Quick vote...what is our ugliest city? (Detroit, Warren: environment, home)

[Angelstar490]

Flint is really ugly as is Highland Park, and Benton Harbor. The person who stated that Holland and Grand Rapids are beautiful was correct! They are lovely as is my town, Allegan. Very picturesque and quaint.

[Blue Grass Fever]

I have to add Inkster to the list. Ugly, ugly, ugly!

I've always thought Estral Beach was 'ugly'. Nice view, those who know the area should know what i'm talking about.

I don't think Saginaw is all that bad, it has one 'rough' side of town which is the east-side and is relatively small compared to Flint or Detroit.

Lincoln Park and Melvindale is so darn depressing that it's ugly in that regard.

I think Bay City is ugly. Close to all that water and the river yet 'ugly'.

Flint is a freakishly twilight-zone city. Weird, weird, weird city. It does feel like you're stepping into another dimension when entering/visiting Flint.

[Sociologist]

Originally Posted by M TYPE X

Agreed.

Flipside...
The prettiest cities will always be Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Holland.

In the middle lie Lansing, Muskegon, and Port Huron.
I suppose if you live there, you might care about Battle Creek, Jackson, and Kalamazoo and throw them in the middle of the pack.

I won't waste my time on Pontiac. Detroit has its nice aspects, but they are overwhelmingly shadowed by the ugliness.

I must say after my father living in Jackson for years that their city planning has done nothing to harbor growth. At any rate I agree with your other comments.....
Cheers

[magellan]

If you're talking about downtowns, I'd definitely say Saginaw is pretty depressing. I've only seen photos of Flint and it looks pretty glum. Benton Harbor's downtown is so small I don't know if it could be deemed a city. Muskegon's downtown has been almost totally leveled and is being rebuilt from scratch (it was torn down years ago and replaced with an indoor mall that failed and is now gone), so if new streets and sidewalks with no buildings is ugly, then it would qualify (but there is hope).

This will probably tick some people off, but overrall Detroit is the ugliest city in America. Despite the window dressings as of late, there's no disguising fifty years of corruption, racial strife and outright hatred for life, a place and people. It will take 50 more years to make it look like a normal city again (like Chicago). One only need to raise your head while downtown and see one after another vacant tower and the hair-raising Michigan Central Station to know what I'm talking about. So what's Detroit's answer? Tear them all down.

Kalamazoo's downtown was kinda cool when I lived there 15 years ago, and I hear it's even better today (they even won an award recently).

[Rapunzll]

Battle Creek
Sault Ste Marie
Flint

That's just for starters.

[cardwellave]

Originally Posted by magellan

If you're talking about downtowns, I'd definitely say Saginaw is pretty depressing. I've only seen photos of Flint and it looks pretty glum. Benton Harbor's downtown is so small I don't know if it could be deemed a city. Muskegon's downtown has been almost totally leveled and is being rebuilt from scratch (it was torn down years ago and replaced with an indoor mall that failed and is now gone), so if new streets and sidewalks with no buildings is ugly, then it would qualify (but there is hope).

This will probably tick some people off, but overrall Detroit is the ugliest city in America. Despite the window dressings as of late, there's no disguising fifty years of corruption, racial strife and outright hatred for life, a place and people. It will take 50 more years to make it look like a normal city again (like Chicago). One only need to raise your head while downtown and see one after another vacant tower and the hair-raising Michigan Central Station to know what I'm talking about. So what's Detroit's answer? Tear them all down.

Kalamazoo's downtown was kinda cool when I lived there 15 years ago, and I hear it's even better today (they even won an award recently).

Um yeah. Look up Gary Indiana and tell me that Detroit is the ugliest city in America. At least it's inhabited!

[upontherooftops]

Flint is very depressing, downtown, that is. Jackson was scary, Pontiac was nice 75 years ago. Detroit is still trying to come up but has a long way to go. But D is way nicer than Gary, IN! What a hole. When we go to Chicago we all cross OUr fingers that I car doesn't break down thru there.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by cardwellave

Um yeah. Look up Gary Indiana and tell me that Detroit is the ugliest city in America. At least it's inhabited!

Yeah, Gary is pretty bad, but it's quickly overshadowed by a world-class city, Chicago. Gary is a blip on the turnpike. But Detroit is bad on such a more massive scale than Gary.

Sorry, but that's my (and millions of other American's) opinion based on first-hand accounts of being there, even recently.

[kaypurdue]

Flint... and I live there. LOL.

I think the problem started when people started tearing down a lot of the historic buildings - which were built well and beautifully - left right and backwards, in an effort to try to outpace the blight. Some of them are still in existence along Saginaw Street, but many got replaced with newer, uglier stuff in the 70's and 80's, which just doesn't fit in.

Two things that would really help would be the renovation of the Durant Hotel (has been abandoned for years), and if someone would take a wrecking ball to that heinous monstrosity we call the Genesee Towers (also currently abandoned, and dropping pieces onto the street twenty stories below, so much that they've had to block off the sidewalks). Both are caught up in so much political/real estate/zoning red tape, though, that no one who even wants to do anything with them can... which I'm sure is the same story in many of our other ugly cities. It's sad, really.

[Wabbit]

Can you imagine New York, Chicago or Boston being
run by some 36 year old who proudly proclaims himself
"The Hip-Hop Mayor"?
Only months after TIME named him The Worst Mayor in America,
he was voted back into office.
Face it, Detroit deserves its reputation and it's not likely to change
anytime in the near future.
See ya in Chicago.