 
French777
Member
Username: French777
Post Number: 431
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 6:34 pm: |    |
Would you rather time travel to Detroit's past
lets say 1870's, 1950 or 2050
I personally would rather go back to the 1950's because the future is just bigger,thinner TV's and faster computers and such |
Crumbled_pavement
Member
Username: Crumbled_pavement
Post Number: 362
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 6:52 pm: | |
Well my opinion is biased but I don't think 1870's Detroit, or 1950's Detroit for that matter, would accept me. That being said I would rather have 2050's Detroit.... |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 2030
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 6:53 pm: | |
I'm perfectly fine right here.
There's no telling if we're going to see 2009, let along 2050.
In addition, I'm with Crumbled_pavement. I would feel rather out of place in the 1800s and early 1900s. |
Bobceng
Member
Username: Bobceng
Post Number: 117
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 7:47 am: | |
I think the period 1925-28 would have been the most interesting to experience. A real mix of technology (auto/horse, gas/electric, first aircraft), but any of us would probably be able to blend in, get around, talk about subjects of the day, etc. The activity would be astounding.
And think about catching a tigers game at Navin Field (Briggs by then?)! |
Jman
Member
Username: Jman
Post Number: 161
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 8:28 am: | |
I'll take some parts of the 50's and 60's and some parts of today. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3073
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 12:38 pm: | |
Oh, give me 1870! I was in my teens and beyond in the 1950s, so been there, done that. Having grave doubts about the future, forget me for 2050. Y'all will be rioting over energy by then as the oil reserves peter out. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 530
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 12:50 pm: | |
French777...I will take a tip from your moniker & go off the board for a trip to Detroit in 1701.
I would like to do some some fishing down by the river; want to be present for Cadillac's arrival. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3075
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 1:38 pm: | |
It would be interesting to see how wide the Detroit River was in 1701, Chuck. There's been an awful lot of landfill on both sides in the last 300 years that has narrowed it. And Belle Isle would sure look different, too. Bet the water would be crystal clear. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 531
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008 - 3:09 pm: | |
Ray1936....Yes - the cool clear waters; can you imagine the fishing, the hunting...and fertile soil.
After a few months, I'd head north to Copper Country; stake a claim for some serious placer nuggets and boulders. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 260
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 2:27 am: | |
and you get to buy land out in the burbs dirt cheap. |
Kahnman
Member
Username: Kahnman
Post Number: 50
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 3:21 am: | |
And just think, the "urban prairie" would just be the "prairie"... |
Bobceng
Member
Username: Bobceng
Post Number: 129
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 10:48 am: | |
Yeah, you could become the King of Melvindale, Ecorse, River Rouge, Rockwood, your choice! |
Mackinaw
Member
Username: Mackinaw
Post Number: 4719
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 11:00 am: | |
1950 had plenty of social problems, but I'd want to be there just to take in what Detroit was like at its mostly highly functioning level, with transit, density, and a downtown that was the center of everything. And I could also protest "urban renewal" and the highway projects.
That said, let's live for today and make Detroit better in 2050. |
Thegryphon
Member
Username: Thegryphon
Post Number: 52
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 11:43 am: | |
1940s all the way |
Otter
Member
Username: Otter
Post Number: 143
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 1:00 pm: | |
I would love to be able to visit Detroit in 1950 - I find the midcentury modern era interesting in many ways - but 2050 beats all. I wanna see the future! It's all about the future, baby! |
Bobceng
Member
Username: Bobceng
Post Number: 137
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 1:55 pm: | |
OK, I'll give them 'til 2050; by that time I'll be 98. If they don't get it together by then, I'm outta' here. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 174
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 2:08 pm: | |
I would choose Detroit's future. I think that it will be better than ever. |
Gistok
Member
Username: Gistok
Post Number: 6757
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 2:22 pm: | |
I would pick the 1940's to visit some of Detroit's now vanished movie palaces... the old Mayanesque style Fisher, the Hollywood, the Grand Riviera, the Downtown RKO, and the Madison. And of course I would like to have seen the National, the Michigan and the United Artists before their ruinous state. |
Rax
Member
Username: Rax
Post Number: 253
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 3:24 pm: | |
I think I'd go back to like 1986. I think that might be the most interesting time of all. |
Chris_rohn
Member
Username: Chris_rohn
Post Number: 438
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 3:36 pm: | |
1870's. Run for mayor. Win.
Lobby the state for the nation's first "green belt" with a radius of 10 miles to 50 miles from Campus Maritus. After all, its all timber/farmland anyway.
Return to 2008 and see how awesome it is.
(Message edited by chris_rohn on May 02, 2008) |
Mschievous
Member
Username: Mschievous
Post Number: 37
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 3:39 pm: | |
Be nice if we could go back to the 50s, make a few changes and see how they'd affect us now.
I'd love to experience Detroit neighborhoods again before Dutch Elm disease took over those beautiful trees. I remember walking to school, caterpillars and worms all over the sidewalks and streets in the spring. Remember when we had to identify the different trees in the city by picking various leaves? Remember raking and burning the leaves in the neighborhood and how wonderful it all smelled? Driving down the Blvd under the bridge that said "do not blow horn", with your father blowing the horn as you went onto Belle Isle? I wouldn't want to experience the race issues we had then but I do have a certain amount of nostaligia for that era.
And how do you spell nostalgia, anyway? |
Retroit
Member
Username: Retroit
Post Number: 35
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 8:17 pm: | |
I'd pick any time in the first 3 decades of the 20th Century. Detroit was booming: went from 13th largest city in America to 4th, dozens of car manufacturers, hundreds of auto suppliers, downtown buildings growing ever higher, no city/suburb animosity. True, there was racial discrimination unfortunately, but not the racial tension/upheavals that later came to define Detroit. |
Sludgedaddy
Member
Username: Sludgedaddy
Post Number: 36
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 10:50 pm: | |
Sherman, Set the Wayback Machine to Detroit of the early 1960's.....White Castle Pimp Steaks went for 12 cents a pop. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 261
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, May 03, 2008 - 3:39 am: | |
i,m a car guy so i,d have to pick somewhere between the 1955 and 1970. could stash parts for my 65 comet and parts for older cars, would love to see the production line at the olympia, or Al Kaline at Briggs. or even better the 57 Lions WORLD CHAMPS. Good idea but don,t mess up the space time deal. |
Swede1934
Member
Username: Swede1934
Post Number: 45
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, May 03, 2008 - 6:06 pm: | |
It would be fun to go back to 1951 and the 250th anniversary bash. The free shows in GCP, the HUGE parade down Woodward and Jefferson, and the airshow at DTW. |