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This whole stay at home thing has really put a damper on explorations this year. But I was in Michigan this last weekend and took a day off for myself. Detroit - You never cease to amaze. <3
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Flickr: http://www.flickr....os/kenfagerdotcom/ | |
lol I love that last picture, nice set!
The homeless are friends not food. | |
All these pictures are so nice! There really are so many places abandoned. I especially like the Hello Kitty picture.
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A city of almost 2 million turning into a city of barely 600,000 = the theme of your shots here. Eerie emptiness in what used to be one of the most vibrant and productive cities in North America.
As a lifelong resident of the area, it is tempting to say that I am "encouraged" by the development of Midtown and Downtown as well as some adjacent areas, but I really am not. Those areas have already priced out 90% of the American population, and the rest of the city is either blighted or empty (or both!). Not sure what the solution is, other than going back in time and trying to change most political and economic decisions made from 1940 onward. Or maybe cities and civilizations just have their time in the sun, and then that time eventually passes...
Best Regards | |
nice work
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Posted by jgomez12
A city of almost 2 million turning into a city of barely 600,000 = the theme of your shots here. Eerie emptiness in what used to be one of the most vibrant and productive cities in North America.
As a lifelong resident of the area, it is tempting to say that I am "encouraged" by the development of Midtown and Downtown as well as some adjacent areas, but I really am not. Those areas have already priced out 90% of the American population, and the rest of the city is either blighted or empty (or both!). Not sure what the solution is, other than going back in time and trying to change most political and economic decisions made from 1940 onward. Or maybe cities and civilizations just have their time in the sun, and then that time eventually passes...
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Hopefully the islands will grow, eventually becoming the majority of the city, and the new 'islands' being the ghettos. I've been removed from the area for 20 years now, but I did once live in downtown Detroit (100 Riverfront Drive) -- paying a relatively large amount of $$ so I could become a Detroiter & work to improve the city, if no-other way, than as a local consumer & tax-payer, unlike a great many residents --perhaps the majority-- that didn't pay taxes & actually drained the city financially. My neighbors were affluent Detroiters -- judges, doctors, lawyers, city officials, drug dealers, professional athletes, school administrators, prominent ministers,etc. The conversations, once we became comfortable with each other enough to handle matters of race, were amazing. For a while, Coleman Young was a neighbor of mine. So was Rosa Parks. I'll never forget hanging out with some of my (middle-aged, black) friends in our private park along the Detroit River when some loud, stereotypical (black) thugs walked by, saggin' & blaring Tupac one of the guys with me said "Pull up your drawers, and beat-feet back to the ghetto!" Amazing...
You seem to be arguing that the current "islands" should be proceed "below market rate" -- subsidized by SOMEONE. I argue that Detroit's had about 50 years of that now, and look what it's done... The reality is that they need to attract young, intelligent, educated people into the city, not offer low-income housing, which will just maintain the intellectual & socio-economic status-quo. Instilling some decency --at least pockets of it-- will bring-in the innovators willing to raise a family. I moved to Detroit because I was single and couple pretty much take care of myself, and not have to worry about a wife going about her business in the scary city, kids going to school there, etc.
I'd love to know what wrong decisions you think were being made starting in 1940 it was the Arsenal of Democracy then -- the vibrancy & productivity you mention. King Coleman 'Ayatollah' Young blamed the creation of the US National Highway System & state roadways & good 'ol racism as causing the white flight from Detroit to the suburbs in the 1950s, as-if someone's desire to move from an urban city to a suburb with more land, a larger back yard for the dog & kids, and less crime, et al. is shameful. Anyone that could do it --black or white-- pretty much got the hell out of the hell of Detroit by the 1970s, though who stayed learned to blame Detroit's woes on Whitey, thanks to good ol' Mayor Young, and that multi-generational mentality continued to prevail, but in-spite of it, some good people with $$$ (yes, they were suburbanites, and yes they were white...) started to take an interest in the city & invest in it in the 1990s once Mayor Young was out of office & Detroit got a decent mayor (Dennis Archer). Detroit was called the renaissance city a long time ago due to it's rebirth after a major fire destroyed most of it, and slowly but surely, it's rejuvenating itself, but it's due to modern-day pioneers who take the risk (public safety & $$) to invest themselves in the city & the city's willingness to work with them, not due to the older population base finally deciding they'd had-enough of the blight & depravity.
When living there & even when living in the suburbs back in the day, it was suburbanites that'd come into the city to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, Mother Waddles, Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Gleaner's Food Bank, Big-Brothers, Big Sisters, the various neighborhood community cleanup days, etc. and that fact was not lost on me, and helped shape my strong belief that the gross lack of responsibility, ambition & motivation by Detroiters over a couple generations & the racial-politic priorities (we can't do much, because THE MAN is keeping us down) was what caused Detroit to be a third-world city.
Regardless, I'm happy and cautiously optimistic to see it coming back. "Foreign" investment & growth is nice, but it needs great people moving there in numbers, not just people coming down to Comerica Park or Greektown for a few hours, then rushing to get out of Dodge (pun intended...).
/-/oolie
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. |
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