An eye opening jaw dropping trip through Detroit

[Detroitdave]

Hello all ! I've been following Detroit yes since 2005/2006 I think. I've just recently rejoined .
I followed from the West Coast . I was born here in Detroit , Lived here until I was 13, then moved Southern California until just recently [[5 years ago) moved back. Now I'm 46. I'm VERY familiar with the city I know it's rich history and it's troubles very well , but just recently I had to drive to a friends house to visit and like I said I didn't grow up driving age here so I told him I would just google map it .

My trip started in Downtown Detroit around the opera house. My journery started up Gratiot and it was pretty sad driving past my grandparents old neighborhood ,near Gratiot and Mt Elliot :-[[.

The drive up Gratiot was pretty sad , but then I got to Van Dyke and had to make a left ,all the way up Van Dyke to 7 mile, I started to get knots in my belly and my head started to race, thinking" How in the Hell are they going to fix all of this mess from DECADES, of Decay?
I arrived at my friends BEAUTIFUL , 1940's home, with much of the original wood work and bathroom, just north of 7 mile and east of Van Dyke .

As the sun was setting I had to drive back to my home in Northwest Detroit , by this time I had an idea where I was so I drove down to 6 mile and took it across town.

Watching the neighborhoods change was shocking .
I'm a student in urban planning and keep asking my self
"How in the Hell are they going to fix all of the mess ?"

I've study urban areas through many decades , Centuries , and the only way I see that it can be rebuilt is through government rebuilding or an entity like the catholic church, or churches ,someone with REALLY deep pockets, or completely rebuilding the middle class through companies like Ford and GM which I think is unlikely .

Like I said I live in the city Northwest and I know about downtown, midtown, New center, Grandmount rosedale, all the "villages" , lafayette park , Palmer Park ect, so I know the entire city in not a complete mess, more than half is . I know all about Whole Foods, Mejier, ect . The small company I work with is opening our second location in midtown, our other location in Royal Oak,but there are HUGE parts of the city need to address.

We already know it's way over the city council heads and the need for the consent agreement and the fight over a EM. In the current crisis, which it is a crisis,with EMS rigs down , cutting police, no lights in areas, crime rising ,its a daunting task .

It took Decades to get here will it take decades to get out ? What can be done to leverage and speed up the processes ?
any thoughts?

[vetalalumni]

We already know it's way over the city council heads and the need for the consent agreement and the fight over a EM. In the current crisis, which it is a crisis,with EMS rigs down , cutting police, no lights in areas, crime rising ,its a daunting task .

It took Decades to get here will it take decades to get out ? What can be done to leverage and speed up the processes ?
any thoughts?

The DYes archive holds an abundance of sometimes redundant answers.

Unresolved problems have naturally become increasingly acute. Different answers are sure to emerge.

One imperfect potential answer was recently noted by Oladub in the Only 6 out of 1500 non-resident Detroit cops take incentives to live in Detroit? thread.

Create a demand. Tie this together with Mayor Bing's idea about cutting services to parts of the City. Let's say that a contiguous area of 60 square blocks was designated for future development meeting certain density and investment requirements. If Detroit gets into a situation of not being able to pay it's pension obligations, it could, for instance, offer shares in this land trust. The owners of the land trust could do almost anything they wanted with the land from build their own houses on it to sell it to a developer. Why not even let Detroit police and civil service workers living in Detroit have the option of setting aside a percent of their paychecks to buy shares. Suddenly, a lot of working and retired civil service workers are stakeholders in developing Detroit. One problem up to now is that the individual parcels are not attractive. Put together a large contiguous area and we have a new ball game.

I don't know what empty lots in war torn areas in Detroit sell for these days but if the same land was part of something that had potential, maybe with a wall around it and it's own owners association to govern it, the value would pop.

[rutlev]

Next time you drive through, take Mayor Bing, and the
City Counsel with you. They're the ones that need to see
it. I Those of us that live in the "good" pockets get that same gutwrenching feeling everytime we go from one area to another. I sometimes think our elected officials spend too
much time in their own little world and have a skewered idea of what the City really looks like.

[Meddle]

Next time you drive through, take Mayor Bing, and the
City Counsel with you. They're the ones that need to see
it.

As long as they get their paycheck, they don't care. Remember that at the next election. Dump them all and start fresh. Re-elect NO one.

[MidTownMs]

As long as they get their paycheck, they don't care. Remember that at the next election. Dump them all and start fresh. Re-elect NO one.

Start fresh with who?

[Buy American]

Does anyone know much about Shiela Cockrel? I have seen her many times on the news and she seems to know so much about the inner workings of Detroit and she is a very intelligent woman. Would she be a good candidate?

[Meddle]

Another Cockrel?

Seriously?

I thought Detroit had had enough of them. Why not just go for another McNamara or Kilpatrick?

[Meddle]

Start fresh with who?

Somebody outside the system of graft and corruption. Somebody who won't be afraid to say no to the contractor thugs offering payola, and who will turn them over to the Feds for disposal.

[LafayettePark]

Sucks to hear that, but what do YOU plan on doing to help?

[rex]

Bing wants to create dead zones. I can sort of appreciate why. The problem is the how. The answer provided by the administration is steady disinvestment in areas deemed unsalvageable. Or rather, the city isn't going to spend any more than the minimum in these areas. No grass cutting, no upkeep aside from what? a small police and fire presence. Hopefully they continue to collect trash or else. I can see these areas becoming little more than community dumps. I mean. More than they already are. I would like to see them clear multi block areas of abandoned homes and fence them off. Use some sort of recycled plastic fencing so it doesn't get scrapped
And while they try to persuade residents to move to more viable areas whats gonna happen? These neighborhoods are going to look more and more tore up.

[MidTownMs]

Does anyone know much about Shiela Cockrel? I have seen her many times on the news and she seems to know so much about the inner workings of Detroit and she is a very intelligent woman. Would she be a good candidate?

Shelia Cockrel is Kenneth Cockrel's step-mother and long time City Council member until she got fed up and withdrew from the last City Council election.

[DinNC]

It took decades to get where it is now and it will take decades to get back to 1/2 of what it used to be. I love Detroit! I will probably move back some day if I get back to Michigan! But, Detroit has a looooooong road ahead of it. It's got good bones as my buddy said, but needs good leaders and people with or without a lot of money to give a crap. I think it's going in the right direction if you ask me.

[Zacha341]

Hmm, it can be argued we already have 'dead zones' now -- it is just being formalized. But what of these areas? Community dumps, body dumps... Chernobyl-like areas of no return...? Are they to be fenced off... yes the plastic fencing as you suggest!

Then what is the buffer community to these 'areas'.... how far away do you have to live from these dead areas to not have it affect you. An alley way away far enough?

Bing wants to create dead zones. I can sort of appreciate why. The problem is the how. The answer provided by the administration is steady disinvestment in areas deemed unsalvageable. Or rather, the city isn't going to spend any more than the minimum in these areas. No grass cutting, no upkeep aside from what? a small police and fire presence. Hopefully they continue to collect trash or else. I can see these areas becoming little more than community dumps. I mean. More than they already are. I would like to see them clear multi block areas of abandoned homes and fence them off. Use some sort of recycled plastic fencing so it doesn't get scrapped
And while they try to persuade residents to move to more viable areas whats gonna happen? These neighborhoods are going to look more and more tore up.

[313WX]

Does anyone know much about Shiela Cockrel? I have seen her many times on the news and she seems to know so much about the inner workings of Detroit and she is a very intelligent woman. Would she be a good candidate?

Is that a joke?

[313WX]

Shelia Cockrel is Kenneth Cockrel's step-mother and long time City Council member until she got fed up and withdrew from the last City Council election.

Who can blame her?

[royce]

The quickest solution to the vacant land problem might be to unincorporate those areas of the city. Give them back to Wayne County or the state. The eastside is essentially dead. The Indian Village/West Village area along with the Joseph Berry subdivision are the only two areas on the eastside worth saving in my opinion, especially given their proximity to Jefferson and the riverfront. East English Village is on the decline and the areas around it are so bad that living their now is like being the wagon surrounded by the Native Americans in those old westerns. It is only a matter of time before blight and the criminal element pick up their pace and destroy this area too.

The quickest solution to saving livable areas of the city is to continue investment in downtown, Midtown, and the riverfront. Abandon all unsalvageable areas and offer autonomy to the few decent areas outside of the areas just mentioned. Allow neighborhoods like Grandmont-Rosedale, or University District-Sherwood Forest-Palmer Woods-Green Acres to essentially become independent cities with their own police, fire, EMS, garbage, etc. Cordone off unsalvageabe areas and consider them for urban farms, or man-made lakes for recreation. Expand city airport so it functions like Midway in Chicago. And finally, hope and pray that a global disaster like global warming will draw people in droves to Detroit and Michigan for its frest water and future mild winters.

[Lt. Dan Bassett]

the best politician for the tough job ahead in Detroit is Hazen S. Pingree. His re-election campaign is in motion now.
Bing is no Ping.

[EastsideAl]

I'm all for for Hazen Pingree [[running on the platform of municipalizing the streetcars!), and some nice recreational lakes so I can fish the eastside [[and maybe some really cool white water too, so we can go kayaking and rafting!), incentivising the reinhabiting of the eastside north of Mack by Native Americans [[so we can make Royce's suggestion of staging wagon train raids real, and perhaps generate some much-needed tourist dollars), a newly independent Palmer Woods [[so we can get rid of some of those pesky high-end taxpayers), walling off areas with few residents which would isolate them and force them to go feral and hunt and eat one another like the animals 'we' all know 'they' really are [[with the side benefit of eliminating a few more of those stupid taxpayers), and forcing everyone on the southwest side to tear down those awful old houses and rebuild a completely new neighborhood at their own expense.

Now, if we were REAL visionaries, we could annex Highland Park, demolish it, pave it, [[and set its once-captive residents free to live in the wild!) and then run light rail and shuttle buses. Now that would solve everybody's parking problems! And, we could then ban cars from Midtown and Downtown and turn it into something cool like Mackinac Island [[mmmm... I can already taste the fudge...). And, since the east side is apparently a total goner anyway, and would be destroyed by any intelligent city government [[except, conveniently, the area I live in - but not the area some of my relatives live in - so bye Uncle John, it was nice to know you!), we could cut Belle Isle free and float it downtown, where it could be a much better park for much more deserving people.

[MidTownMs]

Is that a joke?

I thought the same thing when I read it.

[PeachLaser]

I think an old-fashioned land rush should be held and the city repopulated en masse. There are millions of people who would love to own land or a home and, I think, that would be willing to be part of a million people returning to a city and getting it going again. It would be historic. It could be the story of the century. With today's technology, it could easily be done online with bidding for property for a defined time period.

Detroit's problems, in my opinion, are so large and so numerous that it is going to take something massive to turn it around. A modern land rush to repopulate a city with much infrastructure already in place could do wonders for Detroit's future. Thinking out of the box again. : )

[illwill]

I thought the same thing when I read it.

As an original Ruins member and old school Detroiter I'mstarting to see a lot of newer Detroiters who aren't familiar with the historyof the city. Mainly speaking political history. I sometimes think it's a goodthing that many of the new Detroiter's aren't familiar with past politicalfigures so they're not discouraged about why Detroit has remained stagnant fordecades. But I think this is why the old timers understand that Detroit"is what it is"...and it's not going to change that much. We haveaccepted our city for what it is. Love it or hate it.

But sometimes I think the new school Detroiter's shouldunderstand the past political players and then they'll understand why so manyold school Detroiters have gotten discouraged over the years and given up. Somany Detroiters have tried to help rebuild the city for decades but it takes atoll on you in SO many different ways and many have just thrown in the toweland left the city all together. I hope the attempt sticks this time but myadvice is to accept the city for what it is.

[MidTownMs]

As an original Ruins member and old school Detroiter I'mstarting to see a lot of newer Detroiters who aren't familiar with the historyof the city. Mainly speaking political history. I sometimes think it's a goodthing that many of the new Detroiter's aren't familiar with past politicalfigures so they're not discouraged about why Detroit has remained stagnant fordecades. But I think this is why the old timers understand that Detroit"is what it is"...and it's not going to change that much. We haveaccepted our city for what it is. Love it or hate it.

But sometimes I think the new school Detroiter's shouldunderstand the past political players and then they'll understand why so manyold school Detroiters have gotten discouraged over the years and given up. Somany Detroiters have tried to help rebuild the city for decades but it takes atoll on you in SO many different ways and many have just thrown in the toweland left the city all together. I hope the attempt sticks this time but myadvice is to accept the city for what it is.

After 63 years in Detroit this old school Detroiter threw in the towel!!!

[skyl4rk]

\,,/, Shack and A Shotgun Program, the pathway to a green card ,\,,/

[maverick1]

It took Decades to get here will it take decades to get out ? What can be done to leverage and speed up the processes ?
any thoughts?

This is my question. I'm in my 30s born and raised here and decided to stay but i'm second guessing my decision. I know things wont change over night but the speed of progress here is slower than a snail. Over the past 10-12 years I've seen cities that don't have 1/2 the potential Detroit has make great progress. Here it's the opposite. We enthusiastically regress at light-speed.

[Buy American]

Well, I liked Sam Riddle, too. Guess Shiela is out.