Detroit Block Parties Hosts

[corktownyuppie]

Ahh, The strawberries and wine crowd. I

Like it or not, strawberries and wine is the economic future. The old blue-collar way of life is going the way of the confederacy flag. Sure, we're in dire need of highly skilled technical blue-collar workers...there's no question.

But as far a large economically powerful base, New Detroit [[and New Michigan) is not going back to the hey-day of the 1950s. This era belongs to the digital thinkers.

[313WX]

Nowhere was this concept more clearly articulated than when several Bloomfield Hills residents were recently interviewed about their opposition to regional transit. Their response? "We don't need that here...this isn't Chicago or New York".

Clearly they don't realize that all of their children are moving away to Chicago and New York, never to be seen again.

And what happens is when the folks 35 and under hear provincial crap like that spewed from majority of the people here, they figure "well why the hell should I waste the prime of my life working against this ignorance when I can just move to a place that has what I want?"

And thus, you have a state that's losing people and college graduates at an unprecedented rate.

[Oddz313]

Ya I have an engineering degree so....lets label everybody by their profession and how they like to enjoy their time. Yuppies...always believe they are on the cutting edge of something new and end up chasing out people with personality and with different backgrounds along with choices in style and dress. Why do you think nobody wants to hang out in downtown royal oak anymore? It got over ran by yuppies wearing polo shirts and having their hair slicked up like David Schwimmer.

[corktownyuppie]

Ya I have an engineering degree so....lets label everybody by their profession and how they like to enjoy their time. Yuppies...always believe they are on the cutting edge of something new and end up chasing out people with personality and with different backgrounds along with choices in style and dress. Why do you think nobody wants to hang out in downtown royal oak anymore? It got over ran by yuppies wearing polo shirts and having their hair slicked up like David Schwimmer.

Hey I dont like hanging out in Royal Oak either, for those same reasons...hence moving into the city. But it is hard to ignore that if I were living in my exact same house just as far away from downtown Royal Oak as I am from downtown Detroit, it would be worth at least $300,000.

I am not saying that everybody needs to be a yuppie. But I am saying that our city needs to create a quality of life that appeals to people with money, otherwise the city won't have any. Part of that quality of life is likely not going to be appealing for the block party and drag racing crowd, and that's a shame.

But we would be better off not fighting the trend, and just accepting that this is the future.

[Oddz313]

Hey I dont like hanging out in Royal Oak either, for those same reasons...hence moving into the city. But it is hard to ignore that if I were living in my exact same house just as far away from downtown Royal Oak as I am from downtown Detroit, it would be worth at least $300,000.

I am not saying that everybody needs to be a yuppie. But I am saying that our city needs to create a quality of life that appeals to people with money, otherwise the city won't have any. Part of that quality of life is likely not going to be appealing for the block party and drag racing crowd, and that's a shame.

But we would be better off not fighting the trend, and just accepting that this is the future.

Well I can agree with that but the city also needs middle class and family communities if it is to become viable again. Detroit has always had a big gap when it came to this issue. A problem that is facing the whole country but Detroit is always the first to show the cracks in society.

[Zacha341]

Drag racing is very dangerous! I knew someone, a father and husband who came upon a drag race, full out [[12 street strip in the late 80's). He was broad-sided, killed, just happened to driving thru the area late at night.

[Honky Tonk]

The New Detroit thing is not an illusion. It just doesn't apply to everyone

Let me fix that for you........ [[now where did I put the Geritol?)

[Lowell]

The header pic series is called 'Slices of Detroit'. Kwame, for better or worse [okay worse], is still a big slice. Reams have been written about him on this and the old forum. In the one in question he is announcing the renovation of the Cadillac Hotel, a significant moment in Detroit history. Another slice from that day show Granholm, Ficano and the late Maryanne Mahaffey.

We don't hide our warts. "Some city's get by on their looks; Detroit has to work for a living." as Elmore says.

[bailey]

[QUOTE=detroitsgwenivere;482673]

Yeah, because smoking weed and drag racing are such a colossal infringement of society's norms... nevermind that we were discussing a drag strip on the fairgrounds a decade or so ago [[bad location, great idea) and that several thousand Detroiters decriminalized marijuana through a ballot initiative.

no one was ever discussing a drag strip on the fairgrounds...and the decriminalization was for 21 and older and for an ounce or less and IIRC on private property.

Bailey, the reason your post was deleted is because in your effort to intimidate me you made a threat. You know, the kinda stuff criminals do... Funny how quickly people can devolve into name calling, threats and bulling in their attempt to silence another's perspective when someone doesn't agree with them. This is a card you've occasionally pulled for as long as I've been on this site. And you talk about civility.

at no point were you threatened. That is a straight up lie. I told you to stfu about the bullshit comparison you made between permitted, insured, organized, policed events and drug dealer funded block parties that accounted for over 15 shootings last weekend alone.

I then told you to try and do any one of the things you claim a birthright to do in Detroit in my neighborhood and see what happens... I'll clue you in, that wasn't a threat, it was illustrating the point that you'll get the same tickets and be arrested in the same manner.

But really, what is incredibly ironic is that someone demanding a right to live by hood rules ignored the first of them...snitches get stitches.

None of you have to agree with me, but we can have a discussion about it. If anybody is interested in knowing about why myself and other Detroiters feel they way we do so we can start a dialogue and perhaps come up with some creative solutions, lets have at it. If you're intention is anything other than that, then perhaps you are on the wrong site.

A dialogue can't happen with you because your position is just stupid. We don't "dialogue" about just how much criminal activity and boorish behavior in public spaces should be granted by birthright. I'm sorry if that offends your delicate sensibilities, but you're not talking about a unequal application of the rules or need to open up more rec centers and public spaces to more youth oriented programming. Your post's focus was complaining about not being able to drink at bars afterhours anymore, smoke up walking down the street, drag race, or hang at blind pigs.

Your problem is that for the first time in a long time, people who actually care about the quality of life in the city are moving back in and they are backing up those who stuck it out and had to put up with those antics. Basically you're pissed you're outnumbered for the first time in a generation.

No one is stopping you as a "grown person" from "hanging out with other grown persons" and "doing grown people shit" ..what is happening is an effort to curtail your version of "grown people shit"[[which by your own definition consists almost entirely of unlawful activity) from ruining everyone else's attempts to enjoy public spaces.

[Oddz313]

Great post.

This is also the same reason why those who remember 1940s-1970s Detroit and now currently live in the suburbs can't understand why folks 35 and under would want to flee Michigan.

Folks 35 and under quite frankly don't remember there ever being good times in this state, just doom & gloom between the auto industry collapse and Detroit proper's collapse. Folks 35 and under weren't born during Detroit's prime, and folks 35 and under were too young to remember the 1990s economic boom.

Thus, folks 35 and under don't have very pleasant memories of life in Michigan.

Thanks guys. Ya we have to take the bad with the good, some things we liked are going away for the overall good. Just like you guys miss certain things my generation will too. Like wild parties at belle isle or places like green dot serving until sunrise. The places that are improving have not been neglected or dangerous parts of the city in many years with the exception of the cass corridor and capital park. So doing away with some of these things subtracts from the character and allure a little bit.

[G-DDT]

Guinevere, I'm taking your side. I found little retarded about your post, but I saw a lot of it coming from those who have a repeated tendency to project their own inner nature by responding negatively in the way they chose to [[and they will call me "retarded", likewise, for not seeing what was wrong-yeah, I stole your thunder, y'all!). Despite my gripes about prostitution, casinos, cocaine, and where else society went wrong, [[and even if I'm not a big fan of the racing part-) I'm not on some convoluted "purity crusade". If one wants to be genuinely American about it, it's about the right to peacefully convene and pursuit of happiness. My generation proved we could do just that many times over within the borders of Detroit without violent incident.

It's just a shame it's attracting the wrong elements [[didn't Mafioso's in New York used to sponsor block parties in the '70s-like in "Summer of Sam"?). North Rosedale Park had a fatal shooting right in the doorway of the Community House during a wedding many years back. It didn't stop events from still being carried out there safely and successfully for many years afterwards. Once we start becoming too scared and over vigilant we let the terrorists win. The issue is how to sift the legitimate functions from the bullet magnets?

[G-DDT]

As I will elaborate, my generation flexed our freedoms in a variety of ways in many venues all across Detroit without incident. What "laws broken" were usually victimless ones, and yes, the cops responding at such times were many times beyond brutal and harassing. I've seen them threaten to take a distressed teenager asking questions out back and work him over [[ironically these were the same cops seen doing nitrous oxide balloons at the parties run by competitors). I've seen cops pick up discarded baggies at a party being busted go up to a random kid and hold out their hand with a "Hey! How are you?"; when the kid shakes, cop palms him the bag, roughly turns his hand over and says "Well, lookee what we have here?!" Yeah, Junior Murvin and the Clash were right.

We need Detroit safe not sanitized to fit some over-surveillanced in-by-10p curfew Suburban ideal. I actually feel a bit more free when I know some decent late night activity thrives in this city. Places like Boston, Madison, and any other city I've been to don't have this going on.

Again, I am going to stress: when we go beyond being on our toes to letting fear constrain us, we become just that-a culture of fear.

[Wheels]

As I will elaborate, my generation flexed our freedoms in a variety of ways in many venues all across Detroit without incident. What "laws broken" were usually victimless ones, and yes, the cops responding at such times were many times beyond brutal and harassing. I've seen them threaten to take a distressed teenager asking questions out back and work him over [[ironically these were the same cops seen doing nitrous oxide balloons at the parties run by competitors). I've seen cops pick up discarded baggies at a party being busted go up to a random kid and hold out their hand with a "Hey! How are you?"; when the kid shakes, cop palms him the bag, roughly turns his hand over and says "Well, lookee what we have here?!" Yeah, Junior Murvin and the Clash were right.

We need Detroit safe not sanitized to fit some over-surveillanced in-by-10p curfew Suburban ideal. I actually feel a bit more free when I know some decent late night activity thrives in this city. Places like Boston, Madison, and any other city I've been to don't have this going on.

Again, I am going to stress: when we go beyond being on our toes to letting fear constrain us, we become just that-a culture of fear.

Dose this site have an award for rambling nonsense?

[DetroitBoy]

Dose this site have an award for rambling nonsense?

There would be STIFF COMPETITION to win that award.

[Bigb23]

[QUOTI Cluber;482574]Is this from The Onion?[/QUOTE]


Thanks for the reminder -

Also I'm looking at Gary Larson - "Don't worry, He's only dangerous when he's startled"

[Cliffy]

Dose this site have an award for rambling nonsense?

HA! I think he's volunteering to a host a block party.

[kathy2trips]

I was curious, so I looked up the complete Elmore Leonard quote:

“There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees; and there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living, whose reason for being might be geographical but whose growth is based on industry, jobs. Detroit has its natural attractions: lakes all over the place, an abundance of trees and four distinct seasons for those who like variety in their weather, everything but hurricanes and earth-quakes. But it’s never been the kind of city people visit and fall in love with because of its charm or think, gee, wouldn’t this be a nice place to live.”

I think Detroit was beautiful and it can be again. Hope springs eternal.

[maverick1]

Great post.

This is also the same reason why those who remember 1940s-1970s Detroit and now currently live in the suburbs can't understand why folks 35 and under would want to flee Michigan.

Folks 35 and under quite frankly don't remember there ever being good times in this state, just doom & gloom between the auto industry collapse and Detroit proper's collapse. Folks 35 and under weren't born during Detroit's prime, and folks 35 and under were too young to remember the 1990s economic boom.

Thus, folks 35 and under don't have very pleasant memories of life in Michigan.

I'm 37 and I don't have the pleasant memories either. The mass exodus of young people out of Metro-Detroit started in the 1980s and boomed in the 90s.

[G-DDT]

I'm 37 and I don't have the pleasant memories either. The mass exodus of young people out of Metro-Detroit started in the 1980s and boomed in the 90s.

Yeah, white flight either left us with young African American families just starting out and older Caucasian families staying put in my neighborhood. Not one girl my age for many, many blocks. I grew to hate suburban girls [[like the ones at the fascist Lutheran High School I attended for the first three years) and all of the racism, materialism, petty dramas, and shallow status seeking instilled into them. Kids in my situation either went to colleges far away or scrambled downtown to attend as many functions as possible [[including house and block parties) to network and hook up with girls on our page.