Robinwood article in the Detroit News

[UpTown]

Charilie LeDuff's walkthrough of Robinwood. Seems we already had a thread about it here a while ago, but not on the new forums. I took my dad through there about a month ago, and he had alot of friends who lived on that block when he was growing up. It was very surreal.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...its-a-dead-end

[dexterferry]

I saw pretty much the exact thing on a local blog a month ago linked from boing boing. is charlie leduff ever going to have an original idea?

[dexterferry]

here's the piece I remember from last month. it references that bill mcgraw article that brought everyone's attention to robinwood.

http://boingboing.net/2009/04/22/pan...hoto-of-a.html

[rajdet]

...is charlie leduff ever going to have an original idea?

I published a photo essay and video on this subject two weeks ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiV7XSdAcs8

[Lonyo exit]

The video is an exact copy of the photo panorama. So not only did he steal the topic, he stole the exact photography method too?

Unbelievable.

[lugotown]

yes, we did discuss this street a few months back. there really isn't any way to get the real feel for that street until you see it for yourself. i wonder what will become of this street in the next 5-10 years. will the media attention get some action? only time will tell. shocking that it took less than 5 years to turn w. robinwood into what it has become. i don't know how anyone could live there.

[texorama]

Channel 4 also had a story on it last night, about an old lady who have lived there all her life and was virtually trapped. The original story aired a while ago; she has now died, and her body is unclaimed at the morgue. It was just about as sad as it could be.

[dexterferry]

before realitycheck and gnome show up to defend their beloved charlie, I just want to make it clear that I don't think Charlie CAN'T create a panorama video just because some other guy did it [[and got national attention for it).

I'm just curious why it seems Charlie LeDuff seems incapable of coming up with an original idea [[and in this case, at the very least he failed to acknowledge his colleague McGraw who brought Robinwood to everyone's attention). even the blogger who created the first panorama had the respect to do that.

Again, it's probably much easier surfing around the web up in Pleasant Ridge for ideas than it is actually sniffing them out for yourself.

[Supersport]

What is this, bloggers vs media? Wake up people, none of your shit is original! The vacant/burned out houses have been around for decades! Drive around any area of Detroit and you'll be greated with a block or two of vacant lots. The lots obviously once had homes, in the same burned out/delapidated state you're all writing/blogging/making videos of. Those "hilly" vacant lots, well, those were dumping sites, probably a decade or two ago, taken back by mother nature, now covered with grass, trees, and other wildlife. You folks are acting as if you had some sort of groundbreaking news that somehow the big papers and tv stations got wind of. LMAO! Guess what, these stories were around when most of yall were still shittin' green.

On Monday, a police cruiser rolled through.

"I've never seen a place like this," said the white cop.

"Vietnam," said the black cop.

"Hard to believe this is America, but it is," said the white cop.

And with that, they were off.

Wait, I wanna know what ethnicity Jerry Williams, Fatimah Muhammad, the 5 adults and 20 children, Durene L. Brown, and Marabel. Perhaps it was just an oversight that the writer didn't realize until the last paragraph. I mean after all, all articles call out one's race don't they? Unreal.

[EastsideAl]

It is far from original, but it isn't really a bad story. At least it avoids the most of the hyper-dramatic faux-hard-boiled tough gritty urban reporter cliches that Charlie usually wallows in [[straight from the mean streets of Pleasant Ridge).

...right up until that awful inexcusable cringe inducing ending, that is. Goodness, that's crappy.

[LodgeDodger]

>>Moreover, the city was granted $23 million in federal funds last year to tear down neighborhoods like this, but the City Council voted to give $9 million of that money to local ministers for neighborhood block programs.<<

I would LOVE to see an accounting of that $9 million!

[raptor56]

With all the drive through urban tourists lately, maybe the 5 folks living on that street can make a couple bucks charging an entrance fee to the street.

[dtowncitylover]

Fox 2 did a story on Marabel, a white, elderly woman. Reading about her death was really depressing.

[MIRepublic]

I'm incredibly surprised that this didn't become, and still hasn't become, and issue during the mayoral and city council election[[s). If only for symbolism, the wholesale purchase and demolition of this area should have been a stimulus promise. Bing and the council need to get on this, if, again, only for symbolic purposes.

[softailrider]

Charilie LeDuff's walkthrough of Robinwood. Seems we already had a thread about it here a while ago, but not on the new forums. I took my dad through there about a month ago, and he had alot of friends who lived on that block when he was growing up. It was very surreal.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...its-a-dead-end

Check out Tacoma Street running west off Gratiot South of 8 Mile.......Looks almost as bad as Robinwood.

[reddog289]

About 20 yrs ago Vaughn St between Vassar and St Martins looked pretty bad, Seeing that St as compared to my Grandparents block and the ones in between, gave me my first glimps at what happens when the block changes. But the whole story of this block and the short time it took to get this way is scary , Yet not surprising. The story of Marabel that was on Fox2, Will in my mind be played out on another block in another city. That is what is the saddest thing that has happenend in my 40yrs. I learned from an early age that people die, then with toys,bikes,cars and other stuff that their time prettty much had a due date on it.
But seeing whole neighborhoods not just blocks like Robinwood, Go from being stable to the grave in that short of time, That is just wrong.

[Retroit]

Yesterday, I drove through the city from the northeast corner to the southwest corner, driving almost exclusively down residential side streets. The problems are certainly not confined to a few streets. Even the nicer streets had a few boarded up, not boarded up, or burnt-out homes. How people can live in such environments without feeling extremely depressed is beyond me [[maybe they don't). On my suburban block, in my lifetime of 4 decades, there were 4 houses that had been condemned or burnt. They were all subsequently torn down, and life goes on. But in Detroit, these structures just sit there to remind the survivors that they don't deserve better.

Detroit should take half the workers in city hall and put them to work tearing down all the abandoned homes in Detroit. This must be the cities highest priority. No one will move to Detroit - or stay in Detroit - in its current condition. This is life-or-death/do-or-die for the city.

[jackie5275]

The vacant/burned out houses have been around for decades! Drive around any area of Detroit and you'll be greated with a block or two of vacant lots. The lots obviously once had homes, in the same burned out/delapidated state you're all writing/blogging/making videos of. Those "hilly" vacant lots, well, those were dumping sites, probably a decade or two ago, taken back by mother nature, now covered with grass, trees, and other wildlife.

That's real tragedy, that this has been going on for so many years without it being addressed. Throw no tomatoes-yeah, it's been addressed intermittently by all the prior administrations, but not on a widespread, consistent level that it needs.