busing, decline of detroit and it's schools

[DetroitTeacher]

This post [[see insert) sounds pretty racist to me [[and I'm a white girl with a "whole lotta soul" in her...to quote my students).

We left Detroit in 81 and moved to Livonia [[talk about a culture shock). I know my parents were against busing not for racial reasons but because we had but one vehicle and my dad was on 24 hour shifts at the time. Mom had to have us close in case of illness at school or things of that nature. We had a GREAT school within walking distance, 1 block [[Ann Arbor Trail...elementary, at the time). They were going to bus us to the deep East side and mom had heard the bus service was unreliable, at best. My parents took no chance that I might not make it home safely and in a reasonable time frame [[we would have been on the bus an hour each way...with all the stops). Needless to say, I missed walking home each day from AA Trail. When we moved, we moved within walking distance of ALL of the schools my sister and I would attend. Moving made it quite difficult for my dad, who still had city residency requirements for his job.

i only reason from my experience, i remember our street on Chatsworth, sure it was homongenous white, everything the left hates, but it was awesome, i remember being safe, i remember being happy, riding around the blocks with no fear, playing at clark playgrounds.....

many of the residents of that street my parents are still in contact with, i attended UofM with one of the girls on the street I grew up with.... ALL left right around 1975-1976.... most to Grosse Pointe.....

i had a half a block safe walk to clark, why would anyone, black, white, green, EVER accept being bused 1/2 hour away from your family when the you were 1/2 a block away from the same school.....?????

im not saying that it would be 100% different today without it, but for sure, there would be many "pockets" of school districts in Detroit that would have remained desireable

they chose to divide and bus to the lowest common denominator and all suffered......

[Novine]

"This shows that, no matter how prosperous the urban core, no matter how many yuppie neighborhoods are created/subsidized, urban public education remains an abject failure, and busing plays an important role in this failure."

What? Busing hasn't had an impact on Detroit's school for 30 years.

[Bham1982]

"What? Busing hasn't had an impact on Detroit's school for 30 years.

Doesn't seem like that to me.

Last I checked, the effects of busing are evident today. None of the neighborhoods destroyed [[in part) by busing have reverted to their pre-busing demographic.

[Buy American]

This post [[see insert) sounds pretty racist to me [[and I'm a white girl with a "whole lotta soul" in her...to quote my students).

We left Detroit in 81 and moved to Livonia [[talk about a culture shock). I know my parents were against busing not for racial reasons but because we had but one vehicle and my dad was on 24 hour shifts at the time. Mom had to have us close in case of illness at school or things of that nature. We had a GREAT school within walking distance, 1 block [[Ann Arbor Trail...elementary, at the time). They were going to bus us to the deep East side and mom had heard the bus service was unreliable, at best. My parents took no chance that I might not make it home safely and in a reasonable time frame [[we would have been on the bus an hour each way...with all the stops). Needless to say, I missed walking home each day from AA Trail. When we moved, we moved within walking distance of ALL of the schools my sister and I would attend. Moving made it quite difficult for my dad, who still had city residency requirements for his job.

I would really love to respond to this post truthfully but I know I'd get slammed, so I won't.

[DetroitTeacher]

Please, respond truthfully. If it's in response to dad's residency, he still remained in the city most of the week...which is why it was hard. My parents just did what they thought was best for we kids, at the time.

I would really love to respond to this post truthfully but I know I'd get slammed, so I won't.

[Novine]

"Last I checked, the effects of busing are evident today. None of the neighborhoods destroyed [[in part) by busing have reverted to their pre-busing demographic."

Did you read this earlier post? The only busing that happened in Detroit happened within the city itself and didn't affect many neighborhoods or last long. But according to you, it helped destroy neighborhoods. A bit of a stretch of cause and effect there.

"This is the plan that was implemented in 1976. However, as I said above, by the time a plan was finally in place the city's schools were already about 80% black, which made any meaningful desegregation a practical impossibility. In the end, the busing plan only affected about 10% of students, and was phased out after just a few years."

[Carey]

I believe everything Goose is saying about his personal experience on Chatsworth and about his feeling about busing.

But it is a gross oversimplification to say busing destroyed Detroit. By the mid-1970s the city had already lost a few hundred thousand people and experienced the devastating riot. Detroit in 1975 was a long way from the city it had been 25 years earlier. Was busing a cause of white flight? In the 1970s, yes. The cause of much disruption? Yes. THE cause of Detroit's decline. Hardly.

[Buy American]

Please, respond truthfully. If it's in response to dad's residency, he still remained in the city most of the week...which is why it was hard. My parents just did what they thought was best for we kids, at the time.

DetroitTeacher, you hit the nail on the head without me saying a word. Obviously your father was a Detroit fireman and worked 24 hour shifts. I knew many many firemen who had apartments, duplexes, rooms for rent in Detroit where 5 or 6 people had the same address. I totally understand people leaving the City because of the bussing, just don't sugar coat the reasons for doing it.

The reasons you gave for leaving are what your parents may have told you. Close proximity to schools, one car, what if a child was ill at school. I doubt very much if the number one reason was discussed in your presence. I had a school within sight of my home. We bought our house with that very thing in mind...to send our kids there. We only had one car. Then, DPS says they are taking my little children 10-15 miles away, on a bus, to schools that I knew were trouble, and trouble was bad kids who would threaten the very essence of my life. The "real" reasons were unspoken but we all knew what was going on.

I stayed and endured. Why? Because the powers that be were looking for people who moved outside the City limits to get rid of them if they violated the rules. I had too many years invested to take that chance and leave the City...and, I couldn't afford to leave. So, my next best option was to pay for my two kids to go to a private school. It was a struggle because tuition at that time was high in comparison to what my income was. Your parents were lucky not to have been discovered, and yes, they did what they thought was right for you kids at the time.

[Danny]

Bussing [[as in intergrated bussing) didn't killed Detroit, segregation and xenophobia did.

[DetroitTeacher]

Buy: No discovering to it. Dad really did stay in the city when he worked. He owned the home himself, no one else had that address. I recently asked my parents if the reason we moved was because the racial issues were getting hot and heavy. They said no...that it really was a matter of logistics with the schools. The issue came up when the house I grew up in went up for sale and I wanted to buy it,. My parents [[especially dad) have been pretty loyal to the city [[and instilled that in me, which is why I teach in DPS).

The whole situation was pretty hard on my parents with dad being somewhere else most of the week...

[Goose]

I base my opinion on what I experienced and how I felt living in Detroit and my memories of it on my life there up to third grade. Nothing but fond memories, everything seemed perfect. After that I probably didn't set foot in Detroit until I was like 16 and was driving to Broncos or another liqour store that sold to underage suburbanites....... so take my "opinion" with a grain of salt....