Detroit's Neighborhoods in the 70s

[GMan]

My family left the D. in the mid eighties as the local hospital expanded it's foot print into my neighborhood. second wave of flight, both white and black after CYA laid down his law in '74 led to a rapid decline in the quality of living. Unsupervised youth started roaming the streets looking for targets of opportunity to score money for drugs, reduced police presence, more petty larcenies causing stores to glass up or close. Homes and cars started getting broken into, bars went up on windows,and the "sale by insurance" became the norm. City services were basically reduced to weekly trash pick up and the Fire Dept. was the local entertainment outside of TV. Who's house or business is burning today???

[dtowncitylover]

When did CAY tell white people to leave Detroit?

[mikefmich]

When did CAY tell white people to leave Detroit?

He might be referring to Young's "hit 8 Mi Rd statement" after his first election. What Young meant & what folks like LBPatterson construed it as meaning could be two different things.

[Honky Tonk]

When did CAY tell white people to leave Detroit?

He never did. Google can be your friend:

What Young said was in no way racial. He said, “I issue an open warning to all dope pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers. It is time to leave Detroit. Hit 8 Mile Road. And I don’t give a damn if they are black or white, if they wear super fly suits, or blue uniforms, with silver badges. Hit the road.”

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1469380

[Zacha341]

^^^ Yep. Thanks for posting that HT. The 'hit eight mile' thing is often cited without the actual reference/ statement.

[GMan]

When did CAY tell white people to leave Detroit?

I never refereed to that oft cited remark.
I was more talking about his policies of overhauling city services, including the police dept. He replaced functioning services with dysfunctional demoralized remnants.
Now granted he was dealing with declining tax revenues but cutting neighborhood services for the sake of keeping up appearances downtown aided to the flight of people who had the means to leave and accelerated the cycle of declining tax revenues leaving empty housing stock open and inviting to looting or drug dealing or turning neighborhoods into dumping ground and the cycle repeated....

[Wheels]

It was a direct threat to the suburbs though. We are going to send you our trash!

[Zacha341]

Hah! We're trying to find out where to send our trash!

[SammyS]

It was a direct threat to the suburbs though. We are going to send you our trash!

He may have stolen that line from Castro or was it the other way around?

[kathy2trips]

I realize this got long. Sorry, but I love writing about Detroit.

My neighborhood was EEV 1956-61 and 1977-80. I lived in Warren in between, but came back to the old neighborhood on weekends and summers to live with Nonna & Nonno. I got the hell away from my control-freak mother, and learned to cook real Italian food and be with someone who loved me and didn't make me nuts. I hung out with my childhood friends and their friends, too. My time in Detroit was heaven to me.

I also partied a lot in Jefferson-Chalmers and had a lot of friends who lived there. I was never afraid, but never walked alone at night, either. I also always wore army jackets or similar coats with lots of pockets. Purse snatchings were about the only thing I was wary of.

Regarding race distribution in the 'hoods: Most people had the "birds of a feather, flock together" philosophy, especially before 1980. European immigrants wanted to be near other immigrants who spoke the same language, bought the same groceries [[like head cheese, calf brains, etc. LOL!) It wasn't a hatred thing, just a comfort level thing. We were all Italians on our street, except for the Greek family at the end of the block. We were friendly with them, and at Christmas, they'd bring us stuffed grape leaves and we'd give them pizzelle and anise cookies. Their name was long and difficult to pronounce, so they were just "The Greeks". To this day, I don't know what their name was.

To be fair, there were just as many black people who hated/resented white people in 20th Century Detroit, as there were white people who felt that way. In addition, there were many black people who liked white people, or at least were indifferent to them, and white people who had those opinions too.

I'm sure I'm not the only white person who's been discriminated against because of my race. I lost an internship halfway through while at WSU because the new supervisor wanted a black to do my job. My dept. head said "sorry", then gave me an A so I wouldn't make a stink about it. It's a dirty little secret that the racism door swings both ways. So does the tolerance door. It all depends on the individual people involved. You can't live your life in resentment because of a couple of idiots.

Coleman Young was a southern Black [[Alabama) who migrated here. He was NOT a native Detroiter. Back in his day, southern Blacks were much more hyper-sensitive about white people, as you can imagine. As a European-American, I could always sense his underlying, unspoken hostility toward white people. You should have heard his speech at my WSU commencement at Cobo Hall. My parents were FURIOUS! Mayor Young's part in the destruction of Poletown is one example of his disdain. He just didn't give a damn what happened to those people. I guess he thought it was "payback" for when the freeways displaced the Black Bottom and Paradise Valley. Though, the Polish, Hungarian and Italian neighborhoods lost thousands of homes, too. Nobody seems to remember that.

That said, I found that when most Black people found out I was of Polish and Italian heritage [[especially Polish), they were more receptive and friendlier to me. One girl in my lit class at WSU confided to me that Polish people were persecuted people, too, like Blacks were. Never mind that she had never been a slave or in danger of being lynched, nor had I been in a concentration camp or pursued by Cossacks on horseback.

Recently, I was surprised to find in my mom's class of 1940 Barbour School yearbook that there had been more than a few black kids in her class. This would have been the neighborhood around [[but not IN Indian Village). So there were blacks in places besides the traditionally black areas. Redlining was evidently not applicable in every/all neighborhoods.

Another surprise was that after living in the South for over 30 years, I found Black people down here just want to be treated like everyone else...no worse, but certainly no better, either. Very few people had chips on their shoulders related to race. I personally found this amazing. Racism isn't the first thing on their mind for every slight, real or imagined. My next door neighbor [[from Bermuda) said: "The reality is that sometimes people treat you like crap because you're an insufferable human being and a miserable person to be with and it has nothing to do with race." Wow, what a concept! LOL

[jcole]

Great post, Kathy.

I realize this got long. Sorry, but I love writing about Detroit.

...

That said, I found that when most Black people found out I was of Polish and Italian heritage [[especially Polish), they were more receptive and friendlier to me. One girl in my lit class at WSU confided to me that Polish people were persecuted people, too, like Blacks were. Never mind that she had never been a slave or in danger of being lynched, nor had I been in a concentration camp or pursued by Cossacks on horseback.

Recently, I was surprised to find in my mom's class of 1940 Barbour School yearbook that there had been more than a few black kids in her class. This would have been the neighborhood around [[but not IN Indian Village). So there were blacks in places besides the traditionally black areas. Redlining was evidently not applicable in every/all neighborhoods.

Another surprise was that after living in the South for over 30 years, I found Black people down here just want to be treated like everyone else...no worse, but certainly no better, either. Very few people had chips on their shoulders related to race. I personally found this amazing. Racism isn't the first thing on their mind for every slight, real or imagined. My next door neighbor [[from Bermuda) said: "The reality is that sometimes people treat you like crap because you're an insufferable human being and a miserable person to be with and it has nothing to do with race." Wow, what a concept! LOL

[GMan]

.................................................. ..........................................

"The reality is that sometimes people treat you like crap because you're an insufferable human being and a miserable person to be with and it has nothing to do with race." Wow, what a concept! LOL

This last part nailed it. Sometimes people get upset with how they are being treated but in reality they are just judged by the content of their character and are being treated accordingly.

[K-slice]

5,000 white hipsters moving into Detroit isn't exactly a flood of white folk.

This comment is precisely why I hate the work "Hipster". What does it mean? To whom does it refer? Are Hipsters by definition white?

The "hipsters" that have been moving into the city in the last few years cannot and should not be put under one title. I am in my 20's, live and work Downtown, that doesn't make me anywhere near the same as other young people who have moved into the city in recent years.

I have some friends who moved downtown for a year or two for the big city experience then moved back to the suburbs. I have some friends who plan on staying in the city longer term because of the convenience. Close to their work, sports, concerts, etc. I also have friends who moved to Detroit to be part of something and make their life here. I would include myself in this group. We live in Detroit because we feel like we can make a difference, change not just people's opinions of Detroit, but also make it better in reality.

Through all of these groups I know people with all different lifestyles, careers, interests from many different backgrounds and ethnicity.

Think about it next time before you label groups of people who may be actually very different.