Truly disgusted (Detroit, Warren, Dearborn: crime rate, credit, student loans)

[btaylor98]

Being a young African-American Female born and raised in Detroit, I'm truly disgusted at how people from Michigan view Detroit. How do you expect other people outside of the state to view Detroit if people from Michigan is constantly putting down Detroit? Why not help the city grow and come together? Detroit is not a bad city at all..

I moved to Las Vegas with my parents and when people asked me where was I
from I would say Detroit, and they would look at me crazy and ask me the silliest question " Have you ever seen anyone get shot? "

My question is, how do you expect a city to come back if no one is willing to help the city grow?

[MICoastieMom]

There are many of us who live outside the city limits who would love to see the Grand Old Lady restored to her former state. Unfortunately, for many years, the suburbs were made to feel unwelcome, and I am sure that went both ways in many cases. I think it is time to heal the divisions that exist in SE Michigan and work together. The more we help our neighbor, the more we benefit ourselves.

[The Original Vagabon]

Originally Posted by btaylor98

Being a young African-American Female born and raised in Detroit, I'm truly disgusted at how people from Michigan view Detroit. How do you expect other people outside of the state to view Detroit if people from Michigan is constantly putting down Detroit? Why not help the city grow and come together? Detroit is not a bad city at all..

I moved to Las Vegas with my parents and when people asked me where was I
from I would say Detroit, and they would look at me crazy and ask me the silliest question " Have you ever seen anyone get shot? "

My question is, how do you expect a city to come back if no one is willing to help the city grow?

I use to think that Detroit was a great city until I began to travel and see other large cities. I lived in the metro area for years and there have been minor improvements as far as cleanliness in the downtown area, but besides that not much else with any substance.

For me, its not just the city of Detroit that I am down on, it is the state of Michigan.

Take this as an example, although there are many:

A young man is pulled over with a BAC. (blood alcohol content) of .09, one point beyond the legal limit. His license is revoked. He lives in the burbs of Detroit where public transportation barely exists. Somehow, without a license he has to find a way to get to his job that pays $9.00 an hour without benefits, to the courthouse once a month where he was pulled over (35 miles away), report to community service once a week (35 miles away), AA three times a week, and lastly, report to an office 10 miles away twice daily for 10 months to take a breathe tests. Somehow, this young man finds a way to get all of this done without committing suicide in the meantime. Then after a long and hard 2 years living in Michigan without a license, he can finally get it back. But can he? Now he gets a letter from the State of Michigan telling him he now owes a $2,000 "Drivers Responsibility Fee". Wow he says, "isn't this double jeapordy"? Of course it is...but it's Michigan!

Now we have a young man who struggled for the past two years of his life doing the time for his crime. That much is somewhat understandable. But, what will this young man do now? Will he stay in Michigan, work his $9.00 job without benefits, pay the sketchy state $2,000 just to get a shot at his license back? No, he will post threads on blogs and ridicule the state on every opportunity and eventually move to a state that does not try to destroy him.

[btaylor98]

Originally Posted by MICoastieMom

There are many of us who live outside the city limits who would love to see the Grand Old Lady restored to her former state. Unfortunately, for many years, the suburbs were made to feel unwelcome, and I am sure that went both ways in many cases. I think it is time to heal the divisions that exist in SE Michigan and work together. The more we help our neighbor, the more we benefit ourselves.

I agree all the way........I lived in the burbs and the city and if we could come together as a whole we could do a lot more

[MICoastieMom]

Originally Posted by The Original Vagabon

No, he will post threads on blogs and ridicule the state on every opportunity and eventually move to a state that does not try to destroy him.

Evidently you learned neither humility nor responsibility from your experience. I am sorry for your troubles, but this thread is neither the place to bash or whine.

[Vision-Quest]

Originally Posted by The Original Vagabon

I use to think that Detroit was a great city until I began to travel and see other large cities. I lived in the metro area for years and there have been minor improvements as far as cleanliness in the downtown area, but besides that not much else with any substance.

For me, its not just the city of Detroit that I am down on, it is the state of Michigan.

Take this as an example, although there are many:

A young man is pulled over with a BAC. (blood alcohol content) of .09, one point beyond the legal limit. His license is revoked. He lives in the burbs of Detroit where public transportation barely exists. Somehow, without a license he has to find a way to get to his job that pays $9.00 an hour without benefits, to the courthouse once a month where he was pulled over (35 miles away), report to community service once a week (35 miles away), AA three times a week, and lastly, report to an office 10 miles away twice daily for 10 months to take a breathe tests. Somehow, this young man finds a way to get all of this done without committing suicide in the meantime. Then after a long and hard 2 years living in Michigan without a license, he can finally get it back. But can he? Now he gets a letter from the State of Michigan telling him he now owes a $2,000 "Drivers Responsibility Fee". Wow he says, "isn't this double jeapordy"? Of course it is...but it's Michigan!

Now we have a young man who struggled for the past two years of his life doing the time for his crime. That much is somewhat understandable. But, what will this young man do now? Will he stay in Michigan, work his $9.00 job without benefits, pay the sketchy state $2,000 just to get a shot at his license back? No, he will post threads on blogs and ridicule the state on every opportunity and eventually move to a state that does not try to destroy him.

Dont criminals deserve to be fined? That has nothing to do about Detroit. Theres drunk drivers all over the country, you would find them in every county in every state. If any of my loved ones were involved in a crash with a drunk driver i would wish he got fined $1,000,000. Only $9.00 an hour? Any edjucation whatsoever? Your lucky to even get that much pay if you dont go to college.

I lived in Farmington Hills for 6 years and it's my favorite place i've lived out of about 5 other places. I agree, if the suburbs and the city could come together, it could refocus and bring some more jobs in and help out the region before it becomes another Pittsburgh, (a metro thats been losing people fast for 30 years). If we get help fast, we can turn the region around. Downtown is starting to become a fun/safe place to be. If they could make the surrounding neighborhoods the same way, it would be a great place to live and work aswell. Believe it or not, Detroit police officers are some of the toughest in the nation, and they work real hard to make the streets safe, they just dont have any support by anyone, just very harsh critisizement on them for not doing good jobs. When i went down on Woodward Avenue, there was always 2 or 3 police officers in sight doing their job. Detroit has great enforcement, they just need a supporting cast to work with. The residents could help them out by going to school and getting student loans to the three colleges Detroit has to offer, (Wayne State, Detroit Mercy, and Marygrove College). They didn't put up those universities for no reason, they put them up to help the city of Detroit. If the residents could take advantage of that then Detroit will eventually have young, edjucated proffesionals to help bring the city back to where it should be.

Detroit has great museums aswell, (Detroit Science Center, Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, Cranbrook Museum, Motown, etc.)

If we could somehow bring back Motown to how it was, it would be great for the city to advance forward in the entertainment department. We know that Detroit is capable of that, so why not bring it back?

Detroit has a lot to offer but nobody seems to realise it.

[michiganirish]

I grew up in Detroit, (in the Warrendale area) grew up got married and settled first in Downriver then out in Brighton.

We looked a couple of times into moving back into Detroit. Prices for some beautiful homes were great, we looked in Corktown, Indian Village and the Boston-Edison district. We found we could easily afford the house payments (even with the wickedly high property taxes) but the school system was awful and with 3 kids still in school we couldn't afford the cost of a private education. We also found we couldn't afford the security system we were advise to install. There wasn't any decent markets for us to shop at conveniently, virtually no retail, nothing.


I loved the City. And wouldn't trade my experiences there with anything. But let's be honest here. The Detroit that was no longer exsists.

60% of Detroit high school students do not graduate, the State of Michigan is talking about taking over the finances of the city schools, the streets are not safe, drug crimes are rampant, city services are none exsistant. Detroit's mayor just left office to do time in jail. The new city council president needs some serious mental health help,
the crime rate is nearly 3 times over the national average and so on and so on.

Detroit has a long way to go before we can feel good about supporting it positively. It's sad because I do love the city.

Because of the job situation in Michigan my husband lost his job and after 2 years of searching he landed a job in Buffalo NY. I had heard horror stories about Buffalo, much like the ones that circulate about Detroit. I knew Buffalo was a city that had once been like Detroit, it depended largely on the steel industry. When that industry sank the city did also. However, Buffalo has come so much further than Detroit. True it's downtown is not as vibrant as it once was but it has retail, and tourist areas as well as great eateries. The parks system here is fabulous. And they are working hard to develop their river front. There are poorer areas of the city, but they are clean and well kept. They have tons of free or low cost events. But the biggest difference between Buffalo and Detroit, it is a much more intergrated city. The divisions between the races are much more blurred here and the two seem to work together.

Detroit residents have to stand up to all the nonsense that is going on in the city and stop electing people that only have an interest in furthering themselves and not the city. And they have to stop blaming everything and everyone else for they're downfall. It's time Detroiter's take responsibility for what has happend to this city and actually do something about it.

[michiganirish]

Originally Posted by Vision-Quest

Detroit has great museums aswell, (Detroit Science Center, Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, Cranbrook Museum, Motown, etc.)

Henry Ford and Greenfield Village is not in Detroit, it's in Dearborn.
Cranbrook Art Muesum is not in Detroit, it's in Bloomfield Hills

Give credit to Detroit for it's cultural contributions. Don't take away other communities efforts away and give them to Detroit.

[Vision-Quest]

Originally Posted by michiganirish

Henry Ford and Greenfield Village is not in Detroit, it's in Dearborn.
Cranbrook Art Muesum is not in Detroit, it's in Bloomfield Hills

Give credit to Detroit for it's cultural contributions. Don't take away other communities efforts away and give them to Detroit.

I was trying to make a point saying what could happen if the suburbs worked with Detroit.

[BurtsBees]

Once the people of Detroit start taking responsibility for their actions, then the city will maybe turn around.