Is Detroit honestly SO terrible? (Allen Park, Burt: credit rating, law school, gated)

[mary54mi]

Originally Posted by kimba01

Truth in pictures. A sad state of affairs. All the "positive pro-Detroiters" can say what they want, but that is screaming different. Start there.

Grew up and lived there till 1986. Tried to give it a chance wanted my kids to grow up with open minds but, when the drug addicts shot up on my porch 3 times and a few past out on my street. I had to get the heck out!

There are many areas that look safe, they are not. Need to always look around you even if in a car, they highjack cars so you learn to leave space in front of your car... They will shoot you randomly...Also I had a neighbor who had a maltoff(sp) cocktail thrown in his window and his home burned down. Your car can be stolen at anytime by young punks 13 14 year olds...you live with a gun under your pillow. Not fun.

Have gone into Detroit from the suburbs since to work so I speak from experiance, worked there until 2006.

Now live in Tampa 10 months there seedy areas here but I know how to handle myself.

[Jwo85]

Originally Posted by BurtsBees

Well when Detroiters come into the suburbs to commit their crimes, what can you expect?

They live next door, like that guy who killed his neighbor (an old lady) near Romeo and if I recall he was Caucasian.

A lot of these teachers committing crimes with the local students at suburban schools are from the suburbs and are Caucasian as well.

You can't blame it on Detroiters coming to the suburbs to commit crimes.

[BurtsBees]

Originally Posted by Jwo85

They live next door, like that guy who killed his neighbor (an old lady) near Romeo and if I recall he was Caucasian.

A lot of these teachers committing crimes with the local students at suburban schools are from the suburbs and are Caucasian as well.

You can't blame it on Detroiters coming to the suburbs to commit crimes.

Don't be ignorant. Im not talking about teachers having sex with students or some off the wall killing in the northern country. Im talking about Detroiters crossing 8 mile to steal our cars, carjack, break into our homes, businesses, shoplift, etc. Then coming into OUR school districts and bringing the guns, drugs and crime with them. Macomb County needs to close up its school districts; its sickening.

[The_Cadillac_Lawyer]

Ignorance runs rampant on the Internet I see. I guess "Detroiters" is the new code word for Blacks.
Any area hit hard by touch economic times, low wages, job loss, declining property value, and poverty will see a dramatic rise in crime no matter what your zip code or skin tone is. Why don't you stay tucked away in your cul-de-sac, grip your guns, and wait for nothing to happen. If you can't stand Detroit so much, then why are you here in the Detroit threads posting continuously?

[Maxine3]

Originally Posted by trudawg

Ignorance runs rampant on the Internet I see. I guess "Detroiters" is the new code word for Blacks.
Any area hit hard by touch economic times, low wages, job loss, declining property value, and poverty will see a dramatic rise in crime no matter what your zip code or skin tone is. Why don't you stay tucked away in your cul-de-sac, grip your guns, and wait for nothing to happen. If you can't stand Detroit so much, then why are you here in the Detroit threads posting continuously?

Ignorance? Is that the new code word for suburban whites?

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by traveler445

First off, let me say that I have never been to Detroit and never got a chance to experience things for myself. Everything I know comes from the internet and city-data forums.

I know Detroit has a high crime rate, low high-school graduation rate, and low median income, but:

Downtown Detroit is extremely safe according to statistics.

Detroit is VERY cheap for a big city.

The population density is not nearly as high as most other 'hoods'.

Bad neighborhoods seem to be a good distance from livable neighborhoods.

Considering all of this, is Detroit SUCH a disaster? So what if there are abandoned buildings, they are not bothering anyone except for contributing to the grittiness of the city. The houses there look BIG, can all these 'gangstas' and 'thugs' be sleeping in these mansions at night and want to seem 'ghetto' during the day? I am from Miami and the unfortunate here are crammed in tiny, dirty apartments. Many people in Miami come from other countries and arrive in America with NOTHING. SOME EVEN COME ON RAFTS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. And yet, they still manage to find jobs and not make their city the epitome of a ghetto (although Miami's average income is alarmingly low).

So can all you fellow city-data-ers please help me understand this magical place that is Detroit? Can you compare it to the city i know best (Miami) so I can have an idea of what Detroit is like? How does it compare to East Coast cities (Philly, Baltimore, DC, Newark...). Or is Detroit simply hopeless, a forgotten wasteland like East Saint Louis?

P.S. It is not my intention to put down Detroit or any other cities mentioned.


Thank-you in advance for all replies.

The answer depends on whether you live there or just visit. I used to live there. We made a HUGE mistake in buying a house in Detroit in 1980. We escaped in 1995 and have never looked back. The only time I go downtown is when I have jury duty.

When I lived in Detroit, I went to work, came home and locked my doors. There was no going for a walk or to the park. You didn't ride a bike somewhere because it would get stolen. The park likely had broken bottles and needles in the grass and someone's guard dog was likely to come over the fence after you if you went for a walk. I was so tired of living like a hermit.

I'm in the burbs now and I love that I can hop on my bike on a nice day like today and ride around the neighborhood. I like having a neighborhood pool and park I can use. I'm actually on a first name basis with my neihgbors. I feel good about the schools my kids attend and the group they hang out with. And the police actually come out to your house if you need them. I had my alarm, accidentally, go off and they were here in minutes. Once, in Detroit, I called the police because someone was outside my house threatening me and they showed up, I KID YOU NOT, TWO DAYS later and I lived four blocks from a precinct!!!!

Detroit is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there and judging from their dwindling population, I'd say I have plenty of company. Detroit needs safe neighborhoods if it's to grow and I don't know how you accomplish that as things are now. I feel like they'd do Detroit a big favor to bulldoze a lot of it under.

[marylee54]

For anyone who thinks this is just another form of racism, I invite you to actually come to Detroit. No, not for a baseball game or hockey, I mean, come to my former neighborhood, eastside, Jefferson, Mack, Chalmers area. Walk a mile in my former shoes then tell me how I was some sort of "racist" for escaping Detroit 20 years ago.

Like another poster said, you lived like a hermit, kept windows and doors locked on nice spring days, couldn't even sit on your front porch, forget using the backyard, couldn't walk to the mailbox, I was even afraid to sit in front of an open window. People thought I had some sort of mental/social disorder until they found out where I lived, then it made sense. I wasn't paranoid, just reacting to the situation with common sense.

The police are even afraid, they won't even respond to calls from certain areas. Our house was robbed, we came home to find it ransacked, my father called the police, they said if there wasn't any immediate danger, such as a robbery in progress or someone needing medical attention they wouldn't come out. My father had to go to the station to file a report for insurance. When he went to the station they told him he should move ASAP, they couldn't guarantee his safety and he was lucky to have just lost some posessions.

I got so sick and tired of always watching my back. If I left something in my car I wouldn't go out to get it without someone watching me. My father always watched for me to come home from work. I had no social life, was afraid to come and go. Yes, its somewhat better in the burbs, but the crime does spill over. You're relatively ok in the burbs, but still not as safe as you'd like. Yes, I know, no city is truly safe, crime can happen anywhere, but Detroit is unique in its atmosphere of crime and the fear of crime which keeps people prisoners in their own home.

Like I said, don't criticize those that are telling you straight---Detroit is no place to be. Its not racism, its reality. Unless you've actually spent some time in Detroit don't criticize those that have and have either escaped or long to.

[BurtsBees]

Originally Posted by trudawg

Ignorance runs rampant on the Internet I see. I guess "Detroiters" is the new code word for Blacks.
Any area hit hard by touch economic times, low wages, job loss, declining property value, and poverty will see a dramatic rise in crime no matter what your zip code or skin tone is. Why don't you stay tucked away in your cul-de-sac, grip your guns, and wait for nothing to happen. If you can't stand Detroit so much, then why are you here in the Detroit threads posting continuously?

Not ignorant, only observant. Thanks...try again.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Cliffie

You want a city with a high crime rate? Try Ann Arbor. Those rich kids wearing socks with their sandals are snorting coke in the hallways and getting the freshman girls drunk and RoHypnolled on a nightly basis so they can be gang-raped with impunity. The year I moved there, there was a gang of frat boys trolling the streets for men walking alone so they could gang-rape THEM. You ever hear of something like that happening in Hamtramck?

Cliffie, do you have a source about Ann Arbor's high crime rate?

[Jwo85]

Originally Posted by BurtsBees

Its sad. Cut off the SMART Bus, aka criminal shuttle, and alot of that garbage will cease to exist. Easier for the cops to weed out the suspended drivers, warrants, etc when they drive personal vehicles.

Not only that, but all the of Detroit kids who come into the suburbs and screw up the school districts. Bringing in the guns, drugs, and crime with it.

You might as well say tear up I-75, I-94, I-696, M-53, M-10 and the rest of the roads and you talk about me being ignorant.

Originally Posted by BurtsBees

Don't be ignorant. Im not talking about teachers having sex with students or some off the wall killing in the northern country. Im talking about Detroiters crossing 8 mile to steal our cars, carjack, break into our homes, businesses, shoplift, etc. Then coming into OUR school districts and bringing the guns, drugs and crime with them. Macomb County needs to close up its school districts; its sickening.