Considering Warrendale

**ismoakrack** · November-06-11, 09:09 PM

Hello all - I am considering purchasing a home in Warrendale due to the great deals to be got there. However, I am skeptical for just that reason. There is a plethora of homes for sale in that area, more so than most neighborhoods in the city. It seems pretty intact, however, and crime stats paint a relatively safe picture. Does anyone live there who can give me a more candid opinion? Thanks.

**Neilr** · November-06-11, 10:22 PM

Read Frank Nemecek's Warrerdale Blog for a first-hand look at life in Warrendale.

http://warrendale.blogspot.com/

**corktownyuppie** · November-06-11, 10:30 PM

This was the first I'd heard of Mr. Nemecek's blog. I found it very interesting. I'm curious, has the Warrendale area ever considered departing from the city of Detroit and reverting back to the original Warrendale Township? Is this even allowed?

The sad thing about many of the viable neighborhoods is that their tax bases get diluted by putting their revenue into the general fund and then having to disperse it throughout the entire city.

**DetroitPlanner** · November-06-11, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by corktownyuppie

This was the first I'd heard of Mr. Nemecek's blog. I found it very interesting. I'm curious, has the Warrendale area ever considered departing from the city of Detroit and reverting back to the original Warrendale Township? Is this even allowed?

The sad thing about many of the viable neighborhoods is that their tax bases get diluted by putting their revenue into the general fund and then having to disperse it throughout the entire city.

There is no township of Warrendale. Warrendale was a village. It would make little sense to splinter govt into smaller units when the powers that be in Lansing are forcing amalgamtion.

**Dexlin** · November-06-11, 10:56 PM

Warrendale Township never existed. I believe it the area was originally part of Dearborn Township, but that's kind of a moot point, because the land where Warrendale currently sits didn't even begin development and platting as an actual neighborhood until the 30's [[Detroit last annexation of any land was in 1926), anyway, so the land was already part of Detroit before it was really developed.

BTW, cities and parts of cities can revert back to townships called detachment. It has to go through the same process as annexation. In fact, there is currently an attempt going on that is to be voted on November 8th in which a large section of the small city of Newayo in West Michigan is attempting to detach itself from Newaygo and rejoin neighboring Garfield Township.

**corktownyuppie** · November-06-11, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

There is no township of Warrendale. Warrendale was a village. It would make little sense to splinter govt into smaller units when the powers that be in Lansing are forcing amalgamtion.

Originally Posted by Dexlin

Warrendale Township never existed. I believe it the area was originally part of Dearborn Township, but that's kind of a moot point, because the land where Warrendale wasn't developed until the 30's, anyway, so the land was already part of Detroit before it was developed. So, I'm not sure why you're talking about the area as if it was some seperate entity before big, bad Detroit came and annexed it.

Not sure what to believe...I was just referring to an entry on Frank's blog:

The exact boundaries of the Warrendale neighborhood change a little bit, depending on who one asks. For purposes of this blog, I define "Warrendale" as that portion of the city of Detroit that is bounded by Joy Road to the north, Ford Road to the south, Greenfield to the east, and Rouge Park to the west. These, by the way, are the approximate borders of the former Warrendale Township, which was dissolved and incorporated into Detroit back in the 1920s.

As for splintering into smaller units, I'm in favor of amalgamation when cities join together to make more efficient use of funds. For example, I can't imagine that the Grosse Pointes really *need* 5 different police departments. I mean, sure maybe keep the number of cops the same. But how about getting rid of duplicated overhead of having a separate payroll department and accounting department and police chief for each of the municipal units?

You could decrease cost without decreasing level of service to the residents.

But I can also see why this detachment thing would also be more efficient in other cases. For example, here in Corktown, sometimes we talk about what it would look like if all our income tax came back to our neighborhood. Sure, maybe that means that Detroit would lose our revenue. And ok, for those who remain in Detroit, instead of taking 60 minutes to respond to 911, now it takes 75 minutes? But in Corktown we'd have our own police force, so now instead of taking 60 minutes to respond it only takes 3 minutes?

The losing city would see unacceptable levels of service get worse. But the gaining district would go from shitty service to good service. From a utilitarian point of view, instead of having 2 unhappy residents, you have 1 happy and 1 unhappy [[and maybe slightly unhappi-er) resident.

For me, it's not a philosophical debate about home rule. It's about which ways or pooling [[or un-pooling) resources will result in the greatest number of happy residents.

**Hamtragedy** · November-06-11, 11:54 PM

Warrendale as suffered immensely from the foreclosure crisis. This is an area where people invested in the 90's as home-ownership in Detroit became cheaper than rent, many whom have since lost those homes. And, unfortunately, slum landlords bought here as well, as some home-owners, seeing the proverbial "writing on the wall" split from their well kept homes while they could get the highest dollar possible. Enter the slum lords who haven't so much as cleaned these properties after 15 years of renter turn over. Consider also the tax cost on most of these rental properties is near 3K/yr, and turnover is high.

Enter the scrapping nightmare, and many houses that were viable have been sufficiently and effectively scrapped, even while being worked on. When neighbors aren't looking out for the properties next store, that's a bad sign.

I would proceed with caution.

**Detroit_uke** · November-07-11, 09:08 AM

Like Ham said - proceed with caution. We have lived here in Warrendale for over 30 years. I am ready to walk away and just leave everything behind. There are no businesses nearby. There is nothing on Warren Ave. You have to go to Dearborn or Dearborn Hts to do any shopping...or basically anything. Warrendale has gas stations and drugstores. The deed to my house says DEARBORN TOWNSHIP as does the sign in the entryway of Leslie school. I have 12 abandoned homes on my little block. Some are boarded up - some not. Scrapped - yes...of course. Neighbors don't stay long enough for you to get to know. Not a happy place,.

bartock · November-07-11, 09:19 AM

What are you smoking?

Oh wait, nevermind.

**canuck** · November-07-11, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by Detroit_uke

Like Ham said - proceed with caution. We have lived here in Warrendale for over 30 years. I am ready to walk away and just leave everything behind. There are no businesses nearby. There is nothing on Warren Ave. You have to go to Dearborn or Dearborn Hts to do any shopping...or basically anything. Warrendale has gas stations and drugstores. The deed to my house says DEARBORN TOWNSHIP as does the sign in the entryway of Leslie school. I have 12 abandoned homes on my little block. Some are boarded up - some not. Scrapped - yes...of course. Neighbors don't stay long enough for you to get to know. Not a happy place,.

Do you get angry sometimes? Is there a way of venting all the frustration or is walking away as you suggest a better way of dealing with it? I am not judging and am not being sarcastic, I am plainly disgusted like you about the real estate situation in US cities including Detroit. There were a lot of warning signs that the bubble would burst in so-called sturdy markets like Vegas, but even in cities that had lower values, the ownership craze fueled by unqualified buyers and swindle-lenders managed to further damage fragile neighborhoods.

**milesdriven** · November-07-11, 10:18 AM

I have two friends who live in the area, and while 5-10 years ago it was very nice it's been in steady decline from an owner-occupied neighborhood to a section-8 hood. Closer to Paul is still okay, but closer to Warren is getting rough. One friend left for one night to visit family out of town, and her home was broken into and all her belongings, her furnace, and all the copper pipes were stolen.

**jackie5275** · November-07-11, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by milesdriven

I have two friends who live in the area, and while 5-10 years ago it was very nice it's been in steady decline from an owner-occupied neighborhood to a section-8 hood.

A good amount of that section 8 population is transient too.

**Danny** · November-07-11, 10:39 AM

Warendale was once a village in Dearborn Township when Detroit annexed all of it and parts of Dearborn Township, too in 1929. Houses and mon and pop businesses were developed and neighborhood was mostly white[[Italians, Germans and Poles.) Middle class black families arrived in Warrendale since the late 1970s only in small numbers. It became full blown north of W. Warren Ave. by 2000s. Ethnic Arabs [[Lebanese and Iraqi) families arrived in Warrendale since the mid 1980s. from Dearborn. they quickly filled the neighborhoods east of Southfield FWY, north of Paul St. Now they are expanding further westward to Dearborn Heights and the Westborn side of Dearborn. Mexican and Hispanics middle class families arrive in Warrendale in the late 1980s only in small numbers; haven't expanded yet.

By the early 2000s an influx of low-income black families arrived in its neighborhoods started from north of W.Warren Ave the expanded further south of W. Warren Ave. and west of Southfield FWY. near the Dearborn Heights border. Then the flow of drugs, violent crime and gang cliques from Joy Rds. and Chi-Towns and Clown Squads reign its streets.

Harry's Dept Store and Polish Owned Drugs Store is long gone replaced by Arab owned collision shops and Kronk Boxing Gym. Black owned barber shops to Arab owned Meat Markets are the dominate features that Warrendale have. Housing crisis, sudden forclosures and slumlords turn Warrendale neighborhoods into instant black ghettoes mixed in the kept up Arab and Mexican-Hispanic family homes.

Cody High School-Everette Elementary, and Ruddiman Middle School once flowing with white students from Warrendale. Cody High School is transformed to some progressive school in which is not progressing. Ruddiman Middle School is closed after the gang shooting incident that left serveral students injured. Saints Peter and Paul Cathloic School is long gone. Transformed into some doomed to failure charter school called Warrendale Accademy. Things are changing in Warrendale from the best times to worst. If Warrendale gets blighted near the Dearborn Border who would live there? Maybe the wild dogs and cats and pigeon rats.

**English** · November-07-11, 10:41 AM

That is so sad. Warrendale used to be a solidly working and middle class neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s. I really hate to hear that it's gone down since then, but then again, so has my childhood neighborhood [[Oakman Blvd/Livernois/Davison area).

**jackie5275** · November-07-11, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by English

That is so sad. Warrendale used to be a solidly working and middle class neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s. I really hate to hear that it's gone down since then, but then again, so has my childhood neighborhood [[Oakman Blvd/Livernois/Davison area).

A fair amount of city employees used to live in there too. When the residency requirement got lifted, most of them moved out.

**iheartthed** · November-07-11, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by canuck

Do you get angry sometimes? Is there a way of venting all the frustration or is walking away as you suggest a better way of dealing with it? I am not judging and am not being sarcastic, I am plainly disgusted like you about the real estate situation in US cities including Detroit. There were a lot of warning signs that the bubble would burst in so-called sturdy markets like Vegas, but even in cities that had lower values, the ownership craze fueled by unqualified buyers and swindle-lenders managed to further damage fragile neighborhoods.

A bubble didn't create what Warrendale turned into. That's the result of overbuilding in a region with a stagnant population.

**canuck** · November-07-11, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

A bubble didn't create what Warrendale turned into. That's the result of overbuilding in a region with a stagnant population.

Yes, maybe the "Too much of a good thing" applies to sprawling suburbs so that when people cant all afford the dream of owning a house as opposed to renting an apartment, the consequences can be dire for a community. Stretching the city didnt spread the wealth, that is for sure.

milesdriven / I have two friends who live in the area, and while 5-10 years ago it was very nice it's been in steady decline from an owner-occupied neighborhood to a section-8 hood. Closer to Paul is still okay, but closer to Warren is getting rough. One friend left for one night to visit family out of town, and her home was broken into and all her belongings, her furnace, and all the copper pipes were stolen.

Wow! Imagine a furnace being taken away. Sheesh.

**Detroit_uke** · November-07-11, 11:05 AM

Canuck - walking away is the only way to deal with it.....I would get less than $3,000 for my house. There used to be slum lords in the neighborhood - guys that owned 10-20 houses. Those have been replaced by "companies" that own 100 houses. Deal with it, you say...I'd say 32 years is enough dealing with it. This is not a "neighborhood" anymore...this is a "place to stay"...walking away is a sane move.

**Islandman** · November-07-11, 11:07 AM

My buddy used to live on Warwick a few blocks north of Ford Road. When he moved in about 10 years ago he had a lot of cops and firemen on his street. A lot of them left when the residency requirement lifted, but he stayed. Soon some riffraff moved across the street and the house was firebombed at some point. That's when he decided to leave.

During the process of moving out, he came back to the house to pick up a few things to throw in his truck. He found his doors locked and someone living in his house. Some dude answers his door in his underwear. A "landlord" had changed his locks and started renting his place.

**Detroit_uke** · November-07-11, 11:16 AM

Islandman - exactly what is happening!!!!! Canuck - you want anger....come and move into one of these abandoned houses...let's see of you can make it for a year....that's not asking much...walk in my shoes for one short year.

**Bham1982** · November-07-11, 11:28 AM

Warrendale may still be a somewhat above-average neighborhood for Detroit, but I would strongly advise you to think very deliberately before making a purchase.

There are probably few neighborhoods in Detroit that have fallen as quickly as Warrendale. It's been absolutely slammed by foreclosures, and the deterioration has been breathtaking. Abandonment was nonexistent a few years back, and is now spreading like wildfire.

I would say that Warrendale is about as poor a long-term investment as I can imagine. The ghettohoods have no where to go but up, and there are plenty stable and improving neighborhoods throughout the city. Warrendale falls in neither category.

The main positive about Warrendale is its proximity to the Middle Eastern neighborhoods in Dearborn. Many W. Warren businesses are Middle Eastern, and real estate types are probably hoping that there's residential overflow into Detroit.

I don't see this happening, because the suburbs are super cheap, and the Middle Eastern community is now upwardly mobile. When they leave East Dearborn, they go Canton or wherever, not Detroit.

**Gistok** · November-07-11, 01:06 PM

Unfortunately what is happening in Warrendale, a once stable neighborhood of police and firemen living on the edge of the city.... this same scenario is slowly happening in the areas of Morningside, East English Village and Cornerstone Village, the former thriving middle class neighborhoods of the far east side from E. Outer Drive to Moross. Brokers are buying the homes and renting them out... when neighborhoods become mainly rentals... the signs are not good.

**ismoakrack** · November-07-11, 02:25 PM

Thank you all for your input. I noticed that blocks south of Warren seemed almost totally occupied, then once I crossed Warren, rows of boarded up and burned houses. Also noticed the total lack of businesses, but I go to Dearborn frequently anyway.

**SWMAP** · November-07-11, 02:44 PM

Gosh, the feeling keeps growing that Detroit is doomed. Who or what could manage or even rein in so much destruction? Why pay taxes at all if you would be able to just stay in yor house indefinitely? Does anyone pay taxes anymore? Certainly not the brokers with 100 houses. Not the landlords. And if you do have to give up the property - just fire-bomb it.

**corktownyuppie** · November-07-11, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by SWMAP

Gosh, the feeling keeps growing that Detroit is doomed. Who or what could manage or even rein in so much destruction? Why pay taxes at all if you would be able to just stay in yor house indefinitely? Does anyone pay taxes anymore? Certainly not the brokers with 100 houses. Not the landlords. And if you do have to give up the property - just fire-bomb it.

I don't think Detroit is doomed. But I do think entire swaths of the city will need to be sacrificed in order for a smaller, leaner Detroit to survive, start over, and grow. Which parts of the city? I'm too uninformed to speak intelligently to that. But I do know that I'd rather have 5 healthy blocks with 100% occupancy, rather than 50 blocks at 10% occupancy.

One would think that the people living on those blocks would agree.....