Article: Black Flight Hits Detroit

[cman710]

While this phenomenon is nothing new, I think this is an interesting story. We frequently hear calls for people to stick things out in Detroit, but after this woman's experience, it is hard to blame her for leaving Detroit.

I think this article highlights, above all, that without much improved public safety, Detroit will continue to decline. If a single, middle class woman cannot live in a Detroit neighborhood without being continually subject to crime, the city has little hope of attracting young professionals to the neighborhoods. There is truly a public safety crisis in the city.

DETROIT—This shrinking city needs to hang on to people like Johnette Barham: taxpaying, middle-class professionals who invest in local real estate, work and play downtown, and make their home here.
Ms. Barham just left. And she's not coming back.
In seven years as a homeowner in Detroit, she endured more than 10 burglaries and break-ins at her house and a nearby rental property she owned. Still, she defied friends' pleas to leave as she fortified her home with locks, bars, alarms and a dog.
The Last Straw

See more photos from Detroit and listen to Ms. Barham and her neighbors talk about their troubles.
View Interactive



Johnette Barham leaves her old home in the Atkinson district of Detroit

• More photos and interactive graphics

Then, a week before Christmas, someone torched the house and destroyed almost everything she owned.
In March, police arrested a suspect in connection with the case, someone who turned out to be remarkably easy to find. For Ms. Barham, the arrest came one crime too late. "I was constantly being targeted in a way I couldn't predict, in a way that couldn't be controlled by the police," she says. "I couldn't take it anymore."
Ms. Barham's journey from diehard to defector illustrates the precarious state of Detroit today. The city—which has shed roughly 1 million residents since the 1950s—is now losing the African-American professionals who had stayed steadfastly, almost defiantly, loyal.

For the rest of the article, click here.

[rooms222]

I would say that the four "Interactive Graphic" slideshows/interviews are really good and worth viewing [[do the Warren Evans one last as those of us in Detroit have heard that one already). The one with the former resident is really sad and touching.

Also, I was very offended by the comments section on WSJ.com thus far. It is full of extremely overbroad condemnations of the people of Detroit and by some posters, black people in general. Many of these posters claim to have ties to Detroit or live in the suburbs. I would say that the posters on Detroit Yes of all views tend to have more developed comments than this bunch.

[Danny]

Over the past 20 years. Detroit's black population has been decreased from 777,000 to 685,000, a lost of 92,000. The degeneration of Detroit Black control is happening. Blacks in Detroit ghettohoods don't have that power to maintain their homes, families and social structure. Their human psyches from their dark past oppressed who they are. The damned themselves like they can't get anything right in life. They keep on blaming the white man for this and that. If blacks in Detroit can't get what they have wanted in life, they take [[as in steal) from their brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers and even from the Lord. They go into drugs and alcohol to make themselves feelgood. They go into gangs to make a name for themselves and support terrorism.


Since the 1950s Blacks mostly from the south came to Detroit for a better life, good jobs, schools and get away from Jim Crow. However getting a decent home in Detroit is NOT easy. Blacks just like any other northern cities have to fight "invicible segregation" in order to survive. From the Dr. Ossian Sweet to the McGhee families. From the Sojourner Truth Housing Project Riots to the 12th Street Riots of 1967. Blacks in Detroit were turning to leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and for help. They did their favors and now the're long gone. They look to Coleman A. Young to Kwame Kilpatrick to fix Detroit. However they were more of a show horse than a work horse. So what a black Detroiter to do if their homes are broken and their kids are turning to Osama bin-Laden copycats?

1. Start community policing

2. Get our black churches involve. Our Black preachers said to church that we Christians don't need to hide behind the tabernacle, but to go out the dangerous world and teach our youth the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

3. Provide a father figure. [[ Not from Justin Bieber look-a-likes) and from original gangsters but from people who care about young people for mentorship.

4. Don't cry to Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans and Mayor Dave Bing to protect my ghettohood. Fix yourselves so you all can fix your ghettohoods.

5. Don't cry to Detroit Public School teachers saying that my child isn't learning anything. Instead get the parents involve to teach the child. So that the child will be well trained and ready for the face the so-called white man's world.

If Blacks or anyone can do these things. Then Detroit would be a better place for everyone.


WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Because changing Detroit takes action not negative talk.

In Memoriam: Neda Agha Soltan

[evergreen]

What an article! Forty years ago, my parents contemplated purchasing a house in the Boston-Edison neighborhood, looking for more space. But they were too familiar with the area to do so. In the late 60's, the surrounding area was flooded with heroin which in turn created a huge guerilla army of drug addicts who engaged in an unrelenting war against private property. Single family detached dwellings are exquisitely vulnerable to break-ins and you never rest easy in a home once you've been burglarized. The sense of violation is enormous. Plus, the Boston-Edison community has no buffer zone, it drops pretty quickly into a longstanding ghetto which has now completely disintegrated. Stay on Woodrow Wilson northward just past this area and you are in an urban prairie; the destruction is almost complete. [[By the way, be alert in making this journey, the last time I was in that area I was almost caught in an armed confrontation involving some very beefy gentlemen who appeared to be guarding a house and a driver who was waving a gun barrel outside of his window - this was in the daytime.)

I remember the bubble of the early 2000's in that area and was struck by the naivete of the folks who were purchasing those huge homes, which can be quite costly to maintain, in an area that didn't have a future decades ago. I feel badly that these urban pioneers got burned in this process. These are exactly the sort of folks Detroit desperately needs, but somehow in Detroit the bad guys just keep overwhelming the good people.

And I admit I don't know the solution.

[tallboy66]

Well this is how Southfield got built up by middle class blacks leaving Detroit and since the city made up of 85% African Americans who else is going to leave?

Nobody wants to live next to an abandoned bldg. or in a 'hood that is filled wih violence.

[1KielsonDrive]

Black flight from Detroit has been happening for generations. As you stated; 'nothing new'.

[mwilbert]

Evergreen makes an excellent point about the vulnerability of single family detached houses. If you often leave the house empty, you increase the likelihood of a burglary in any area, but in a neighborhood where there is a lot of crime anyway the incidence is greatly increased. Good neighbors and a security patrol are a help, but you can't count on them seeing everything. Dogs are good too, but they aren't much help when you are on vacation.

To my way of thinking this is one of the big attractions of living in an apartment/condo/coop building with security. Detroit could use more of those. I really don't like the idea of gated communities, but given the circumstances maybe some areas could go that way too.

[Chuck_MI]

From the article:
Within hours, police say, Mr. Christian confessed to the two robberies at Mr. Jeter's home and the January 2009 break-in at Ms. Barham's house. He also told police he was one of a handful of people inside Ms. Barham's house when it was set afire. Under an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree home invasion and was to serve 90 days in jail.

This is why blacks and whites are leaving the city. Crime pays here. A guy burglarizes a woman's house three times and is offered a misdemeaner plea? That recent cop-killer was also similarly given slaps on his wrists for his previous felonies. It pays to be a sociopath here. If your lucky, you'll enjoy the benefits of the criminal life with only brief interuptions in the pokey.

[iheartthed]

Tip of the day: If your house is repeatedly burglarized while you are not home, it is almost always the neighbor.

[Roq]

I find this article troubling as I am currently in the process of looking for a home and I would really like to live in the City but damn...I fit much of the profile of Ms. Barham; single, live alone, have a regular schedule, etc..

Also, Apartment living is not an option for me so I wouldn't even have that small protection. What do people here think? Was it just the area she was in or is this symptomatic of all of Detroit?

[cman710]

Roq, would a townhouse style condo work for you? That would provide a more secure design, but would also have benefits over an apartment. Also, if you lived anywhere with private security [[the woman in this article did not), you will be safer than in an area without private security.

[Roq]

Roq, would a townhouse style condo work for you? That would provide a more secure design, but would also have benefits over an apartment. Also, if you lived anywhere with private security [[the woman in this article did not), you will be safer than in an area without private security.

No, unfortunately that wouldn't work. I need a single family detached house with a yard; doesn't have to be a large yard or house, but will require that for sure.

[Neilr]

Before moving downtown in 1990, I had lived on Atkinson for many years, in the block just to the west of the one featured in this article. It was a wonderful experience for the most part. I had some of the best neighbors that a person could ask for. It was a very stable and safe neighborhood. After being there 5 years, I was still "the new kid on the block," as it were.

When I made the difficult decision to leave Atkinson, my block had perhaps 3 empty lots and no vacant homes. On a recent drive through, I counted ± 12 empty homes on my block alone. It greatly saddens me to see the current state of my former neighborhood.

In the years that I have been on DYes, I have occasionally posted about my experiences in that neighborhood so I won't repeat myself. Let me just say, I am very proud to have lived on Atkinson Avenue.

[Patrick]

Schools and safety are the major isssues for people leaving Detroit. Look at the changing demographics of Warren and Sterling Heights. The people moving into these areas are middle class and hard working plus it is a buyer's market so it helps with lower prices. Just 10 years ago my HS had maybe 4 black kids out of 1300. Now, that same school has maybe 150-200. Times are changing and people need to get used to that.

[Chub]

I lived on the same block of Atkinson from 2002 to 2007 at 1121 Atkinson. From 2002 to 2003 I lived without much crime to me or my property. After 2003, everything started going down hill fast. My house can be seen many times in the interactive part of the article. Like Neilr, I also have posted my stories of living in the neighborhood on this and the old forum. It makes me sick to see what some of my good neighbors are currently going through. I went through all of the same issues and am fairly certain my house was broken into by the same neighbor that was breaking into Ms. Barham's house. For the last 3 years, I have lived very peacefully, and crime free in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. Sadly, I now suffer from regular nightmares that all revolve around my house in Detroit. I'm not a religious person at all, but I am praying for my good neighbors still fighting for their life on Atkinson.

[n7hn]

Chub..... Im in LA now too and have nightmares of my house in detroit too,,,all tore up, calling me for help......

[Hermod]

Having spent years in the Army, I have lived in so many different house that I have never been emotionally attached to any of them. It does sadden me to see the condition of the house in Detroit that I grew up in. We lived there from 1941 to 1954. That is the longest that I have ever lived in one house. Where I live now in Florida, I have lived for none years, the second longest I have lived in one house.

[pffft]

It's a myth that apartments are that much safer. I lived in an "upscale" apartment complex in Troy, and a guy who had a pass key because he'd done some painting let himself in to some apartments and burglarized them. Turned out he had a criminal record -- great, and they let folks like that have pass keys. I moved.
Often the residents are more transient than in a neighborhood of single family homes, too.

[Chub]

I'm really sorry to hear that n7hn. The most recent nightmare I keep having is me being in my Detroit house watching people steal my hand built wood privacy fence, while smashing my raspberry bush that I had planted along the fence. In my dream, all I could do was stand there and watch as all I had done was taken and destroyed. In reality, my privacy fence was actually stolen after I sold my house and the people I sold it too had foreclosed on it. As it sits today, I believe my back yard is wide open and a lot of the regulars from the liquor store hang out shooting up in my back yard. I always felt that the liquor store at Clairmount and the Lodge hurt our block of Atkinson severely; even before the economy tanked.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Quite a disturbing story. Personally, I think the grandmother should be in prison to for harboring that thug.

[softailrider]

I'm really sorry to hear that n7hn. The most recent nightmare I keep having is me being in my Detroit house watching people steal my hand built wood privacy fence, while smashing my raspberry bush that I had planted along the fence. In my dream, all I could do was stand there and watch as all I had done was taken and destroyed. In reality, my privacy fence was actually stolen after I sold my house and the people I sold it too had foreclosed on it. As it sits today, I believe my back yard is wide open and a lot of the regulars from the liquor store hang out shooting up in my back yard. I always felt that the liquor store at Clairmount and the Lodge hurt our block of Atkinson severely; even before the economy tanked.

I don't understand why that store closed, it was always busy.

[Chub]

The store was busy with people stealing from it, doing drug deals in it, and pretty much everything else you can think of. I'll never forget the day the owners wife shot and killed a crackhead that somehow snuck in the back door and was attacking her behind the bullet proof glass wall. I'll also never forget the day I was sitting in my upstairs office of my house and just happen to be looking out my back window, just as a gunman started shooting into a crowd of people loitering in front of the store. I doubt that even made the local newscast that night. Yep, good times!

[mwilbert]

Roq wrote:

Was it just the area she was in or is this symptomatic of all of Detroit?

Well, I don't think arson by random criminals of maintained homes is typical. It wasn't clear to me from the article what the story was with that. On the other hand, the police department has inadequate resources throughout the city, so that probably isn't much different anywhere, although it is my impression that they do provide somewhat better service in certain neighborhoods.

As far as break-ins are concerned, B-E has some pluses and minus relative to the other "nice" parts of the city. It has a strong neighborhood association and a security patrol, which are positives. It also is surrounded by pretty dubious areas, which is a negative, and there are more empty houses than I wish there were, which is also a negative. I'm pretty sure you could find an area in the city with fewer break-ins. The house described in the story was also on [[from my perspective) the "wrong" side of the freeway--if you wanted to live in B-E in the city as it is today you would probably be better off on the east side of the Lodge.

I do not have the statistics at hand, but I would expect to see a lower burglary rate in [[for example) the University District/Sherwood Forest/Palmer Woods/Green Acres area. But even so, people in those neighborhoods feel the need to take a lot of precautions too--there are private patrols and lots of grates on doors and motion-sensor controlled lights and such.

I am curious. Can you tell us why you absolutely require a yard and a detached house? I completely understand wanting one, and there are beautiful houses in Detroit, but I can't think of many reasons for needing one.

[English]

I am curious. Can you tell us why you absolutely require a yard and a detached house? I completely understand wanting one, and there are beautiful houses in Detroit, but I can't think of many reasons for needing one.

I can only speak for myself, but I love to garden, to sit in my backyard and chat with my neighbors, and to have friends over for my barbecues, Christmas parties, and birthday shindigs. It's nice to not have anyone living above me or below me, and nice to unload the car without a lot of hassle [[pulling up to the front door or dock, using a cart, etc.) Even just running out to the car to grab the cell if you forgot it takes less than a minute when you've got your own private entrance and a driveway, parking or garage near it.

All of those things are easiest to do if you live in either a single family home or in certain condos/townhomes.

[LeannaM]

It's an interesting article. I wouldn't have stayed through all of that, no matter what city it was. You have to have a reasonable expectation of safety in your own home.