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Old 10-12-2011, 12:23 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,707 posts, read 79,541,763 times
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There is so much constant fighting about the reality of Detroit. I am curious whether there are facts that everyone will agree upon. My guess is the following:

1. Most DPS schools are horrible. However a few are excellent.

2. Many areas of Detroit are abandoned wastelands.

3. Some areas of Detroit are very nice places to live.

4. The nasty crime that gives Detroit such a nasty reputation is mostly concentrated in certain specific areas of the city and mostly involves people in the drug trade, gangs or prostitution, or family disputes.

5. Detroit needs more restaurants and retail businesses downtown to become once again a thriving lively city.

6. The general condition of downtown, midtown, corktown and eastern market areas have substantially improved in the past three years.

7. For young singles and dinks living in Detroit can be fun and exciting (in a good way) if you are careful about where you live/go and use common sense.

8. Detroit is on the upswing.

9. Detroit can recover and become a great city once again although probably not the Paris of the west.

10. We love our Lions, Tigers and Wings (what a missed opportunity. Why cant the hockey team be the Bears?).

I am just curious, how many of our Detroit lovers and haters can agree on which of these facts?
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Old 10-12-2011, 01:10 PM
 
4,861 posts, read 9,277,898 times
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No arguments here. I think you've summed it up rather nicely.

ETA: Can I add a couple more?

11. There are actually many people who live in Detroit, work hard at their jobs everyday, live within the law, keep their homes up nicely, and genuinely care about their families, neighbors, and neighborhoods. You can see them on the local news from time to time when something of note happens in their neighborhoods. Unfortunately, they don't get much attention, because the squeaky wheels get the grease, but these are the people who are holding Detroit together and through whom much its revitalization will grow.


12. Detroit has an extremely rich history that many cities could only envy.

Last edited by canudigit; 10-12-2011 at 01:28 PM..
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Old 10-12-2011, 02:35 PM
 
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I would agree with both your posts whole heartedly.

I will add three things:

1. Probably the one thing that can DRASTICALLY improve a visitors perception of the city is to get the Cass Corridor/Brush Park area revitalized/redeveloped. If visitors (and residents alike) can drive down Woodward from the Fox theater/stadium district on the north end of downtown, and Midtown north of Mack without driving through the current state of that in between area, you can have a continuous stretch of great looking areas. I think however the stadiums on the north side of downtown, and the casinos northwest of downtown will do wonders as catalysts of more revitalization that lead a great downtown-midtown-Corktown that can look stellar.

2. In general, the tearing down of abandoned properties that the mayor has set out to do will improve the areas.

3. Not to look upon the empty tracts of vacant land in a negative light. But yet other than a few urban gardens/small urban farms, there are other potential uses of those lands: parks, even golf courses, movie sets, etc.
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Old 10-12-2011, 08:40 PM
 
Location: Detroit
3,671 posts, read 5,860,049 times
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I agree with everything here so far.

Quote:
Probably the one thing that can DRASTICALLY improve a visitors perception of the city is to get the Cass Corridor/Brush Park area revitalized/redeveloped. If visitors (and residents alike) can drive down Woodward from the Fox theater/stadium district on the north end of downtown, and Midtown north of Mack without driving through the current state of that in between area, you can have a continuous stretch of great looking areas. I think however the stadiums on the north side of downtown, and the casinos northwest of downtown will do wonders as catalysts of more revitalization that lead a great downtown-midtown-Corktown that can look stellar.
I have been saying this for a long time. Even though only about 10 blocks long, it is just blocks from some of the cities biggest attractions. it is close to downtown, motorcity casino, WSU, Fox Theater, eastern market, MGM Grand and not to mention Comerica Park and Ford Field which brings in thousands of people on game days. People still think Wayne State is in the ghetto because of that little area right there and that is a turn off to people.

Also the area just northeast of Eastern Market needs heavy revitalization. That area is also too close to Detroit attractions. If your in Eastern Market and take the wrong turn you can easily end up in one of the worst looking neighborhoods in Detroit.
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Old 10-12-2011, 08:45 PM
 
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I agree with everything but 8 and 9.
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Old 10-12-2011, 09:31 PM
 
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I agree with everything mentioned.
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Old 10-12-2011, 09:35 PM
 
7,237 posts, read 12,711,313 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by canudigit View Post
12. Detroit has an extremely rich history that many cities could only envy.
I completely agree with this as well.
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Old 10-13-2011, 07:10 AM
 
8,385 posts, read 7,345,291 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens View Post
10. We love our Lions, Tigers and Wings (what a missed opportunity. Why cant the hockey team be the Bears?).
The hockey team was originally named the Cougars. (Lions, Tigers, Cougars, get it?).

The club was moved from Vancouver to Detroit in 1926 and in 1930 was renamed to the Detroit Falcons. When Jim Norris bought the Falcons in 1932, he renamed them the Red Wings, after a professional hockey club that Norris used to play for - the Montreal HC Winged Wheelers (seen below).



Check out the logos on the sweaters...and the trophy at the bottom center of the photo.

As for the 'Lions and Tigers and Bears' phrase? Didn't exist until 1939 and the Wizard of Oz, seven years after the Red Wings moniker was established.
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Old 10-13-2011, 09:00 AM
 
5,955 posts, read 13,068,024 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 313Weather View Post
I agree with everything but 8 and 9.
It depends on what one means by "recovery", "uspwing", and words like that.

Whether one likes it or not, cities demographics are changing. Its all about perception.

Just look to Chicago as an example. Its downtown is huge, has a huge tourist industry, with many neighborhoods that are expensive and desirable.

Yet, it lost 200,000 residents, and swaths of the west and south side continue to have the characteristics of a rustbelt city, with poverty, crime, abandoned/boarded up buildings, etc.

So, if you make enough of the areas around downtown and midtown great enough that visitors have a great time and great impression and that suburbanites feel safe that they want to move into the city to enjoy everything, well thats just the way it goes.

A city has to focus on its assets and attributes and pump up their downtown. We shouldn't just turn our backs on declining neighborhoods, but the perception of outsiders is huge.
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Old 10-20-2011, 07:11 PM
 
Location: Ferndale Michigan
30 posts, read 78,875 times
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I agree with all of it besides 2, 4 and 9

2 - I'd have to say the majority of the city of Detroit is ghettos with higher abandonment rates. However, areas between Woodward and Schoenner/Gratiot tend to have decent sized pockets of destitution and abandonment. Other areas, while many are still bad neighborhoods do not have nearly as much

4 - That is true for violent crimes, but when it comes down to property crimes all neighborhoods in Detroit are unsafe. Burglaries and car thefts and things of that nature are just as high in the good neighborhoods in Detroit as they are in the bad ones.

9 - Yes, Detroit can recover and become a much better city, it's already going in that direction. But I foresee that even with a largescale recovery effort Detroit will still rank among the lower 50% of major cities in the US. The amount of poverty, unemployment and violence that Detroit has accumilated will never be completely reversed.
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