So what 'is' Detroit's Future?

[MotorCityTrikes]

What's your opinion of the future? Say the next five years or so. Will we really come back from the brink? What's it gonna take?

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

We are already beyond the brink. Downtown/midtown will continue growth. The city's finances, in stable hands, will be okay. The big question: can a combination of prodding and support get the non-functional individuals and neighborhoods back on their feet? Good question. I am not sure of the answer, except that doing what we've done in the past for the downtrodden has not only not helped, it has made pulling them out even harder. I hope we can save a lot of those people from the needless poverty and destructive lives.

[Dan Wesson]

What's your opinion of the future? Say the next five years or so. Will we really come back from the brink? What's it gonna take?

What's it gonna take?

Money, lot's and lot's of money. Money that makes money. Money that makers can make. Money that takers can take.

The timeline...

The trend is your friend and the trend has been in decline for a good thirty years.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

The trend is your friend and the trend has been in decline for a good thirty years.

The trend for the working in Detroit is on a big upswing. Businesses and working people are moving in and doing well in downtown, midtown and select other neighborhoods. The trend is different in the decimated neighborhoods. And I must say that money in and of itself is actually not the answer, although the answers may require money. It's a do-nothing cop out just to demand money. Prosperity and success follow behavior. Staying in school, working hard, avoiding drugs and teen or unwed pregnancy are the behavioral traits of the successful. If you hand $1M in cash to a lazy, alcoholic dropout with multiple kids, that person will not realistically turn their life around. It's the culture that needs to shift in the broken down parts of the city. That's much more difficult than spending money. Why? Because you need to change people's hearts and minds, and it is entirely possible that no matter what you do, they won't change. I wish churches still had the authority they once did in urban neighborhoods. But every single kid in the city needs to have it drilled in to him or her that there is a real path to success and a bright future, and it is all about controlling your own behavior. Some poor kids from broken homes in bad neighborhoods escape. How? They stay in school, work hard, stay off drugs, and don't become teen or unwed parents. Yes, there are occasional people who dropout and still succeed, or have a drug/alcohol problem and overcome it, etc. But they are exceptions. Those that follow the 4 key life rules almost never end up in poverty and despair. The kids of Detroit need to know that as sure as they know their own names.

[softailrider]

To me the future doesn't seem very bright. The middle class left decades ago and don't seem to be in any hurry to return. Half of the neighborhoods are in absolute ruin. Even after all that once beautiful housing gets torn down then what? Are we going to be left with hundreds of blocks of unkempt jungle? How you run a city [[even a downsized one) without a middle class tax base to draw from is beyond me.

[ABetterDetroit]

Will we really come back from the brink? What's it gonna take?

Detroit's already on the way back up. A new pro business environment and venture capitalist investing big is bringing jobs and opportunity back into the city. People follow the money, always have and always will. Just a hard town to convince folks that good things are starting to happen, but they will start to come around, little by little.

[Cliffy]

Detroit has no future as long as the majority of the neighborhoods look like they have been bombed out and you can't stop at any gas station in the whole city because of fear of being robbed or killed. You can't build a whole city on a few yuppies moving to downtown lofts.

[illwill]

A few thousand...

[ABetterDetroit]

Detroit has no future as long as the majority of the neighborhoods look like they have been bombed out and you can't stop at any gas station in the whole city because of fear of being robbed or killed. You can't build a whole city on a few yuppies moving to downtown lofts.

It has to start somewhere. Try and rent a nice apartment downtown. The rents are rapidly rising, entire buildings are sold out before the renovations are finished. Developers are starting to line up to meet the demand. They are tearing down parking garages for God's sake! For office buildings no less!

I can show you crap neiborhoods a half dozen miles from Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, or G.P. is that relevant in a city the size of Detroit? I think it might be. If you are looking to renovate 144 sq. miles, you can't do it all at once. More like a chunk at a time. Patience, it will spread.

[D_Town]

The Bad:
Neighborhoods will continue to decline, crime will continue to be a problem, and more abandon homes

The Good:
Downtown and Midtown will continue to flourish, spill over will happen to neighborhoods outside of downtown and midtown, and many abandon homes will be demolished.

Future:
Will the city let citizens in near abandoned neighborhoods move to concentrated areas?
If that happens police will have better control over crime.

[sumas]

Frankly, on the few occasions we needed to call police they have been prompt and responsive.

My block is half urban prairie, mowed by our residents. I love my home, we have invested heavily in it. Certainly have had issues with crime but that crap is not us. Great community!

[MotorCityTrikes]

Clearing out the run down useless buildings and houses is a good thing. Sometimes you have to go back and start over from scratch. Vacant land kept clean is a fresh start. Maybe Detroit could become a farming community. Plant food and people can eat healthy and cheap.

Then the criminal element. Will jobs stop some of that? If some of those punks had a job would they become good citizens or are they just mental? There are answers for every issue

[Mackinaw]

My prediction for 15 years looks like present day Washington D.C., but with a way cooler downtown. Don't get too carried away with that comparison, I just think that the recovery of a patchwork quilt of neighborhoods will lead us to something like what D.C. has, particularly if we throw in comprehensive rapid transit.

In terms of culture and national image, New Orleans also provides us a bit of a rubric.

Any YES of course we coming back. The brink is in the rearview folks.

[finster]

Unfortunately I see downtown and midtown continuing to prosper [[a good thing) but the neighborhoods will probably continue to hollow out and decline [[a bad thing). This is one of the reasons I favor strong transit lines along major arteries as hopefully people would naturally gravitate over time towards the major stops and away from less desirable areas. Unfortunately the M-1 will probably be it for at least my life time and a half-assed patched together and barely holding on RTA looks most likely at this point, at least from my point of view.

I actually see many areas returning to the forest but I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing because a wooded area you can just let be but burnt out old houses, weed choked lots and crumbling streets, sidewalks, lighting and sewer and water infrastructure are just to hard to try to and preserve and just regress to more and more blight.

We may be stuck with a reverse donut hole effect with a few sprinkles of hope here and there but I can't see the city ever becoming normal again in the traditional sense. Sorry, just my opinion, and hopefully I will be proven wrong as nothing would make me happier than to eat some crow on this one.