Zacha341 -- what's up, homegirl? You KNOW my old 'hood! You know it! [[Including the inimitable Jerry's Pizza, right across the street from the 10th precinct! :-D)

You are so right about Ewald Circle. I've never revealed it here on the forum, but that was my street. My grandparents bought a home there in 1968 and my grandma sold in 2006. They purchased the home next door in 1984. I lived there from '84 until 2000, when I moved to Midtown. Then I lived there again from April '04 to June '05, when I took over the homestead after my mom moved to Southfield.

I was on this forum back then, and had been for a year by the time of my move back to the 'hood. I had considered purchasing the house from my folks. But then I lost my DPS job, got accepted to Michigan, and got a suburban teaching job. The grad students in my department convinced me to move up to A2 -- "it'll be easier." But it was still hard at first.

Our block was fine until around '03. It started getting a little scary when I moved back. All kinds of mess was going on, and for the first time ever, there was an abandoned home across the street. Grandma and them had surveillance cameras installed -- we were shut up tighter than most businesses in Detroit. High fences, barbed wire, alarms, bars, the whole nine. My folks were also armed. I wasn't, but some of my hustling uncles were [[as the next oldest after Dad told me) "keeping a watch on the house."

All the same, it wasn't unliveable until, as Zacha said, the last 5 years of hell. I hate to tell G-ma's business, but it's a matter of public record -- she sold her home in the fall of '06 for nearly $100K. They started to sell ours, but folks didn't like the prospective buyer. Now it's likely too late.

I don't like to drive that street today. It's so... different. I cannot believe the changes after only 12 years. 12 years ago this fall, we were all so sure that Detroit was going to spend the next 10 years gentrifying like every other major city had. I sometimes wonder -- if I'd known then what I know now, would I have come home, or would I have followed the original post-high school plan and never look back? I guess I'll never know.