Truly disgusted (Detroit, St. Louis, Coleman: rent, hotel, felon)

[CantonzOwn]

Originally Posted by BurtsBees

Once the people of Detroit start taking responsibility for their actions, then the city will maybe turn around.

Yup.

[zakian]

Originally Posted by btaylor98

Being a young African-American Female born and raised in Detroit, I'm truly disgusted at how people from Michigan view Detroit. How do you expect other people outside of the state to view Detroit if people from Michigan is constantly putting down Detroit? Why not help the city grow and come together? Detroit is not a bad city at all..

I moved to Las Vegas with my parents and when people asked me where was I
from I would say Detroit, and they would look at me crazy and ask me the silliest question " Have you ever seen anyone get shot? "

My question is, how do you expect a city to come back if no one is willing to help the city grow?

WELL LET ME POINT SOMETHING OUT TO YOU opps. Why is it important to you that you have to mention you're race? That's a negative as far as a LOT of ppl are concerned. Tired of hearing it. Your race has ruined the city. You've had control of it for decades, what improvements have been made
? C.Youngs' attitude pissed off a lot of people REGARDLESS of ethnicity and they left. I was born and raised in Detoilet. Loved it.It's trashed now. Are you turning a blind eye? When I moved back here in 87 I drove around the city to see what's been happening. I was robbed by black police officer(s), one ask me: do you know why I drive a black car and not the regular patrol car? No I said. B/C I get paid to F with people. We don't want any white people in Detroit." Then he gave me a bogus ticket. I'll NEVER set foot in Detoilet again. That was 87. 20 yrs later look at it now. And you think it's b/c of what ppl say? It isn't. There's nothing left.

[Vision-Quest]

Originally Posted by zakian

WELL LET ME POINT SOMETHING OUT TO YOU opps. Why is it important to you that you have to mention you're race? That's a negative as far as a LOT of ppl are concerned. Tired of hearing it. Your race has ruined the city. You've had control of it for decades, what improvements have been made
? C.Youngs' attitude pissed off a lot of people REGARDLESS of ethnicity and they left. I was born and raised in Detoilet. Loved it.It's trashed now. Are you turning a blind eye? When I moved back here in 87 I drove around the city to see what's been happening. I was robbed by black police officer(s), one ask me: do you know why I drive a black car and not the regular patrol car? No I said. B/C I get paid to F with people. We don't want any white people in Detroit." Then he gave me a bogus ticket. I'll NEVER set foot in Detoilet again. That was 87. 20 yrs later look at it now. And you think it's b/c of what ppl say? It isn't. There's nothing left.

Wow its people like you that ruin the city, not blacks. Its guys like you who tell all sorts of people how stupid this one guy was in "the city". Im sure if you went to NYC you would find 8,500,000 more people like that.

[Nearborn]

My question is, how do you expect a city to come back if no one is willing to help the city grow?

There are something like 800,000 residents of Detroit. Are you telling me that Detroit doesn't have the talent within that eight tenths of a million people to make the city grow? After decades of affirmative action, the best and brightest haven't risen to the top to the point where they've made Detroit into an investment destination? What happened? Coleman Young wanted control. "His people" have had it since 1974. It's 30 plus years later. NOW you want help from the people he chased out? Maybe when Obama is elected, he'll be just the "unifier" that Detroit needs. I doubt it though. He's been to the same school of black rage that Coleman Young, Malcolm X and Kwame Kilpatrick graduated from. The city of Detroit doesn't want help in any form except cash with no strings attached. Just google "Bob Thompson" and "Detroit Public Schools" and see what I mean.

Detroit is an utter dump. Its residents and leaders are way more responsible for its decline than those who fled while the fleeing was good.

The majority of Detroiters voted for Kwame twice. The first time can be forgiven by saying that most Detroiters are idiots and high school drop-outs. But by the second time, you have to admit that not only are they morons, but they're morons who keep touching a hot stove after being burned. I don't want anything to do with a city that elects this kind of thug. I just want to get farther away. You had me living in the city most of my adult life, paying inflated property tax and income tax while the leadership squandered my money in scams, crimes and other pocket-lining. Once I left, I was done. You lost this newly-minted suburbanite for good.

Personally, I think you resent those who look down on the city because they don't buy into your philosphy of entitlement. I still come to Detroit to frequent a few spots while I'm still young enough and my reflexes are quick enough to take care of myself in the ghetto. We'll see if I still feel safe enough when I'm 60 to do the same. You may feel "truly disgusted", but I think your disgust is truly misguided.

Remember the awnings that the City of Detroit put up on the windows of all the vacant buildings that the People Mover passed by? I think it was for some national convention that was in town. Those awnings are a great metaphor for what it seems you'd like suburbanites to be when talking about Detroit to outsiders. Sorry, the awnings are falling apart, you can see through them all and the Emperor isn't wearing any clothes.

Believe it or not, Detroit police officers are some of the toughest in the nation,

Some of the most corrupt too, which is in large part whey they're dealing with that pesky consent decree and why they can't seem to make an inch of court-ordered progress in cleaning up their mess.

[The Original Vagabon]

Originally Posted by Vision-Quest

Dont criminals deserve to be fined? That has nothing to do about Detroit. Theres drunk drivers all over the country, you would find them in every county in every state. If any of my loved ones were involved in a crash with a drunk driver i would wish he got fined $1,000,000. Only $9.00 an hour? Any edjucation whatsoever? Your lucky to even get that much pay if you dont go to college.

I lived in Farmington Hills for 6 years and it's my favorite place i've lived out of about 5 other places. I agree, if the suburbs and the city could come together, it could refocus and bring some more jobs in and help out the region before it becomes another Pittsburgh, (a metro thats been losing people fast for 30 years). If we get help fast, we can turn the region around. Downtown is starting to become a fun/safe place to be. If they could make the surrounding neighborhoods the same way, it would be a great place to live and work aswell. Believe it or not, Detroit police officers are some of the toughest in the nation, and they work real hard to make the streets safe, they just dont have any support by anyone, just very harsh critisizement on them for not doing good jobs. When i went down on Woodward Avenue, there was always 2 or 3 police officers in sight doing their job. Detroit has great enforcement, they just need a supporting cast to work with. The residents could help them out by going to school and getting student loans to the three colleges Detroit has to offer, (Wayne State, Detroit Mercy, and Marygrove College). They didn't put up those universities for no reason, they put them up to help the city of Detroit. If the residents could take advantage of that then Detroit will eventually have young, edjucated proffesionals to help bring the city back to where it should be.

Detroit has great museums aswell, (Detroit Science Center, Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, Cranbrook Museum, Motown, etc.)

If we could somehow bring back Motown to how it was, it would be great for the city to advance forward in the entertainment department. We know that Detroit is capable of that, so why not bring it back?

Detroit has a lot to offer but nobody seems to realise it.

If Detroit is so great, why do you not live here? Is it because you would'nt feel safe going to the grocery store? Oh, wait! Detroit doesnt have grocery stores because its inhabitants would just come take whatever they wanted or take whatever you were trying to walk out with. Dont try and stick up for a city you visit on occasion.

Also, if you believe that everyone with an education makes big money, then you're the uneducated one.

[Vision-Quest]

Originally Posted by The Original Vagabon

If Detroit is so great, why do you not live here? Is it because you would'nt feel safe going to the grocery store? Oh, wait! Detroit doesnt have grocery stores because its inhabitants would just come take whatever they wanted or take whatever you were trying to walk out with. Dont try and stick up for a city you visit on occasion.

Also, if you believe that everyone with an education makes big money, then you're the uneducated one.

well im in high school and it appears that im smarter than you. At least i have a license and i've never drove a car without it.

[Yac]

Calm down, both of you. Please.
Yac.

[windfarmer]

Thank you Nearborn.

Detroit is absolutely a dump. From the minute you drive through it's borders with other suburbs, one feels like they have entered Soweto – the notorious black ghetto in South Africa.

Race absolutely is a part of this. The mentality of African-Americans in Detroit need to change. They are indisputably, the majority – and either need to stop having babies by the dozens without being married, or at least need to take control of the many kids they do pop out.

Detroit schools are some of the worst in the country and I dare anybody to dispute that.

Sure it was a glorious city at one time.. But it also did not have a crack house on every block and the mayor was not the lowlife, criminal that is Kwame Kilpatrick. Detroit can only return to it's glory days when the same types of people who ran the city in the 50s and earlier return and clean up the community... because obviously the current residents have no clue what they're doing.. and that is absolutely proven year after year for the last nearly five decades.

[dustin183]

Seems to me that the city is too big. To improve it would need major institutions bringing brains and money. Institutions like large universities and big employers. Why else would anyone want to live there?

(note: I live in Columbus, OH, so I'm no expert on Detroit)

I wonder, why don't the auto companies that built Detroit make more capital investments there? What percentage of say Ford's Michigan-based offices/factories are in Detroit?

[SWV]

I grew up in Detroit, (in the Warrendale area) grew up got married and settled first in Downriver then out in Brighton.

We looked a couple of times into moving back into Detroit. Prices for some beautiful homes were great, we looked in Corktown, Indian Village and the Boston-Edison district. We found we could easily afford the house payments (even with the wickedly high property taxes) but the school system was awful and with 3 kids still in school we couldn't afford the cost of a private education. We also found we couldn't afford the security system we were advise to install. There wasn't any decent markets for us to shop at conveniently, virtually no retail, nothing.


I loved the City. And wouldn't trade my experiences there with anything. But let's be honest here. The Detroit that was no longer exsists.

60% of Detroit high school students do not graduate, the State of Michigan is talking about taking over the finances of the city schools, the streets are not safe, drug crimes are rampant, city services are none exsistant. Detroit's mayor just left office to do time in jail. The new city council president needs some serious mental health help,
the crime rate is nearly 3 times over the national average and so on and so on.

Originally Posted by michiganirish

Detroit has a long way to go before we can feel good about supporting it positively. It's sad because I do love the city.

Because of the job situation in Michigan my husband lost his job and after 2 years of searching he landed a job in Buffalo NY. I had heard horror stories about Buffalo, much like the ones that circulate about Detroit. I knew Buffalo was a city that had once been like Detroit, it depended largely on the steel industry. When that industry sank the city did also. However, Buffalo has come so much further than Detroit. True it's downtown is not as vibrant as it once was but it has retail, and tourist areas as well as great eateries. The parks system here is fabulous. And they are working hard to develop their river front. There are poorer areas of the city, but they are clean and well kept. They have tons of free or low cost events. But the biggest difference between Buffalo and Detroit, it is a much more intergrated city. The divisions between the races are much more blurred here and the two seem to work together.

Detroit residents have to stand up to all the nonsense that is going on in the city and stop electing people that only have an interest in furthering themselves and not the city. And they have to stop blaming everything and everyone else for they're downfall. It's time Detroiter's take responsibility for what has happend to this city and actually do something about it.

I agree!