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Old 01-11-2011, 11:49 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
1,758 posts, read 4,211,805 times
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Learning From Pittsburgh « Detroit 2020

Found this on Detroit 20/20

I have never been to Detoit. Is their Downtown really that bad?
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Old 01-12-2011, 12:11 AM
 
Location: Kittanning
4,692 posts, read 8,998,921 times
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Detroit is kind of like McKeesport x 100.

Bombed out neighborhoods, no jobs, dead downtown, lots of urban prairie and abandoned buildings, a few nice streets here and there.

Detroit proper is not fashionable to live in, either, unless it's an expensive condo downtown. Most people live in suburbs like Cranberry or Wexford. There are a few decent city neighborhoods, from what I have heard.
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Old 01-12-2011, 05:51 AM
 
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The downtown area has seen a resurgence over the last couple of years. Detroit is a **** hole, but the the downtown area could be cool, but there just isn't any residents. The worst neighborhoods or on the fringe of the city.
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Old 01-12-2011, 06:24 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,265 posts, read 43,022,745 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nuwaver88 View Post
Learning From Pittsburgh « Detroit 2020

Found this on Detroit 20/20

I have never been to Detoit. Is their Downtown really that bad?
Detroit's downtown is nice...but everything around looks like a war zone extending right up to the edge of the city limits. It's also interesting how much nicer it looks immediately across the street from the city limits. Drastic, drastic change.

It's interesting the article focused on the stadiums built around downtown Pittsburgh. Detroit spends a lot of time talking about how stadiums are key to recovery for Detroit. If Detroit can have stadiums downtown, then they'll magically become economically 'okay' again, as they reference it to 'like Pittsburgh'. Meanwhile nothing is further from the truth. Detroit will need significantly more work way beyond that. It's a mess there.

I don't know what Pittsburgh was like at it's worse, but I imagine even today's Detroit is much worse than Pittsburgh's worse. Maybe not in pollution, but more in the immense immense social problems, drug epidemics - i.e. crack in particular, and violence that chased out most of Detroit's previous residents.
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Old 01-12-2011, 07:47 AM
 
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Yeah, the recent economic collapse somewhat resembles the steel bust, but Detroit's long had problems that Pittsburgh never had to anything close to the same degree.
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Old 01-12-2011, 09:54 AM
 
Location: Morgantown, WV
1,000 posts, read 2,342,430 times
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Detroit has problems stemming from economical/social/structural backings. Even with all of the ghettos and physical blight....the largest problem is with the people. That city has been completely ravaged due to white flight and political issues. You can fix the economy, you can toss some paint on the old buildings and dress it all up, but attracting people back into the city is going to be next to impossible due to the last 5-7 decades of white flight and general perceptions that downtown is unsafe and completely not worth bothering with. Detroit's suburbs are all actually very nice, it's just the inner city that's a total warzone. I don't think we've ever had anything even remotely close to what Detroit is like....I mean McKesport/Homestead/the Hill has nothing on some of the downtown areas of Detroit. The closest thing to us would probably be East Cleveland, and even then I don't think that's anywhere near the worst that Detroit has to offer.
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Old 01-12-2011, 10:01 AM
 
Location: Virginia
18,717 posts, read 30,985,747 times
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One thing Detroit's being smart about is encouraging Hollywood to take advantage of some of their abandoned buildings. Let Hollywood blow the worst ones up for some action film, and the ones that are in better condition can become fantastic backgrounds for grittier films. Pittsburgh's been following this strategy, too (to an extent--Pittsburgh buildings look better on film, so aren't right for the films where an abandoned warehouse gets blown up.) It's a win-win situation. It adds a nice, gritty, realistic touch to the films and (IMO) also makes a lot of people aware of the beautiful buildings and scenery in Pittsburgh and Detroit.
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Old 01-12-2011, 10:39 AM
 
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The TV show Detroit 1-8-7 is making brilliant use of Detroit as a setting--there was actually an episode that had the cops discussing the problem of ruin porn. It is too bad it hasn't found more of an audience.

Anyway, I don't actually think Detroit is hopeless, and in fact I think its strong, albeit often negative, national and international branding will eventually prove to be an asset. But I do think its "renaissance" is likely to take quite a while, and that in many ways Pittsburgh was better-situated even at its lowest point.
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Old 01-12-2011, 10:47 AM
 
Location: North Oakland
9,150 posts, read 10,843,409 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Caladium View Post
One thing Detroit's being smart about is encouraging Hollywood to take advantage of some of their abandoned buildings. Let Hollywood blow the worst ones up for some action film, and the ones that are in better condition can become fantastic backgrounds for grittier films. Pittsburgh's been following this strategy, too (to an extent--Pittsburgh buildings look better on film, so aren't right for the films where an abandoned warehouse gets blown up.) It's a win-win situation. It adds a nice, gritty, realistic touch to the films and (IMO) also makes a lot of people aware of the beautiful buildings and scenery in Pittsburgh and Detroit.
I am enjoying Detroit 187 on ABC on Tues nights at 10.
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Old 01-12-2011, 11:03 AM
 
1,901 posts, read 4,360,603 times
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D-town' has a as a larger population of Blacks & Latinos in poverty while the gang problems haven't gotten much better than the '90's.
In D-towns sections 6-mile, 7-mile, 8-mile, 9-mile is like leterally putting Homewood, Terance Village, Bedford Dwellings, East Hills, Northview Hieghts, Manchester, Larimer, Willkinsburgh, Knoxville, & Beltshoover right next to each other! Also, D-town has dangerous white biker gangs which Pittsburgh luckily doesn't have.
In the Burgh black on black is type of crime we really have. While over in D-town there's: black vs. black, latino vs. latino, and black vs. latino, and white vs. white (biker gangs).
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