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I'm going to stand in defense of Detroit, too ... people love to say what an absolutely wretched city that it is, when that is simply not the truth! Detroit( like my beloved Cleveland ) is unfairly maligned, often because the city has experienced "some levels" of a serious decline.
There are some pretty torn up and decimated areas of Detroit ... but I've seen similar areas in NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh ...
So, why malign an entire city for a few bad areas? Detroit still has incredible wealth, some very affluent and upscale suburbs and a beautiful and historic city centre that is still quite active and "alive".
I like Detroit alot ... I recognize it's monumental contributions to our country and to our way of living ... and these facts are above debate.
Detroit is also beginning to turn around ... maybe in a manner that isn't as visible as Pittsburgh or Cleveland, but it is beginning to experience another period of renewal. "Native Detroiters" that love their city will NEVER give up on it ... much like I will never stop believing in Cleveland!
In spite of all of it's issues and the growth of many
I'm going to stand in defense of Detroit, too ... people love to say what an absolutely wretched city that it is, when that is simply not the truth! Detroit( like my beloved Cleveland ) is unfairly maligned, often because the city has experienced "some levels" of a serious decline.
There are some pretty torn up and decimated areas of Detroit ... but I've seen similar areas in NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh ...
So, why malign an entire city for a few bad areas? Detroit still has incredible wealth, some very affluent and upscale suburbs and a beautiful and historic city centre that is still quite active and "alive".
I like Detroit alot ... I recognize it's monumental contributions to our country and to our way of living ... and these facts are above debate.
Detroit is also beginning to turn around ... maybe in a manner that isn't as visible as Pittsburgh or Cleveland, but it is beginning to experience another period of renewal. "Native Detroiters" that love their city will NEVER give up on it ... much like I will never stop believing in Cleveland!
In spite of all of it's issues and the growth of many other cities, it still manages to be the 11th biggest city in the US. So, imagine what could happen if a true renaissance occurs there.....
Location: Detroit's eastside, downtown Detroit in near future!
2,053 posts, read 4,393,656 times
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Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
In spite of all of it's issues and the growth of many other cities, it still manages to be the 11th biggest city in the US. So, imagine what could happen if a true renaissance occurs there.....
I know this is going to sound crazy to some of you, but I have a real liking of "rustbelt" cities. I find old rusty wharehouses and brick buildings appealing to the eyes. Does anyone else feel like this?
I like these features, too--old warehouses, silos, brickyards, rusty bridges, railroad trestles, vintage brick storefronts, nifty riverside infrastructure, steelworks, factories of eras past. In short, the "Industrial Sublime" aesthetic.
And I also like the more conventionally beloved architecture--the grand old banks and commodity exchange buildings, industrial-age executive homes with brick or stone exteriors and interiors with leaden glass windows, curved moldings, built-in wooden bookcases, and stuff like that.
It's a good thing I live in Milwaukee! I've also lived in Buffalo--another great city (as already noted) for the Beauty of Grit.
cornstalks and dairy cows? hahaha you really have no room to talk. People in other parts of MI talk so much **** in spite of the fact without Detroit, MI wouldn't be where it is as a whole! Yes even with Detroit going through its problems. Why do you think the most wealth is concentrated in SE MI? This makes me laugh, bash all you want but if we were to somehow annex Detroit to another state, where the hell would MI really be?
besides what does Detroit's reputation have to do with THIS thread? nothing. So like I said all you do is bash Detroit. Whether you live in GR or not you have said over and over that is where you're from.....there is clearly a GR forum......oh wait I've actually seen you bash Detroit on there as well smh.
I am not from Grand Rapids. Actually if you read my previous posts you would know I am technically from Detroit. I was born there and lived there the first year of my life. My parents were raised there, my grandparents and great grandparents lived thier whole lives there. You say I just like to bash Detroit, but really the conditions of Detroit depress me, and anger me. My family lived there for generations and I have heard stories all my life of how great it used to be. What I see now is so depressing, and at this point hopelessly lost. I have lived almost my entire life now in either central Michigan or northern Michigan, and yes a few years in Grand Rapids, but I still am saddened by what happened down there. At one time it was a great city that contributed alot to our modern life. Detroit also contributed alot to the allied war production that helped win WW2. It is shocking how far that city has fallen in only 30 or 40 years. Alot of effort has been put into helping Detroit but none of it has changed anything. Your right about the rest of Michigan being kind of anti Detroit, but really its just frustration with how things are there. Like I said Detroits problems taint the reputation of the entire state. All we here from Detroits leaders is more anger and resentment, more blame and no results.
Location: Detroit's eastside, downtown Detroit in near future!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danielj72
I am not from Grand Rapids. Actually if you read my previous posts you would know I am technically from Detroit. I was born there and lived there the first year of my life. My parents were raised there, my grandparents and great grandparents lived thier whole lives there. You say I just like to bash Detroit, but really the conditions of Detroit depress me, and anger me. My family lived there for generations and I have heard stories all my life of how great it used to be. What I see now is so depressing, and at this point hopelessly lost. I have lived almost my entire life now in either central Michigan or northern Michigan, and yes a few years in Grand Rapids, but I still am saddened by what happened down there. At one time it was a great city that contributed alot to our modern life. Detroit also contributed alot to the allied war production that helped win WW2. It is shocking how far that city has fallen in only 30 or 40 years. Alot of effort has been put into helping Detroit but none of it has changed anything. Your right about the rest of Michigan being kind of anti Detroit, but really its just frustration with how things are there. Like I said Detroits problems taint the reputation of the entire state. All we here from Detroits leaders is more anger and resentment, more blame and no results.
blahzay splee......yea yea yea heard it all before. Another person who clearly bashes Detroit only to turn around and say "its not Bashing I'm from Detroit, it just pains me to it the way it is........Now back to Detroit being a crime infested, decayed city with no hope and full of abandoned skyscrappers" (the skyscrapper part I've seen you mention a few times, oh and the decayed part, which btw is not true.......tell me which skyscrappers are abandoned?)
btw spending one year of your life in Detroit is nothing. I've been here for 22 yrs and I don't plan on leaving. I know what my city looks likes, I know about the problems, about the blight, the crime etc but I also know thats only one side. You my dear seem to only comment on the negatives like the rest of the world. Detroit's rep doesn't taint **** either, other cities in MI failure to create their own damn identity is their problem. Do you see people from Orlando or Tampa on here claiming the bad aspects of Miami (I know all of Miami isn't bad, not even most of it) are giving the whole state a bad name???? um no
There has been a critique of the "ruin porn" aspect of liking rustbelt cities, but I think this aesthetic appreciation goes beyond oohin- and ahhing- at decay. The sheer materiality and texture and scale of what was built back in the day is can be appreciated, even if there is decay and deterioration.
Nowdays construction is lighter and flatter and more ephermal, more "architectural kleenex", use it and throw it away and it disappears fast or melts away quickly. The massive constructions of the industrial and commercial landscapes of rust belt cities are more substantial, and even some of the housing and smaller-scale neighborhood fabric are also built at a more human (vs automobile) scale.
There's been a good book written about the old association and character of older industrial places that looks at the human factor as well as the physical environment:
"Patina of Place, The Cultual Weathering of an Industrial Landscape" (set in Massachusets, either Fall River or New Bedford, I forget which).
I like the concept...a patina of place. Cultural weathering. Interesting stuff and maybe it describes a bit of why we like these places. They look fascinating, but also have "a past". They exist in time, rather than in the "eternal present" of the postwar suburban landscape that makes up so much of the growing places of the South and West (though one can see this there, too, in certain places).
I agree some people have blown the "rust belt" image to include basically the entire region. Detroit is 900,000 people out of a CSA(metro) area of 5,300,000. That's 17% of the population. Throw in Flint and some other really struggling cities in the area, and you're still only at 20%-22% of the entire area. Apparently the other 80% of people in metro Detroit just get thrown right into the "ghetto" pot as well.
Having been to the Detroit area multiple times, their suburbs are actually REALLY nice areas compared to many parts of the country. The wealth of the area is concentrated there instead of the core city.
Based on numbers alone - you'd think Detroit would have the reputation of being a very nice area, with the 20% of the people living in central Detroit the forgotten minority. Instead it's the complete opposite. 20% of the population holds the image of the other 80% as well.
As someone else stated, many people just assume Michigan in general is "Detroit". 10,000,000 people living off the image of 9% of that population. Not that there aren't other problem areas in Michigan, but far and away, it's a very beautiful state with upstanding people who live in very nice, safe communities.
Then you blow it out further and people assume all 65,000,000 people living in the Midwest are living in some bombed out rust belt ghetto. Go to the headline hard-up cities like Cleveland, etc. and even the 80% of the people there who are living in the suburbs as opposed to core Cleveland are generally living in nice areas. Cleveland has some beautiful suburbs with hundreds of thousands of people. It's silly that such a small minority of the worst off areas are the image in people's heads for tens of millions of others.
People talk about Chicago like it's all the west/south sides of the city. As if all 10,000,000 people are living in an urban battleground. If you look at the stats, the homicide rate for the 6,000,000 people living in the Illinois suburbs of Chicago, the homicide rate is less than 3.0/100,000.
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, which btw is not true.......tell me which skyscrappers are abandoned?)
