Quote Originally Posted by marshamusic View Post
Bless your heart, Honky Tonk. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

I write [[and speak) about this period in Detroit, and I want to articulate these varied reasons. Much of my work is about expressing a more accurate, nuanced narrative about the city rather than simplistic ones that I hear from many sides.

There is a constant refrain of "crime was the cause of white flight", and I know that this is true in the latter years of flight [[and Black flight, too), though I am not so sure that it was the cause in the early years of white flight.

There is also the mantra that "racism was the cause of white flight" and I know that this alone is not true. But where it is true, I think we should say so.

I know that the desire for the amenities of the new, suburban housing, compared to the old, packed neighborhoods of Detroit [[yes, it sounds odd now, but that was the reality, back in those days) was also a cause of the "sprawl".

There should be much more emphasis on the move of jobs further and further out to the suburbs, for tax incentives and often to develop new all-on-one-floor production facilities, rather than the multi-storied, old buildings in the city.

If I can say this - without it appearing as if I am blaming whites for the problem - I believe that some of the crime was a by-product of white flight; that is, as homes were "dumped" on the market as whites rushed to get out [[for whatever reason, but sometimes due to active block-busting), Blacks began to move in.

Some, especially the young, reacted to antagonism that they met upon their arrival to the new neighborhoods, and some families, of course, brought the social problems [[juvenile delinquency, etc.) that they were trying to escape, with them. Sometimes, of course, it was a combination of both. The introduction of drugs into the community as a whole, was an overriding cause, I believe.


Honkey Tonk, tea would be great, or I'll see you at one of the events around here. Better yet, maybe a few of us DetroitYes folks could meet up on a Sunday afternoon and hear the Blues on St. Aubin.

And btw [[not so shameless plug), I'm doing another Marsha Music, Live From Hastings Street! presentation at the Downtown Synagogue [[on Griswold and Clifford) on Tuesday, August 20 from 8 -10pm. I'm honored that I've been asked to come and talk about some of these things.
Well written and appreciate the time spent to discuss the transitions in Detroit.