Sunday Night NBC Nightly News

**MichiganMan** · January-31-10, 10:39 PM

Anyone catch the NBC Nightly News tonight [[Sunday January 31st). They did a story on Detroit being the worst hit city in this current crisis. While discussing how bad it is in Detroit they used the half demolished "Lafayette Bvilding" as the the back drop of the bleak times in the city. I believe this building was closed way before this recession started. Just one more slam on the city. They also did a drive by that showed a block of old vacant houses/buildings. Dollars to donuts that these also were closed/vacant long before the recession.

Mista Alan · January-31-10, 10:52 PM

Actually, you could make the argument that it's being torn down because nobody wanted to move in there. For years, the city tried to find someone to occupy the Laf...but failed.

**Bigb23** · January-31-10, 11:03 PM

They kind of glossed over what is happening here. The whole piece lasted less than one minute. If that is the best they can do , well bring it on.

**R8RBOB** · February-01-10, 02:47 AM

For anyone that want to view the segment.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...71122#35171122

http://r8rbob.wordpress.com

**daddeeo** · February-01-10, 07:52 AM

What kind of coverage do you expect?

**iheartthed** · February-01-10, 08:13 AM

The story seemed fair to me.

**sturge** · February-01-10, 10:28 AM

Yeah I saw the Lafayette backdrop as well. It had no relation to the story imo.

**313WX** · February-01-10, 10:42 AM

Geez, you guys can make a mountain out of a molehill.

Would you prefer it if NBC did a "pom pom, rah rah" story of Detroit while standing on the Riverwalk? Their story got across to whoever didn't know Detroit was ground zero for the 2nd great depression and it's really all that matters. If we actually had a economy which was humming along normally most of that blight wouldn't be around. The Lafayette did had a fightning chance of staying alive during the mortgage/dot.com boom, but Detroit unfortunately missed that ship and had to do what it had to do with the Lafayette.

I thought the story was fair, as they did highlight some of the bright spots in our economic environment while not coming off as completely oblivious to our problems. When discussing Detroit, where it's biggest employers are all in severe debt or bankruptcy, that was about as fair & balanced of a report as you can get.

**menckensghost** · February-01-10, 11:04 AM

As was fairly evidenced by the first several comments, Detroit's woes began way before the current recession/depression. It should come as no surprise that we are "ground zero" for these economic maladies. It is what is called "going from bad to worse." People who love this city [[as I do) should be thankful, in a way, for this kind of coverage. Perhaps it will bring some outside intervention. God knows we need it.

**DetroitPlanner** · February-01-10, 11:10 AM

I agree 313, I watched the video and it had to do mostly with people not buildings. People in this region are having some very serious problems, moreso than much of the rest of the USA. The building conditions are not the cause of Detroit's problem. It is the economic issues that are leading to people abandoning the City/Region. Without people, we will see effects such as dilapadated buildings, and retail abandonment accellerate. This will also have us lose more power in the House as more seats move from Michigan to places that are growing.

**313WX** · February-01-10, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by menckensghost

As was fairly evidenced by the first several comments, Detroit's woes began way before the current recession/depression. It should come as no surprise that we are "ground zero" for these economic maladies. It is what is called "going from bad to worse." People who love this city [[as I do) should be thankful, in a way, for this kind of coverage. Perhaps it will bring some outside intervention. God knows we need it.

While that may be true, Detroit's [[or Michigan's) problems didn't really hit rock bottom until the credit freeze. I don't even remember a time when the more stable outer ring neighborhoods/iiner ring suburbs looked so, well, dead before the foreclosures, nor have I ever seen the roads seem so empty during rush hour. Detroit [[especially it's inner city) was approaching the tipping point of a real revival until the banks stopped lending out money to the people [[in general). Remember, the only reason Ford didn't accept any bail out money [[well actually, they did get a 5 billion dollar loan under the table), send out the massive list of layoffs or go bankrupt they had credit to fall back on. GM & Chrysler did not.