Why I left

[Ragtoplover59]

Same story as jcole's in post #2, just change the year to '75

[Ray1936]

Smudge pot, you've got something there. Most girls that I found attractive turned out to be Polish. Must be something in their genes, I guess.

Wish I could polka. Maybe I could'a scored.

[gazhekwe]

Hmm, I keep turning up like a bad penny. Left the first time when my parents moved up north. Came back when they did. Left again to take a great job up home on the res, and came back after the funding dried up. Still here although not within the Detroit city limits I am less than two miles north.

[Chub]

I left in 2007 due to a job offer in Hollywood, CA. I've been back to Detroit 6 times since, for weddings and such. I don't think I'll ever move back to Detroit. Mostly because I've realized since the move to L.A. that I'm a warm weather person. No more slushy shoes and rusting cars for me.

[eno]

Unsupervised children allowed to roam the neighborhood all night. Sullen, unresponsive reaction to efforts to communicate with them. Vandalism. House break-in.

[EastsideQT]

In 1972 I moved to San Francisco and lived there for about 8 years....I moved back to Detroit in 1980 when my mother became very ill....in 1985 I moved to Ann Arbor after taking a job at the University of Michigan....in 1998 I moved back to Detroit after I got my master's degree in social work from U-M. I came back here because this is where I belong...for now.

[detroitbob66]

I left The City of Detroit in Summer of 2006. I had acquired a serious drug addiction during my years in Detroit. I went into treatment, cleaned my act up, graduated from Eastern Michigan last week with a Bachelors' Degree in Social Work and will move back to Detroit in June 2010 for Wayne State's Graduate Program. I will have about 4 years CLEAN AND SOBER hopefully by the time I come back. I want to help the drug addicted people in Detroit. A part of the solution now instead of the problem!

[English]

Awesome, DetroitBob! Congrats to you on your grad school admission as well.

[DetroitDad]

I still live here, but I am still relatively young.

However, many of my friends from high school went to college in other states, graduated, and never came back. Many of my family members left for work, this was the first Christmas without my sister and her young family.

I moved to Detroit not long after I turned 18, and several of my friends who stayed in Michigan, ended up moving to Detroit. After a few years they ended up getting married, getting better jobs, having kids, and moving to the suburbs shortly thereafter. One of them loved the city and urban living [[a native New Yorker) much more than I did, and truely despised the suburbs. The last time I saw him, he had a condo and SUV out in Canton, and when we talked about our times past in Detroit, he said how much he missed the city, and his wife reminded him that "you can't raise kids in Detroit". He looked down and muttered; "I know".

I'm hoping he'll see my blog.

[EastsideAl]

I was always a traveler, even during my teenage years, but Detroit was home. I finally left for real back in '87 to go to grad school on the east coast. By that time I had worked in city government and moved around in music, art, and historic preservation circles in the city, hung out in bars and drank way too much, saw too much nastiness, and had become quite dispirited.

Subsequent years saw me living in NYC [[several times, sort of my home base), Boston, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Germany, and other places. I was overjoyed to see the Detroit comeback of the '90s, and kept thinking about coming back. By the time I got back though, in part to help out my aging parents, those short-lived good times were definitely over.

My parents, who are in their 80s, have both lived in the city their entire lives.

[rid0617]

I left in 1965 because my dad was tired of snow and wanted Florida and I was not old enough to say no. Got married in 1970 been trying to get back ever since. Between paying for life and wives there never seems to be enough money. Did my 25 years in law enforcement, have pension now trying real hard to get back.

[eriedearie]

Good Job detroitbob66! One day at a time. I wish you continued success.

I left Detroit - The 8 Mile and Van Dyke area when I married a Canadian and moved across the river to Windsor. About 5 years later, I talked my husband into moving to East Detroit. Parents were still living in Detroit at that time. In the 80s things started going downhill in their neighborhood [[my mom walked into the kitchen from outside the house - in the time it took her to walk from the house to the garage and back - some guy had wandered into the house, and she confronted him in the kitchen, and brave lady that she is, she chased him out of the house) so then my parents moved to Almont, MI to be near my dad's aging aunt and uncle. Early 90s we decided to move back across the river. Now we live in Essex County. However, I consider Essex County to be part of Metro Detroit. But that's just me! So in reality - I've never left!

All my closest family members are in the area and I'll probably never leave around here. I'm a Detroiter even though I don't live in Detroit proper.

When we travel and people ask where we're from, we always say Detroit. Everyone knows where Detroit is.

[the rock]

Left in 1941. Long time ago! Birmingham called, parents went. Dad still had 35 working years in Detroit and I had 40. I agree with eriedearie, above. Once a Detroiter, always a Detroiter.

[iheartthed]

I haven't lived full time in the city for 10 years, but I still spent a bit of time there due to family and friends until I left the area four years ago. I left the area altogether because of the faltering job market, and a desire to experience how people in other places lived. I do think about moving back, but I unfortunately came of age during Detroit's lost generation.

[Ravine]

Nobody is a punk for leaving, and nobody is a hero for staying.
I haven't left, but if I had more money, I would have.

[jcole]

Good Job detroitbob66! One day at a time. I wish you continued success.

I left Detroit - The 8 Mile and Van Dyke area when I married a Canadian and moved across the river to Windsor. About 5 years later, I talked my husband into moving to East Detroit. Parents were still living in Detroit at that time. In the 80s things started going downhill in their neighborhood [[my mom walked into the kitchen from outside the house - in the time it took her to walk from the house to the garage and back - some guy had wandered into the house, and she confronted him in the kitchen, and brave lady that she is, she chased him out of the house) so then my parents moved to Almont, MI to be near my dad's aging aunt and uncle. Early 90s we decided to move back across the river. Now we live in Essex County. However, I consider Essex County to be part of Metro Detroit. But that's just me! So in reality - I've never left!

All my closest family members are in the area and I'll probably never leave around here. I'm a Detroiter even though I don't live in Detroit proper.

When we travel and people ask where we're from, we always say Detroit. Everyone knows where Detroit is.

Erie, are your folks still in Almont? That's where I am

[econ expat]

Nobody is a punk for leaving, and nobody is a hero for staying.
I haven't left, but if I had more money, I would have.

Thanks, Ravine, that says it best.

Left about 1980- had no relatives in the auto plants or unions, thus no entitlement. Times were getting tough around Detroit then.

Came back about 85'. Had no problem finding jobs next 19 years.[[but not at the auto plants)

Left again 2004- Guess I was ahead of the curve again. Saw times getting tough. Stayed till I lost my car and home. Got no sympathy from those who could live off re mortgaging their houses [[you know, those bargain foreclosures) Put the words "will relocate" on my online resume, was hired next day, for a Toyota supplier in Kentucky. And I DO buy American now- a Corolla. Did not need a friend or relative in the union to get the job there.

Parents still live in Detroit, attached to that house.Numerous break ins,a home invasion, a car jacking from the driveway, and very slow, almost non-existent police response. "You still alive, thats good. Come down and fill out a report."

[DLN]

Left in 2005 when I divorced. Couldn't put up with Detroit anymore. Couldn't deal with dead people in the alley, dope deals in our alley, not a place for our then 2 year old son.

[Sstashmoo]

Sometimes I wonder why I stay. I went out of town over the holidays, to one of those perfect little antiseptic towns in the midwest where everyone is so "sweet and nice" and "normal", and spend their every wakened moments striving to be that. 48 hours, I was bored out of my mind. Couldn't wait to get back. I'm not moving away from here.

[Buy American]

Sometimes I wonder why I stay. I went out of town over the holidays, to one of those perfect little antiseptic towns in the midwest where everyone is so "sweet and nice" and "normal", and spend their every wakened moments striving to be that. 48 hours, I was bored out of my mind. Couldn't wait to get back. I'm not moving away from here.

Sstashmoo, I lived in a town like that for 10 years after leaving Detroit. Everyone waved at us, everyone was polite and civil...anxious to be good neighbors. The first time I got a copy of the local newspaper and a theft was reported, the thief stole a gallon of ice cream out of a refrigerator! I was astonished that was considered newspaper worthy. After being in Detroit all my life, working there in the worst of the worst areas, this was utopia. I loved it and was not bored in the least. I could walk day or night and never had to worry about being mugged. I could [[but didn't because of my "northern" mentality) leave my doors unlocked. There was no trash laying around, it was totally a different world and I loved it.
We returned to Michigan because of family matters, elderly parents needing our assistance, missing the grandchildren....but I wouldn't consider moving back into Detroit. Our suburb is quiet most of the time, 95% crime free, I can walk day or night and don't feel unsafe and the crimes reported in the paper are those of an occasional lawn mower theft, a broken windshield...minor stuff.

[daddeeo]

It used to be like that in parts of Detroit forty years ago.

[13074Glenfield]

I left for Minnesota in 1979 after my nine year old was robbed for the third time at the corner store. At a certain point, I had to put my family's safety first.

[Danny]

I lived in Detroit from 1977 til I've left in 2006.

1. Lawton St. [[1977 to 1985) at the Martin Park sub-division was my first house, three family flat. Ghettohood was mostly black with few whites, Jews from Palmer Park.

2. Ardmore St.[[1985 to 1989) at the Hubbard-King sub-division was my second house, 2 bedroom beautiful brick bungalow. Ghettohood was mostly black. No white folks there.

3. Mansfield St.[[1989 to 1993) at the Grandmont sub-division was my third house, 3 bedroom wood frame bungalow. My Ghettohood was mostly black. One last white family live there until 1992 met white kid there, too.

4. Grandmont St. [[1993 to 2003) at the Grandale sub-division was my fourth house, 4 bedroom brick bungalow. Ghettohood was mostly black with fewer whites, had one white family just 2 houses away from me. They moved out in 2001.

5. 460 W. Forest [[2003 to 2005) at the Cass Corridor Area, lived at Forest Apts. owned by Wayne State University Stayed at Apt. 503 5th floor from 2003 to 2004 the Apt. 602 from 2004 to 2005) Area very diverse with blacks, whites, Asians, East Indians and Arabs. met a Brittish young adult and hanged out.

6. 459 Prentis at the Cass Corridor Area, lived at Orrington Apts room 302 in [[2005 to 2006) and move away.

Goodbye Detroit, thanks for 29 years of service.

[mtm49269]

To smudge pot and Ray1936: Dzenkuje Dobrze! An, in some cases, yes, it IS genetic. And most folks don't know this but polka is also the Polish word for a Polish woman. Polak is the Polish word for a Polish man so it's actually not a deragatory term.

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku!! [[Happy New Year!)

[eriedearie]

Erie, are your folks still in Almont? That's where I am

Yes they still live there. Dad would get lost if he moved too far off of Van Dyke. As long as he is in the general vicinity of Van Dyke Avenue - all is well in his world!