Unbelievable that this is lost. [Old Campus Martius]

[jtf1972]

Downtown would be much nicer if it was filled with Doughboys about to head to the trenches in Europe!

[RealityCheck]

This is our city. The future has not been written . . .

Smart thinking and stylish writing.

Makes me think you really are a ghost, or reincarnation, of the 'Bard of Baltimore' who died 54 years ago next month

[Buy American]

I looked at that picture from 1917 and I didn't see anyone that looked liked me or anyone else in my family or for that matter most of my friends...could it be that the people making comments wish Detroit still looked like that picture....I wonder.

I certainly wish it still looked like it did in 1917...a thriving population with thriving businesses. Instead, the landscape looks bare and desolate today. Unfortunately, history is not important to some Detroiters.

[Retroit]

I actually think the disassociation from the past that was displayed in EastsideQT's post provides a very clear demonstration of why Detroit is the way it is.

Thank you, EastsideQT, for your unintentionally profound insight.

[DLN]

Campus Martius doesn't have to look like Picardilly Circus. We Detroiters and American design our cities to be free from European culture

Detroit city plan was modeled off Paris. The city's planview "spoke" design isn't 'American' by any means.

Detroit was called "the Paris of the Midwest" after all...

[DetroitZack]

I certainly wish it still looked like it did in 1917...a thriving population with thriving businesses. Instead, the landscape looks bare and desolate today. Unfortunately, history is not important to some Detroiters.

Don't we all wish it looked like that! I wonder who we can blame hmmmmm

[Scratch]

This picture ought to tell you how little things have changed: poorly planned utilities [[wow, got enough overhead electrical lines at street level?), crappy retail [[those are all cut-rate clothing stores), lack of aesthetic zoning [[imagine how all that neon looked at night - next to the opera house), and jaywalking pedestrians.

All things I immediately noticed. Would you say, almost 100 years later, that Hudson's has indeed grown with Detroit?

I love vintage photos and movies, both to see how things have changed, and stayed the same. Would it help if I apologized for most of the people downtown in 1917 probably being white? Would that apology be bunk if I pointed out that someone might have been appearing in blackface in one of its theaters that night? I don't like that either, but it's true.

Things have changed a lot. They need to change even more, but things that need to do, sooner or later, and they have already changed a lot.

[DetroitPlanner]

Seriously, detroitplanner? That didn't sound ignorant to you???

He compared her family and friends to lower order primates! That is offensive. I don't know about you, but none of my family and friends are covered in hair and live in trees.

I was not commenting on anything Eastside said, only the reaction. The reaction is totally uncalled for and the petty sort of snidecomments that are divisive.

[bailey]

He compared her family and friends to lower order primates! That is offensive. I don't know about you, but none of my family and friends are covered in hair and live in trees.

I was not commenting on anything Eastside said, only the reaction. The reaction is totally uncalled for and the petty sort of snidecomments that are divisive.

I know that it makes the baby jebus cry, but yes, your ancestors were covered in hair and lived in trees.

[tahleel]

He compared her family and friends to lower order primates! That is offensive. I don't know about you, but none of my family and friends are covered in hair and live in trees.

I was not commenting on anything Eastside said, only the reaction. The reaction is totally uncalled for and the petty sort of snidecomments that are divisive.

a.) I never said "lower order" anything.
b.) I never said anything about your family neither.

1.) She stated that her, her friends and family do not look like the people in the picture.
2.) My observation is that the people in the picture appear to be upright walking beings of the primate order.
3.) Using logic, one can assume through her statements and my observations that her, her friends and family are not upright walking beings of the primate order.

Correct me if I'm wrong?

Oh, I'm sorry, you don't see the underlying humor, you're too busy trying to create assumptions and make judgments.

-Tahleel

[smudge pot]

Here's the problem. The very first post, the very first post after the originator started the thread, a thread about Detroit's golden era, when the sky was the limit, unlimited potential checked only by the Great Depression [[i.e., the truncated Fisher Building), this very first post accomplished what? Someone decided to squeeze the elephant of race into the room. Why? What's the point? To make us all feel bad?

In 1917 my Canadian and American ancestors were slaughtering my German ancestors, and vice-versa. Who give's a sh*t about peculiar interpretations of an historical photo through the peevishly-distorted lenses of racial consciousness? Not me, post that nuanced, hand-wringing pish-posh on some other thread. Where's BK when you need him? Nothing nuanced about that dude!

The point of this thread is that Detroit was so awesome, had so much potential, had a layout which featured the "circus", and it's fun to dream about it, and it's sad too.

But I'll take the fun with the sad, and as soon as I figure out the copyright rules, I'll start to post some cool Detroit stuff that I found in some old encyclopedias I collect.

[menckensghost]

OH PLEASE JUST STOP!!! Abandon this ridiculous business immediately!

[Retroit]

I disagree, smudge pot. EastsideQT's perspective is shared by many Detroiters. If one is to understand why Detroit is the way it is, one must understand the way Detroiters are. How many Detroiters do you think look with fond, nostalgic interest at that picture? Many Detroiters are very much stuck on race and are unable to see beyond it.

I do appreciate your frustration, however. I wish things weren't the way they are, but understanding the circumstances has allowed me to find some acceptance of where we are and where we need to go.

[Retroit]

^ By EastsideQT's reasoning, it's because everyone you see in the picture looks like you or someone else in your family or one of your friends.

[RO_Resident]

This picture ought to tell you how little things have changed: poorly planned utilities [[wow, got enough overhead electrical lines at street level?)

Many of the overhead wires are there to supply electricity to the tram system.

[MikeM]

And just a couple of years later the city passed an ordinance banning above ground utility lines within a 3/4 mile radius of Campus Martius.

[SaintMe]

I looked at that picture from 1917 and I didn't see anyone that looked liked me or anyone else in my family or for that matter most of my friends...

Well yeah me either since that picture was taken almost 100 damn years ago . . .

[DetroitDad]

I looked at that picture from 1917 and I didn't see anyone that looked liked me or anyone else in my family or for that matter most of my friends...could it be that the people making comments wish Detroit still looked like that picture....I wonder.

My thoughts exactly, you just don't see the masses wearing hats like in the 1917 photo. I guess when you are walking outside a lot, a hat really protects you from the elements.

But then, what is this? Everywhere I go, I cannot find an umbrella stand to place my wet umbrella, or a coat tree for my hat and coat.

Most of my friends or family will just leave their stuff in their car. All while I walk, take a cab, or bus; while I have to carry these things around with me

[Buy American]

Every one of the men [[except the doughboys) have a suit, tie and hat on.

[RealityCheck]

F r a m i n g.

Yes, I do like your reminders, DetroitDad and Buy American, that we each see whatever differences, distinctions, similarities we choose to see.

Reminds me of a racial unity public service ad in the '70s that showed a white grade school boy and older sister walking past two youngsters -- one white, one black.

"I know one of them from school," says the lad.

"Which one?"

"The tall one."

[smudge pot]

Retroit, good comments. I'm just glad that this thread hasn't gotten ugly, and I haven't been banned, and it looks like the others are OK too, for now. I wanted to step in and provide covering fire for those who shared my views, but who may be tempted to cross the line.

I thought English did a fair job of trying to right this vessel, but with a particular appeal to her constituency. My message was simply to keep race out of it, period. If you want to see people who look like you, imagine taking a ride in one of those elevators, or imagine going into the kitchen of one of the restaurants, or imagine going to the sweaty, gritty ovens in one of the foundries.

Which is kind of like what English was saying. Chicago had a bad race riot around 1919, but Detroit was pretty quiet until 1943. So a picture of Detroit taken in 1917 should not provoke an extraordinary amount of "race consciousness". In 1917, look to Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama. Detroit was still pretty innocent, in 1917. And so is the photo, and so is our enjoyment of it today.

[DetroitDad]

This picture was posted on the Frequency 13 blog, from the Library of Congress, taken in 1929 at Cadillac Square. Note that white and black people are photographed together.

[Goose]

in the picadilly circus picture there is a store to the very right side of the photo called "lilleywhites"

ironic......

[smudge pot]

Hokeey, dokee, first pic ever ...

[smudge pot]

Oops, this got scrunched by aspect-ratio, and the 650 limit, should have chopped it in two ...