Explanation for all the decay?

[GOAT]

Blackmath,
The bylaws are rarely if ever enforced. I can still call about a property 6 times a year and all the owner gets is a notice to do the maintenance or face a fine and the city will do it. What I suggest is that after the third complaint [[that is shown to be correct) they automatically get fined. All these absentee landlords do is wait for that notice before they do anything. This way it saves them money from having to do monthly upkeep. That has to stop!

Gistok, We aren't talking about 50 year old houses with porches. Look at the shitty raised ranches of the last 15 years. there is no front porch. In fact many don't even have a proper entrance as a person walks along a long brick wall that is a part of the garage...built in the front of the house. It sure isn't inviting when I go over to friends houses with this type of architecture and it sure isn't fun to sit in their garage either.

[szla]

I find Detroit to be one of the most bricky cities in America. It's at least as bricky as Chicago, way more bricky than Cleveland. Huge sections of the central city, nw and ne Detroit are almost nothing but brick. Most of the near in suburbs are also mostly brick. Seattle one of the best preserved cities I've seen has very few brick homes. In the original post they mention the clay deposit which underlies Detroit. That is the reason there were so many brickyards all around Detroit. The sw side was full of them. Edgewater amusement park was built on a brickyard. The very large terracota colored bricks that you see all over Old Redford were produced there. On Lahser there are several all brick homes built with them and lots of foundations. They were about 4"x4"x12".

[jtf1972]

Anyone know if most of Detroits housing stock is/was wood or brick?

Well, there were many straw houses too. They were gone in a huff.

[gdogslim]

There is also a high correlation between people who have drank milk ate a hamburger with people who have od'd on heroin smoked dope and had a heart attack.

[wolverine]

Well, there were many straw houses too. They were gone in a huff.

LOL. Well, in all fairness he could also mean as opposed to stone. Detroit doesn't have those probably because it's such a 'new' city. By that I mean most of it's growth happened after many other American cities had become fairly built out. Stone and heavy brick construction was not the norm.

[kathy2trips]

LOL. Well, in all fairness he could also mean as opposed to stone. Detroit doesn't have those probably because it's such a 'new' city. By that I mean most of it's growth happened after many other American cities had become fairly built out. Stone and heavy brick construction was not the norm.

Wholeheartedly disagree. My dad was a bricklayer and stone mason in Detroit from the 30s to the 80s. There was always work, when the weather cooperated. Much of what you see south of 8 Mile was built by European trained craftsmen and the children who learned from them [[like my Dad). Some of the brickwork in even the most modest lower-middle-class homes takes my breath away. Of course, there's was a lot of rudimentary, clap-trap housing, too, mostly wood-sided houses. Just takes common-sense to see what's what.

There were many brick manufacturers in Detroit in the early 20th Century; Colonial, Koeing and Puritan were the bigger ones, with many smaller specialty operations, many using old-world, European techniques.

[FerndaleDamon]

I think it's a compound problem. #1: Detroit was a "boom town", a hundred years ago. #2: A lot of people came here, from Europe, from the south, wherever, for work. These people had no allegience for the D, besides work. That explains the population swell, @ the time. #3: The "Industrial Age" has /is coming to/ an end. Most, or all companies have moved else where, leaving the descendants of these original people, most of whom can't afford to move, to remain. #4: Some of the remaining generations of people turn to crime, to sustain. #5: There is a certain "cultural" frame of mind- ie " CAR JACKINGS, ROBBERIES, BREAK-INS, SHOOTINGS, etc. Nobody is gonna' help the D, if this bullshit continues- nobody! Blacks are 85 percent! Bill Cosby told you so. At least make the fucking effort!

[FerndaleDamon]

you people are too much "kumbayah", tree hugging for me. This city is FUCKED.

[Bearinabox]

Blacks are 85 percent! Bill Cosby told you so. At least make the fucking effort!

Huh?extracharactersforlowell

[Bearinabox]

you people are too much "kumbayah", tree hugging for me. This city is FUCKED.

What do you care, FerndaleDamon? We all know that political boundaries are 100% effective at isolating social problems in perpetuity, right?

[kathy2trips]

you people are too much "kumbayah", tree hugging for me. This city is FUCKED.

What a coincidence! The Visigoths said the same thing about Rome!

[Pingu]

you people are too much "kumbayah", tree hugging for me. This city is FUCKED.

Take a long walk on a short pier. Back on topic, you can't beat wood for impact resistance, and strength-to-weight ratio. Grandpa Pingu built many a wood house in Detroit. However, one of them did burn down when Uncle Pingu played with matches while "home alone" with his little brother Papa Pingu. Was I going somewhere with this?

[Hermod]

[quo`te=kathy2trips;191340]What a coincidence! The Visigoths said the same thing about Rome! [/quote]

Rome started going downhill when the loot/tribute from the provinces was no longer pouring into the city. Rome would have swiftly recovered from Alaric's sack if the money was still rolling in.

Rome's recovery during the Middle Ages and Renaissance was due to the Vatican sucking n money from all of the parishes of Europe [[all of the cardinals and church staff in the Vatican had "livings" provided by non-Italian parishes). Resentment of this state of affairs had much to do with getting the people behind the Protestant Reformation.

That must be the answer to the recovery of Detroit, just tax the hinterland to pay for the city.

[rb336]

Entropy. plain old entropy

[kathy2trips]

Maybe it's "atrophy". In other words, if you don't use it, you lose it! Only people with jobs that provide discretionary income will turn it around. That will take a business- friendly community...with safe places for people to live. You want jobs? You MUST have business. Jobs = Business; Business = Jobs. Detroit needs to return to its entrepreneurial and industry roots to come back from the brink.

[NorthEndere]

I see alot of explanations, here, and quite a few blaming primarily the current population of the city. What I have not seen taken note of is the fact that the Census Bureau has renter-occupied housing units at nearly 45% of all total housing, and over 20% of the total existing housing stock [[owner and renter occupied) empty. In other words, landlords and homeowners are at least as guilty as residents of owner-occupied housing in Detroit if not more so. The city needs to be cracking down on absentee landlords, but has neither the money nor the records to keep track of abandonment, and especially long-time abandonment.