Love it or hate it, Detroit will never die although she looks like she is. And yeah, the title of this post may be a little harsh.
On a recent trip to Detroit for a photo assignment, I drove through my old neighborhood. The neighborhood that I lived in when I first moved to Detroit from Birmingham, Ala way back when.
As I was driving, I was devastated by what I saw. BLIGHT> DECAYED BUILDINGS> AIMLESS SOULS WALKING> MISSING BUSINESSES> BURNT OUT SHELTERS> MORE CHURCHES THAN I COULD COUNT>>>
At one point, I felt like I was in a Spike Lee movie scene where the people are not moving but everything around them is. You know what I mean right?
It was heartbreaking! It really was.
The place that I had fond memories of now looks like war torn Kosovo on a good day.
When I got to my assignment, I just sat in my car for a few minutes thinking about what I saw & didn’t. I posted somewhere that I shed a single tear and I really did.
On a similar note, my BFF was recently in town & he ventured through the neighborhood that we experienced our formative years.
Afterward we talked and the only thing that we could say was what happened.
There are parts of Detroit that are great, some that are becoming great again, and many seem to be forgotten. The forgotten areas are what I find heart breaking.
How can you want to gain “world class” city status when so much is out of an urban nightmare, the one that no one likes to talk about?
I’m just saying as a son of the city that I love to hate…
Sigh!
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JVLIVS / December 1, 2010
My brother, I can only relate to how you feel. I know that area very well. The old Wilbur Wright HS was recently torn down, Top Hat, Farmer Jack, all them joints are gone, Paul Salomon is still there, but is the building still in operation. Though I’m an eastsider, I know the westside just as well. I got family and friends there, and most jobs-including some schools with DPS-were west. Even though I transferred back east last year, I’d go west again. But despite some improvements in certain parts of the 313-including the empowerment zone(s)-urban blight still spreads through this city like-as the Bible puts it-GANGRENE!
At this point, hope’s just about lost with me…
Carol / December 1, 2010
You have a city that is geographically HUGE – larger than Boston, San Fran and Manhattan combined. And the population is what – maybe 800K? That’s part of the problem – you don’t have the population (and the tax base) to maintain all the space. I hope Mayor Bing can figure out a plan, with the residents, to right-size the city.
Tafari / December 13, 2010
Sigh! Detroit Detroit Detroit. So many answers and none seem to be the right one these days. Change needs to happen…