"Follow General Motors' lead: Live in Detroit" From this Sundays Free Press

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...#pluckcomments


My wife and I have lived downtown for years and after some debate of moving we have decided to stay. We walk to Tiger games and have short commute to work in southwest Detroit. This article also shows what I have always felt is one of the Detroit areas biggest problems; people from Detroit. The fact that the writer is not a native of Detroit is very important, people that are not from here tend to be more open and positive. My fellow native Detroiters are so negative there still fighting the riots still upset at Coleman Young, just reading some of the comments at the freep.com proves my point.
I look forward to reading all the reading all the "positive" comments to come after me. [[yeah right)

I've always loved living and working in Detroit. [[I actually live in Hamtramck, but I figure that is close enough to count.) I love it because you are so close to everything, and traffic is never a problem. But, you can't explain that love to the folks who commute for an 45 minutes each way.. Whenever they talk about it, you hear the fear, like the fear of swimming in deep water, in their voices.

But I also love to complain about Detroit. I think it's a beloved habit, like loving a bum sports team that never wins.

Agreed. I moved to downtown from California a few years ago. I think it's a lot harder for people with regional baggage to see all downtown living has to offer: being able to walk/bike to work, Eastern Market, the Riverfront, tiger games, shows at the Fox, bars, festivals, and restaurants is really incredible. we only have one car and we hardly ever use it.

I don't begrudge anyone's choice if they don't want to live down here, but one thing I have come to resent is when metro Detroiters tell out-of-staters moving here for whatever reason that they "simply CANNOT live in Detroit" [[we were told this dozens of times). I know so many young people who've moved here from New York or other cities to work downtown who were told by locals that they couldn't live in Detroit, and they all end up in Royal Oak or Ferndale, which are nice places [[but still suburbs).

People who've enjoyed city living elsewhere understand that certain annoyances are part of the package [[in Detroit's case, some are worse *property crime* and some are easier *cost of living*) and that such annoyances are outweighed by the pleasure of living in a city, even a completely dysfunctional one.

Yea, I'll move into the city just so I can get robbed everyday and the police don't show up until a month later, so I can pay half my income in taxes, watch the good kids burn down the neighborhood, trash and bums everywhere, welfare receiving crackheads prostituting up and down the streets, car-jackings, muggings, need I go on? If your friends told you Detroit was unliveable then they were just simply trying to save your life. Anywhere east of Middlebelt and south of 10 Mile is a hell hole and only the criminals survive. You'd have a better chance of survival and a better quality of life living in Afghanistan!

you forgot the guys with mohawks and wrist-crossbows driving in circles around our compound. thank god for the flamethrowers.

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Originally Posted by Crumbled_pavement

Yea, I'll move into the city just so I can get robbed everyday and the police don't show up until a month later, so I can pay half my income in taxes, watch the good kids burn down the neighborhood, trash and bums everywhere, welfare receiving crackheads prostituting up and down the streets, car-jackings, muggings, need I go on? If your friends told you Detroit was unliveable then they were just simply trying to save your life. Anywhere east of Middlebelt and south of 10 Mile is a hell hole and only the criminals survive. You'd have a better chance of survival and a better quality of life living in Afghanistan!

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I dunno, even Farmington Hills isn't what it used to be. I'd move to at least 15 and Haggerty, just to be safe. Better yet, just go straight to Livingston County--Oakland will be one big ghetto in a few years. :D

I currently am stuck in NYC [[anyone know of any good jobs available in Detroit?) but when I move back I will only live in the city. Was just longingly looking at apartments with views of Belle Isle...

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Originally Posted by Bearinabox

I dunno, even Farmington Hills isn't what it used to be. I'd move to at least 15 and Haggerty, just to be safe. Better yet, just go straight to Livingston County--Oakland will be one big ghetto in a few years. :D

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What a racist azz comment. One big ghetto?? Yeah, the Blacks are going to push all the White people up to the UP. They're gonna take over the LP. WTF?

Crumbled,

Do you even live in the metro area? LOL. I live south of 10 Mile and I'll bet you that my front yard and neighborhood looks better then yours.....and safer! The City of Center Line dose not mess around. I love it here!!

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Yeah. It's crazy how much fear of Detroit there is. Irrational fear, based of no actual experience, only what has been told to these people. Have they ever lived here? People aren't getting murdered randomly. Most violent crime is between people that know each other --domestic violence and drug related violence. Most of these crimes would go away if we people had jobs, and the economy was equitable and democratic.

And as far as people who have lived here, I know quality of life here is not that fantastic, there are lots of problems. But problems don't go away by moving away. We have a culture that encourages people to leave the city, instead of staying and helping rebuild it. Make this the city you always wanted. Join a movement for a just and democratic future, so that there will be no more crime and no more abandonment. Violence isn't stopped by more violence [[crime isn't stopped by police), it is stopped by uprooting the violent system and replacing it with something more humane.

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Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid

What a racist azz comment. One big ghetto?? Yeah, the Blacks are going to push all the White people up to the UP. They're gonna take over the LP. WTF?

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That post was an experiment of sorts. I wanted to see if it would be possible to post something so ridiculous that nobody could possibly take it seriously. Such a post may yet be possible, but it would appear that I'm not the one to write it. My capabilities as a satirist are officially exhausted. Paging Omaha...

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People aren't getting murdered randomly

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True, BUT a lot of other random crimes happen much more often in Detroit thatn elsewhere in the region. Business are being driven out and so are educated folks. For every good thing about Detroit, one will find 4 negative things.

"I live three-quarters of a mile from work. I can exercise in the morning -- at one of the two YMCAs or at my building's fitness center -- have breakfast and grab a quick nap while my colleagues might be fighting a 25-mile commute in the snow."

I wonder if this guy got a job transfer 25 miles from downtown if he would move or just deal with the commute because he's happy at his present location? With our freeway system a 25 mile commute is quite easy on most days.
If it were all about the time spent driving to work I think this guy might have a point, but a lot more goes into the decision that one makes as far as where they choose to live.

I used to live downtown and commute to the suburbs for work and the commute was the only thing I disliked about my life. Now, both my wife and I work downtown and live downtown. We couldn't be happier.

The future of the region depends on downtown/midtown area. And despite the deep recession, downtown continues to make progress,

When I lived on the West Side, I had a friend who was scared to death to come to my house, simply because of the Detroit address. I explained how my neighborhood was infinitely safer than his [[Hazel Park.) Next thing you know, he's renting out my basement. :)

As usual, people fail to make the distinction between downtown Detroit and the rest of the city. How does living in the Millender Center compare with living on a typical street outside of downtown? Of course Detroit is a safe and beautiful city when you can live in an exclusive, security controlled high-rise. But try telling that to someone that lives on a street where 1/3 of the homes have been torn down, 1/3 are vacant, and 1/3 are inhabited by people who are repeated victims or perpetrators of crimes.

Submitting my vote in agreement with this Free Press column. And I don’t live downtown, or in a high-rise.

so what's your point, retroit? nobody ever said many of Detroit's neighborhoods don't have problems. I'm so sick of people acting like it's a crime to acknowledge that there are places in Detroit that are nice. It's not just downtown. Where I live [[Corktown) is nice. Just because I don't get robbed every week or have a burned-out house next door doesn't make me any less of a Detroiter. real cities have lots of different kinds of people in them, including upper middle class people who like security controlled high rises and students who like tree-lined streets of old victorians and yuppies who like overpriced lofts.

can't this guy from Iowa enjoy his nice millinder center apartment without getting grief from losers obsessed with trying to point out that distant neighborhoods are poor and dangerous? can't we have some parts of the city where professionals can live safely without trying to make them feel guilty? should this guy from Iowa have bought a $1500 house at Mack and Chene so he could experience the real Detroit? Most real cities offer more than a singular lifestyle choice.

go ahead, tell "someone that lives on a street where 1/3 of the homes have been torn down, 1/3 are vacant, and 1/3 are inhabited by people who are repeated victims or perpetrators of crimes" that some people have nice apartments downtown. EVERY GODDAMN CITY IN AMERICA has nice apartments downtown. but here in Detroit, we're not allowed to have nice places.

Dexterferry, I was going to comment but you said what I wanted to in such a great way that I won't even bother.

I'll just add that urban living is far superior to my experience with suburban living for so many reasons. I enjoy the exercise I get living in the city because I don't have to rely on my car. It's wonderful and even if I ever leave Detroit, I will always live in a city.

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Originally Posted by Retroit

As usual, people fail to make the distinction between downtown Detroit and the rest of the city. How does living in the Millender Center compare with living on a typical street outside of downtown? Of course Detroit is a safe and beautiful city when you can live in an exclusive, security controlled high-rise. But try telling that to someone that lives on a street where 1/3 of the homes have been torn down, 1/3 are vacant, and 1/3 are inhabited by people who are repeated victims or perpetrators of crimes.

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I don't get what point you are trying to make. Yes, Detroit has decay, and I don't think anyone has tried to deny that. And yeah, the Millender Center may not be representative of the average Detroit neighborhood, everybody gets that too. But you also can't find anything similar to the Millender Center in any of Detroit's suburbs either. So those who desire that type of environment should move to Detroit and live it.

I think you did get my point based on your response. Yes, downtown has gotten better every year. That is great & wonderful. But you can't deny that the vast majority of Detroit has deteriorated at an alarming rate. Sure, Corktown is nice and there are other nice areas. But you have to look at the whole city in its entirety.



So my point is that Detroit's neighborhoods can be divided into 3 areas:

1. Downtown: nice if you can afford it and prefer that type of living
2. A few nice areas with very dedicated residents
3. A lot of struggling neighborhoods that no one wants to talk about because to do so means you must be a racist who hates Detroit and only want to discourage outsiders from moving to such a safe city.

by your logic retroit, no one should move to Hyde Park in Chicago because everything south of 59th street is "unsafe."

sadly, this is the logic employed by plenty of provincial rubes in the suburbs. and it's the logic that will keep the nice areas of Detroit from getting too much nicer, and the struggling neighborhoods from ever having a shot.

After reading the first few comments on that article, I am kind of glad people like that don't live down here. I know it takes all kinds, but they have a lot too learn, and I think some of them are too old to learn. After reading that, I don't feel that bad that they will be stuck in their treasured destructive suburbs thanks to the mortgage crisis, when those suburbs look like the areas they hate, in a decade or so.

I love living Downtown; DetroitMom, not as much. She is almost nine months pregnant, so she is not into walking anywhere. We are both very excited about having a baby in Downtown Detroit though. We are excited on to take her on the People Mover and eventual trolley. There are a good number of other kids/exptents in our building to play with. We plan on doing light picnics in Campus Martius and bar-b-ques on Belle Isle. I can't wait until she's old enough to go on the carousel on the Riverwalk, play in the GM fountain, go on the rides at Belle Isle, and go to a Tiger Game, concert, festivals, and maybe a couple Disney on Ice shows, or maybe the Rockets. We'll be able to walk to one of the Nations Thanksgiving Day Parade, a family tradition we started last year, and take the shuttle from MGM up to the State Fair. We'll be going to one of the nations largest firework shows in the Summer.

I'm sure Royal Oak has nice things too....

I can literally run downstairs to the convenient store or diners for most groceries. I can't tell you how many times I have started making something only to realize I forgot I was out of an ingredient, or how many times DetroitMom had a strange craving in the evening, and I didn't have to even leave my building [[if it's late night, sometimes I have to walk a few blocks further).

Places are actually open late or 24 hours, something not found in our previous cities and suburbs. Deliveries are also allowed here. Many suburbs don't do deliveries after six or eight. In Downtown Detroit, there are pizza places that deliver until 2am.

I guess some people like bedroom communities like Novi or the Pointes....

Reduced commute times mean I can spend time with my family, and I know I am helping save the environment for our kids. I am also just a few blocks away from home, should some emergency happen. Day cares are also just down the block, and there are plenty of college kids looking for babysitting work. DetroitMom and I can spend a night out at nice restaurants, theater, opera, or casino, and have the peace of mind that we are only a five minute walk from home, again, if there was an emergency.

I must admit, I wasn't happy with the school age children comment at the end of that Free Press article. The real problem in Detroit is high school, if your kids can't get into Cass Tech. Elementary school can be done in charter schools, and the Boll Family YMCA now offers preschool and kindergarten classes.

I guess some people like either caring for their lawns for entertainment in Livonia, or driving a half hour away from their kids for a date night from Canton.

Pharmacies, grocery stores, work, government offices, entertainment, the hospital, physicians, retail, dentists... all right around the corner from me.

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Originally Posted by dexterferry

by your logic retroit, no one should move to Hyde Park in Chicago because everything south of 59th street is "unsafe."

sadly, this is the logic employed by plenty of provincial rubes in the suburbs. and it's the logic that will keep the nice areas of Detroit from getting too much nicer, and the struggling neighborhoods from ever having a shot.

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Right, it's funny in a tragic sort of way how suburbanites don't see that their suburbs are more dangerous than most areas of Detroit, let alone Downtown Detroit.

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Yes, downtown has gotten better every year. That is great & wonderful. But you can't deny that the vast majority of Detroit has deteriorated at an alarming rate. Sure, Corktown is nice and there are other nice areas. But you have to look at the whole city in its entirety.

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Every yuppie that moves into one of the nice areas contributes to the city tax base. This will end up helping citizens in all neighborhoods. How is that a bad thing?