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It seems this keeps coming up a lot so I thought I'd start a thread to clarify it a bit.
There are few if any cities like Detroit. While just about all big cities have their bad sections, Detroit is unique in that it is nearly all ghetto with a tiny spattering of half way decent areas that cover a few street blocks at the most. The areas around Wayne State and down town are fair at best and quite small compared to the miles and miles of crumbling neighborhoods. The "comeback" neighborhoods we are hearing about like "Cork Town" consist of like 3 blocks or around 20 houses. These are areas you could damn near throw a stone across - they are not significant sections of the city.
People from New York, Chicago, LA and just about everywhere can all point to their areas of ghetto. These areas make up usually a minute percentage of the whole city - like 2%-5%. But most of those cities are prime real estate. Detroit is the opposite in that around 95% of it is ghetto and none is really considered desirable.
I don't want to make this about race, but Detroit also has by far the largest black population of any big city at around 85% black - no other city even comes close.
Anyway, the fact is, while one could take a few pictures of occupied buildings, those make up about 20% of all structures with 80% of all structures being vacant. Outside of a few minute areas, Detroit is mile after mile of dilapidated ghetto. I know because I drive through it daily. I don't just walk the WSU campus. There are zero good areas in Detroit, with the few that are not horrible being like a postage stamp placed in a football field.
I've been to LA, Chicago, NY, Miami, etc. None are even remotely similar. People who tell you otherwise either don't know what they are talking about or are lying.
Your percentages might be off a bit, but I would agree with your general premise. However, you know darn well this isn't going to go over well with ForStarters and detroitlove. So prepare for a little debate.
I've always found this issue very interesting. Out of every city in the country, what made DETROIT decay so much?
Rapid industrialization due to obsolescence of Detroit factories and the building of factories in other areas of the country with lower labor costs and other cost advantages.
Cultural upheavals caused by rapid industrialization during WWII, which brought in large numbers of southern blacks, which were not quite welcome by white Detroiters. This effect was greater in Detroit than other cities because Detroit was heavily industrialized before and during WWII, thus requiring more workers.
Suburbanization attributed to the car culture to a greater extant than other cities, due to the big three auto makers being located here.
Lack of industrial/commercial diversity to make up for the reduction in auto jobs. In the first period (WWII till the mid '70s), this was due, in large part, to the high labor costs in Detroit compared to other areas of the country. In the second period (mid '70s to present day), this is attributable, in large part, due to the high cost of labor in the US compared to the rest of the world (Japan, Mexico, and Asia, in particular). Strong unionization here contributed to this.
"One Race Rule". Since the '70s, Detroit has been predominant a "black" city and has not been very open to the advice of outsiders. It was a failed experiment in black self-governance. Most other cities have more racial/ethnic diversity.
Breakdown in the culture/society. Detroit residents, particularly blacks, have a higher rate of family problems (divorce, illegitimate births, drug use, abandonment, abuse, promiscuity, etc.). This causes other problems, such as crime, school drop-out, lack of work ethics, lack of self-respect, etc. Other cities have these problems, but because these problems are more prevalent in blacks and since blacks make up a higher percentage in Detroit, these problems are higher here.
Failure of social welfare programs. When people are taught to depend on the government, they fail to take care of themselves. This is a problem in other cities, but since blacks have been acclimated to dependency and since blacks are pandered to by liberal politicians eager to lock in a 12% voting block, Detroit has been more adversely affected.
Location: Detroit's eastside, downtown Detroit in near future!
2,053 posts, read 4,392,349 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Retroit
Your percentages might be off a bit, but I would agree with your general premise. However, you know darn well this isn't going to go over well with ForStarters and detroitlove. So prepare for a little debate.
aw you mentioned me????
Whomp whomp whomp
also I believe Gary is "blacker" than Detroit by %
Location: Detroit's eastside, downtown Detroit in near future!
2,053 posts, read 4,392,349 times
Reputation: 699
Quote:
Originally Posted by edub
It seems this keeps coming up a lot so I thought I'd start a thread to clarify it a bit.
There are few if any cities like Detroit. While just about all big cities have their bad sections, Detroit is unique in that it is nearly all ghetto with a tiny spattering of half way decent areas that cover a few street blocks at the most. The areas around Wayne State and down town are fair at best and quite small compared to the miles and miles of crumbling neighborhoods. The "comeback" neighborhoods we are hearing about like "Cork Town" consist of like 3 blocks or around 20 houses. These are areas you could damn near throw a stone across - they are not significant sections of the city.
People from New York, Chicago, LA and just about everywhere can all point to their areas of ghetto. These areas make up usually a minute percentage of the whole city - like 2%-5%. But most of those cities are prime real estate. Detroit is the opposite in that around 95% of it is ghetto and none is really considered desirable.
I don't want to make this about race, but Detroit also has by far the largest black population of any big city at around 85% black - no other city even comes close.
Anyway, the fact is, while one could take a few pictures of occupied buildings, those make up about 20% of all structures with 80% of all structures being vacant. Outside of a few minute areas, Detroit is mile after mile of dilapidated ghetto. I know because I drive through it daily. I don't just walk the WSU campus. There are zero good areas in Detroit, with the few that are not horrible being like a postage stamp placed in a football field.
I've been to LA, Chicago, NY, Miami, etc. None are even remotely similar. People who tell you otherwise either don't know what they are talking about or are lying.
please provide proof that 95% of the city is ghetto......that 80% of all structures being vacant.......you drive throught it daily? hmmm so you drive through the whole city every day? the eastside, north end, the whole westside, and southwest? EVERY DAY? yea ok
Location: Detroit's eastside, downtown Detroit in near future!
2,053 posts, read 4,392,349 times
Reputation: 699
So since corktown is small so is every other "nicer" area in Detroit?
just a few
West Village-275 homes & 30 apartments
Brush Park-24 blocks; in 2001-154 (wiki) original structures were still standing and has recieved new developments since then
East Boston-92 homes
Palmer Woods-289 homes
Sherwood Forest- aprox 435 homes
Morningside-4900 homes About MorningSide | MorningSide in Detroit
East English Village-2,000 homes East Side Moving Guide
North Rosedale Park-1694 homes Neighborhood Associations
So since corktown is small so is every other "nicer" area in Detroit?
just a few
West Village-275 homes & 30 apartments
Brush Park-24 blocks; in 2001-154 (wiki) original structures were still standing and has recieved new developments since then
East Boston-92 homes
Palmer Woods-289 homes
Sherwood Forest- aprox 435 homes
Morningside-4900 homes About MorningSide | MorningSide in Detroit
East English Village-2,000 homes East Side Moving Guide
North Rosedale Park-1694 homes Neighborhood Associations
yea you can throw a stone across these too smh
A lot of these neighborhoods you list are pretty awful.
Morningside is terrible nowadays. MUCH worse than EEV (which has its issues too).
Brush Park is so bombed out it barely exists. I'm not sure you could even call it a neighborhood anymore.
The rest of the neighborhoods have really nice homes, but generally aren't very desirable places to live. Boston Edison, for example, has beautiful homes, but they're essentially worthless, since it's surrounded by a virtual war zone, and residents feel like prisoners in their own homes.
Also, all of these neighborhoods, even Palmer Woods, have some abandoned homes and vacant lots now. Even crappy suburban neighborhoods rarely have such issues.
It seems this keeps coming up a lot so I thought I'd start a thread to clarify it a bit.
There are few if any cities like Detroit. While just about all big cities have their bad sections, Detroit is unique in that it is nearly all ghetto with a tiny spattering of half way decent areas that cover a few street blocks at the most. The areas around Wayne State and down town are fair at best and quite small compared to the miles and miles of crumbling neighborhoods. The "comeback" neighborhoods we are hearing about like "Cork Town" consist of like 3 blocks or around 20 houses. These are areas you could damn near throw a stone across - they are not significant sections of the city.
People from New York, Chicago, LA and just about everywhere can all point to their areas of ghetto. These areas make up usually a minute percentage of the whole city - like 2%-5%. But most of those cities are prime real estate. Detroit is the opposite in that around 95% of it is ghetto and none is really considered desirable.
I don't want to make this about race, but Detroit also has by far the largest black population of any big city at around 85% black - no other city even comes close.
Anyway, the fact is, while one could take a few pictures of occupied buildings, those make up about 20% of all structures with 80% of all structures being vacant. Outside of a few minute areas, Detroit is mile after mile of dilapidated ghetto. I know because I drive through it daily. I don't just walk the WSU campus. There are zero good areas in Detroit, with the few that are not horrible being like a postage stamp placed in a football field.
I've been to LA, Chicago, NY, Miami, etc. None are even remotely similar. People who tell you otherwise either don't know what they are talking about or are lying.
You are completely wrong. I live in the Chicago area. While Chicago proper is light years ahead of Detroit in terms of gentrification, up through th 80s, Chicago seemed like it was headed in the direction that Detroit was. Chicago is still a midwestern great lakes city, with an economy that for a very long time included heavy industry like steel, meatpacking, and all kinds of heavy industry. its sheer size and economic diversification (particularly the north side), with its strong armed politics provided what was necessary for a comeback. But even today, vast swaths of the south and west sides of Chicago are "Detroit lite" There are weedy vacant lots, closed down factories, boarded up houses, just not to the same extent as Detroit. This is largely due to the fact that the "other Chicago" white collared Chicago is doing fine, and the low-income people in the blighted areas can take the el downtown and serve drinks and food for downtowns workers.
Look at some street view images around neighborhoods like Englewood, around Garfield Park, some areas on the far south side like south Deering,etc. and you can see what I am talking about.
Now NYC, might be a little different, since NYC has been gentrified more completely for longer, and even though it has problems back in the 70s, it didn't have the heavy industry-type economy the way Chicago did.
LA and Miami are different also, because even though there is a lot of crime, it is more spread out, and you don't have the same physical urban decay because the neighborhoods are simply not as old, and the weather doesn't take as bad of a toll on the architecture.
Like another poster mentioned, there are neighborhoods in Detroit consisting of mansions, that never fell apart, but they are off the beaten path, and are just residential, and don't have much to attract people who actually don't live there.
also I believe Gary is "blacker" than Detroit by %
Refer to Retroit's points #6 and #7.
I was coming back from Chicago a few years ago and there was a big accident that closed I-94. The traffic was routed through Gary and moved at a snails place. We got a good hard look at the neighborhoods and it was not pretty.
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