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Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline

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If you have a chance, you really should visit Detroit's Tiger's Stadium and the Art Museum. The new stadium is a site to behold and is situated wonderfully among the downtown towers, and the museum has some excellent murals dedicated to the motor city and the dangers of industrialization.

It really has gone to hell though. Housing prices are sometimes less than 50% of what they were.
 
Sounds pretty similar to New Orleans. I was just there last week. The amount of empty/ deteriorating buildings was plain ridiculous. Of course I doubt many of the tourists really give a shit while they get shit faced on Bourbon Street.
 
GhaleonEB said:
reliques_05.jpg


Looks like a scene out of Gears of War. Destroyed beauty.
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Isn't that your gang HQ in Saints Row 2 before you pimp it out?
 
FLEABttn said:
It's a shitthole. Beyond saving because it offers nothing.
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The Fox Theatre, DIA, Downtown, and Detroit Red Wings beg to differ.
Whatever, if you want a quality city in Michigan, go check out Grand Rapids.
 
Buckethead said:
The Fox Theatre, DIA, Downtown, and Detroit Red Wings beg to differ.
Whatever, if you want a quality city in Michigan, go check out Grand Rapids.
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Too far west.

Urban renewal in Detroit isn't like urban renewal in NYC or San Francisco. People actually want to live in SF and NYC, their economies haven't been in decline for 40-60 years, and their ratio of busted ass buildings to nice buildings is less than 1. Michigan Central Station, a building that's only been abandoned for 20 years, will cost between $80 and $300 million to renovate. Which wouldn't be a problem except that Detroit can't even afford basic services; there's no tax base. They're so poor the casino's are losing money. Political billboards from more than 10 years ago are still up because nobody wants to pay to advertise because why even bother? The land is worth so little that nobody tears down buildings. Crime isn't really getting better and is spreading to formally really nice areas (Saint Clair Shores).

And I've been downtown. It's a pocket of meh surrounded by crap. I bet it was really cool in the 40s.
 
Buckethead said:
The Fox Theatre, DIA, Downtown, and Detroit Red Wings beg to differ.
Whatever, if you want a quality city in Michigan, go check out Grand Rapids.
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I'm unfamiliar with GR and western MI in general, but I've heard very boring things about it.

My (objective) favorite city in Michigan is Ann Arbor. That is quite a compliment coming from an MSU student.
 
ntropy said:
I heard the houses around Detroit sell for an average of $16,000.
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Wow. That is almost impossible for me to fathom seeing as how even something in Canada's worst neighborhood would yield a much higher price than that. Crazy.
 
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.
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Dude, Detroit has been going downhill after Archer left office. Kwame was just the projection of the latent racism that is Detroit. "Detroit" doesn't want to be told what to do by the "Suburbs" has been slang since 67 for black people telling white people to piss off. And that's fine.

I miss Detroit. I was just talking to a girl I know from the west side of the state, and even though I live in Shy Shilly now (chicago for those that don't know) she started laughing and just goes, "Man, you're so Detroit." Working class, chip on my shoulder, pessimistic, etc.

Anyone who says it's not as bad as the media makes it out to be has clearly never lived in the area. Crime is ridiculous and the cops are by and large an American contingent of the Russian Mafia-- out to preserve what they feel is best for the population rather than what's legal and illegal. My buddy was buying heroin in Detroit back in high school and the cop that caught him just dumped it down the storm drain, kicked his dealer out of his car, and told him to "Get the fuck out of here." :lol

But yeah. Detroit just breaks my heart.


PS: West Michigan is filled with assholes and douchebags.
 
whytemyke said:
Dude, Detroit has been going downhill after Archer left office.
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I know, I was saying that things were looking up for a brief little bit but any optimism people had was raped when they put that dickstick Kwame into office. However, the media portrays Detroit to be like "don't take your children there or you and your family will get raped".

JCX9 said:
I'm unfamiliar with GR and western MI in general, but I've heard very boring things about it.
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Hmm, don't know who you heard that from, because it has a solid economy, booming downtown and culture around there. They've fixed up the ghettos on the outskirts and it has a budding downtown social scene. I mean that's contrasted by churches every 2 miles and about 40 shopping malls, but overall I really like it.
 
Detroit is pretty horrible. As someone who lived in Michigan for a good 20 years, anyone who doesn't live in Detroit knows that if you have to go there, even passing through, you lock your car windows and doors and DO NOT GET LOST.

whytemyke said:
PS: West Michigan is filled with assholes and douchebags.
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At least Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo area aren't a fucking hole, dude.
 
I've lived walking distance from Detroit my entire life.

You want to be afraid for your life? Go to Flint, most of Detroit is nothing compared to that.
 
Really fucking sad to watch a major American city rot away like this.. I know it had been decades in the making, but those pictures really hammer the message home.
 
The_Inquisitor said:
Sounds pretty similar to New Orleans. I was just there last week. The amount of empty/ deteriorating buildings was plain ridiculous. Of course I doubt many of the tourists really give a shit while they get shit faced on Bourbon Street.
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I was about to say the same thing. This drives me to the brink of tears, seeing what's happened. I can only imagine how my parents and older relatives must feel, having lived there for all of their lives. My mother gets teary-eyed every time we drive through the old neighborhoods; it's very painful to watch her.

So much lost.

My heart says "move back! Port of Call! move back! Enjoy sunsets in Audobon Park! move back! Ride the streetcar! move back! There's a goddamn sweet-ass job waiting for you at Tulane! MoVe The FucK BacK!" - but my head knows that it's a doomed city, in more ways than one. *insert crying emoticon here*

Fuck.
 
Detroit's buildings and automotive history hold a special place in my heart. I am an afficianado regarding American Industry from the 1890s to the 1960s. Which includes architecture, automotive design and home furnishings. I have four vintage cars, 2 from 1929, 1 from 1930 and 1 from 1954, all Ford. I purposely bought a ranch house from 1957 and have furnished it with quite a bit of Heywood Wakefield pieces, working refurbished Hotpoint stove and refrigerators, as well as colors and fabrics from that time. A sick hobby to be sure, but it keeps me busy.

Art Deco - Streamline Moderne are my most favorite and the buildings erected for the giants who were able to work and create these awesome and artful pieces are just wasting away. Detroit looks like a city that I would want to inhabit if it was as bustling as Chicago (lived there for a bit and enjoyed its buildings), because the buildings are more handsome. Just like in New York, you have these monolithic stand out pieces that just shows the achievement of our society when trying to push engineering boundries for the time, with limited technology.

L.A. has torn down quite a bit of it's old Art Deco buildings for progress and probably the only two American cities with any value for that style is Tulsa, Ok and Miami, Fla.
 
PantherLotus said:
that's bullshit. even trailers sell for quadruple that in detroit.
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Search the news and there are reports that the median sale price for stuff IN DETROIT this year is like.. 6000.

Ive also heard 16000. I've also heard 40s.

Either way.. if you want to pick up property in the slum.. its dirt cheap. Look at the foreclosure listings.
 
PantherLotus said:
that's bullshit. even trailers sell for quadruple that in detroit.
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Yeah, you're wrong, dude. Maybe in the suburbs you can get trailers for quadruple that, but housing in Detroit city limits is low low low.
 
It's such an interesting contrast. Oakland also has a very high crime rate and abandoned industrial quarters, but you'll struggle to get anything livable for $100,000. I had a bid on a 652 square foot shack (though it was on the right side of 580) for $200K last year.
 
Having been through there many times, it really is a sight to behold. Driving through the once proud neighborhoods full of now crumbling mansions is really pretty haunting. When coming from the south, you can see a large building (a hotel, perhaps, or maybe central station) looming before the city itself. If you happen to be entering the city at dusk you will see rays of sunlight pouring through the now missing windows.

It's sad to see a city fall apart so completely, but at the same time, it's extremely fascinating. I wish I could spend time actually fully exploring the city, but it's not exactly the safest place to go wandering I've heard.
 
desertdroog said:
L.A. has torn down quite a bit of it's old Art Deco buildings for progress and probably the only two American cities with any value for that style is Tulsa, Ok and Miami, Fla.
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Ever been to Buffalo? Couple nice pieces of Art Deco architecture there, with the most famous being its city hall.
 
ah my home town, sad to see the state of it, but its my home, is what it is i guess. Surely is a shadow of its former self, its definitely time for the next generation to take a stab at running the city cause people from my parents gen seem to be hopelessly emotional scarred after what happened there over the past 30 or so years. In many ways detroit is as close to a blank slate as your gonna get.
 
Never been to Detroit but the city is a very special place to me because it is the birthplace of techno music.

So many fantastic DJ's and producers come from there. Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Eddie Fowlkes, Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Carl Craig. etc.

Here is a great documentary about the birth of this music and how important the athmosphere in this city was to develop this sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSX_r0u3uzE
 
djtiesto said:
Ever been to Buffalo? Couple nice pieces of Art Deco architecture there, with the most famous being its city hall.
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Or you could go to a real metropolis with better Art Deco, like NYC or Chicago.
 
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.
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It is a great city for that kind of photography. When I was there in December I got a couple of good shots, the best one being this photo of an old factory that was later used for a train station.

3155794219_6dc32d0985_b.jpg
 
djtiesto said:
Ever been to Buffalo? Couple nice pieces of Art Deco architecture there, with the most famous being its city hall.
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Never been there, I'll look into it when time to travel becomes more available.

Phobophile said:
Or you could go to a real metropolis with better Art Deco, like NYC or Chicago.
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Lived in Chicago already, been to NYC a couple times. NYC's buildings are much more handsome than Chicago.
 
_RT_ said:
December median price for a home was $7,500.
It's really sad that this happened to that city.

Link
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On a positive note, Detroit's homicide rate dropped 14 percent last year. That prompted mayoral candidate Stanley Christmas to tell the Detroit News recently, "I don't mean to be sarcastic, but there just isn't anyone left to kill."
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I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that comment.
 
I have been to Detroit 2 times. I stayed in the suburbs and ventured downtown to Greektown, the casinos and the stadiums. The limited view of the city I saw wasn't that bad. No worse than some spots in Houston. There were run down parts, but the thing that stood out to me about even downtown were the vast amounts of closed office buildings. I am not talking about businesses closed, but entire office buildings shut down.

At one point before a Tigers game we made a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of the freeway. We saw blocks and blocks of boarded up townhouses and a elementary school that was converted to a police drug task force or something. We also drove by old Tiger Stadium that is halfway demolished. They are trying to preserve it and make a entertainment/office park out of it. The area was had a ton of businesses up and running, but a huge number of strip clubs and pawn shops, oh and Lilttle Caesars.



3156628938_fb298ce836_b.jpg
 
I've never been to Detroit, but those pictures kind of rocked me.
It's amazing, and disturbing, to see something like that happen at formerly major sites of a still-living metropolis.

It's shocking how quickly (relatively speaking) an entire building can be brought to ruin, once abandoned.
 
FLEABttn said:
I go 1 to 2 times a year since 2006.

It's a shitthole. Beyond saving because it offers nothing.
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That dosnt constitute your negative impulse to the City. It is still the center of the American Auto Industry. And it is still more valuable than some other cities in the USA.
 
Kagari said:
Detroit is pretty horrible. As someone who lived in Michigan for a good 20 years, anyone who doesn't live in Detroit knows that if you have to go there, even passing through, you lock your car windows and doors and DO NOT GET LOST.
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Thats simply not true. The amount of bullshit in this thread is horrendous. I lived in Detroit. The very center of Detroit. And the crime rate there is no more than what you'd find in Chicago. Trying to paint it like its Baghdad is not for the faint of heart. Your statement is way over exaggerated.

These photographers specifically picked area that are delapidated. Every city has buildings and sites that are rundown and gutted. These guys just picked the most obvious vacant buildings they could find and chose to paint the city as a rotting sesspool.
 
The_Inquisitor said:
Sounds pretty similar to New Orleans. I was just there last week. The amount of empty/ deteriorating buildings was plain ridiculous. Of course I doubt many of the tourists really give a shit while they get shit faced on Bourbon Street.
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The last time I went there was in the summer of '96, but it was already like that then.
 
desertdroog said:
L.A. has torn down quite a bit of it's old Art Deco buildings for progress and probably the only two American cities with any value for that style is Tulsa, Ok and Miami, Fla.
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Interesting, didn't Miami go through decades before the '80s where it was basically an abandoned shithole, before it experienced a rebirth? I wonder if it stayed relatively prosperous like LA if all those old buildings would've been torn down too.
 
sonarrat said:
It's such an interesting contrast. Oakland also has a very high crime rate and abandoned industrial quarters, but you'll struggle to get anything livable for $100,000. I had a bid on a 652 square foot shack (though it was on the right side of 580) for $200K last year.
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That's not surprising, since it's near a desirable area.
 
There are parts of Detroit that are fairly bleak, but it's cool to visit if you're interested in seeing urban decay or amazing abandoned buildings first hand. Also it has Leland City Club, which couldn't exist in any other city.
 
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