What sets Detroit apart from other American cities? (Southfield: crime, living)

[JMadison]

Originally Posted by delayed

That is absolutely correct. The suburbs have had zero connection to that city since the 50's and nothing has ever happened to change our attitude towards it. The recent mayor Kilpatrick did a number on any Detroit / Suburb relationship that MAY have been building by pulling the race card every chance he got (campaign slogan: "Our" Mayor) and blaming the suburbs for Detroit's blight. He is correct on that. It is the suburbs fault that Detroit is a cesspool stinking to high heaven with filth, greed, crime..etc. The suburbanites of today abandoned Detroit in the 50's. They basically said, fine. You want it so bad? Take it. Let's see what you can do with it.

Today, you can see what they did with it.

I disagree with the previous poster who said the suburbs will sink or swim in unison with Detroit. Why? Because Detroit has been spiraling out of control as a city since the 60's and while the suburbs may have some budget issues here and there, they are not collapsing. Detroit is collapsing. The thing about facts and statistics is that they can tell the truth without being swayed by emotion one way or the other. Look at the numbers, they tell the real story.

Let me get this straight. The people that left... the suburbanites are the reason Detroit is so bad?

Isn't it more like, the folks that are still there are the problem? How can people not in the area be the problem, LOL!?

I think it's more correct to say, after they said, "You want it, you can have it"... the "have it's" made it what it is.

[waltlantz]

It is true that (SOME) suburbanites generally have a disparaging, partronizing and snobbish view of inner cities because of race and class divisions.

However, lets be frank. The city caused a lot of bad blood itself thanks to race pandering and just plain bad city management. I love big cities like Detroit but it's stupid to call out the population that moved out 50 years ago. They moved out, had kids, those kids had kids. They have their own lives now.

Cities have to work to attract people who aren't from that historic cycle. San Fran, DC, Chicago, Boston and to a certain extent Philly are doing so. Plus some people from Metro Detroit don't hate the city, but problems are so large that they don't feel that they can do anything about it.

While some regional government and cooperation in Metro areas is essential, you will never have suburbs write off or be completely invested in everything the city does due to autonomy. Once Detroit rights itself, I think part of the Motor City Diasapora will come back because (IMHO) the unique experiences of Detroiters (both city and suburban) due to the rise and fall of big auto among other things help bind the area together in character much stronger than any other metro area I have seen.

[Indentured Servant]

This is nonsense. Say that the City of Detroit is a House and its residents are the current home owners. The house was purchased when the residents had a lot more money. However, the resident’s income dropped dramatically while the mortgage and bills remained the same. The residents simply cannot afford to maintain the home purchased when incomes were much higher. What happens to such homes? They go into disrepair and foreclosure. They same is true for the city of Detroit. Detroit has lost much income and hence TAX REVENUES to maintain the city. Not only is there less than half the people that there used to be contributing to overall income, the residents are much poorer, plus, much of the corporate and business tax base has been decimated. So again, it’s hardly the fought of the POOR, for there are poor and problems in ALL major American cities.

What happened in Detroit is the result of the action of the white middle and upper-class. Their departure shrunk the city, created the abandonment and eroded the tax base. How the hell are black people supposed to occupy and maintain all the housing that 1.7 million whites used to live in, when the city had 2 million people? News flash, 700, 0000 black people cannot afford to structurally maintain a city built to house 2 million. White abandonment created an oversupply of housing and anyone who understands the impact of oversupply realized that it creates diminished value. Who wants to purchase homes in a city where property values are falling, when you can buy homes in areas where demand is strong and homes appreciate? The white population declined at a much faster rate than the black population increased and the black population was much poorer than the white population.

As an African American, Detroit is not as bad as white people make it out to be. Why? The reason being is that when I go to other major cities, I frequent the black areas. These areas have high crime, high poverty and all the issues that blacks in the city of Detroit have. I am sure whites are avoiding these areas when they visit these cities. What they have that Detroit does not have are predominately white areas where whites like to hang out and frequent. That is what differentiates these areas from Detroit. If I want to find really nice places in these cities, it’s usually were the whites live. However, blacks who are from small and midsize cities that are predominately white have don’t have predominately black and NICE areas like Indian Village, Sherwood Forest, Palmer woods, etc. If you take a black person from Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Benton Harbor, Kalamazoo and you show them upper class black communities, they are very impressed. I know many black people who visit the city and LOVE it!

I get it. Detroit is a terrible place to white America, but it’s not that terrible for black America and that is why the black population was increasing for 4 decades while the white population was in a mass exodus at the same time. In fact, Detroit is a microcosm of Black America, with all the amplified problems of blacks in this nation, relative to whites. Blacks are living under these same conditions in every major metropolitan area in this nation. I am not saying that white people are "bad" people for leaving. I am not saying that at all. My point is that it is simply WHAT HAPPENED!

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

What facts and statistics indicate that the suburbs in metro Detroit are doing well? Have the suburbs been growing while the city's been shrinking in recent years? Is unemployment dipping more slowly or on par with the national average? It seems unlikely that if a metro is decaying at its core that much of the rest of area won't eventually share in the decay.

Of course it shares in the decay! Suburbanites try to kid themselves they're not effected, but they're being ridiculous.

[electric_lady]

Originally Posted by Redrum237

Let me rephrase it....people in the suburbs of Detroit perceive themselves as having no investment in the city. They don't care about what goes on there in terms of crime, poverty, etc., as long as it doesn't effect them. The suburbs don't interact much with the city.

There is no American city I can think of in which the suburbanites care less about the state the city is in, than Detroit.

So true. And so sad. This is a HUGE factor to why Detroit couldn't get past the obvious economic woes.
When the entire Kwame scandal was unfolding, people in the suburbs were laughing about it. It's sick.
The suburbanites - since the 60s - haven't given a damn about the city. Most would just assume watch it rot. The baby boomer generation - the ones that watched the entire sh**storm unfold - are the worst. Most people of that generation would tell their children NEVER to go downtown.
Which is unfortunate because if you look at other cities which suffered economic problems - Portland, OR and New York for example - those cities are very much alive throughout the entire metropolis because young people moved there, got involved and started creating their own culture.
It's beginning to happen in Detroit too, but without any jobs, it's hard to entice young people to stay.

[Redrum237]

I do think Detroit's perception as being completely 100% blighted (an untrue perception) is part of why people haven't tried to gentrify it more. People are under the impression that Detroit simply cannot be saved, and it is perhaps the only American city that people have completely given up hoping on.

[danielj72]

Redrum Detoilet cannot be saved, however the suburbs have become "new detroit" when put together. This is where things are produced, were people care about the condition of their area. Everything that was good about Detroit 50 years ago has moved to this suburban ring. Some of these posters in here love to defend the inner city, play victim and blame the white people. Why should the white people be blamed for leaving??? Who wants a crackhouse next door?? pimps walking the streets??? How about a couple of murders on your street??? Who wants their kids going to those schools??? Walking to those schools past the hoodlums??? The people who live there now choose to behave this way, all while blaming the white suburbanites for their plight. There is one poster in here who will tag me as a racist right away, and that is fine as its his opinion. But I am only stating facts here, Detroit IS crime ridden, dangerous and extremly run down. How can anyone not see that the people who live in the city should take responsibility for their own behavior???? Detroit proper could only be saved if its people had a sudden change of heart, taking responsibilty for their own actions. I dont see that happening soon, but im sure we will here alot more charges of racism and some more poor me's from them. For now I consider the REAL DETROIT to be that productive ring of suburbs surrounding the city. They might as well just build a new downtown north of the old city and just move one.

[Huckleberry3911948]

the deparure of auto manufacturing had a huge effect.
its like the navy pulling out of san diego.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

the deparure of auto manufacturing had a huge effect.
its like the navy pulling out of san diego.

San Diego is so incredibly beautiful, I think if the Navy pulled out, it would continue to absolutely thrive.

Detroit is a completely different kind of fish altogether.

[Redrum237]

Originally Posted by danielj72

They might as well just build a new downtown north of the old city and just move one.

That's actually exactly what happened in Johannesburg, South Africa, when crime in the old downtown got too bad. Detroit is nowhere near reaching that point though.

If anything, I think the city of Detroit will improve in the future for one reason; demographic inevitabilities. The city is shrinking and will continue to do so, and when enough of the criminal types leave and it's perceived as safe again, urban pioneers will take the opportunity to revitalize the city.