Slow Roll Detroit (Hamtramck, Cadillac, Palmer: construction, live in, restaurants)

[mgkeith]

Yes, they mentioned beer cans, too.

[Coldjensens]

More slow than roll last night, but I was still pleasant. The route we took really drove home the magnitude of the problem of Detroit neighborhoods. Mile after mile after mile every third house was collapsing. Occupied homes had collapsed porches and balconies, no windows on the attic of third floor, just wide open. Pretty much everyone has a collapsing abandoned home next door or one house away. Still the people were out waving, cheering, dancing. . . The abysmal conditions have not broken their spirit. It is daunting to see so much of it. How can this ever be fixed?


It is also fascinating to picture in your head what these neighborhoods used to look like. Some of the homes/apartments are just beautiful (or were). Some can be again, some are beyond hope (and I am a person who normally sees every building as worth restoring). There was an intermediate school with no doors or windows and the inside completely trashed, but the building itself still looks very good. For some reason is really drove home the devastation. People came around the corner and gasped or stopped and stared. Not sure what it is about that school, but it is simply shocking for some reason. (the sign the says "Available - Contact Detroit Public Schools" made everyone laugh not that it is funny - more like ironic or sad).

[MS313]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

More slow than roll last night, but I was still pleasant. The route we took really drove home the magnitude of the problem of Detroit neighborhoods. Mile after mile after mile every third house was collapsing. Occupied homes had collapsed porches and balconies, no windows on the attic of third floor, just wide open. Pretty much everyone has a collapsing abandoned home next door or one house away. Still the people were out waving, cheering, dancing. . . The abysmal conditions have not broken their spirit. It is daunting to see so much of it. How can this ever be fixed?


It is also fascinating to picture in your head what these neighborhoods used to look like. Some of the homes/apartments are just beautiful (or were). Some can be again, some are beyond hope (and I am a person who normally sees every building as worth restoring). There was an intermediate school with no doors or windows and the inside completely trashed, but the building itself still looks very good. For some reason is really drove home the devastation. People came around the corner and gasped or stopped and stared. Not sure what it is about that school, but it is simply shocking for some reason. (the sign the says "Available - Contact Detroit Public Schools" made everyone laugh not that it is funny - more like ironic or sad).

What was the route last night?

[usroute10]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

More slow than roll last night, but I was still pleasant. The route we took really drove home the magnitude of the problem of Detroit neighborhoods. Mile after mile after mile every third house was collapsing. Occupied homes had collapsed porches and balconies, no windows on the attic of third floor, just wide open. Pretty much everyone has a collapsing abandoned home next door or one house away. Still the people were out waving, cheering, dancing. . . The abysmal conditions have not broken their spirit. It is daunting to see so much of it. How can this ever be fixed?


It is also fascinating to picture in your head what these neighborhoods used to look like. Some of the homes/apartments are just beautiful (or were). Some can be again, some are beyond hope (and I am a person who normally sees every building as worth restoring). There was an intermediate school with no doors or windows and the inside completely trashed, but the building itself still looks very good. For some reason is really drove home the devastation. People came around the corner and gasped or stopped and stared. Not sure what it is about that school, but it is simply shocking for some reason. (the sign the says "Available - Contact Detroit Public Schools" made everyone laugh not that it is funny - more like ironic or sad).

What do you expect? The city has 1/3rd of the population it once had. The Detroit Public Schools in the 2001-2002 school year had an enrollment of over 160,000 and was the 7th largest school district in the country. In less than 15 years, enrollment has dropped about 70% and there are only 97 schools left!

This is what happens when everybody leaves. Nobody has any willingness to solve the problems, just do the easy thing and head for the suburbs, first whites, and now the blacks. Don't fix YOUR OWN school system, just go to schools of choice and charter schools.

Well doing the easy thing has resulted in having the city that has declined more than any other in the U.S. and has made us a LAUGHINGSTOCK ALL OVER THE COUNTRY

People around here have ingrained in their psyche these words of the great Henry Ford: “We shall solve the city problem by leaving the city”

And next time, can y'all go through some nice hoods, like the area north and northwest of the University of Detroit and Marygrove College. Even Highland Park has 2 really nice-sized elegant neighborhoods that y'all can roll through. Even unsexy neighborhoods like 6 Mile/Schaefer have beautiful blocks of decently maintained brick homes

[Coldjensens]

I do not know how they choose the routes. They vary. Sometimes nice, sometimes rough, sometimes a mix. Once we went out the Belle Isle and rode around the Detroit Grand Prix course. We have been out around Hamtrammak, out on the West Side. Downtown, mid town, pretty much all over the city. Although I have never been on one that covered the east side that I can remember.

I am well aware of the statistics, and I have seen examples of the devastation in places before. I have been out on work programs to fix up surviving houses and I have seen a few streets like those we rode. I have not been exposed to the extent of the problem like this however. Miles and miles and miles of the same thing. Countless thousands of houses all bunched in with ruins and occasional empty lots. I was aware some people lived in total unlivable homes without windows or with collapsed porches and balconies, I did not realize it is commonplace. Why are the foundations failing? I have seen ghost towns older and with less care that are in better shape. And for some reason, the school was shocking. More so than the train station, more than Packard or even Del Rey with its acres of empty lots.

[adams_aj]

Sounds like an awesome time. I might have to coordinate a trip home with a slow ride and borrow a bike from my brother and do it.

[usroute10]

I took the plunge! I bought a bike from G & R Bike Shop, a bike store that has been open in the Old Redford commercial district since 1976!


Courtesy of Yelp

I'm doing the SLOW ROLL tonight! The website says the meetup place is Palmer Park, so we are going to hopefully ride through some interesting and unique neighborhoods like the Palmer Park Apartment District. Highland Park's Medbury-Grove Lawn neighborhood, the state's largest collection of stately Craftsmen bungalows, is just a few blocks away. So we'll see. It's supposed to be in the mid-60's today, praise the Lord.

[usroute10]

I participated in the Slow Roll yesterday. It was fun, although it rained.

I will not be doing it again, I do not like the idea of blocking streets for long periods of time and inconveniencing motorists who are trying to go about their business.

We started at Palmer Park. We rolled along Hamilton Avenue where it is lined with mansions, then kept along Hamilton where it transitioned to a commercial street lined with dilapidated storefronts and vacant lots in HP. Then we went along Puritan Avenue then Hubbell, then West Outer Drive.

We rolled through the most awesome part of Outer Drive between the Lodge Freeway and Livernois. Very impressive Colonials and Tudor Revivals from the 1930's-'50s. Then we rode through the spectacular Sherwood Forest neighborhood before heading back into the Park.

[MS313]

Those are some pretty nice bikes out there. It actually looks like a fairly diverse crowd.

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by usroute10

I will not be doing it again, I do not like the idea of blocking streets for long periods of time and inconveniencing motorists who are trying to go about their business.

That seems like a valid concern. Any way the police could help with that? Control the flow of bikes and cars at busy intersections?