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Can we get back to the OT and continue to post pictures & sotries of old homes in Detroit? That's what attracted me to this thread. I'm particularyl interested in pictures of the East Side. Does anyone have any picutres or stories of businesses along Mack Avenue? Does anyone remember
uptown theater
Cunningham's Drugstore
A&P on Mack between Newport * Eastlawn
Walker Cheverlot
Chalmers Lunch
Bank of the Commonwealth
Johnnie's Mobil Station
Lillian's Cards and Gifts
Wimpy's Burgers (aka Sarah's)
Also, how about Carstens, Jackson, and Southeastern?
I googled Carstens the other day, its still there, still a school, and Carstens' Rock is still there! Someone painted it white. Funny, it looks smaller than I remembered
Yes, let's get back the the original topic, which was NOT black people ruined it all, don't work and had everything handed to them on a silver platter !!
Anyone live around the Dexter and Boston area in the last 40 years!!
It's hard to imagine that when I lived there we had bakeries, cleansers, a car dealership, and nightclubs.
I learned to swim at the YMCA on Dexter and Grand River, there was also a city swimming pool next to my elementary school (Keidan Elementery) during the summer when it was hottest we would climb the fence and swim after closing hours.
We shouldn't have but nobody had air conditioning back then.
Yes, let's get back the the original topic, which was NOT black people ruined it all, don't work and had everything handed to them on a silver platter !!
Anyone live around the Dexter and Boston area in the last 40 years!!
It's hard to imagine that when I lived there we had bakeries, cleansers, a car dealership, and nightclubs.
I learned to swim at the YMCA on Dexter and Grand River, there was also a city swimming pool next to my elementary school (Keidan Elementery) during the summer when it was hottest we would climb the fence and swim after closing hours.
We shouldn't have but nobody had air conditioning back then.
Just had to get in one last dig, did you? Remisc began this thread to tell her story. Immediately she was criticized by usroute10. It was all her fault and others like her for the demise of Detroit. Marylee11 told her story and was attacked for her story as well. By the way, her first post did not include any defensive comments, she simply described her lovely neighborhood before its demise. She should have never been put in a situation of having to defend herself. First usroute10 and then you had to chime in and keep the racial strife conversation going. The two of you turned this thread into an ugly attack session.
In reading your posts, I get the feeling that you felt gangs of "blacks" were justified marching into peaceful neighborhoods inflicting unspeakable destruction and horror against the innocent residents. While agreed, the black residents did suffer from unfair racial predudices, violence was not the way to solve the problems. Violence, or the fear of it brought a once great dynamic City to its knees. Dr. Martin Luther King knew that violence was not the way. Too bad not enough people listened to him.
There are so many stories to be heard and I hope more people will find this thread and post their stories without fear of being attacked.
The moderaters will close this thread if we don't cool it.
Here is what I have learned about Detroit. Almost every house that you may see that appears abandoned, have squatters living in them. They have gas, electricity, and water. They even fix them up to make them liveable for themselves.
I personally know of one block that only has 6 homes left on it. On one side, there is a badly burned out home, but on the other side, there are 3 boarded up homes and 2 not boarded up, but all are abandoned. In everyone of those homes people are living!!
I was in one visiting a girl I had met who needed help. I use to be a social worker, until I became disabled, and decided I would help her get help. I did not know she was squatting, because the house had all utilities and was nicely furnished, plus I knew the people who put in a new door and porch with steps.
I got arrested for entering without permission. There were 4 other people in the home, including the squatter. I was the only one arrested and the police, as well as the court, told me it was because I was from the suburbs and they assume that anyone who would come there from the suburbs is there to buy drugs. Note: no drugs was found on me, nor in the home.
The girl is still squatting there, so no one really cares. You do realize someone is paying for those utilities, like the taxpayers. No wonder Detroiter's pay such high prices for their utilities compared to the suburbs!
Do you know what I learned? NOT TO GO TO DETROIT!! Well, that is stupid on their part. No one who lives in Detroit has that much money and us suburbanites are told to stay out. I know I will not go to the city again. I went to U of D, I got a Spirit of Detroit Award for helping out its citizens, I was a suburbanite who really tried to do good for the city and I get arrested?
I won't be bothered with their issues anymore. They deserve what they get!! Keep us suburbanites out and it will only get worse. That city looks worse that Bagdad or any worn-torn area in the world. Shameful.
And the neighborhoods look like they were abandoned like the dinosaurs left this earth. There are entire nighborhoods, with churches, schools, homes and businesses, yet all abandoned. All are sitting empty with no windows,etc.
The cops who arrested me could care less about the area they patrol, if they did they would had arrested more than just me. There were 5 people in that house. It's THEIR patrol area, they know darn well who lives in which homes, etc. They choose to turn their heads and if they think all 'cuz I am from the suburbs it will give the city money by arresting me, they are dead wrong. I am on disability and it will cost the city to prosecute me. It will cost quite a bit, 'cuz I am making them take it to trial. I knocked on a door and was let in, that makes me innocent. Any salesman or religious people could had done the same thing. How would anyone know what homes are okay and which ones are not. Its the city's problem, not mine. The officer kept saying, "oh Rochester, oh Rochester", when I gave him my ID. I live in a trailer park in Rochester. Also, I was in the area already 'cuz my mom lives nearby, so he thought one thing, but its going to cost the city plenty, 'cuz he was wrong. He should arrest the squatters. Oh, but that would give him a ghost town to patrol.
Last edited by Heatherj43; 03-27-2010 at 05:06 PM..
Reason: mispelling
i'm sorry that you found your old neighborhood to be in this condition. It's hard, because we tend to feel sentimental about places where we lived and raised our kids.
To the other poster: Yes, detroit is worth saving. It has all the bones of being a great city, hence the reason why it once was a great city: Great waterfront access to international water routes, great historical structures, proud sports traditions that go back for decades, and a history of great contributions to this country and the entire world. If people look at some decayed neighborhoods and decide that a city should be done away with based on that, then they aren't looking very far and they definitely aren't thinking outside the box. Thank god that people like mayor bing and robert bobb don't have your depressing, negative outlook. Detroit can come back. Yes, it can. Not everyone has given up on this city. Just because 1,000,000 people have left over a period of 50-60 years doesn't mean that the city is done for. Do all successful cities have to have over a million residents to be considered worthy? I hope not, or we would have to tear down most of the cities in this country.
not if they treat outsiders as they do...and i don't mean the citizens, i mean the officials!! The citizens have always been nothing but kind to me, its the officials who want us out.
Yep, I guess my family was one of those "whites' who fled, leaving behind their "responsibility" to keep the neighborhood. especially my mother. she was borne and raised there, spent her whole life there, married and raised a family, then, she was forced out like a thief in the night.
The neighborhood turned into a crack alley. We could hear gunshorts at night. she wa living alone, and mugged 3x in one month. Once she sat in terror and watched while some people (oh, I think they were black, can I say that?), tried to break the front porch windows in. She called the police and they wouldn't come because it 'wasn't a life threatening emergency." Soemhow they got scared off. Some friends helped her pack a few belongings and flee that very night to an apt in Warren, they happened to had placed a lease on. They were hoping to move in a more orderly fashion, but she ended up fleeing like a war zone refugee.
She lived in her apt with a few folding chairs, an air mattress, some TV tables and some assorted items. At the age of 62, she was living like that! She went back to claim her posessions and found the house vandalized and burned. That was her legacy. Also, that's part of my personal history, and part of Detroit's history. For those who choose to call it a "sob story" no more a "sob story" than the civil rights movement---how does it differ? One group oppressing another is what it boils down to, but somehow one group is allowed to tell their story over and over, but the other group is supposed to keep silent or they're racist! So, my mother was a racist because she fled for her life
I'm white and was using a pay phone at Hayes and 7 mile and the police pulled over to speak with me. They said I was in a crime ridden area and should get going. It was day time. Do they tell blacks that when they are on pay phones in the day? This just happened last winter!!
Here is what I have learned about Detroit. Almost every house that you may see that appears abandoned, have squatters living in them. They have gas, electricity, and water. They even fix them up to make them liveable for themselves.
I personally know of one block that only has 6 homes left on it. On one side, there is a badly burned out home, but on the other side, there are 3 boarded up homes and 2 not boarded up, but all are abandoned. In everyone of those homes people are living!!
I was in one visiting a girl I had met who needed help. I use to be a social worker, until I became disabled, and decided I would help her get help. I did not know she was squatting, because the house had all utilities and was nicely furnished, plus I knew the people who put in a new door and porch with steps.
I got arrested for entering without permission. There were 4 other people in the home, including the squatter. I was the only one arrested and the police, as well as the court, told me it was because I was from the suburbs and they assume that anyone who would come there from the suburbs is there to buy drugs. Note: no drugs was found on me, nor in the home.
The girl is still squatting there, so no one really cares. You do realize someone is paying for those utilities, like the taxpayers. No wonder Detroiter's pay such high prices for their utilities compared to the suburbs!
Do you know what I learned? NOT TO GO TO DETROIT!! Well, that is stupid on their part. No one who lives in Detroit has that much money and us suburbanites are told to stay out. I know I will not go to the city again. I went to U of D, I got a Spirit of Detroit Award for helping out its citizens, I was a suburbanite who really tried to do good for the city and I get arrested?
I won't be bothered with their issues anymore. They deserve what they get!! Keep us suburbanites out and it will only get worse. That city looks worse that Bagdad or any worn-torn area in the world. Shameful.
And the neighborhoods look like they were abandoned like the dinosaurs left this earth. There are entire nighborhoods, with churches, schools, homes and businesses, yet all abandoned. All are sitting empty with no windows,etc.
The cops who arrested me could care less about the area they patrol, if they did they would had arrested more than just me. There were 5 people in that house. It's THEIR patrol area, they know darn well who lives in which homes, etc. They choose to turn their heads and if they think all 'cuz I am from the suburbs it will give the city money by arresting me, they are dead wrong. I am on disability and it will cost the city to prosecute me. It will cost quite a bit, 'cuz I am making them take it to trial. I knocked on a door and was let in, that makes me innocent. Any salesman or religious people could had done the same thing. How would anyone know what homes are okay and which ones are not. Its the city's problem, not mine. The officer kept saying, "oh Rochester, oh Rochester", when I gave him my ID. I live in a trailer park in Rochester. Also, I was in the area already 'cuz my mom lives nearby, so he thought one thing, but its going to cost the city plenty, 'cuz he was wrong. He should arrest the squatters. Oh, but that would give him a ghost town to patrol.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. Too long we have kept silent with our stories, because they were not politically correct. Now is the time for people to come forward with the true reality of what happened to Detroit.
Some people got out of their neighborhoods in time during the 60's before it became too late. Others who decided to remain were forced to flee their homes in the 70's and 80's because of no help from the officials & cops.
Obviously nothing has changed in 45 years. A do nothing government, who only shows up for a paycheck. Of course, many people have tried to make a difference, only to have been shot down. People, like you.
Keep the strories coming.
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Can we get back to the OT and continue to post pictures & sotries of old homes in Detroit? That's what attracted me to this thread. I'm particularyl interested in pictures of the East Side. Does anyone have any picutres or stories of businesses along Mack Avenue? Does anyone remember
