Another Detroit shot on Shorpy, 1903

[lafayette]

Yes, I'd rather live in Detroit now with few viable neighborhoods, few shopping options, crime ridden, horrible services, lousy unsafe public transportation, recent rampant corruption in city govt on every level, trash & junk & urban prairies abounding, and I wouldn't get to see Ty Cobb & Sam Crawford play together a couple years later at Bennet Park.

Gimme the early 20th c. anyday.

Mikefmich, you're right, there is plenty not to like today that was nearly nonexistent in 1903. But I look at it as which negatives are you willing to live with? when you look back with nostalgia at a different era and think how it must have been better to live then. Sure, you didn't have a lot of what you list above, but I wouldn't trade any of that for what was socially acceptable in this country in 1903, including lynching and all forms of racial inequality, gender inequality with no voting rights for women, children working long hours in factories, etc. Some may think negatives from 1903 are worth what was good back then, but some don't, including me. That idyllic scene in the photo is lovely, but we can't forget what societal ills were common back then. Yes, we've got plenty of societal ills today that we didn't have back then, but to me there's nothing worth trading for Jim Crow, lynching, child labor, minorities and women generally excluded from all levels of power in large numbers, disease and illnesses that are treatable now, etc..

[Vox]

Mikefmich, you're right, there is plenty not to like today that was nearly nonexistent in 1903. But I look at it as which negatives are you willing to live with? when you look back with nostalgia at a different era and think how it must have been better to live then. Sure, you didn't have a lot of what you list above, but I wouldn't trade any of that for what was socially acceptable in this country in 1903, including lynching and all forms of racial inequality, gender inequality with no voting rights for women, children working long hours in factories, etc. Some may think negatives from 1903 are worth what was good back then, but some don't, including me. That idyllic scene in the photo is lovely, but we can't forget what societal ills were common back then. Yes, we've got plenty of societal ills today that we didn't have back then, but to me there's nothing worth trading for Jim Crow, lynching, child labor, minorities and women generally excluded from all levels of power in large numbers, disease and illnesses that are treatable now, etc..

I agree 100%. The whole "good old days" scenario is very selective at best. My great-great grandfather died at 43 from being a varnish rubber at Packard. Others died from the influenza epidemics. Architecturally, it was a great time to be alive, but the price of living was rather high.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

I agree 100%. The whole "good old days" scenario is very selective at best. My great-great grandfather died at 43 from being a varnish rubber at Packard. Others died from the influenza epidemics. Architecturally, it was a great time to be alive, but the price of living was rather high.

It wasn't the "good ole days" for black people, while it's marginally better now it's still a lot of B.S. Blacks are dealing with on a daily basis.

[mikefmich]

Mikefmich, you're right, there is plenty not to like today that was nearly nonexistent in 1903. But I look at it as which negatives are you willing to live with? when you look back with nostalgia at a different era and think how it must have been better to live then. Sure, you didn't have a lot of what you list above, but I wouldn't trade any of that for what was socially acceptable in this country in 1903, including lynching and all forms of racial inequality, gender inequality with no voting rights for women, children working long hours in factories, etc. Some may think negatives from 1903 are worth what was good back then, but some don't, including me. That idyllic scene in the photo is lovely, but we can't forget what societal ills were common back then. Yes, we've got plenty of societal ills today that we didn't have back then, but to me there's nothing worth trading for Jim Crow, lynching, child labor, minorities and women generally excluded from all levels of power in large numbers, disease and illnesses that are treatable now, etc..

Well....are you getting a little deep with the social problems of that day? You're right, those things surely sucked. Don't forget you're looking at those things from a mindset of a 100 years later, and your speaking of things that were not limited to Detroit, but the entire country.

But I digress. I was looking at the city as a viable safe place to live, which sadly for the most part is not true today. I'm old enough to remember almost the last two decades of a very viable vibrant city. That's what I miss.

[lafayette]

I'm old enough to remember almost the last two decades of a very viable vibrant city. That's what I miss.

I miss it, too, mikefmich. Agreed.