Finney High School demolition

**jerrytimes** · February-27-11, 03:53 AM

Originally Posted by stasu1213

It amazes me the Finney is being razed but Denby, a much older school, is being renovated.Finney is or was more modern. When a person such as Robert Bobb, an outsider, is allowed to have control over which school should be razed and which should be restore decisions like this are usually made Bobb doesn't have the history of Detroit of it's schools. He just make stupid decisions without listening to the officials who were already here. Granholm, who allowed him to run roughshod, wasn't raised in Detroit either. Dave Bing is another official who wasn't raised in Detroit.These three horsemen/woman of the apocalypse don't care what is being razed and what is being saved. Their decision had been so anit-people of Detroit it makes an individual's head spin out of control

And do you think that the people of Detroit have done a good job? They are who is responsible for what has happened here. This school is being raised and is also being replaced with a brand new state of the art high school. While Im not one who likes to see nothing saved, it definitely helps a school district succeed when they have brand new school for their students to go to. If I'm correct, wasn't this school erected in the 20's? I know that parts have been added on since, but the origination of this building is over 80 years old.

**Gistok** · February-27-11, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by jerrytimes

And do you think that the people of Detroit have done a good job? They are who is responsible for what has happened here. This school is being raised and is also being replaced with a brand new state of the art high school. While Im not one who likes to see nothing saved, it definitely helps a school district succeed when they have brand new school for their students to go to. If I'm correct, wasn't this school erected in the 20's? I know that parts have been added on since, but the origination of this building is over 80 years old.

Ummm.... 20% of the building is 80 years old... the other 80% was built in the 1960s and 1970s.

**jerrytimes** · February-28-11, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Ummm.... 20% of the building is 80 years old... the other 80% was built in the 1960s and 1970s.

So what's your point. That means that the newest parts of the building are 40 years old, and are attached to parts that are 50 or more years old. If you want to make DPS better, you need better, modern schools with teachers that care and parents that care. I'm 31. The newest part of Finney was built before my parents were even married in 1977.

People in the city can't be pleased. They want things to be nicer, yet heaven forbid that a high school gets replaced with a new school [[Cass?!?!?!?!) and Finney. I don't understand the logic.

**BVos** · March-01-11, 09:31 PM

There are a lot of school districts that keep their buildings and properly maintain them and update them over the years. Grosse Pointe schools are made up of primarily historic buildings, many dating from the 20s-40s, and they're all in full functioning use today and remain true to their original architectural design with no plans for demolition. Many/most of the GP schools are similar in design to many of the schools being demolished in Detroit. In fact, many of the Detroit schools had far better materials and far more amenities than the GP schools did when they were originally built. So old means nothing with school buildings and the quality of education delivered. It's how the buildings are maintained and updated that matters.

**Khartoum** · March-02-11, 12:09 PM

Originally Posted by jerrytimes

So what's your point. That means that the newest parts of the building are 40 years old, and are attached to parts that are 50 or more years old. If you want to make DPS better, you need better, modern schools with teachers that care and parents that care. I'm 31. The newest part of Finney was built before my parents were even married in 1977.

People in the city can't be pleased. They want things to be nicer, yet heaven forbid that a high school gets replaced with a new school [[Cass?!?!?!?!) and Finney. I don't understand the logic.

Why does a modern school lead to caring teachers & parents? Are the parents/teachers at the new Cass Tech more caring because they teach and drop their kids off at a glass building instead of a stone one? Is $46.3 million best spent tearing down a working school just to rebuild it?

**jerrytimes** · March-02-11, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Khartoum

Why does a modern school lead to caring teachers & parents? Are the parents/teachers at the new Cass Tech more caring because they teach and drop their kids off at a glass building instead of a stone one? Is $46.3 million best spent tearing down a working school just to rebuild it?

It attracts people into the area. A new modern high school would attract more people into an area that a 40+ year old high school. It would also attract more teachers. Sounds simple to me.

**Gistok** · March-02-11, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by jerrytimes

It attracts people into the area. A new modern high school would attract more people into an area that a 40+ year old high school. It would also attract more teachers. Sounds simple to me.

Ummm all the houses surrounding that school are between 50-70 years old... if people care so much about "newness" then they certainly won't be looking in that area to raise their kids.

And also... as has been mentioned Grosse Pointe South High School is 80 years old... doesn't seem to have any affect on either people choosing to live that area NOR the quality/quantity of the teachers.

For the simpletons that you're describing... they moved out to 23 Mile Road where they have new schools, new houses, new roads, new strip malls... I highly doubt if any of them want to move to the area around a new Finney.

**jerrytimes** · March-06-11, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Ummm all the houses surrounding that school are between 50-70 years old... if people care so much about "newness" then they certainly won't be looking in that area to raise their kids.

And also... as has been mentioned Grosse Pointe South High School is 80 years old... doesn't seem to have any affect on either people choosing to live that area NOR the quality/quantity of the teachers.

For the simpletons that you're describing... they moved out to 23 Mile Road where they have new schools, new houses, new roads, new strip malls... I highly doubt if any of them want to move to the area around a new Finney.

I see that you are intentionally not getting my point. Finney High School was an outdated school that couldn't serve the community like it once did, hence it was closed. The difference with an old school like Finney and say, GP south is that GP kept their school modernized and current. They repaired and updated things with the times and the school serves its purpose. Finney was run down, looked like hell and was closed some years ago. I'm sure like most DPS schools, it also wasn't secured, and it was trashed. So what would you rather have there? A vacant school that serves no purpose and that would take more to renovate and re-open than a new school, an empty field, or a brand new modern school? What of those three would make you want to move to that area if you didn't already live there?

Some of you in Detroit don't make sense to me. There are vacated buildings every where, and when the city decides to do something with one of them, something that makes the area better and more attractive to most people, you bitch. Detroit is a shit hole [[in most areas) because these buildings and houses are just left vacant and dormant for decades. It's just like old Tiger Stadium. Everyone cried and whined because the majestic park was to be removed. It's time to move on and to try to build this city back up. Sure, not everything needs to be torn down, but a lot of these old structures do. Get over it, goodbye old Finney, hello new Finney. This is something that will benefit the students, period.

**jerrytimes** · March-03-11, 07:44 AM

Originally Posted by Khartoum

Why does a modern school lead to caring teachers & parents? Are the parents/teachers at the new Cass Tech more caring because they teach and drop their kids off at a glass building instead of a stone one? Is $46.3 million best spent tearing down a working school just to rebuild it?

I take that you aren't considering anything that I say. My point is simply that if you have a new, modern school, that people might be attracted to that school district and that teachers may be attracted to going to DPS for work. One of Detroits problems is that people are fleeing the city, and the quality and condition of the schools and their teachers doesn't help.

It's funny because the city is spending money on something to help the community and people here still have to complain. It wasn't even an operational school anymore.

**Gistok** · March-02-11, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by jerrytimes

So what's your point. That means that the newest parts of the building are 40 years old, and are attached to parts that are 50 or more years old. If you want to make DPS better, you need better, modern schools with teachers that care and parents that care. I'm 31. The newest part of Finney was built before my parents were even married in 1977.

People in the city can't be pleased. They want things to be nicer, yet heaven forbid that a high school gets replaced with a new school [[Cass?!?!?!?!) and Finney. I don't understand the logic.

Ummm.... are you somehow trying to relate the age of a school to how well it does acedemically??

Then I don't understand your logic.... Just look at 1928 built Grosse Pointe South High School.

20% of Finney was built in the 1920s as a grade school.... 40% was built in the 1960s when the high school was conceived. Then another 40% was added onto in the 1970s [[including the auditorium and gymnasium). What is the purpose of tearing down a 35 year old auditorium and gym?? A damn big waste of scarce DPS money if you ask me. But then the DPS was never known for being financially responsible.... is my point starting to make sense to you now???

They could have torn down the older 60% of the school and just rebuilt that part, rather than demo'ed the entire thing. ALL of Denby is older than Finney... why is that school still standing?

Just because a newer school is built... is totally separate from making teachers and parents more caring. When a new school is built... it doesn't have a cause and effect to make any part of the parents/students or teachers any better.