Quote Originally Posted by Honky Tonk View Post
IMO, many whites were just plain run out of the city by fear

Maybe some were run out by unjustified fear, but in my neighborhood the fear was justified. I watched the scenario unfold daily. Crime started escalating around 1963 and by 1967 it was pretty well underway. Initially, some left, most chose to hold their ground. Eventually the majority threw up their hands, quit, and moved out with the others. The same thing happened with the educated, affluent, black middle-class. They too became tired of being victims. That was the real downfall of Detroit because the tax base had left.
Do you have thoughts that you might share as to why [[based on your observation) the crime escalated in the early 60's?

I believe that the crime in the white neighborhoods like you describe was, in part, a result of block busting. As whites fled, homes were offered at below market rates, just to escape; a "lower", that is, less economically and socially strata of blacks, moved into communities that they might not otherwise have afforded, and many brought the social issues with them from the projects and lower class communities [[at that time, it would have been post-Black Bottom).

I also wonder if the impact of drugs [[heroin) began during that time, during those escalating years of the Vietnam War, especially.

I keep hearing that crime was a significant cause of white flight. But I never read here accounts of what crime was an issue in the early years of the flight, just after WWII [[I also read how "schools" were a cause of flight as well, but in the post war years when the flight started, Detroit still had an exemplary school system. So I'm curious).

At any rate, I do believe that crime was a factor during the early 60's, as you describe.

Would you [[or someone) talk about this more? As always, I think it is possible to have a decent discussion about these factors in our history.