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Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline

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Funky Papa said:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089,00.html

The transformation from industrial stronghold to America's sinkhole is something to behold. The city has really gone to the dogs. I wonder if there's something left worth saving...
Click to expand...

reliques_05.jpg


Looks like a scene out of Gears of War. Destroyed beauty.
 
Hmm, reminds me of Chernobyl and other soviet era ruins.
 
The photos make the city look like a wonderful place for photography and urban exploration. I wonder if you need special media credentials to get into those places. There's probably some tourism money in it for the city if photographers don't get hassled too much by cops or security guards.
 
They are all incredible. A wise filmmaker would get cracking on a film that used those locations. Session 9 made great use of Danvers.
 
Anyone actually ever been to Detroit?

It's not as bad as the mainstream paints it to be. There have been several renovations, improvements, expansions etc. since the Super Bowl and believe it or not Wrestlemania.
Things were starting to look up for awhile and the people were very optimistic.

But yes, the city is rotting and a shell of it's former self. There's no denying that. No sir.

However blame it's more recent decline on most of the retarded population for electing a brain damaged, racist ass Mayor with delusions of grandeur and superstardom and 'tard of a governor who doesn't know what the hell she's doing. Not to mention the failure to adapt to a post-industrialized society and holding onto the glory days of GM/Ford's domination.

Pride, pride, and more pride.
 
chaostrophy said:
The photos make the city look like a wonderful place for photography and urban exploration. I wonder if you need special media credentials to get into those places. There's probably some tourism money in it for the city if photographers don't get hassled too much by cops or security guards.
Click to expand...

Bingo. It made me wanna go, real bad.
 
chaostrophy said:
The photos make the city look like a wonderful place for photography and urban exploration. I wonder if you need special media credentials to get into those places. There's probably some tourism money in it for the city if photographers don't get hassled too much by cops or security guards.
Click to expand...

I lived in detroit for 2 years and still go to school there. I live right next door. It is great for photography. I have some great pics of the buildings and you can go into these places. It's not entirely legal but the chances of getting in trouble for it are very low. The cops have better things to worry about. Your biggest concern is the homeless. They are mostly nice and wont rob you or anything but there is a chance you can get jumped. I'm always worried about walking around with a 1000 dollar camera in some spots. I'll host some pics and get them in here soon. I don't have my best stuff on my comp but I'll see what i can do.
 
Buckethead said:
Anyone actually ever been to Detroit?

It's not as bad as the mainstream paints it to be. There have been several renovations, improvements, expansions etc. since the Super Bowl and believe it or not Wrestlemania.
Things were starting to look up for awhile and the people were very optimistic.

But yes, the city is rotting and a shell of it's former self. There's no denying that. No sir.

However blame it's recent decline on most of the retarded population for electing a brain damaged, racist ass Mayor with delusions of grandeur and superstardom and 'tard of a governor who doesn't know what the hell she's doing.
Click to expand...
I went there in 2000 and I thought it was a shithole. It was extremely evident when I went to Windsor. The two places were like a light/dark contrast only separated by a river.
 
Detroit's not very much violent these days as it is slowly being deserted due to horrible management. The city can get pretty ugly when wandering into the wrong areas. Hell, even the right areas got bleak spots. It's pretty unfortunate. I'd love to move to another metropolitan area, but everything I know is here :-/
 
Half of the adult population cannot read.
80% of the students do not graduate high school.
Unemployment is over 20%.
The major was jailed because of lying on the stand, and probably had a stripper killed after she attended a party at the mayoral mansion.
Most of the city government has been under investigation by the FBI for corruption.

What do you want from us?
 
sk3 said:
Half of the adult population cannot read.
80% of the students do not graduate high school.
Unemployment is over 20%.
The major was jailed because of lying on the stand, and probably had a stripper killed after she attended a party at the mayoral mansion.
Most of the city government has been under investigation by the FBI for corruption.

What do you want from us?
Click to expand...
I dunno about the first one, but yes, the rest is definitely real.

Okay, I can't claim to know the exact numbers, but this is pretty close to my knowledge.




Wait til you guys hear how many mayoral races there are!:lol
 
Living overseas as a kid, my first exposure to Detroit was through Robocop 1 and 2.

Ironic now that my sister works just outside the city.
 
I love how the Manoogian Mansion party is slowly being converted from myth to reality by the media. Every other week it's "MORE EVIDENCE ON THE MYSTERIOUS MANOOGIAN MANSION PARTY".

Like, come on dude. We knew it happened years ago.:lol
 
sk3 said:
Half of the adult population cannot read.
80% of the students do not graduate high school.
Unemployment is over 20%.
The major was jailed because of lying on the stand, and probably had a stripper killed after she attended a party at the mayoral mansion.
Most of the city government has been under investigation by the FBI for corruption.

What do you want from us?
Click to expand...


Sounds like a Sin City style noir story in the making.
 
Sufjan Stevens said:
"Oh Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head"

Once a great place. Now a prison.
All I can say. All I can do.
People Mover: Bad Decision.
From suburban. Now a prison.
All I can say. All I can do.

From the trembling walls. It's a great idea!
Everything you want. It's a great idea!

Once a great place. Now a prison.
All I can say. All I can do.

Henry Ford. Henry Ford.
Public Trans. Public Trans.
Pontiac. Pontiac.
Feed the poor. Feed the poor.
City Hall. City Hall.
Windsor Park. Windsor Park.
Saginaw. Saginaw.
After dark. After dark.
Tigers game. Tigers game.
Eighty-four. Eighty-four.
Industry. Industry.
Unemployed. Unemployed.
Gun control. Gun control.
Wolverine. Wolverine.
Iroquois. Iroquois.
Industry. Industry.
Public Trans. Public Trans.
Auto Cars. Auto Cars.
Jefferson. Jefferson.
Michigan. Michigan.

From the trembling walls. It's a great idea!
Everything you want. It's a great idea!
From the Renaissance. It's a great idea!
Everything you want. It's a great idea!
Throw them all away. It's a great idea!
From the Renaissance. It's a great idea!
Everything you want.
(Hesitate to burn the buildings)
Click to expand...

Now, I'm going to go listen to this.
 
shit shit shit. I've searched everywhere. I can't find my detroit photos! Damn. We even broke into the train station (first pic in the link in the OP) and I have pics from the basement to the roof of the inside. There were boxes of clothes brand new from the 70's. Stacks of magazines from the 60's to 80's. You can still see much the the wonderful ceilings now cracked and crumbling. The archetecture was beautiful like much of the city was. I'm so pissed.
 
A friend of mine who is a Harvard alum moved voluntarily to Detroit last month despite job offers in Boston, Chicago and many other places. EVERY single person would ask why??? and get an incredulous tone when she told them that that was where she was moving.
 
Justin Bailey said:
I went there in 2000 and I thought it was a shithole. It was extremely evident when I went to Windsor. The two places were like a light/dark contrast only separated by a river.
Click to expand...
Someone complimenting Windsor, I think this is a first. When Chrysler goes, I can't imagine how bad Windsor is going to get.
 
Detroit's problems go a ways back to the Depression and losing out on subway funds to Chicago, and to following Robert Moses' style of city building with efficient freeways and conveniently located factories that just happened to displace vibrant minority populations time after time in the 50s-60s, well on it's way to becoming a "Model City" before the riots happened, but without a Jane Jacobs successfully organizing citizens to rally around their neighborhoods. Now the racial and class divide is built up to the point that few things outside of forcing people from the exurbs back into the suburbs is hard enough, let alone the city.

And it's sad because the buildings, not just those pictured above, are simply beautiful in the city, density (...in building form) in a natural way is already built into parts of the city (both inhabited and abandoned), and the cultural centers are amazing. Unfortunately the city's and suburbs are not dense enough to actually sustain mass transit, freeways cut up the city into unsustainable neighborhoods and make walking a decent distance hard, and the stigma that blankets people from the city vs. the suburbs (especially in general conversation) is ridiculous.

Some day...
 
Many of these pictures are similar to some of the photos coming out of Europe after the country was bombed to shit in WW2.

Maybe they should petition to be the set for Fallout, the movie.
 
Yeah Detroit isn't as bad as most of the country thinks, but Michigan as a whole is doing terribly (highest unemployment in the country).

I would not want to live there at all though. Maybe once Michigan diversifies its economy and Detroit gets a competent mayor, we'll do much better.

Had Motown not moved to hollywood, Detroit would probably be a much different city.
 
I think I'd like to go to this place and explore. I love exploring old, decrepit shit. Some of this stuff isn't so old, so it wouldn't be too big of a safety risk either.
 
Growing up near Detroit, I knew what a shelled out factory looked like long before I'd ever seen an operating one.

The fact you can add more than 20 years to that fact tells you that the decline is nothing recent, but certainly has been accelerated (and publicized) with the economy the way it is.
 
Honestly as long as the atrocious politics and society that live there don't spill over to the rest of the region, Detroit can fester and rot for all I care.
 
Dragonflyg1 said:
Honestly as long as the atrocious politics and society that live there don't spill over to the rest of the region, Detroit can fester and rot for all I care.
Click to expand...

If you live in Michigan you probably should. Michigan's fate is tied to Detroit. The only other big attractions exclusive to Michigan are maybe UofM and MSU, and that's a stretch.
 
Buckethead said:
Anyone actually ever been to Detroit?

It's not as bad as the mainstream paints it to be. There have been several renovations, improvements, expansions etc. since the Super Bowl and believe it or not Wrestlemania.
Things were starting to look up for awhile and the people were very optimistic.

But yes, the city is rotting and a shell of it's former self. There's no denying that. No sir.

However blame it's more recent decline on most of the retarded population for electing a brain damaged, racist ass Mayor with delusions of grandeur and superstardom and 'tard of a governor who doesn't know what the hell she's doing. Not to mention the failure to adapt to a post-industrialized society and holding onto the glory days of GM/Ford's domination.

Pride, pride, and more pride.
Click to expand...

I go 1 to 2 times a year since 2006.

It's a shitthole. Beyond saving because it offers nothing.
 
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