Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning January 2006 » Tell us about Detroit's future! « Previous Next »
Top of pageBottom of page

Rob
Member
Username: Rob

Post Number: 4
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 62.180.168.45
Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 6:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi, it's me again. Rob from Magdeburg, East Germany.

Feel invited and be part of my presentation on Detroit being a shrinking city! (Thursday, Dec. 15th, around 9:30 a.m. ET)

As a very special bonus I would like to give my study-mates first hand impressions by D's citizens themselves on how you feel about present Metro Detroit and its future.

In my presentation I'm going to outline some socio-economic aspects of detroit and its history like the genesis of industrial formation, the industrial boom, Detroit's industrial climax and decline leading to the emergence of a regional split up in city and suburbia. Within this outline I am going to focus on suburbanization and segregation.

Question1: Are things changing these days or is there still for example the trend of leaving the city for the suburbs whoever can afford it? What is changing? (visible things, e.g. architecture, or mentality-wise)
I needed to edit this one, because I didn't mean to get a comparison to the 50s/60s. Important to me is: What is the atmosphere like today?

Question2: How do you imagine Detroit within the next 10 years?

In addition: Being a kind of "bonus bonus" I would love to try a webcam-link-up via Skype in order to do a little (5 minutes) live-interview (same questions) in front of the other students. It would need to be at 10 a.m. ET and you should have a webcam as well :-)
If it is feasible and somebody is interested and has the time and could be that kind and cooperative it would be reeally awesome! Just write me a message! I'll be up almost all night long.

Thanks much in advance.

(Message edited by rob on December 14, 2005)
Top of pageBottom of page

Upinottawa
Member
Username: Upinottawa

Post Number: 70
Registered: 09-2005
Posted From: 198.103.184.76
Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 7:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Rob,

I was not alive in the 1950s or 1960s, but it would be difficult to underestimate the amount of change Detroit has seen since the 1950s. I will let others on the forum fill you in.
Top of pageBottom of page

Goat
Member
Username: Goat

Post Number: 7888
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 64.228.193.187
Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 7:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Rob,
Detroit is not the same as it was in the '50s. In about 1952 Detroit's poplation was 2 million. Today it sits around 890,000. The demographics have changed as well. In the 1950's Detroit was predominently white while today it is predominently black.

Detroit has also lost a lot of the middle income residents who fled to the suburbs. Today it is either poor or high middle class to upper class that is left. Crime became rampant and drove even more citizens out of the city.

Today there is a re-emerging of the city. The downtown area is being transformed and new investments are happening daily. Some neighbourhoods are seeing a turn around with older homes being renovated and new houses being built in the vacant lots that permeate every neighbourhood in the city boundaries. One problem that is still evident is that unemployment is still high (about 17%)and many of the investments in the city are either happening in the downtown area or in smaller neighbourhoods. It has yet to trickle down to the rest of the city. We all hope for the best of course. What took 50 years to destroy will probably take 100 years to build.

There are many on this forum that will be able to give you proper data (jt1 comes to mind) and many can show you pics of things in the past compared to today.

The transformation of the city from a "world class city" to decay to "re-emergance" all in 50 years is quite an astonishing feat. Especially since Detroit has been largly ignored by the Federal (and to a point State) governments.
Top of pageBottom of page

Rob
Member
Username: Rob

Post Number: 5
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 213.7.240.189
Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 8:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks Goat!

"re-emergance" will be quoted :-)
Top of pageBottom of page

Jjw
Member
Username: Jjw

Post Number: 19
Registered: 10-2005
Posted From: 68.33.206.90
Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 9:26 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

East Germany???????
Top of pageBottom of page

Bvos
Member
Username: Bvos

Post Number: 1145
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 70.227.207.200
Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2005 - 3:48 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gutten Tag Herr Rob,

Meine Deutch ist nicht so gut. Er sprecke English now.

Don't know if you understood that, I appologize since my German has gotten quite rusty since High School.

I don't know if you've seen this article or not, but it is one of the best I've seen on shrinking cities and Detroit. It also includes some discussion and comparison to Germany and other European countries:

http://www.metrotimes.com/edit orial/story.asp?id=5718


Question 1:

People are still leaving the city in large numbers. Currently arround 1,000 people a month move out of the city of Detroit. Most of the white residents of the city that want to move out have already left. The largest flight of people from Detroit today are middle and upper middle class African American families. The African American families are moving to the suburbs of Detroit or to other thriving metropolitan areas friendly to African Americans like Washington DC and Atlanta.

As Goat stated the downtown, neighborhoods close to downtown as well as the neighborhoods along Woodward Avenue (the major north/south road in metro Detroit) are undergoing a significant renaissance.

This redevelopment is largely happening in neighborhoods where the architecture of the buildings (homes, commercial buildings, etc.) are interesting and significant. There are many young people who grew up in the suburbs that are moving back to the city for the culture, architecture, lifestyle, etc. They see value and vitality in Detroit and its old neighborhoods, even with the blight and problems around them.


Question 2.

In 10 years I see Detroit undergoing incredible revitalization in the areas mentioned above and that redevelopment activity starting to spread from those neighborhoods. I also think that the neighborhoods outside of the ones mentioned above will continue to decline rapidly as they are currently doing. You will beging to have a city of the well-to-do living in redeveloping neighborhoods and the extremely poor stuck in deteriorating neighborhoods.

As far as the webcam thing, it sounds interesting but I don't have the knowledge or equipment to do something like that. You Germans and your technology (ha, ha, ha!)!

Good luck on your project. It sounds like it will be great.
Top of pageBottom of page

Goat
Member
Username: Goat

Post Number: 7898
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 67.71.67.71
Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2005 - 3:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bump for our German friend...
Top of pageBottom of page

Rob
Member
Username: Rob

Post Number: 8
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 141.44.226.90
Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 - 11:39 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks for bumping but I was terrible holding the presentation (I'm suffering a horrible time-self-management:-) but the content was in a way very subtle.
Bvos' statement got copied into pres and analyzing detroitblog.org was a "milestone" for me.

Big up to boardies involved!
Top of pageBottom of page

Digitaldom
Member
Username: Digitaldom

Post Number: 376
Registered: 08-2004
Posted From: 67.149.110.53
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 12:22 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Lowell would be the person I think would be the best to have a web cast, he as the knowledge as does supersport.
Top of pageBottom of page

Aldermandavis
Member
Username: Aldermandavis

Post Number: 3
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 198.208.159.18
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 1:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

1. I think the trend is to move to the city. City is sending section 8 and lower class to the suburbs in hopes of reclaiming the city.

2. As far as Detroit in 10 years...well you can ask yourself one question...Where do you see the GM, Chrysler, and Ford in 10 years?
Top of pageBottom of page

1953
Member
Username: 1953

Post Number: 647
Registered: 12-2004
Posted From: 209.104.146.146
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 1:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroit's population exodus, which began in 1953, continues today, though its rate has slowed and may level off entirely within a decade.

One of my personal goals is not to die until Detroit has 8 million residents.

Add Your Message Here
Posting is currently disabled in this topic. Contact your discussion moderator for more information.