Is Detroit really that bad as everyone says? (crime, houses)

[SouthernCowboy90]

People and media always make Detroit looks like one of the worst cities in America. I know Detroit has some real enonomic and crime problems, but I wonder: It is really that "dump" as they say it is? What's Detroit really like?

[animatedmartian]

Depends on your circumstances. If you're a minimum wage worker with little to no job skills, life will usually be a struggle. If you're a middle class office worker making $60K, things are plenty easier.

However, whether you are of either group, you still have access to pretty good amenities like numerous artistic and historical institutions, 3 or 4 major sports leagues, a growing nightlife scene, and some pretty good educational institutions. Like any major city, there are good and bad areas, but like I mentioned above, if you make decent enough money, the bad areas are pretty easy to avoid.

No doubt there's plenty of areas for the inner-city to improve (and progress is being made to improve them), but the metropolitan area as a whole is pretty similar to most any of a similar size and is pretty good place to live.

[MS313]

To answer your first question, no, absolutely not. I know people love to exaggerate about Detroit to get attention and pretend like everyone in Detroit is living in poverty in neighborhoods that are 80% blighted with 3 houses on one block and you have to drive 5 miles to grab a quick bite to eat, NO!!!. The media is pathetic, reporting only the negative side of Detroit just to have a story. Many of them purposely find the most blighted neighborhoods in Detroit and do a story. I've even heard ridiculous stories about the freeways being empty during rush hour.

For your second question, that's a little harder to explain, Detroit is a paradox for alot of reasons. For example, Detroit is very blighted in some areas while other areas aren't. It's a city of pockets, you may have one block full of burnt out homes while all the blocks surrounding it are mostly occupied. If someone comes to Detroit and has no vision of what they think it's like, they may say "wow, this city has alot of blight" but if someone comes to Detroit and is expecting exactly what they see in the media they will probably say "wow, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be". I have literally heard people say "I thought Detroit was mostly empty, alot of neighborhoods actually seem pretty crowded". And countless times I've heard "What!?!? Detroit actually has (insert whatever here)". Detroit's government is very dysfunctional but people and businesses still go on about their lives like they do in any other city. People like to have fun and go out and do things like anyone else. Most of us hope that Detroit improves and it can be an attractive city again but are very fed up with the city problems, most of it has to do with the city politics because Detroit's city government is... well... pathetic.

Some see hope in Detroit and some don't, from my experience it really depends on where in the city you grew up/ live, if you travel, what you care about, and what kind of person you are. You will get many different answers on "what Detroit is like" and many of them will give you their opinions which is mostly true. Which is why I said that it is a paradox in many ways. Alot of things you hear on both sides are true, the city is starting to turn a new corner, but, this isn't a little podunk town where the progress can be seen by the entire city overnight. To many people, the progress is not fast enough but hopefully that will change when our budget gets in order. But this is a big city that needs ALOT of money and resources in order for the entire city to start feeling that Detroit is turning rebounding.

The city is very underrated and the metro area is criminally underrated. Metro Detroit is pretty damn normal for the most part. Take any area of it's size and Metro Detroit stacks up pretty well against it.

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by SouthernCowboy90

People and media always make Detroit looks like one of the worst cities in America. I know Detroit has some real enonomic and crime problems, but I wonder: It is really that "dump" as they say it is? What's Detroit really like?

Question that comes to mind is, why have you heard nothing else? Detroit (along with middle America in general) is not a national media center and therefore must absorb whatever brickbats are inflicted upon it from outside. Hope you are sincere because your simplistic query is similar to trolling ones we often get here IMO.
Keyword - "the media" - where "news" is only opinion or entertainment, and which, because it is headquartered there, dotes on the coasts. Detroit is going through reinvention, has dumpy neighborhoods, nice neighborhoods, lots of neighborhood blight, crime which generally doesn't affect visitors, but apart from local politics the private sector has been burgeoning (you haven't heard this of course).

Every city in America has its simplistic media-clichéd image which visitors often discover to be skewed. Detroit has gone through prosperity, loss of manufacturing, clueless and corrupt government, public sector bankruptcy, is both dumpy and nice, not the Mad Max cliche promoted by the tabloid-style sensationalism-dependent media (including politically-motivated RW internet trolls) where Americans get their daily "news".

[UKWildcat1981]

Originally Posted by detwahDJ

Question that comes to mind is, why have you heard nothing else? Detroit (along with middle America in general) is not a national media center and therefore must absorb whatever brickbats are inflicted upon it from outside. BTW your simplistic query is similar to trolling ones we often get here IMO.
Keyword - "the media" - where "news" is only opinion or entertainment, and which, because it is headquartered there, dotes on the coasts. Detroit is going through reinvention, has dumpy neighborhoods, nice neighborhoods, lots of neighborhood blight, crime which generally doesn't affect visitors, but apart from local politics the private sector has been burgeoning (you haven't heard this of course).
Every city in America has its simplistic media-clichéd image which visitors often discover to be skewed. Detroit has gone through prosperity, loss of manufacturing, clueless and corrupt government, public sector bankruptcy, is both dumpy and nice, not the simplistic picture promoted by the tabloid-style sensationalism-dependent media where Americans get their daily "news".

Clueless and corrupt government, that is putting in nicely lol

[MS313]

Originally Posted by detwahDJ

Question that comes to mind is, why have you heard nothing else? Detroit (along with middle America in general) is not a national media center and therefore must absorb whatever brickbats are inflicted upon it from outside. Hope you are sincere because your simplistic query is similar to trolling ones we often get here IMO.
Keyword - "the media" - where "news" is only opinion or entertainment, and which, because it is headquartered there, dotes on the coasts. Detroit is going through reinvention, has dumpy neighborhoods, nice neighborhoods, lots of neighborhood blight, crime which generally doesn't affect visitors, but apart from local politics the private sector has been burgeoning (you haven't heard this of course).

Every city in America has its simplistic media-clichéd image which visitors often discover to be skewed. Detroit has gone through prosperity, loss of manufacturing, clueless and corrupt government, public sector bankruptcy, is both dumpy and nice, not the Mad Max cliche promoted by the tabloid-style sensationalism-dependent media (including politically-motivated RW internet trolls) where Americans get their daily "news".

Oh and let's not forget that almost all of the RW media shows how bad Detroit is just to take shots at Liberals. "Look at what those liberals did to Detroit" "Detroit is the way it is because of 40+ years of democratic leadership" blah blah blah. I'm so sick of hearing that crap.

[Huckleberry3911948]

if the videos are 1/2 truth, detroit is gone.
farm land waiting to be converted or the next red chinese colony site.
imho once the hood rats are evicted will be the best china town in michigan.

[Podo944]

Some areas are cheap, but for a reason.

I followed this fascinating thread from someone wanting to make something out of one those abandoned homes that sold for peanuts.

//www.city-data.com/forum/detro...-homeless.html

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by MS313

Oh and let's not forget that almost all of the RW media shows how bad Detroit is just to take shots at Liberals. "Look at what those liberals did to Detroit" "Detroit is the way it is because of 40+ years of democratic leadership" blah blah blah. I'm so sick of hearing that crap.

Strangely we have had almost exactly 40 years of RW media, smearing moderates as "liberals" as a guilt trip for wanting the inclusive representative government of the Constitution rather than a government run by their "betters" (the rich). For some reason they avoid talking much about lobbyists, who they work for (unless it's a labor union), and their influence in Congress. Also the liberal/conservative divide is a fabrication of the Right used to justify a RW agenda against "liberal" (also code for "black") enclaves across America. Funny, they never discuss outsourcing jobs and offshoring capital which the RW base has lobbied "our" representatives for. Their message is "We outsource, you adapt, and btw liberals, minorities, and the poor are responsible for the outcome".
Remember, "liberals" are opposed to corporate autocracy, thus the rhetoric. Using media to smear and marginalize "liberals", "nonconformists", and "intellectuals" is historically the first step in establishing autocratic despotic governments, and it is no different here with our corporate-owned media which dearly desires a corporate government and a political party in power willing to give them anything they want.
Yeah, this all has had an impact on cities like Detroit, but I'm afraid the loaded question posed by the OP will lead to the same old backbiting nonsense of all the other Detroit threads - do I smell troll? Hope I'm wrong.
I mean, the question "Is Detroit as bad as everyone says?" sounds a bit provocative when all such opinion has already been incessantly hashed over on these threads.
If the OP is sincere, it seems that he is asking "is the tabloid news media correct?". Well, no, it ain't but it self-validates a lot of people for various reasons.

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by UKWildcat1981

Clueless and corrupt government, that is putting in nicely lol

Well, what's so nice about "clueless and corrupt"?