History to Parking Lots - Demolition begins on United Artists Theater

[Richard]

Good for you. The rest of us have still found this city compelling enough to live in or visit whenever we can.

The long term goal would be to encourage others to do the same thing,you can see cookie cutter buildings and parking lots anywhere in the country.

It’s when a city gives up its character is when people lose interest,sometimes it is the little simple things like fixing a water fountain that makes a difference.

If you do not mind,what is it about the city that makes it compelling for you to live there or visit it?

What is the tipping point that would compel you to leave or not visit?

What makes Detroit - Detroit ?

Every time you remove a piece of the history that defined Detroits past you are changing it for the future while erasing the past,what is the future of Detroit because as it’s identity is being erased it is being replaced as a suburb wannabe.

Not to sound disrespectful but in a city of innovation the parking lots have the same appeal as half of the new buildings they are throwing up.

Detroit became an international city,because it thought like an international city and set a higher bar in order to accomplish that.

Ray was compelled to move because that is what people do when they retire,to get away from the hustle and bustle,you cannot stop that but you can spend the same amount of time working on what compels others to move there which helps achieve the ultimate goal.

Its not the motor city no more,it’s not the music city anymore the only identity that is left is your roots as an international city that once was,and instead of capitalizing and building on that they keep destroying them and in the process losing your identity.

Little by little,give up belle isle,systematically destroying everything that made Detroit what it was,so okay out with the old and in with the new but along with the new you have to create a new identity that sets you apart from every other city in the country so it does not become a city where people simply exist.

Any thoughts on what this new identity is going to be ? Because actions taken today will impact that very thing for the rest of the city’s history,there is no going back,once they are gone,they are gone.

So what is the plan for Detroits future identity? It has to be one that compels people to move there.

Cities already learned that hard lesson back in the slash and burn urban renewal mistakes days when they tried to compete with the suburbs,but you are not a suburb and suburbs are just that,places with no identity’s,cities are not supposed to be like that.