Thoughts on Detroit's bankruptcy

[coldbliss]

Imagine if Microsoft had never relocated from New Mexico to the Seattle area. If there was no Microsoft in Seattle, do you think Jeff Bezos would have ever started his Amazon.com corporation in the Emerald City. Bezos could have easily chosen New York City, Austin, or Albuquerque, NM if Microsoft stayed put.

With a dead timber logging industry and an aerospace industry that is bleeding manufacturing jobs to cheaper US southern states and foreign countries, Seattle should thank its lucky stars to Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Otherwise Seattle would have been a broken down, blighted, crime-ridden, ****-poor cousin city to a more affluent Portland. No new glitzy downtown office towers. No $3,000/month luxurious two-bedroom condos. No new state-of-the-art stadiums for the Mariners and Seahawks. One would argue that an alternate dystopic version of Seattle would have lost the Mariners and Seahawks to more prosperous US cities many years ago.

Enough with the concern trolling about Detroit and Michigan. Seattle is lucky in 2013 and Detroit's luck ran out 40 years ago.

[Ira500]

Seattle is doing very well right now, but it's also been a boom and bust city throughout it's history. And I'll bet that in every boom, people were saying how the economy will be strong here forever.
No, we'll never be like Detroit. It's a lot prettier and the weather's better. But could we see substantially higher unemployment? Sure. Could we see people moving out of the area? Sure. It'll happen. Probably not in the next few years. Seattle is lucky in 2013. Luck doesn't last forever.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by wutitiz

Actually I am from Michigan, and have been to Detroit, but not for over 20 years.

Have you been to 2nd & Pike? If you were, it was just a drive-thru.

I am there every day, twice. Absolutely no comparison to Detroit, or even Oakland. Annoying, yes, but perfectly safe.

[flyingsaucermom]

Here, this will nix any comparison of the two cities:

[url=http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/]Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography - The Ruins of Detroit[/url]
[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/detroit-architecture-ruins-philip-jarmain_n_4116667.html]Detroit's Stunning Architectural Ruins, And Why Documenting Its Faded Glory Matters[/url]
[url=http://www.100abandonedhouses.com/]100 Abandoned Houses[/url]

[Seacove]

I have a friend that moved to Seattle from Michigan after college a few years ago. He and a group of friends traveled here and rented a house together until they all started getting married. He doesn't just love Seattle, he loves Seattle.

[mrslovettstailor]

I am from Michigan. I used to work in Detroit. I had a shirt that said "DETROIT-Where the weak go to die". Then someone stole it. In Detroit.

Seattle has issues, and they need to get the crime under control, starting with the open drug use. They coral some of that and the crimes will go down, but it is NOTHING like Detroit. Detroit will not ever prosper. They tried it with the film industry and with all the films that shot there (I worked on a few) the people who hammered out the deals did not have the knowledge to help our workers and in the end it was just a way for the Studios to make more money. Now there are empty studios that were built to accommodate the movies sitting along side the hundreds of other empty buildings.

Detroit is its own worst enemy. It has a mayor who stole and misappropriated millions of dollars for his and his friends gains, and those who live in the mess help create the crime and desolation that keep others and businesses away. A lot of them will not come there because it is not safe and there is too much theft. Why would you want to deal with that? Those that can move out to the suburbs and leave the rest in the center of what looks like Bosnia. There are ways for those people to get help and get out but believe it or not they do not WANT to. It is their way of life down there and the gangs own it. These rows of houses sitting empty allow them to apply their trade and run rampant without putting money out of their pocket and this keeps the people that pay their taxes into the city out in places like Burmingham.

It is sad what was once a beautiful city has become and will remain until the end. Honestly the only way you could repair the city is to close it DOWN. Remove everyone. The squatters the homeless the gangs... then clean it up. repair it and try to bring back the businesses and slowly the residents. AND NO this is not a racist comment and I do NOT EXPECT them to do this, it would NOT be right, but it would be about the only way to accomplish anything.