Black Flight Hits Detroit (Ann Arbor, Dearborn: middle-class, rental, insurance)

[Wonderful Jellal]

DETROIT—This shrinking city needs to hang on to people like Johnette Barham: taxpaying, middle-class professionals who invest in local real estate, work and play downtown, and make their home here.
Ms. Barham just left. And she's not coming back.
In seven years as a homeowner in Detroit, she endured more than 10 burglaries and break-ins at her house and a nearby rental property she owned. Still, she defied friends' pleas to leave as she fortified her home with locks, bars, alarms and a dog.


Then, a week before Christmas, someone torched the house and destroyed almost everything she owned.
In March, police arrested a suspect in connection with the case, someone who turned out to be remarkably easy to find. For Ms. Barham, the arrest came one crime too late. "I was constantly being targeted in a way I couldn't predict, in a way that couldn't be controlled by the police," she says. "I couldn't take it anymore."

Article here:
Black Flight is the New Worry for Detroit - WSJ.com

It's sad

[Drover]

Black flight "hits" Detroit, present-tense?

Black flight from Detroit began in earnest after the '67 riots and it's been going on ever since. That much should be evident by the fact that Detroit's population continues to decline long after nearly everyone who wasn't black had already left. In short, blacks are fleeing Detroit because there's nobody else left who can flee.

[ladygma]

I left the D too. If I could had pick my house up and brought it here, I would had. I loved my home. The chances of dying there outnumbered my chances of living there. The unsolved murders, the break-in, the car jacking, the rapes and not to mention the high gas bills, high insurance rate, high property taxes, all because you live in the city of Detroit, gave me no incentive to continued to lived there. Also, it's dirty, and cluttered with trash. 80% of my family still live there, and I do missed them, and I missed the island, called the (bell Isle), but I had to go. Good luck Detroit!!! I wants to come back to visit, but I am afraid. sorry......

[edub]

I work deep in Detroit and consider it a humanitarian disaster. I can not imagine how anyone growing up in that environment would have any chance of being a normal well adjusted person.

I have long felt that a state of emergency should be declared and dramatic steps be taken to bring some sense of order and normalcy. I am often reminded of the movie "Escape From New York" and wonder how we can allow children to be raised in that environment.

IMO, Mayor Bing is the best thing to happen to Detroit in a long time and I hope he succeeds in leveling much of the city and doesn't stop there. I would like to see the Federal Government take control of the issue and treat it like the emergency that it is. I don't care if they need to build 100 new prisons and boarding schools. The swamp needs to be drained and the kids raised in a healthy environment.

I know it sounds harsh but allowing children to live in that environment is child abuse.

[ladyblue09]

She put up with a lot more than I would have. Thank goodness she wasn't physically harmed during all those crimes.
I do think that Mayor Bing is a positive leader for the city, but I think the only way that Detroit might have a chance is if the surrounding communities are willing to offer some support and resources. The worse that the crime and blight in Detroit becomes, the more it will bleed into the surrounding communities, so it would be in the entire region's best interest to try to turn things around downtown.
Otherwise the area of "flight" will keep expanding and more communities will decline. Remember that Detroit used to be a much nicer and safer place until everyone with the money to move fled. It can happen anywhere.

[Jwo85]

Originally Posted by edub

I work deep in Detroit and consider it a humanitarian disaster. I can not imagine how anyone growing up in that environment would have any chance of being a normal well adjusted person.

I have long felt that a state of emergency should be declared and dramatic steps be taken to bring some sense of order and normalcy. I am often reminded of the movie "Escape From New York" and wonder how we can allow children to be raised in that environment.

IMO, Mayor Bing is the best thing to happen to Detroit in a long time and I hope he succeeds in leveling much of the city and doesn't stop there. I would like to see the Federal Government take control of the issue and treat it like the emergency that it is. I don't care if they need to build 100 new prisons and boarding schools. The swamp needs to be drained and the kids raised in a healthy environment.

I know it sounds harsh but allowing children to live in that environment is child abuse.

Sad thing is, Bing does not approve of Police Chief Evans military-tactical style of policing the city. Evans understands that you have to be very aggressive to get results. Bing does not see it that way.

[mhounit]

Same story , same results . The cycle repeats itself .

[malamute]

White or black flight isn't really the problem, it's the flight of the middle class whoever they are. Many left as the automotive industry in Detroit has shut down. They go where there are jobs and that leaves more hopelessness and helplessness for those left behind. Those left behind lose the influence of the middle class and become worse and more helpless and hopeless, crime rises and chases out what middle class were left.

[timeofseasons]

Originally Posted by RenaudFR

Article here:
Black Flight is the New Worry for Detroit - WSJ.com

It's sad

I'm not suprise Detroit is experiencing a flight. The city has done very little to offer to its residents besides crumbling neighborhoods, and a poor economy. If Detroit criminals countinue to migrate in other areas such as Ann Arbor the city might be able to become less dangerous.

I work deep in Detroit and consider it a humanitarian disaster. I can not imagine how anyone growing up in that environment would have any chance of being a normal well adjusted person.

I have long felt that a state of emergency should be declared and dramatic steps be taken to bring some sense of order and normalcy. I am often reminded of the movie "Escape From New York" and wonder how we can allow children to be raised in that environment.

IMO, Mayor Bing is the best thing to happen to Detroit in a long time and I hope he succeeds in leveling much of the city and doesn't stop there. I would like to see the Federal Government take control of the issue and treat it like the emergency that it is. I don't care if they need to build 100 new prisons and boarding schools. The swamp needs to be drained and the kids raised in a healthy environment.

I know it sounds harsh but allowing children to live in that environment is child abuse.

Detroit have actually tore down a few neighborhoods, they may likely begin to tear down more. If the city countinue to allow years of vacant homes in many neighborhoods it will only become a drug house and other douable crime committed places. So I do agree, the vacant homes are havens for some criminals.

[ShermanJoe2]

Originally Posted by edub

I work deep in Detroit and consider it a humanitarian disaster. I can not imagine how anyone growing up in that environment would have any chance of being a normal well adjusted person.

I have long felt that a state of emergency should be declared and dramatic steps be taken to bring some sense of order and normalcy. I am often reminded of the movie "Escape From New York" and wonder how we can allow children to be raised in that environment.
.

We recently drove through parts of Detroit on our way to visit a nephew who now works in Dearborn. It was shocking, and "Escape From New York" was brought up as we sped past the decay and desolation.

I never expected to see anything like that in this country: blocks of boarded up houses, abandoned factories and commercial buildings. It was so bizarre I could imagine tourist buses crunching through broken glass to allow people to see the ruins of Detroit.