Originally Posted by
gnome
I never understand how some people even consider Detroit to be anything other than a large collection of suburban-style neighborhoods. Front yard, back yard and house in-between. That is not an urban environment. Detroit does have a small handful of areas that have the same urban style housing density that Chicago or New York has ... places like the southern end of Palmer Park, a block or two on the Indian Village fringe, near Wayne State and downtown ... maybe a one or two others ... but look at Rosedale Park, the Airport Sub, Berry sub, Indian Village, Green Acres, Sherwood Forrest ... all single family homes with a couple of duplexes here and there. Just like Grosse Pointe Park, Birmingham, RO and Trenton.
To claim that Detroit has the kind of vast swaths of housing stock that typifies places like Chicago's Wicker Park, Rodgers Park, Boys Town, Lincoln Park ... strains credulity. I love Detroit but I ain't buying anyone's claim that the majority of its housing is urban.
That is why it is a head scratcher when dipshits spew their urban palming 101 textbook hooey that a place like RO isn't a "city" because it has lawns. Get real. One of detroit's previous claims to fame was that it had more single family houses than anywhere in America. It served as proof that the Union movement and Union wages built a solid middle class. Where a sheet metal stamper could own his own home. Raise his kids, grow some tomatoes and live in peace.
That's Detroit. That is what it promised and you see that promise in the tattered remains of those once proud neighborhoods. Neighborhoods, not superblocks like on Roosevelt Island in NYC.
Moreover to piss on RO is to piss on the dream of owning your own place and having a place to raise your kids and your tomatoes. RO or Ferndale or Birmingham didn't spring to reality in the fall of 1967. Those places where almost entirely built out by 1960, Ferndale [[ originally called UrbanRest) by 1940. And they were built using the exact same plan that Detroit used: front yard, back yard and a house in-between.
I ain't no RO fan, but for a vibrant vibe ... I'll stack RO against Greek 1/2 block any day of the week.
The reality is that ABE exists because not everyone in the world is jazz fan and not everyone loves the drama that comes with going to Detroit. Detroit takes work to love. You have to blind yourself to all of its shittyness or you leave. The garrish paint jobs on party stores, the tagging, the bums, the trash, the store signage that SCREAMS AND SCREAMS AND SCREAMS. It is obnoxious.
Go to Birmingham and all of their benches, sign posts, newspaper boxes, parking meters ... everything is painted green. Nothing clashes, it is harmonious; store signage can't be too large, can't flash, ... the result is that it is easy to chill in that town. You want to park and shop? You can park for FREE for the first two hours in one of the parking decks, same for RO. That makes life easy. In Detroit you're at the mercy of parking meter sharks and $3.00 minimums in the decks.
jeeze