City in ruins
chiquimonkey
Posts: 9,337
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/index.html
Came across this from an Etsy blog post (http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-li ... oit-11659/). Some amazing photos.
Came across this from an Etsy blog post (http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-li ... oit-11659/). Some amazing photos.
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Someone sent me a link of pictures of Hiroshima 65 years after the A-bomb and it is a vibrant city with a bustling economy and amazing architecture. It then has a series of picture of Detroit 65 years after the A-bomb went off … and it looks like an A-bomb went off!!
I hope they follow through with plans to turn vacant lots into farmland. There is a lot of cleaning up to do in that city. Good luck, Detroit.
Pictures like this are slightly sad but fascinating at the same time. :geek:
Jason it's a shame for sure, the idea of making the terrain into farmland is a nice one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIjeUGEdKMM
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Detroit is a very interesting city, and people from here usually are very proud and defensive of it. The rise of the Big Three enabled many people from all walks of life to obtain jobs where they earned decent wages and could better themselves and their families. My grandpa emigrated from post WWII Europe with literally nothing. Through working for Ford, he was able to buy a house and provide for his family. He also sent money to a few of our relatives, so they could come to America too.
The American auto industry gave people the monetary means to get out of the city, and they did. Auto workers bought homes in the suburbs, and cars for themselves, so they could commute. The nature of the industry that helped build Detroit also helped lead to the demise of the city. Of course, there are many other factors, especially recently. But there are still over 4.4 million people living in the metro-Detroit area, and only about 900,000 in the city itself.
Usually people who bash Detroit have never actually been there. The Fox Theatre (featured in the Super Bowl ad) is breathtaking, and the stretch of Woodward Avenue between 6 Mile and 7 Mile was the first mile of road in the world to be paved with concrete.
Go Wings! And the Lions were the last team to beat the Packers this season. ;-)
EDIT: Detroit's city motto is "Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus," which is Latin for "We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes." How fitting.
The Michigan Central Station was actually designed by the same architects who designed NYC's Grand Central Terminal. It's really a shame to see trees growing out of it now. I recently heard about a group that wants to build a skate park and small outdoor concert venue around it.
This article is about a group of Lions fans that tailgate in an abandoned theater: http://www.freep.com/article/20110102/SPORTS01/101020680/1049/sports01 I thought it was pretty cool and creative.
It really makes you think of how quickly things can change in such a short time.
Tell me which is more fair: Wealthy businessmen receiving aid from the government after every earthquake along the San Andreas fault to continually rebuilt their places of business not up to standards to keep them well protected from seismic activity, or Detroit's 100 year old buildings simply crumbling from the test of time because no natural disaster has come around to destroy them earlier.
Until the government identifies urban decay as a natural disaster, I fear Detroit will never grow back into the proud city it used to be.
Nasty city. Yes, i have been there plenty of times. I've been to dozens of cities from east coast to west coast and detroit ranks right at the bottom as my least favorite places to go.
This is interesting.
while i will agree with part one of your arguement, there are loads of buildings around the country that are 100+ years old that are doing just fine.
detroit is falling apart because people there never cared enough to take care of the buildings that are falling apart.
It's certainly not for everyone.
I can't force you to agree with me, all I can do is put my argument out there. Detroit has certainly not received much help from external sources in its upkeep, which is more than can be said for many of the other "beautiful" cities in America.
IMO, federal money shouldn't be spent on Detroit or any other city to make it "great". the locals need to foot that bill and drive that change.
cities can transform. Buffalo is a great example. Toledo is going thru that process now as well. Until about 10 years ago, if you went to downtown Toledo after 5pm, it was a ghost town. Now they have a number of eateries, high rise apartments and entertainment (new ball park and hockey rink). They are currently developing the river front to make downtown all that more inviting.
I think with the excellent products GM is currently producing that some turnaround is in store, but it's not going to get back to what it was.
Also, I have been to Detroit, and it is a seriously depressing place. I did love Tiger Stadium and was glad to have made it to a game there.
Phila, PA 4/28/16; Phila, PA 4/29/16; Fenway Park 8/7/16; Fenway Park 9/2/18; Asbury Park 9/18/21; Camden 9/14/22;
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I completely agree with you. Kwame was a bad dream that Detroit would like to forget about. I think the people of Detroit are tired of being the butt of every joke and really want to make themselves relevant again. I really believe in the next 10 years or so will find the inertia it needs to get moving the same way. I just think that the city that gave the world the automobile hasn't gotten much in return from the world. Sometimes all it takes is the tiniest push to get the ball rolling. Whether it's the government's job to give that push is an argument for another thread I suppose.
Didn't the government already do that with the bailout loans? Not that they haven't worked out well, but I'm not sure what else the government can do. I don't see the government fixing up buildings in my city, where downtown used to be a ghost town after 5pm as well, and is now awesome. Matter of fact, the government did nothing when dozens of manufactuers left the city or went belly up. We just moved on and found other ways.
Phila, PA 4/28/16; Phila, PA 4/29/16; Fenway Park 8/7/16; Fenway Park 9/2/18; Asbury Park 9/18/21; Camden 9/14/22;
Las Vegas 5/16/24; Las Vegas 5/18/24; Phila, PA 9/7/24; Phila, PA 9/9/24; Baltimore Arena 9/12/24
Tres Mtns - TLA 3/23/11; EV - Tower Theatre 6/25/11; Temple of the Dog - Tower Theatre 11/5/16
just pick an area that is a couple of square miles near the downtown stadiums and doze it. build some cool housing, restraunts and shopping. than police the shit out of them so you don't get any bad shit going on and you get solid citizens living there. than do anouther neighbor hood.
just a thought....
of course there will need to be job creation to make it work and finding of money to do it.
But never as bad as people (mostly people who don't live or work here) want to tell you.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/dining/20Detroit.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
This restaurant is one of the more popular ones in the city. It is literally just across the cobblestones from the old train station. It is on a street in Corktown full of bars and restaurants that always seem to have lines out the doors, but does that get a photo blog.
Nope. It doesn't fit in with the beaten-to-death-and-then-warmed-over idea that Detroit is dead. It's not. It's going through a rough time.
Work needs to be done, and plans are in place. I might never see it in my lifetime, and the city will never climb back to the greatness it had during the auto boom.
But the city will be economically viable again.
And probably much smaller.
If you're interested:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/shrinking-detroit-back-to-greatness/
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/09/11/make-the-motor-city-smaller.html
but i agree, detroit proper will be smaller. it was a while back, there was talking about turning off services to certain parts of town because only one or two people lived on a block. becomes very expensive to maintain that sort of infastructure with so few people in an area.
That's going on.
Here's your first neighborhood- http://detroitmidtown.com/05
But it's illegal to just start "dozing and building new stuff." The city doesn't own all the property inside of it. If there is a block of abandoned buildings and just one house with people living in it, that presents problems. Dave Bing (mayor) started a plan to "right-size" the city two years ago, and there are properties being razed. It's going to take time, and it's not as simple as just knocking shit down.
One of the biggest problems (that seems ridiculous to me) but the law requires them to remove all the asbestos from a building before they knock it down... so you can imagine the time and expense involved.
But it's happening. Slowly.
Here's more info http://detroitworksproject.com/
Exactly.
That's another part of the mayors plan, to not extend city services like you said. Also, they are closing most of the schools and keeping three or four open. The mayor has also offered certain incentives to city workers (police, fire, city government workers) who will live in the city.
They are extremely small steps, but steps in the right direction.
Slows is like sex for my mouth. But in a not dirty way. I guess I could have described that better.
Anyways, the guy who owns Slows is looking to buy up the old Train Station and turn it into a skate park.
Well, from my understanding, he isn't going to quite buy it up. He wants to build a skate park and small amphitheater in the shadow of Michigan Central Station, and thus force whoever does own it to make something of it.