  Mccarus Member Username: Mccarus Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2006 |
Please check out the audio archives of Michigannow.org for our public radio report on the place. Regarding the homeless man's claims, I'm reminded of how Origins of the Urban Crisis describes the destruction of the black neighborhoods and their displacement. But I've seen gentrification by both blacks and whites in NYC ghetto's I've lived in. And I'm reminded of Dave Bing's quote in the Free Press a couple months ago. "You can't have a city full of poor people." | ||
48202 Member Username: 48202 Post Number: 48 Registered: 10-2003 |
The report at Michigannow.org being referenced is ‘Commerce Centers – Detroit and Others’. Thank you, Chris. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 1081 Registered: 10-2006 |
Down here in Charlotte, NC the local fox station did a story on gentrification. One of the black people that they interviewed said something like this, "White people move out (flee) to the suburbs and blacks get mad; white people move back to the city, and blacks get mad." http://defendcharlotte.com/gen trification.htm I found that comment to be an interesting summary I suppose, but quite a bit over simplified. Seems to me that black people should be mad. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 526 Registered: 10-2003 |
I'm mad too, because a once great city was destroyed by hate and neglet before I ever got a chance to even see it thriving. I'm mad that people don't have the motivation to pick up a rake or a paintbrush or a garbage bag and take care of their property. I'm mad people don't get involved enough to vote out a pack of criminals who do nothing but take what few resources the city has and put it in their pockets or the pockets of their friends. Gentrification? If you aren't taking care of something, don't get pissed when someone comes along who does. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 1083 Registered: 10-2006 |
But Johnlodge there is little incentive to take care of something that you are not invested in, such as the property that you rent, or the parking lot of the local business that you go to. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 530 Registered: 10-2003 |
You are right Charlottepaul. But the owners could take care of it. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 896 Registered: 04-2006 |
The issue with gentrification isn't white people coming in... it's white people coming in and significantly driving up the cost of living for people who have made their homes in the area for years, thus they can't afford to live their anymore. Along with all the new influx of new faces and money usually comes significant quality of life improvements as well, which long time residents aren't able to enjoy because they are being priced out. How can anyone not see how this would make someone bitter? | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 9284 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: That may apply to renters but Detroit still has a high % of home ownership. If anything it should be embraced by people that own their homes. NOw if someone is intentionally driving down property value to get land chaep that is another story. That however did not happen in Brush Park. The idea that anytime white people move into a poor area or predominatley black area being gentrification is silly. Call me an ass if you want but it seems to me a city would prefer to have homeowners over renters anyday and would do what they can to get more homeowners. Gentrification gets bandied around too often on these boards and is used as a catch-all for market rate new construction or a changing demographic. That is not always the case. | ||
Solarflare Member Username: Solarflare Post Number: 574 Registered: 11-2003 |
quote: BULLSHIT. My landlord never mowed my lawn, I did. I never let trash lay around. Is this a city full of invalids? What a shitty attitude. Being lazy is being lazy. You wanna live in squalor, live in squalor, but it's YOUR choice. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 5981 Registered: 02-2004 |
Gentrification of North Brush Park is here, now and forever and its going the change the face from the ghettohoods to a real neighborhoods again. You all should take a look what happen what's left of the Jeffries Projects on MLK BLVD and Lodge FWY. Since The DHC closed the place down all the windows had been stripped away clean and a large steel fence is in place. After the place is being torn down. Gentrification will come in and "voila" new single family and condos made hot and ready from "NOUVEAU RICHE" folks. The low-income folks who used to live at the Jeffrey Projects are actually being displaced by urban renewal and that's way it is in Detroit and other U.S. cities. The inner city will not a ghetto anymore within 20 to 50 years. | ||
Lizaanne Member Username: Lizaanne Post Number: 15 Registered: 06-2007 |
So then - let's choose: +++Status quo - burned out hovels and drugs and guns or +++Well maintained homes, thriving businesses, and lucrative tourism I vote for choice number two. And in the process, the city needs to consider those who still need low income housing, but at the same time are willing to maintain their homes. I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with someone who has a lower income than I - as long as they know how to pick the crap up off their lawn, drag the garbage cans in every week, and don't sell drugs out of their kitchen, or beat their wives and children. This city deserves better. We all deserve better. If someone wants to live like a thug, then they can find somewhere else. Or change their lifestyle and live like normal folk and quit their bellyaching about being "repressed". ~Liza | ||
Ray Member Username: Ray Post Number: 903 Registered: 06-2004 |
Items to take off your list of things to worry about: Aliens from Mars invading Earth Being hounded by fans after you become a movie star Gentrification driving poor people out of Detroit | ||
Dougw Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 1731 Registered: 11-2003 |
LOL. It's true that there's such a miniscule amount of gentrification/displacement occurring in Detroit right now that it's probably not even worth talking about. Let's check back in 20 years when there might actually be some gentrification occurring, and we can talk about any negative side effects then. | ||
Cynknight Member Username: Cynknight Post Number: 87 Registered: 11-2003 |
Definition - GENTRIFICATION (from Answers.com) : "The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people." I'm afraid that I don't see the problem with gentrification as it applies to modern day Detroit. There are many, many areas of the city that offer places for lower-income people to go. And the idea of restoring and upgrading deteriorated urban property sounds wonderful. No, I'm not in favor of taking away a person's home just because of their income level. But let's get real. In Detroit today there are too many landowners who can't or won't maintain their properties, and too many renters who choose not to take any pride in where they live. It doesn't cost much to keep a yard mowed and weeded, and that trash is contained. | ||
Tkelly1986 Member Username: Tkelly1986 Post Number: 307 Registered: 01-2004 |
Iheartthed I see your point about the "standard of living" raising and people not being able to enjoy it, but if you want to play devil's advocate, you could argue the former white resident’s of the city were forced out as well, as they had to sell before their property was worth nothing at all. I had this conversation with an older friend of mine a while back and he said that it broke his heart to leave, but he saw the neighbourhood changing and it was not race that drove him out at all, it was the fear of his home being worth nothing in the near future. Moreover, he was right, as I recall he said his home was on one of the blocks in the city that is pretty much no longer there; maybe 3 houses still standing (I can’t remember where though). So, blacks being bitter ect…because they are being forced out is just maybe part of the cycle that happened to the previous residents years before them. |
