Detroit apartment buildings fill; renters' age falls

[Vox]

This would be true if a unicorn showed up at Jefferson and Woodward with $250,000,000 in a bag.

But now the unicorn would be shot, robbed, and eaten. Probably by city council.

The problem is that we have no money. We have dwindling resources and increasing costs. It costs just as much money for a garbage truck to drive one block with 20 houses vs. one block with 3 houses. Putting 200 people in a high rise
requires one officer to guard. Putting 200 people in single family homes across
10 blocks requires a patrol car. Putting 200 people spread 4 families per block
means 50 blocks and 5 patrol cars.

The guard thing is only true if those 200 people never leave their high rises. And it's not an officer in those buildings, it's a security guard, more than likely a doorman. You still need cops to come when they have issues. You are talking shrinking neighborhoods, which I don't argue. But your argument, among others, is talking about plowing more money into Mid and Downtown, and the rest be damned.

The idea that we all locations are equally important could fly if we could
afford it to work. But we can't, and the problem is getting worse, not better.

Well, I suppose that you'll find out whether it's a doable idea soon. If not, you can expect the maurading hordes to come in from the "mad max" ungoverned zones.

I can understand that this will be hard to hear for those people in
neighborhoods that will have to be sacrificed in order to keep the whole ship
afloat, but we don't have a choice. Will my old neighborhood at 7 and Kelly
survive? I don't know.

Will downtown survive? Yes.

Decreasing the taxpaying sectors will decrease the pie remaining to be split. I hope that the next council picked by wards has the common sense to beef up security in other neighborhoods and not be swayed by the big money in Midtown.

Let's pour the resources we have into saving those neighborhoods that will form the critical mass of new Detroit. We can do so compassionately for those who will have to say goodbye to their old neighborhoods, but we're at a point where emotional ties to the past need to be cut so we can focus on not having to be the municipal embarrassment that Detroit is.

Wait... now Detroit is an embarassment? What happened between now and the start of this post? As a municipal embarassment I suppose that now you will call for Midtown and Downtown to disincorporate from Detroit proper, and kick the City Council out on their ass. Hit 6 mile, you pikers...

[corktownyuppie]

As a municipal embarassment I suppose that now you will call for Midtown and Downtown to disincorporate from Detroit proper, and kick the City Council out on their ass. Hit 6 mile, you pikers...

Wait...this is an option?!?!

Detroit is an embarrassment. I was born here, live here, and am proud to work to make the place better because it's my home. I'm proud of how far we've come. I'm hopeful for where we're going to go.

But I'm proud in the way you see a football team go from 4 winless seasons to winning 20% of the games. We're still an embarrassment...but at least we're moving in the right direction.

[mwilbert]

Why not? Some neighborhoods are just as good as Midtown, WITHOUT the extra police presence afforded by Wayne State. Palmer Woods, Indian Village, Green Acres, etc.

I wasn't making a comment about how "good" the neighborhoods were--although certainly all the neighborhoods of Detroit aren't equally good either. But the neighborhoods you name are not as important. If Green Acres were wiped off the map, it would be sad, because Green Acres is a pleasant area, but the impact on Detroit as a whole would be modest. If downtown were wiped out, the impact would be rather more substantial. The two areas aren't equal in importance.

[313WX]

This lack of residential housing downtown is really becoming an EPIC problem. I have friends today that can't find a place to live downtown. Waiting lists at some buildings are now ongoing, meaning they have a rolling list with no expected openings. I didn't believe them so I called around, and seriously, there's nothing open. Even if you wanted to live downtown right now, you can't.

At first, I was excited about the high occupancy rates, but now I wonder how many people are being turned away and where they are going. Rents are climbing. It's hard to believe people can't find a place to live downtown. Again, WHERE ARE THE DEVELOPERS??? WHERE ARE THE BANKS???

For the love of god, there is a DEMAND to live in Detroit and we're not capitalizing on it because there are no open units! If you have $$$ and expertise, please build some buildings in the CBD or renovate some lofts.

I hope we hear a flood of construction announcements in coming months, there are surely more renters in the pipeline with nowhere to go.

You seem to forget we're still in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression [[especially now with the possibly of a soverign debt crisis looming). The credit lines couldn't be any stiffer.

Until/if the national economy ever gets out of the crapper downtown should remain relatively stagnant when it comes to any large scale gentrification or developments. I doubt many people other than the Gilberts or Illitches will want to invest their own dollars on a city that's [[based on the latest census) quite frankly god awful and only has the *POTENTIAL* to be great.