  Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3703 Registered: 04-2006 |
Well that's what happens when there are more houses than people... | ||
Gene Member Username: Gene Post Number: 182 Registered: 10-2006 |
Gene: Please explain your quote: "The house across the street from me just went on the market for $97,000, two years ago it sold for $178,000 Obama and Jenny will only make matters worse." Are you arguing for a return to Bush/Engler? Bobl,I wish I could explain why my neighborhood has turned to shit, and why property values are what they are. Obama and Jenny were elected with no real world experience, no record of any kind of meaningful accomplishment, a few glib words and a smile will only take you so far. No, I don't want the return of Bush/Engler, I want honest people in government who pay their taxes and will work toward bi-partisan legislation without regard to party line..(fat chance of that happening) | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 441 Registered: 07-2008 |
My father passed a few months ago. Lived just north of 8 Mile Rd. Within a month, the aluminum ramp we installed to accommodate his wheel chair was removed by scrappers. Seven homes for sale on one block behind his. The earlier post about the inner suburbs going the way of Detroit neighborhoods in the next thirty years might be quite optimistic. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 3848 Registered: 01-2005 |
Yeah, one of my childhood homes is a vacant lot, also. But here's a contrast. From 1938 to 1941, we lived in two homes in Grand Rapids. I revisited them two years ago to take photos, and they are both there in absolutely beautiful neighborhoods, with every house looking, well, "spiffy", to use a term of the day.  | ||
Thames Member Username: Thames Post Number: 368 Registered: 02-2007 |
Sorry for your loss Bobl | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5634 Registered: 04-2005 |
quote: You have to take into account that some of this is due to the banking collapse and all of the foreclosures, not just the neighborhood/area that the houses are in. I'm in a small town 40 miles north of Detroit, and we have houses on almost every block abandoned and up for sale/auction. | ||
English Member Username: English Post Number: 417 Registered: 10-2003 |
So what do we do about this? We've been mourning the loss of mid-20th century Detroit for nearly a half century now. I grew up in late 20th century Detroit, and never had much to mourn to begin with. My family's homes were always nice and well-maintained, inside and out, but blight was a fact of life. I don't remember the city without it, and I'm well into my 30s. My family has been here for nearly 100 years, and they've seen Detroit's huge boom between the wars, then slow decline in the 1950s before the riots... and then the last hellish 40 years. So while I feel very sad for the mourning and loss, for the "look at what they did to our neighborhoods!" sentiment, while I appreciate that wholeheartedly, I've been hearing it my entire life... and all the while, the sweeping, widescale mass cultural, social, and economic change needed in this region never happens. What can be done today - in 2009 - to make things better? We all know what we can do individually, but we're all in this together. How can we change the course of Detroit's future in a radical, sweeping way? | ||
Baselinepunk Member Username: Baselinepunk Post Number: 80 Registered: 03-2007 |
"Actually (with the exception of a small 48205 void), much of NE & NW Detroit looks better than all the inner ring suburbs (IMO) Ferndale may have something to say about that posit. My house (West Longwood) is still standing and in pretty darn good shape. Someone bought it a while back and fixed it up. Looks better than it did when we lived in it. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 649 Registered: 06-2007 |
"You can always tell where Goldengate is because what used to be that "nice" house, is now a lot that usually has a truck and a semi parked on it." I think Ive seen that place. I thought it was on Robinwood, though. That truck cab always sitting on a residential block pretty much stands out.The minute I read that I knew wat you were talking about. How about the neighborhood just south of there, off McNichols. Cardoni and those streets. Talk about abandoned.Almost every remaining house is vacant. | ||
Eastsideal Member Username: Eastsideal Post Number: 256 Registered: 10-2007 |
quote: Great post. A recognition that dependence on an automotive old industrial economy is over, and isn't coming back, and some serious attempt at building a truly diversified economy with jobs above near minimum wage service level would probably be a damn good start. | ||
Frankg Member Username: Frankg Post Number: 727 Registered: 08-2007 |
The house I grew up in at 12121 Wilshire has been burned down for many years now. However, I noticed the interior of the house that Clint Eastwood lived in for the movie Gran Torino has the exact same floor layout and basement. My grandparents house in Wilshire across the street and half a block down is still standing and fairly well taken care of. My other grandparents house at 11768 Kilbourne (near Gratiot) was vacant and was on the list to be demolished. However, the last few times I drove by there it appeared someone is living in it and they were fixing it up with new windows, porch, etc. My great-grandparents house at 3754 Field Street has been torn down for along time now, along with the house next to it where my great-grandpa's brother lived. A house my great-grandfather built (and my grandfather lived in for a time) is still standing, on Crane, and appears to be the best-kept house on the block. In the entire neighborhood, in fact. My great-grandparents house at the corner of Meldrum and Mack has been gone forever. Same with their house at 238 Maple (old numbering) near Eastern Market. Same with my other great-grandparent's home on Antietem. That whole neighborhood was demolished back in the 1950's. Despite all these houses gone now, the Roseberry Confectionary is still there and open, the place where I would spend my entire allowance on candy every week. | ||
Softailrider Member Username: Softailrider Post Number: 265 Registered: 02-2007 |
Chicago was able to transform itself, I remember when I was a kid my parents used to take us to Chicage for long weekends. I can recall being around the stockyard area, the smell would almost kill you back then. Now, all that is gone and replaced by low to mid income housing and other stuff. Of course, Chicage never lost it's entire middle class tax base either. | ||
Acme_pie Member Username: Acme_pie Post Number: 8 Registered: 12-2008 |
I've lived in Detroit, and still do, for 54 of my 59 years. I get just a little tired of "ex" Detroiters constantly complaining about how the neighborhoods have changed. Of course they will change! If people would just stay put in a particular area and work to maintain or improve that enviroment rather than tucking their tails between their legs and running to the "next save" haven, this city would still be viable. | ||
Janesback Member Username: Janesback Post Number: 504 Registered: 08-2006 |
looks like the elderly suffer as well, especially when they are all alone in these deserted neighborhoods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =hHr2mLQZUtU | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3704 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: You can say that again... For all those who have ever wondered why people leave metro Detroit at first opportunity, and almost never return. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 4444 Registered: 02-2004 |
My house on Grandmont St. is gone. Never to seen ever again. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 4445 Registered: 02-2004 |
When seeing the video from you tube, an senior white Detroiter ( probably the last) in the neighborhood she grew up had become a instant prisoner in her own brick home. This all started circa 50 years ago. This white woman ( she may have a family a long time ago) moved into a nice brick 3 bedroom bunaglow in Detroit's West Side. The neighborhood at the time was mostly white, just keeping up the Joneses. The neighborhood was very beautiful filled with manicured lawns, flowing plants in the front yards and trees covered the sky like a forest. White kids playing outside and the musical sounds of the Good Humor Ice Cream Truck riding down the street luring kids with their nickels and dimes to buy the ice cream. White Detroit neighbors sitting outside in their front porches relaxing, and reading their newspapers, paperback novels and magazines. Some of them are at the backyard throwing a shimp on the barbie or fixing their cars in the wooden garages. This White Detroiter woman, in her days, from her brick home once has a husband and kids and they set along with other white neighborhoods. Sometimes they invite each other to their homes and share gossip and news about their neighbors and the communities. next to her block there are mom and pop retail stores from Cunningham Drugs to Woolworths where you can buy to five and dime thrifty goods. All went well in her neighborhood until something strange is about to happen. As the years went by, a mysterious moving van and a sloppy truck filled with valubles come in front of the house just across the street from the brick house. It was "Negro" family. An African American couple with seven children, 4 boys and 3 girls bought a 3 bedroom wood gable bungalow. After they have moved into the house. Lots of White Detroiters were furious. They said " N----r's!, N----r's in our neighborhood" The message spread like wild fire. But the White Detroit woman with her family welcome them with open arms and invite them to their brick house across the street( but in secret). Even the black kids spend their night in their brick bungalow and the white kids sleep over their home, too. Later fewer white Detroit families banned to together with the Detroit Real Estate Association to buy the house from the black family, but the black family is well aware of restrictive covenant laws and segregation and they can have the power to sue anyone who violates HUD policies. In a matter of fact the black father of the household plans to buy a gun and a baseball bat for defensive purposes. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 3853 Registered: 01-2005 |
Huh? | ||
Detroitbred Member Username: Detroitbred Post Number: 221 Registered: 06-2008 |
Sometimes Danny scares me! What does all that mean? | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5643 Registered: 04-2005 |
Sometimes Danny scares us all. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 4446 Registered: 02-2004 |
The plan to buy the house from a black family failed. By the late 1960s came. More white families began to move out the neighhorhood and into to suburbs where they could live a peace in the small cookie cutter ranch and bungalows and to make sure that no black families buying those suburban homes. The white woman ( now middle age including her husband) is not giving up her brick home. Her kids are now grew up and started to move away to college. The first black family who move into the wooden gable bungalow across the street decided to move away futher to the northwest Detroit area at the W. 7 Mile Rd. and Southfield FWY. area and decided to rent the home to a low-income black family that the black mother is on welfare and food stamps while the drunken black father workes hard like a rolling stone. By the 1970s the Detroit neighborhood is in its tranformation to become a ghetto. Black kids are playing outside, some huddle together to form gangs to defend themselves from other growing neighborhood gangs. Most of them are doing lots of mischief. There are fights with punches and knives. Then sudden the street pushers came into the neighborhood selling marijuana, heroine, LSD and exotic junk. Later came the CRACK. Then the last white couple now their 50s, who lived their wooden colonial at the corner sold their home to a middle income black family and move away to Farmington Hills, MI. There were robberies and shootings, even next door from the brick bungalow where the white woman and her husband live. In the house The White husband said to wife "Let's move out of here." But the white woman said no. Her son and daugther tried to persuade her but she refused. By the 1980s came The white Detroit woman (who has aged more) saw her husband sick and in pain in bed and in tears. Then he died suddenly in his sleep. The poor white Detroit woman cried in grief. Later her family buried him in Historic Elmwood Cemetary in Mt. Elliot between E. Vernor and E. Lafayette St. The white Detroit woman is all alone in her brick bungalow trying to cope. By the 1990s The whole Detroit block and the surrounding areas was in shambles. Most middle class black Detroit families started to move to better Detroit neighborhoods. Other sought housing opportunities in Oak Park, Southfield and Lathrup Village. Fewer low-income black families, especially single black mothers with lots of kids started to move into the neighborhood by HUD, ADC vouchers and slumlords. More trouble looms from each and every house in the block. Most of the mom and pop retail stores are long gone. Replaced by Arab-Owned Liquor Stores and collision shops, Storefront Black churches, Motorcycle Clubs, Black owned Barber and Beauty Salons. The rest of retail strips are either burned out rubbles and bricked or boarded up and become vacant lots. Most Detroit homes in the ghettohood had caught on fire by firebomb due to gang activity, set on fire by arsonists to get the insurance money. Slumlords sold the homes to the City of Detroit for cheap money, but the city will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to rehab the homes. Therefore it become instant vacant eyesores. Most low-income blacks have move out due to unfair conditions and city code violations. By the new millenium, the Poor White Detroit woman now old can't sell her brick bungalow for the Detroit ghettohood is a total blight! She can sell the house to the City of Detroit but only a cheap money and she need more money of the property value price to either buy or rent another home, condo or apt. Her family have moved away out of state to other cities for better jobs so there's nothing she could do sell her home. Every day and night she looks at her blighted Detroit ghettohood. All of neighbors both black and white are gone. All of the senior white Detroit woman has is her good time memories. She will live in that brick bungalow all alone until the day she die. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5644 Registered: 04-2005 |
Is this supposed to be a story about perseverance, or a story to tell white people to get out of Detroit, or a story to convince all people to get out of Detroit? | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 3422 Registered: 07-2004 |
Hell, I'm happy to find a pile of bricks for an ancestor's house anymore. Seems half the time the freakin' STREET is gone as well. | ||
Janesback Member Username: Janesback Post Number: 505 Registered: 08-2006 |
Danny, the white lady may have not been able to afford to move after her husband tragically died. You know, they thought they were set for life, that it was going to be a safe white neighborhood, until the riot. Then they were still OK in staying , as the black families that did live on their block were their friends and neighbors. The black children played with the white children, and this white elderly lady saw no color in her logic, so why not stay Sadly, the middle class black families noticed crime begin to rise, drugs became rampant, so yes Danny, they moved , just as you stated, leaving this poor white lady to fend on her own. So, had she sold as did her former neighbors, then she would not be stuck in this hell hole.... Danny, what do you think the city should do when she called on the telephone , begging for help? What do you think the Mayor should do, to help this poor lady? Jane | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 3588 Registered: 10-2003 |
Sometimes you just gotta know when to ignore Danny... | ||
Benfield Member Username: Benfield Post Number: 89 Registered: 06-2008 |
Danny's story is probably generally correct. If not for this specific person, for many elderly white women living alone in a decent house in a formerly decent Detroit neighborhood. I'd say Danny nailed it, in his unique way. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 4448 Registered: 02-2004 |
Folks I have used this dramalization of the poor elderly White Detroit woman and her life in the Detroit ghettohood to show what happens if segregation gobble up Detroit like the Cookie Monster. Communities will change due to ethnic migration and flight. Take Dearborn for example On the Eastborn area, ( Dearborns's East Side, East Dearborn) Once a thriving German/Polish Community in the 1930s than became a quick Italian Community in 1940s tothe 1960s Become a full blown Arab muslim community from the 1970s to present. Oak Park, Once a White community in 1920s then a full blown Jewish/Chaldean community from the 1950s to the 1980s ( Some Hasidic Jews are still in the area as long they have their community synagogue for Shabbot Services. ) Now a black community. Same goes with Southfield. What would happen of ethnic communities in Detroit and suburbs change in by the year 2109? Maybe a new Alien race will take over and build their exotic homes and businesses or esle they would leave it a eyesore waiting to gentrified. (Message edited by danny on February 02, 2009) | ||
Islandman Member Username: Islandman Post Number: 1878 Registered: 08-2004 |
Dramatalization. Danny, I may start using this in regular conversation and see how many people catch it.  | ||
Detroitbred Member Username: Detroitbred Post Number: 222 Registered: 06-2008 |
I think the Aliens are already here...Danny. | ||
Wintersmommy Member Username: Wintersmommy Post Number: 11 Registered: 12-2008 |
I recently found the addresses for the home my mother grew up in on San Juan in the D, and the home my grandfather grew up in on California in Highland Park. I told my mom once the weather gets nicer we will go look at the homes..my guess is that they are both still standing though i have no real reason to belive so |
