in the world".. Anybody with a brain stem could tell you that is FARRRRRRR from the truth. And that was just ONE example of MANY. Im aware, some negative post about Detroit do have some truth to it. Some of the false post I let slide. But when people go off the wall and say ignorant crap that's where the problem comes in.

[Retroit]

It may not be the most dangerous city in the world, but it is certainly one of the most dangerous cities in the US, Europe, most of Asia, Australia, and Antarctica.