Discuss Detroit » Archives - July 2007 » Raised with a fear of Detroit « Previous Next »
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Ct4438
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Username: Ct4438

Post Number: 49
Registered: 08-2005
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 12:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I've been "lurking" and posting off and on for about two years now and as a non-Detroiter, I'm just curious how many others out here were raised in families and communities who rarely, if ever, ventured into Detroit and were half-terrified when doing so??

What amazes me most about that is both sets of grandparents were either born and raised in the city (as was my father) or moved here while quite young (yep, Appalachians looking for work) and all moved away prior to the mid-60s.


I currently live within a 2-3 minute drive of the city limits and I had a grandmother, who if she were alive today, would be terrified for my very soul. All during my younger years, Detroit was spoken of with such a fear and disdain, it's amazing I didn't just accept that bias as truth.

Once I entered college and started wanting to venture away from rural, Smalltown U.S.A., I realized how much Detroit was to offer. I'm proud to say that I spend many of my weekends enjoying the city and it's events, festivals, restaurants, etc. There's so much history to enjoy and unfortunately, a lot seems to have been lost to urban development.....

I still have a lot to learn and I enjoy reading posts and picking up on upcoming events and have often looked for books, restaurants, and whatever else that many on this forum have recommended.

Thanks from one who's spent the past 15 years learning what the city has to offer!
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Detroitej72
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Username: Detroitej72

Post Number: 632
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 1:27 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ct4438, as a native Detroiter, I for one say "WELCOME TO DETROIT"...

You will find folks are either 'pro Detroit, or anti Detroit', upon this website...

Please don't judge all DY's as one and the same...
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Perfectgentleman
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Username: Perfectgentleman

Post Number: 2222
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 1:35 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There are people that "fear Detroit" that still go there, they just stay in certain areas. You have to understand that there are reasons for this "fear." Namely a crime rate that is 3 times the national average and a general sense of lawlessness in many areas of the city.

When people go to a ball game or a concert and are plagued by aggressive bums and there isn't a cop in sight it doesn't exactly instill confidence. Combine that with the slow or non-existent response from the DPD then you start to see the problem.

It is anti-Detroit to point out indisputable facts? I guess some think so.
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Ct4438
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Username: Ct4438

Post Number: 50
Registered: 08-2005
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 1:48 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I guess when I say a "fear of Detroit" I mean an irrational, umbrella-type fear of being in the big, bad D. As if all things within the city limits scream danger!! I'm not discounting a very real crime rate, or that unfortunate things can happen (as in all major cities)....

I'm also an amateur genealogist and trying to learn more has drawn me to visit various cemeteries in Detroit (Woodmere, Elmwood and Trinity Lutheran)and I've had wonderful experiences and learned more than I could've by merely visiting libraries and requesting official documents. Elmwood is amazing!

My disappointments have come by trying to locate previous family homes, only to learn that they no longer exist for a variety of reasons. As in my grandfather's childhood home....demolished for the construction of the GM Hamtramck plant.
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Detroitej72
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Username: Detroitej72

Post Number: 634
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 1:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

When people go to a ball game or a concert and are plagued by aggressive bums and there isn't a cop in sight it doesn't exactly instill confidence. Combine that with the slow or non-existent response from the DPD then you start to see the problem

______________________________ ___________________

Last weekend, I went to Hoover-Elevan shopping center...

Nothing wrong with that..., however, my grandmother's car was stolen from this 'safe place'...

Anyone who thinks that the "burbs" are free of crime. we'll I have a bridge to sell...
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Michigan
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Username: Michigan

Post Number: 1051
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 7:52 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

CT- People who fled the city in the 60s and 70s have psychological reasons for their umbrella fear of Detroit. They saw their entire worlds fall apart, and many needed to completely dis-associate with what remained in order to get their minds around it. They were dealing with immense feelings of frustration, anger, and a sense of betrayal. Their fear of Detroit and their desire to portray its citizens as denizens of a lost and lawless land are probably actually quite normal (albeit not rational) responses to the situation. For Children raised in this melange, these opinions and perceptions became accepted as fact (through no fault of their own). And, it seemed that through the 80s and most of the 90s a large portion of the citizenry of Detroit were happy to reinforce those perceptions through their actions.
I love Detroit. I love cities in General. I have rarely felt uncomfortable in my travels (except for one night in East St. Louis, but that is a tale for another day). However, I would feel comfortable if my teenage daughter and her girlfriends wanted to visit Manhattan, Downtown Chicago, or Milwaukee; I would not be so sanguine if they were making a foray into downtown Detroit. I think that feeling is based not on irrational fears, but on the facts of the "situation on the ground" in each of those cities. Detroit requires more maturity and situational awareness to remain safe.
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Smogboy
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Username: Smogboy

Post Number: 5877
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 7:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You can always fear the unknown. But like I'm sure you've discovered from looking at some of the threads here- there are some really ownderful aspects of Detroit and some bad aspects of Detroit. It's no reason or rationale to fear them. Just take personal responsibility for yourself and your own safety. Trust your own instincts. Be safe WHEREVER you are whether it's the suburbs, the country, a foreign country... as long as you're responsible for your own individual safety, you shouldn't be afraid.

Detroit really has some wonderful unique little gems if you search hard enough. I've always found these forums to be highly informative... so no need to fear. Just empower yourself and look around!
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Craig
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Username: Craig

Post Number: 329
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 8:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There are a lot of good reasons to fear Detroit, and there are posters on DY who will never acknowledge these.

As a refugee from Detroit's crime I have first-hand knowledge of the brutality and persistence of the City's criminal element. Crime even in the suburbs? No doubt, but it's a numbers game and the likelihood of becoming a victim "out there" pales in comparison (e.g. car stolen from the street in front of my Detroit home vs. an egged car in the suburbs).

Play and entertain in Detroit (I do), but "be careful" is my advice to outsiders. Most of the entertainment destinations are well enough policed to offer general safety (exceptions, though, like Hart Plaza on the night of fireworks), but it's the travel to and from that can get one jammed up. An example by way of anecdote: couple of suburban kids went to a party in Rosedale. On the drive home one had a diabetic seizure (is that right? not sure - kid got sick, anyway, and needed sugar, stat) pulled off to a gas station on Fenkell in my neighborhood (not Rosedale) and was promptly robbed in the midst of his medical emergency.

Look carefully and you'll see fortified islands emerging in a sea of lawlessness (islands, I suspect, where many of the Detroiters on this site live). Stick to those islands and you're OK. Fall off of the boat and you're in God's hands.
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Catman_dude
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Username: Catman_dude

Post Number: 210
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 9:12 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I hope Detroit allows concealed weapons!
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Vintagesoul
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Username: Vintagesoul

Post Number: 35
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 9:30 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I love to see someone who is abandoning the fear of their forefathers to come to the city and in doing so, they realize that the city isn't so bad after all. =)

I grew up downriver, my family is made up of eastern european working class immigrants who mostly lived in Lincoln Park. My mother has always worked in the city since she was in high school, and it kind of fostered my interest in the city as well. I grew up fascinated with it, and as soon as I was old enough to drive myself there, I started visiting the clubs and bars and eventually found myself wanting to learn more and more.

Now, 28 years old, I've been a citizen for over 3 years (and it would have been sooner if I had my way) and I love it. I wouldn't live anywhere else in this state. I like to visit the burbs, like I like to visit the country. That's how it feels to me. My husband grew up here and he doesn't want to leave either. I'm definitely a convert. We live, eat, play and go to school in the city. The only thing I regret is not being able to find work there, so I have to make my daily trip to Farmington Hills (yuck) and my hubby has to go to Madison Heights (just as far with traffic) just to make a buck.

I love tha D!
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Fishtoes2000
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Username: Fishtoes2000

Post Number: 281
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 9:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks, CT (and Michigan.) We share similar perspectives. Riding my bike in Detroit has been my vehicle (sic) to overcoming the years of stereotypes about Detroit and Detroiters. Maybe everyone in the City is just kind to cyclists, but I haven't had any troubles. I've ridden thousands of miles and crisscrossed this town and have only a few neighborhoods I tend to avoid. I have found Detroiters to be more friendly than folks in any other community in which I ride.
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1556
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 10:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

However, I would feel comfortable if my teenage daughter and her girlfriends wanted to visit Manhattan, Downtown Chicago, or Milwaukee; I would not be so sanguine if they were making a foray into downtown Detroit. I think that feeling is based not on irrational fears, but on the facts of the "situation on the ground" in each of those cities. Detroit requires more maturity and situational awareness to remain safe.

The funny thing is that downtown Detroit has one of the safest CBD's- statistically speaking- of any big city in the country.

The summer of '06, a teenage girl was kidnapped, taken to a hotel, raped and murdered. She was kidnapped from a street in Midtown Manhattan. A few months before that, Imette St. Guillen. Have you heard of anything like that happening in Detroit in the past 20 years?

This is not to say that Detroit is a utopia that these other cities aren't. It's just to say that shit happens everywhere. You should be using the same caution in New York, or Chicago that you'd be using in Detroit. I'm not just preaching either, I'm telling you this from personal experience.

(Message edited by iheartthed on September 06, 2007)

(Message edited by iheartthed on September 06, 2007)
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Professorscott
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Username: Professorscott

Post Number: 707
Registered: 12-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 10:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Agreed, 'heart. You have to have some amount of street smarts to get along in any city anywhere. Many of the tourist meccas of Europe are teeming with con artists and pickpockets, for instance. If you walk around looking like the perfect victim, someone will pick up on that.

Downtown Detroit, nowadays, is really quite safe for a big-city CBD. I'd let my daughters walk around downtown any time of day, except late at night; and I wouldn't let them walk around anywhere late at night. My daughters are teenagers.

If you want to avoid having your car stolen, you need to avoid some City 'hoods but also some specific suburban locations. Or do what I do: drive a car nobody will steal. (Or do what I do on other days: take the bus, which nobody steals either.)

I think the apparently paranoid fear of Detroit that some local folks have is based on what happened to their families and neighborhoods, and themselves. So it's not in fact paranoid, it's based on real, though old, information. Outsiders pick up on media reports for their information, and the national media delights in knocking us down after putting up with our "As GM goes, so goes America" mentality in the middle of the last century.
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Spongebob
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Username: Spongebob

Post Number: 18
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 11:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Saturday night at the Jazz Festival. Two young ladies started to fight. Just as the main event began and I started to watch. Three police officers came out of nowhere and broke it up.That was the only negative thing, I observed all evening.
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Professorscott
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Username: Professorscott

Post Number: 708
Registered: 12-2006
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 1:01 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Actually, Sponge, from my perspective it was a positive; it is how cities are supposed to work:

1. A bad thing happened
2. The police came and ended the bad thing

Nowhere on Earth do bad things simply not happen. So if that was the only problem, we're doing fine, at least on that night.
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Jerome81
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Username: Jerome81

Post Number: 1613
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 1:09 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I've met a couple people who think if you cross 8 Mile you're gonna die. Maybe not quite that bad, but you get the idea.

Where do they get it (since they've obviously never been to Detroit)? When you grow up being told "Detroit is the most horrid location on earth, and if you ever go there you're taking a risk on your life, don't ever step foot in that shithole" for 20 years, you are probably gonna believe it.

Same way kids grow up to hate the US. They've never been to the US, they've never met an American, none of that. But they go to school and are told by elders that America and Americans are satan, they must be killed, they believe it.

I'm not gonna say go anywhere, anytime. But I have never been anywhere else where the core city is viewed as a death-zone if you reach the city limits. Only in Detroit.... which unfortunately I seem to find about a lot of things (city vs suburbs constant fighting, innate fear of new/minority neighbors resulting in a hasty move to some other city/neighborhood, usually further away, etc).
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Professorscott
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Username: Professorscott

Post Number: 710
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Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 1:24 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well, it doesn't help when you have well-educated individuals in public service who say things like "my life wouldn't be bereft of anything if I never cross Eight Mile Road", which was actually said by the Honorable L. Brooks Patterson many years back.

Jerome, the "hasty move" thing is more sinister than you might think. Flipping neighborhoods remains a common practice in the Detroit area, though not so much in the City itself anymore. Unscrupulous real estate agents, a couple of which I could name, prowl neighborhoods where the racial mix is changing, and make a profit from fearmongering. It's illegal; but so is cocaine, and there's plenty of that too.
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Michigan
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Username: Michigan

Post Number: 1072
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 1:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

IHD and Proscott- come on are you kidding me? Walk around Manhattan during the day or night and you will be run over by the stampeding tourists. Chicago? Try to walk down Michigan from The Drake to the Wrigley building and expect to be separated from anyone with you because of all the tourists.

I know you guys want Detroit to be the best city in the world. I know that you want Detroit to be the safest city in the world. But I want to be hung like Johnny Holmes and it just ain't happenin' (Yet, I have a few more pills and exercises to try).

Even more to the point- There is something for teenage girls to see and do in New York and Chicago. What the f-ck is there for a group of teenage girls to do in downtown Detroit? Parade on the Riverwalk? Wake the f-ck up and look at the situation for what it is. Maybe you need to visit the wizard.
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Eric
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Username: Eric

Post Number: 920
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Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 1:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

So Chicago and Manhattan are more crowded that doesn't changed that fact, when it come to downtown safety Detroit is no more dangerous. Sounds like you're who one needs to wake up

www.tedconline.com/uploads/Dow ntown_Detroit_Crime_Study_2006 .pdf
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1561
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 2:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^You're really kinda jumping points here, so this will be all I say on this topic. The point was not what there is for a teenage girl to do in Manhattan vs. downtown Detroit (but what's wrong with hanging out on the Riverwalk?). The point was safety and perception of safety. Downtown Detroit is just as safe as any other CBD of any other major city in this country. My point is not to try and convince you of this but to not let your inaccurate statement go unchecked for anyone else that might be reading.

It doesn't matter how many tourists there are in Detroit. It's beside the point. There is a lot more to do in Chicago than Troy, or New York vs. West Bloomfield, but that doesn't mean Chicago is safer!
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Craig
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Username: Craig

Post Number: 347
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 2:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Eric - I'm not going to reread the report that you cite right now so I cannot offer specific criticisms, but...

The study in question was noted for its creative definition of the CBD - geography was specified in a manner that excluded areas that many here would consider to be CBD. To wit, the study is not unbiased (brings to mind the saw about lies, damn lies & statistics).

Having said that I'll gladly support the POV that "downtown" is safer and more aesthetically pleasing than much of the rest of the City. Bad crap still happens down there, but a betting person would rather walk Campus Martius than get out of car to walk into a party store on Six Mile.

Mich - crudely put, but truthful. The mall has more to offer a teen than downtown on a non-event night.
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1563
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 2:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Creative? I think it's a pretty honest definition...
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Michigan
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Username: Michigan

Post Number: 1075
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 2:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Eric you seem nice but I don't think you can read, or maybe your eyes were just closed for this report. The data in this report shows Downtown D is in fact more dangerous than other cities- except Atlanta. Thanks for the link though, you saved me the trouble of looking for data myself:-).


LOL- The first sentence of the introduction has an editing error- "the actual risked of victimization" should read "the actual risk of victimization". Right off the bat I doubt the vetting process that was used on this report.

This apparently un-edited report is in response to a nationwide report that named Detroit's downtown as the SECOND MOST DANGEROUS PLACE THAT CONVENTIONS VISIT. That report stated the risk faced by visitors there is 10x the national average.

The spin report issued by the Detroit Visitors Bureau says the following- a) crime is lower than in 2001, (so Downtown must be safe?); b) Our downtown is most dangerous on weekends in the summer (times when no one would be there any way really).

They do not define the "DVA" of other cities, so I have no idea if they are comparing apples to oranges. But based on the outcome that was desired, I feel pretty confident that they are. I am also curious as to why the report only compares five cities when the national report compared 25. Is it because the data from the other cities really made Detroit crime seem horrific? Perhaps the data for those cities was harder to manipulate? I don't know, but I smell a rat.

Still, Detroit is more dangerous than all the other cities they did compare with- except Atlanta. I read the report, and the methodology, in my opinion, is bogus and allows for liberal (no political pun intended) data massaging.

It doesn't matter how many tourists? Yes, it does. There are so many tourists because it is safer, and the cities make damn sure it stays safe because those tourists bring in big bucks (literally cops on every corner). It is a self sustaining system! YEAH! I have read many times on this board that visitors should stay where there are lots of people, well in Chicago and New York that is easy to do (a LOT of cops there as well), not so easy in most of Detroit, including downtown.

What activities are available to tourists is important, and they are very limited in Detroit.
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Downtown_remix
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Username: Downtown_remix

Post Number: 475
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2007 - 4:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Perhaps we should have this discussion on sept 7th 2009 when Downtown Detroit suddenly has over 1500 new hotel rooms most sittin atop full scale casinos with resorts,clubs and world renown restaurants.

These Casino resorts will pull tourist in a mostly empty tourist market.

The 2009 ALL STAR GAMES will pounce on the city comparable to Superbowl 2006.

The riverwalk will be graced with river facing condos and the CBD will also have hundreds of new loft an condo dwellers.
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321brian
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Username: 321brian

Post Number: 419
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2007 - 5:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Casinos won't be a tourist draw for Detroit.

There is probably a casino within 100 miles of 90% of the U.S. population.

What all-star game is going to be here in 2009? Are you thinking of the Final Four?

I would also like to know why Detroit and every other city think that overpriced condos are the answer?

Until some major time and money is spent in the neighborhoods Detroit will continue to decline.
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Downtown_remix
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Username: Downtown_remix

Post Number: 476
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2007 - 6:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

casino hotels built AT THIS CALIBER along with being the #1 sports city in the US WILL DRAW TOURIST TO DETROIT.

There is no MGM GRAND CASINO within 100 miles of 90% of the US POPULATION

Yes the final four.

Greater downtown condos, ranging from 75,000-1.4mill can hardly be described as all overpriced.
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321brian
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Username: 321brian

Post Number: 420
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Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2007 - 6:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Final Four will be Awesome!!! I can't wait.

The casinos will be nicer than the temps but I have found that at least in Michigan the indian casinos are very nice and well run. The employees are a lot nicer than many in the Detroit casinos too.

I want to know why MGM Detroit sucks compared to MGM in Vegas? Cage lines are always too long and you feel like you are putting people out when asking for a table.

I love to gamble and have been in a ton of casinos and once you have been on the floor in one you have been in them all. It would be nice to see some reasonable table minimums in Detroits casinos too.

Casinos will not draw people to Detroit by themselves. If I'm flying somewhere to gable it's Vegas.

However they will compliment a growing downtown and be great for big events that draw a lot of out of towners.

I still hate all of the lofts!!!
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Downtown_remix
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Username: Downtown_remix

Post Number: 477
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2007 - 10:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

lofts or rat infested slums..take your pick..We are also refering to our temporary casinos. If your from Ontario Canada and find out theres a full service MGM in Detroit, you may not wanna fly to Vegas after all.
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Miketoronto
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Username: Miketoronto

Post Number: 663
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2007 - 12:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Vegas is more then just hitting the slots. The new Vegas is more about entertainment, and is pushing that part more then ever.
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Ray
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Username: Ray

Post Number: 993
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Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2007 - 9:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The point is -- and I think its important and valid -- is that however much crime there is in Detroit, there is an hysteria in the suburbs that has no bearing on the actual risks.

I can vividly remember driving down mcnichols in high school and being truly terrified. Like that people in the next car would jump out and kill me. LOL. I know, it's pathetic.

Then I moved to big cities for 20 years. Now I drive through Detroit without a second thought. It just seems like a run-down part of Chicago. I'm sure it's possible to get robbed, but I really don't worry about it.

It reminds me 15 years ago driving to work in Chicago with my dad who was visiting from suburban Detroit. To avoid traffic on Clybourne, I cut around the less well traveled south end of a project (Cabrini) near downtown, which involves driving through some sketchy blocks (Larrabee to Oak for those who lived in Chicago). Anyway, I drove this way frequently and didn't think twice about it. Standard operating procedure.

But at a stop sign well past the project (east of Orleans, for Christ sake take a pill dad), I paused to rumage through my briefcase and there was this black guy walking past us. He stopped next to our car for some random reason (nothing do do with us), and I thought my dad was going to have a coronary. He freaked out and yells "Go, Go, Go" like were in a hot LZ in Viet Nam. I was just astounded and really irritated. So, of course I turned the engine off and opened the door, got out and asked the guy if he had the time. "8:15" he says.

We took our kids to the Belle Isle beach the other week. It was okay; I like Metro Beach better. Anyway, I told our neighbors this and they looked at me like I had committed child abuse.


All this has made me realize that with Detroit we are dealing with powerful fears that we can't just wish away or even explain or educate away. Fear is very primal.

By the way, my dad today is also pretty comfortable driving through at least Downtown, but you'd never get him to go to some totally innocuous but off-path place like Marygrove, for example.

(Message edited by ray on September 09, 2007)
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Ct4438
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Username: Ct4438

Post Number: 51
Registered: 08-2005
Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2007 - 10:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As a child, I never once spent an afternoon in Detroit because my father never wanted to venture into the city. Maybe it has more to do with his extreme dislike (borders on a phobia) of long lines, heavy traffic and crowds. But when I was a kid, I was so envious of others who'd gone to Tiger Stadium for a game with their parents!!

The only times I was ever in Detroit was on a school bus for some field trip, like to the Science Center. Or once to the Fisher Theater for a performance of "Kismet" many moons ago.

And my grandmother was so scared of Detroit that just before a weekend where I was going to drive out to Ypsilanti to visit EMU, and therefore was planning to take I-94 through the city, her words of advice were to make sure I locked my doors. As if someone would leap off an overpass onto my car as I zoomed by at 55+ mph.

And most people I knew during my younger years were raised to fear Detroit and were terrified at the thought of driving there. I remember being advised to run red lights to avoid being shot or attacked. Seriously.
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Yelloweyes
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Post Number: 186
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Posted on Monday, September 10, 2007 - 11:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My favorite is when I told my granma I was moving to Detroit, she said

"Detroit, isn't that all boarded up?"
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Detroitbill
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Username: Detroitbill

Post Number: 313
Registered: 09-2006
Posted on Monday, September 10, 2007 - 12:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

For some of us who have lived Downtown for 15 plus years and for some strange reason have perfectly good normal lives, we often scratch our heads reading some of these comments from people who live far away yet condemn our city ( and us) to a life of despair and abandonment. Put yourself in a good residential situation, and excercise proper caution that you should in any large city today and life is quite fine. No I wouldnt hang around in questionable neighborhoods, No, I wouldnt be walking around at 300 in the morning in too many places, Yes , I lock my car and excercise caution. I do that in any city I am in. If some of these people have dammed Detroit because they get confronted by homeless people before and after ball games I would suggest they not visit Toronto, San Francisco and Washington amongst others. In Cleveland three weeks ago there was a major clash with some homeless and citizens and police outside Jacobs Field. Unfortunately, this is a symbol of our society today. These people would be best to cloister themselves in their suburban environments if they are so fearful.
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Russix
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Username: Russix

Post Number: 47
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, September 10, 2007 - 6:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A visitor’s guide to Detroit:

If you own car, don't leave anything visible in the passenger compartment, certainly not pop bottles. It is outrageous how much glass from broken car windows lines the street in so-called safe neighborhood.

Protect your vehicle with an anti-theft device. This is not unique to Detroit, in Chicago its fairly common place to weld rebar loops to the floor to allow the owner to chain the steering wheel to the floor to prevent theft.

Do not insult or disrespect the panhandlers. The state has cut funding for mental intuitions which has made them release potential unstable persons on to the streets. There has been overwhelming evidence where persons who solicited for money that received a verbal insult was aggravated enough to turn criminal and rob you. Best advice: be polite and respectful even though you may find it rude to be solicited. The words "Sorry sir/madam I don't have any change" may save from the words "don't hurt me here's my wallet".

Don't leave your bicycle out at night. First it was the wheels that got ripped off. OK, I bought special skewers that required a specific tool to remove them. That stopped the wheels from being stolen. One night someone tried stealing it by placing a large piece of metal ripped from a nearby hand railing through the U-Lock and twisting it to make the lock snap. The amount of force to do this was astronomical. The bike was upside when I found it and the frame was so heavily destroyed that I wish they had succeed in stealing it. Moral of the story: As much as you try to protect your property in the street, the only real guarantee is to not leave it there. Unfortunately you can't bring you car inside, but there is no excuse for leaving your bike outside.

Escort your female companions’ home at night. It reduces their risk of crime 10 fold, plus its very gentlemen like as well.

Secure your windows and doors. If you are a person that owns property and rents/owns a stationary habitat, people without such means will try to steal from you or your premises. Living on the first floor above a Michigan basement of an apartment building for 4 years break-ins were quite frequent, fortunately for me they mostly were drunken friends trying to crash out someplace.

Beware of youth.
The Detroit public schools have a 44% drop rate; I'm going to guess that the majority is males. It is a crime than there are more black men in prison that in college, it reinforces that there is a problem not just in Detroit's schools but the nations schools in general. I'm not trying to start a frenzy of fear, I'm merely suggesting that persons who regard there personal safety maintain a distance from the potential of crime.

Detroit is a great and wonderful place to live. The future of this great city lies in the burial of past racial problems and a general acceptance to move forward and to live in harmony as equals.
If you object to this opinion you need not visit our city as we already have suffered enough from such views and will not tolerate such illmaners.

Enjoy your visit to Detroit!
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1594
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Monday, September 10, 2007 - 9:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It is a crime than there are more black men in prison that in college, it reinforces that there is a problem not just in Detroit's schools but the nations schools in general.

FYI, more black men are in college.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =ISSm41HNQFk

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2003836145_blackmen15.html

(Message edited by iheartthed on September 10, 2007)
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Russix
Member
Username: Russix

Post Number: 50
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - 7:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thank god, as a country that has the largest prison population(1 out of every 142 Americans) of developed nations it’s good to know that higher education figures are larger than prisoner counts. I officially retract my statement as its bias was word of mouth and my ignorance to not researching the facts is just plain unethical.

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