Who killed Detroit?

**313WX** · July-16-13, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

This is the prevailing suburban mythology. It's funny how folks go on believing this and never investigating it. Myths survive because they are soothing, help us see the world as we'd rather see it.

Young told criminals to hit Eight Mile. The phrase "hit Eight Mile" doesn't mean "go to the suburbs" -- it means "hit the bricks" or "get out of here."

The city income tax was passed with the support of Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, not big, bad, black Coleman Young.

But, whatever, go on believing the myths if that works for you ...

To add to what D'nerd said, Chicago has a 10% sales tax on all goods purchased within the city limits. Yet, businesses didn't up and leave Chicago.

Let's be blunt here. Systematically, the people of Illinois valued the importance of a strong, healthy, vibrant Chicago. Systematically, the people of Michigan did not value the importance of a strong, healthy, vibrant Detroit. For example, it is like pulling teeth when trying to get someone from Michigan to tell you where they're from in the state, as the people in Michigan make it a task to not associate themselves with a place in Michigan people outside the state recognize [[Detroit). As a result, now the chickens have come home to roost for the people of Michigan as they have nothing to stop their young, educated children from leaving for Chicago and their state's largest city they have systematically ignored is headed into bankruptcy court.

**Paintnprint** · July-17-13, 06:12 AM

I can only speak for myself. I'm White. Born in the D in 1953. My parents raised me well and I didn't have an issue with anybody. From 1962-66 the north-west side went Black. Jews left and Blacks filled their spots. Whatever. Still, there came this point when the bikes of me and my brothers were stolen, twelve in total. My old man said, "Walk, I'm not buying another." We'd go to school at our peril. For some reason Black kids wanted to kick our asses. At Post Jr. High I had a word with the principal and he said I could have a 15 minute head-start so some Black kid wouldn't kick my ass. Naked Prey indeed. I was very small and the only White face in the crowd. Still, I had a lot of Black friends. WARNING if words offend you, please stop reading.
My first day at Post, I entered the lunchroom and met with the friends I hadn't seen all summer. Edgar said, "What up Nigga? Where you been?" I checked the backs of my hands. Nope. After about a week I announced, "What up Nigga?" All of my friends did a fist-pump. And so I was a Nigga for three years. Probably been called that more than most White people.
At the Puritan Market and somebody runs out with stuff without paying. The owner/manager said, "Their robbing me blind!" I'd never seen that before. So, if you need a reason for business leaving or closing, there you have it. Don't kill the messenger, I'm just a reporter. I arrived home one day bleeding. My mom demanded, "What happened?!" I answered, "A bunch of kids beat me up." Mom said, "I think it's time we move out of Detroit." In the 'burbs, I didn't have to fear for my life, and I was glad to be out of Detroit. That may seem harsh, but it's my story. Industy? Another can of worms.

**Detroitnerd** · July-18-13, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Paintnprint

At the Puritan Market and somebody runs out with stuff without paying. The owner/manager said, "Their robbing me blind!" I'd never seen that before. So, if you need a reason for business leaving or closing, there you have it. Don't kill the messenger, I'm just a reporter. I arrived home one day bleeding. My mom demanded, "What happened?!" I answered, "A bunch of kids beat me up." Mom said, "I think it's time we move out of Detroit." In the 'burbs, I didn't have to fear for my life, and I was glad to be out of Detroit. That may seem harsh, but it's my story. Industy? Another can of worms.

Tales of young kids fighting each other are legion in urban America. The kids fight kids from other neighborhoods, then graduate on to the West Side Story type of teen gangs that fight, then they become adults and enforce vagrancy laws, restrictive covenants, work for the chamber of commerce, etc. I even got a bit of a taste of that as a kid in the 1970s, when we kids "defended" our neighborhood from black kids across Warren who wanted to "steal our bikes." I'm not sure it was a racial thing for us, so much as it was the have-somes versus the have-nots. But children are small-minded and lack empathy, and there seems to be some sort of congenital programming to mistrust or loathe those different from you, or from a different neighborhood, at least. I think that as we learn critical thinking and reason, we learn to slough off these childish prejudices. I'd love to be a fly on the wall, Paintnprint, if you were to meet some of your old tormentors today.

If we agree that childish behaviors like the ones you described seem to be almost universal at that time, why was Detroit different? Metro Detroit had a number of factors in that window between 1945 and when it "died" [[to keep with the OP's terminology). One of the main differences was that Detroit was surrounded by a lot of open land that was being quickly developed, and it enabled people of means to leave. Unless they had some important connection to their neighborhood [[as Jews and Poles often did: community centers, temples and churches, etc.), people just took off to the suburbs. This left a diminishing pool of people to offer their resources to help educate the next generation. And it has been a vicious cycle ever since.

What killed Detroit? No one thing. But the idea that we could move and leave social problems behind robbed the city of a lot of resources, money and good energy that might have saved it.