What's up with Inkster? (Dearborn, Wyandotte: for sale, crime rates, homes)

[dre71]

illmatic I say detroit is hole most of the time cause it is damn. I ain`t like you guys man I dont make detroit to sound like its beautiful with piece of **** yuppies(which is a few anyways) moving there. I tell people of the real detroit not the fake stuff. Maybe one day it will come back and that would be great but it isn`t know or even close thats real honesty. As for inkster I never been there so I dont know.

[Nearborn]

Nearborn, I have been told more than once that both Ecorse and Inkster (or Nankin Towship as it was called before 1968) were developed by Henry Ford to house the black folks who worked at his GIGANTIC Rouge Plant in Dearborn.

I know why and by whom it was developed (That's developed not "founded"). What I want to know is how do you know it was a ghetto in the 1920's and 30's?. Pictures? Newspaper articles?

What would you have done if you were Henry Ford when the Rouge Plant was built? The only areas heavily occupied by blacks back then in Detroit was the Black Bottom area and a couple others. There is no way all the blacks coming to work for Ford would have fit into those already overcrowded, substandard areas. There were more blacks working for Ford then than the total black population of Detroit. Now show me how Henry Ford built a ghetto. Given Henry Ford's progressive (for the era) views on race relations, I highly doubt that he set out to design a ghetto, and I bet conditions were better for blacks in general in Inkster than they were in the Black Bottom area. Inkster became a ghetto AFTER Henry Ford's reign at the company he built.

[illmatic774]

as in the TRADITIONAL sense. ghettos aren't developed as, well, ghettos; that happens over time.

[usroute10]

Nearborn,
How was Henry Ford progressive in race relations? Did not he publish anti-Jewish literature - such as The International Jew (or something like that)?

[Nearborn]

How was Henry Ford progressive in race relations? Did not he publish anti-Jewish literature - such as The International Jew (or something like that)?

I was speaking of his ideas on race relations with blacks. I don't consider Jews to be members of a race other that white. I consider "Jewish" to be a religion and an ethic group. Not a race. And yes, Henry Ford was anti-Jew. I believe he wrote "The International Jew" and his "Dearborn Independant" magazine often had anti-Jewish articles. In fact, I believe he started Manufacturer's Bank so Ford money wouldn't have to be deposited in Jewish-run banks.

Nevertheless, he did have some progressive ideas regarding black/white relations. Compare what was going on with Ford Motor Company in the 1920's as far as job assignments and wage scales for blacks compared to whites. And then compare that with what was going on with other manufacturing companies in Detroit. Ford had way more blacks working jobs other than menial labor than the other manufacturers. And into the 1960's, Ford had more blacks in skilled trades and white collar positions than other manufacturers in Detroit.

As far as Inkster goes, it may have turned into a ghetto, but Henry Ford didn't build a ghetto if that's what you were getting at, but segregation was a fact of life back then (and now for all intents and purposes in Detroit) He pumped $500,000.00 into Inkster in the 20's. A huge sum at the time. And again, there were more blacks working for Ford than there were living in the City of Detroit at the time. They weren't all going to fit into the few areas were blacks lived in the 20's in Detroit. I can't say for sure, but I bet living conditions for blacks working for Ford and living in Inkster in the 20's were leaps and bounds above conditions for the average black resident of the Black Bottom area of Detroit at the same time.

[eastwestman]

Originally Posted by illmatic774

Its like Brightmoor South. And no, I'm not like this Johnson character who tells people how much of a hole Detroit is in every single one of his posts; i'm capable of being honest and rational.

Where is Brightmoor South?

[Nearborn]

I think he's saying Inkster is similar to Brightmoor, and since it's south of Brightmoor.......

[GRRAZO]

funny thing is that the Inkster borders especially with debo hights are clearly visable from google earth or any other satalite image program that shows the nicer kept houses againsts the abandod and burnt down ones in Inkster.

Inkster is THE definition of Ghetto. It is a landlocked depressed ethnic enclave surrounded by nicer, wealthier whiter cities.

[rac6]

I made the mistake of buying the house I grew up in from my mother here in Inkster about 10 years ago. I have been trying to sell it for a couple years and recently took it off the market, because I realized houses in this city were going for less than half of what it is worth. The house sits on the best lot possible on a court, has a finished basement, 2.5 car garage, privacy fence around large backyard. I also put a new roof on house and garage, new furnace with central air, among tons of repairs and remodeling. The issue is 'location'. If my house was less than 1 mile down the street into Garden City, or even Westland, it would be worth more and livable. The city was fine when I was a kid, and wasn't even that bad 10 years ago... but now my kids can't leave our court without hearing "go back to yo hood whiteboy", and similar things, like kids on school buses yelling out racial slurs to anyone who is not black. It's quite obvious why this city is such a piece of crap. My family and I recently decided, to get out NOW. BTW: being poor is not a good excuse for crime and other excuses some people may use, it's understandable (not right) for a homeless bum to break in a house and steal something for food, but here, the thiefs and murders and rapists do it for fun, not because they have no money.

[Nearborn]

I realized houses in this city were going for less than half of what it is worth.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you can't sell your house, it's not worth twice the value of what you COULD sell it for. You might be better off taking what you can get or renting it. At least you can write off the losses.