Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
Don't Forget the Motor City...Where You Can Buy a House for Cheaper Than a Car
This stat is five weeks old, but it was new to me:
The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December was $7,500, according to Realcomp, a listing service.
Not $75,000. Remove a zero—it's seven thousand five hundred dollars, substantially less than the lowest-price car on the new-car market.
More hellscape-like details about the Motor City, from the Chicago Tribune:
One-third of the population lives in poverty, and almost 50 percent of children are in poverty, according to data from the Detroit-Area Community Indicators System. Median household income has dropped 24 percent since 2000, according to the Census Bureau.
New York bond-rating houses this month lowered the city's bond rating to junk status, a lowly assessment shared by New Orleans and few others.
On a positive note, Detroit's homicide rate dropped 14 percent last year. That prompted mayoral candidate Stanley Christmas to tell the Detroit News recently, "I don't mean to be sarcastic, but there just isn't anyone left to kill." [...]
Detroit, which has lost half its population in the past 50 years, is deceptively large, covering 139 square miles. Manhattan, San Francisco and Boston could, as a group, fit inside the city's boundaries. There is no major grocery chain in the city, and only two movie theaters.
Link via Slate's Newmans Own blog. Shikha Dalmia on what Detroit can learn from Bangalore here.
|3.10.09 @ 2:32PM|#
Detroit, which has lost half its population in the past 50
years, is deceptively large, covering 139 square miles. Manhattan,
San Francisco and Boston could, as a group, fit inside the city's
boundaries.
Holy shit. The place must be a ghost town.
There is no major grocery chain in the city, and only two movie
theaters.
WHAAA??? In Manhattan I had 4 movie theaters and 4 grocery stores
(a Food Emporium, two Gristede's, and a D'Agostino) within 4 blocks
(both street and avenue).
|3.10.09 @ 2:35PM|#
On a positive note, Detroit's homicide rate dropped 14
percent last year. That prompted mayoral candidate Stanley
Christmas to tell the Detroit News recently, "I don't mean to be
sarcastic, but there just isn't anyone left to kill."
FTW.
Reinmoose|3.10.09 @ 2:35PM|#
Epi -
Have you seen those photos of the middle of detroit where you can't
tell that you're in a city or somewhere there used to be
houses?
Geoff Nathan|3.10.09 @ 2:36PM|#
I think there's something wrong with these stats. You have to
distinguish between the City of Detroit, with c 900,000 population,
failing schools, a mayor just out of jail and amazing potholes
(where I work) and the Detroit Metropolitan Area, made up of dozens
of surrounding small towns and villages (some with famous names,
like Grosse Pointe, where I live), located in three different
counties (four if you include Ann Arbor), with almost four million
population.
Many of those who live in Metro Detroit consider that we're all in
this together (for example, a large hunk of our economy depends on
the economic health of the car industry--yikes!) The Detroit City
Council, on the other hand, fights all attempts at regional
cooperation because 'they' are taking over 'our' institutions.
'They' are, of course, also white.
But then, there are folks in the greater Detroit area who never
venture south of the famous Eight Mile boundary. Even to see
world-class jazz, the Detroit Symphony, techno, the Red Wings, the
Tigers (nobody'd want to see the Lions...)
This is a weird, screwed up place, and articles like this make it
sound like Detroit proper is all that's here. But those of us who
live here kinda like it.
Gilbert Martin|3.10.09 @ 2:37PM|#
"Detroit, which has lost half its population in the past 50
years, is deceptively large, covering 139 square miles. Manhattan,
San Francisco and Boston could, as a group, fit inside the city's
boundaries. There is no major grocery chain in the city, and only
two movie theaters."
I have the perfect solution for Detriot - and for the nation's
overcrowded prison system.
Just wall in the whole city and give it the "Escape from New York"
treatment.
|3.10.09 @ 2:37PM|#
The Greatest American Hero played baseball?
"Believe it or not, I'm walking Aurelio Rodriguez, never thought I
could be so slo-op-y..."
|3.10.09 @ 2:38PM|#
Holy shit. The place must be a ghost town.
OTOH, when they shoot the remake of Night of the Comet,
they'll have a ready-made city to film in.
Alas, but no Chakotay this time.
Hugh Akston|3.10.09 @ 2:38PM|#
St. Louis, another great victim of the White Flight, is seeing
its first downtown grocery store (not liquor store or gas station,
Google maps!) this fall. There are some slowly gentrifying
neighborhoods, but mostly the place is a ghost town on weekends and
holidays.
A developer with enough capital and the right vision could clean up
in Detroit.
Geoff Nathan|3.10.09 @ 2:39PM|#
Have you seen those photos of the middle of detroit where
you can't tell that you're in a city or somewhere there used to be
houses?
Reinmoose--I go past those areas every day on my way to work. Don't
even notice them any more. And there are pheasants in some of the
empty fields--scared the bejeezus out of me the first time one
broke cover in front of my car.
I'm not saying the official 'city' of Detroit isn't f***ed up, just
that there's much more to 'Detroit' in the larger sense than the
article lets on.
|3.10.09 @ 2:40PM|#
Holy shit. The place must be a ghost town.
I was in Detroit about 6 months ago for a Bachelor Party (We went
to the Tigers game and then went to Windsor for strippers and
booze)
Detroit was the most depressing place I have ever been to. It
really did look like a ghost town.
There were some older beautiful buildings and lovely architecture
-- and most of them were boarded up and abandoned.
The nicest part was the 3 or 4 blocks around Comerica Park and Ford
Field -- Greektown was ok too, but dark and dirty.
We stayed at a Hotel Casino -- the Casino was always busy.
Jerry|3.10.09 @ 2:41PM|#
They should legalize prostitution, drugs & gambling in the city, for when Nevada is too warm.
|3.10.09 @ 2:43PM|#
Look at Google Earth satellite of Detroit sometime. Very, uh,
impressive how much nice, green open space there is in the city
limits.
I remember J sub D commenting on how not only wildlife but
predators (foxes, etc) have become common sights within the city
limits. Nature is returning.
|3.10.09 @ 2:44PM|#
One-third of the population lives in poverty, and almost 50
percent of children are in poverty, according to data from the
Detroit-Area Community Indicators System.
Must be because of all those tax breaks Michigan gave to the super
rich . . . Oh, wait, not.
|3.10.09 @ 2:46PM|#
A developer with enough capital and the right vision could
clean up in Detroit.
Not as long as the city government is run by kleptocratic leeches.
Which is going to be forever, it seems.
|3.10.09 @ 2:53PM|#
I love Night of the Comet... 80's teen comedy rip-off
of The Omega Man, Night of the Triffids, and
The World, The Flesh, and The Devil. Why can't all the
rip-offs and remakes we are currently going through be even half
this clever?
The best shot from the movie. Hot.
|3.10.09 @ 2:53PM|#
A developer with enough capital and the right vision could
clean up in Detroit.
Omni Consumer Products tried.
|3.10.09 @ 2:55PM|#
SF--Your link is borked, but I presume it is of the lovely Catherine Mary Stewart?
Xeones|3.10.09 @ 2:58PM|#
Can we call this SugarFree's law? Screwing up a link more
than once?
It has become a thing.
|3.10.09 @ 2:58PM|#
MOTHERFUCKER!
Third fucking try.
If this doesn't work, I'm giving up links for the rest of the
day.
JW,
Sounds about right. I don't screw up links for weeks, but once I
start I can't seem to stop.
Nittany Cat|3.10.09 @ 2:59PM|#
Maybe SurgarFreeing as in "Damn! I keep SugarFreeing the stoopid link!"
|3.10.09 @ 3:02PM|#
Maybe SurgarFreeing as in "Damn! I keep SugarFreeing the
stoopid link!"
Yes, as it's not a law, it's an action. A very retarded action. I
like this. Of course, I would say that I NutraSweeted the link, but
that's just me.
|3.10.09 @ 3:04PM|#
I was in Detroit last weekend, and decided to drive around
exploring on my way from Downtown to the Institute of Art. I ended
up in some not-so-nice areas where houses were priced
below the median. I still wouldn't buy them. (It's a
shame, because many of them still have the shadow of their former
gorgeous architecture.)
While there, I caught Watchmen in one of those two movie
theaters. I've never been in a theater where people cheer and clap
at a rape scene before, much less shout encouragement to the
screen. I heard a prepubescent kid tell the Comedian not to take
shit from a bitch like that.
Geoff's right about the bizarre relationship between the city
proper and the larger metropolitan area. While at the conference my
booth was next to the Visitor's Bureau booth, and the young black
woman staffing it pretty much berated the crazy inherent to the
city council. She loves living downtown, but the young, educated
white people in her neighborhood are the kind of people the city
government is paranoid about.
Elemenope|3.10.09 @ 3:08PM|#
Maybe SurgarFreeing as in "Damn! I keep SugarFreeing the
stoopid link!"
How about "dieting"? As in, diet sweeteners? Why make up a clumsy
verb when you can take a verb which was minding its own business
and saddle it with responsibilities that are only barely related to
the original?
"Damn! I keep dieting that stupid link!"
|3.10.09 @ 3:09PM|#
(Guitar Solo Intro)
I feel uptight on a Saturday night.
Nine o' clock, the radio's the only light.
I hear my song and it pulls me through.
Comes on strong, tells me what I got to do
I got to.
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet.
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat.
You gotta lose your mind in Detroit, Rock City.
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet.
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat.
Getting late,
I just can't wait.
Ten o'clock and I know I gotta hit the road.
First I drink, then I smoke,
Start up the car, and I try to make the midnight show.
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet.
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat.
(Guitar Solo)
Movin' fast, doin' 95.
I hit top speed but I'm still movin' much too slow.
I feel so good, I'm so alive.
I hear my song playin' on the radio,
It goes--
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet.
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat.
(Drum Solo)
(Guitar Solo)
Twelve o'clock, I gotta rock.
There's a truck ahead, lights starin' at my eyes.
Oh my God, no time to turn.
I got to laugh 'cause I know I'm gonna die.
Why?
Get up?
Everybody's gonna move their feet.
Get down!
(Guitar Solo)
|3.10.09 @ 3:11PM|#
JW,
Thick eyebrows and a manjaw do nothing for me. And besides, the
real draw of Kelli Maroney is the fact she is a cheerleader with a
MAC10. Maroney herself is really only medium attractive, but she
did star in the fantastically bad Chopping Mall.
|3.10.09 @ 3:12PM|#
A developer with enough capital and the right vision could
clean up in Detroit.
I have no idea how much money it would take to turn Detroit into a
town that people would want to live in, but I suspect that Bill
Gates and Warren Buffet together couldn't manage it.
Stagman|3.10.09 @ 3:16PM|#
Does this mean the UAW is as powerful a destructive force as Hurricane Katrina?
|3.10.09 @ 3:17PM|#
You can equivocate all you want, dude, but technically it's the
US and we all know your dislike of man jaws and unibrows is merely
a manifestation of your repressed homosexuality and love of
Ewoks.
Just be yourself, dude. It's cool. We'll all accept you.
Beadroux|3.10.09 @ 3:18PM|#
"Epi, Maroney's from Minnesota. That's South Canada. So much for
your thesis"
No, Minnesota is Way Norther Louisiana
|3.10.09 @ 3:18PM|#
Nah, eyebrows can be plucked and the jaw, that's what makes or breaks beauty. No jaw != teh win.
|3.10.09 @ 3:20PM|#
I'm the Ewok-fucker? Hardly. You need to stop projecting your perversions on others. There's a reason all the teddy bears in your house need their assholes sewn up. (Hint: It's because you fuck teddy bears. Teddy-bear-fucker.)
|3.10.09 @ 3:22PM|#
A developer with enough capital and the right vision could
clean up in Detroit.
The problem to me is that there is a lack of any industry and jobs
in the detroit area.
Other than the car companies what do they produce in detroit? There
isn't much of a service industry since there aren't enough
customers to patronize any businesses.
So even if someone wanted to live in Detroit -- where would they
work?
|3.10.09 @ 3:23PM|#
Better a teddy bear than an Ewok, you sick fuck. Warwick Davis
is in that suit, you midget rapist.
See, I just totally pwned you. (joe isn't here to say stupid shit
like that and somebody has to step up to the plate.)
|3.10.09 @ 3:28PM|#
Episiarch,
I'll use your full name so you won't get confused:
I'm frequently considered the most intelligent commenter on the
board and no one ever cares what you think. You couldn't pwn me on
the pwniest day of your life even if you had an electrified pwning
machine.
I win! I win!
|3.10.09 @ 3:29PM|#
Legalize prostitution and drugs in Detroit as Jerry suggested above, and it will be the richest city in America in a decade.
Nittany Cat|3.10.09 @ 3:30PM|#
"(joe isn't here to say stupid shit like that and somebody has
to step up to the plate.)"
Maybe he's dead. Maybe he had cancer and finally succumbed, after a
brief remission during which he made his final posts. He was mighty
angry near the end and anger is one of the 5 stages of
grieving.
|3.10.09 @ 3:30PM|#
Whoa. Ewok love? Even talking about that is a violation of the ToS and the laws of man and God.
Nittany Cat|3.10.09 @ 3:34PM|#
"Legalize prostitution and drugs in Detroit as Jerry suggested
above, and it will be the richest city in America in a
decade."
On Nov 26, The Weekly Standard fetured a great in-depth piece on
Detroit (pay/registration required). From what I could gather,
prostirution and drugs are Detroit's last two remaining
industries.
It was a very good piece. The author spent a good deal of time with
a reporter from the Detroit Free Press.
|3.10.09 @ 3:35PM|#
Yes, but make them legal, and Detroit could become Disney for adults. Why the Canadian business alone would fill the coffers.
|3.10.09 @ 3:36PM|#
NutraSweet, who has more threadwins? Huh? Why don't you go find out. This site has a search function. Learn how to use it.
|3.10.09 @ 3:36PM|#
Epi and SugarFree, no, I'd rather not have to sort out your
silly conversations from the posts on the topic of the thread.
Thanks for asking. Don't you guys have each other's email
address/AIM usernames yet?
Sheesh. Say what you will about Lonewacko, but at least he posts
his drivel once and then leaves.
|3.10.09 @ 3:38PM|#
Maybe he's dead.
No, he just ran off like a sissy because Obama didn't live up to
his hype. joe knew we'd all use him as a dongbag, and he slunk off
before that happened. He was a victim of his own excess. If he had
just been a normal partisan hack about Obama and expressed guarded
optimism about the new administration, then he could lament Obama's
failures with us and still defend him in a reasonable manner. But
joe had to go super-hack on us and rub his hands in glee about war
crime trials and talk up a "stimulus" package that even he knew was
mostly bullshit. He overhacked himself and had to pull the rip-cord
and get out.
My Ass Can Singh|3.10.09 @ 3:40PM|#
"NutraSweet, who has more threadwins? Huh? Why don't you go find
out. This site has a search function. Learn how to use it."
Spot on. Did you cut and paste that?
Paul|3.10.09 @ 3:41PM|#
The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December was
$7,500, according to Realcomp, a listing service.
Wow, things are finally getting better in Detroit.
|3.10.09 @ 3:43PM|#
I thought that's what I was doing
So everything I've said about you is true, then.
|3.10.09 @ 3:46PM|#
I've never understood the religious wacko's aversion to gay sex. At least it can't lead to an abortion.
|3.10.09 @ 3:46PM|#
In keeping with my "Detroit's city council is crazy"
theme:
Jay Leno offered to hold a free show in the Palace of Auburn Hills,
the suburban arena where the Pistons play. It would be open to all
comers, and it's intended to lift the spirits of the region. Maybe
useless, but a nice gesture nonetheless.
The City Council is bitching because
Leno should be coming to the city, not the
suburbs.
|3.10.09 @ 3:47PM|#
I have a cunning plan. Place cameras on the heads and wire the bodies of everyone remaining in Detroit. Then make the city into a live action MMO game, where you can control a real-life resident of Detroit. I suppose actual death would be out, but certainly beatings with rubber clubs and tasers should be permissible. Naturally, Detroiters would be highly compensated for doing this service for us. After all, some of us are not communists!
Paul|3.10.09 @ 3:48PM|#
A developer with enough capital and the right vision could
clean up in Detroit.
Already tried
that...
|3.10.09 @ 3:49PM|#
You guys aren't going to trick me into getting involved in your
conversation, so give it up.
On the topic, I disagree with RC about the money issue. It really
wouldn't take much to make Detroit into a viable mid-sized city
again. The problem with getting it there is a milder version of the
problems your average sub-Saharan nation has in getting
developed...the people currently in charge would be out on their
asses if the population gets wealthier, and they know it.
Paul|3.10.09 @ 3:50PM|#
The City Council is bitching because Leno should be coming
to the city, not the suburbs.
This is why libertarianism is largely doomed. No matter how bad
things get with the other team in charge, people just become
convinced that there isn't enough of the other team and they need
to try harder and do more.
|3.10.09 @ 3:53PM|#
Threadwinner. That's what I have embroidered on my jacket, bitches. With fucking rhinestones!
|3.10.09 @ 3:58PM|#
SugarFree,
Sigh. I've got laser-guided sights, the rest of the world wears
bifocals.
Paul|3.10.09 @ 3:59PM|#
With fucking rhinestones!
You bedazzled your jacket. That's the gheyest thing I've ever
heard.
Stagman|3.10.09 @ 3:59PM|#
NutraSweet, who has more threadwins? Huh? Why don't you go
find out. This site has a search function. Learn how to use
it.
Threadwins are the internet equivalent of the points on Who's
Line is it Anyway
Reinmoose|3.10.09 @ 4:01PM|#
Paul, that's an actual quote.
Check
it out
It wasn't that long ago either
Paul|3.10.09 @ 4:01PM|#
NutraSweet, who has more threadwins? Huh? Why don't you go find out. This site has a search function. Learn how to use it.
Threadwins are the internet equivalent of the points on Who's
Line is it Anyway
A true gentleman never counts his Threadwins.
Urkobold™|3.10.09 @ 4:04PM|#
IT IS NOT ABOUT THREADWINS, IT IS ABOUT THREADSCORES. A THREADSCORE OCCURS WHEN A WOMAN PERFORMS THE ACT OF COITUS WITH A POSTER DUE TO A PARTICULAR POSTING OR SET OF POSTINGS WITHIN A SINGLE THREAD. THE URKOBOLD HAS FIFTY-ONE. HE IS, AFTER ALL, NEW TO THIS INTERNET BUSINESS.
JB|3.10.09 @ 4:05PM|#
I still say that when Al Queda gets its nuke from Pakistan or Iran and decides to hit a US city, I hope they pick Detroit.
Paul|3.10.09 @ 4:05PM|#
Paul, that's an actual quote.
Check it out
It wasn't that long ago either
*gulp*
I told you
guys he was becoming unstable. His methods...unsound.
Paul|3.10.09 @ 4:06PM|#
I still say that when Al Queda gets its nuke from Pakistan
or Iran and decides to hit a US city, I hope they pick
Detroit.
Me too. Imagine the billions of dollars in improvements the bomb
would do.
*ducks*
|3.10.09 @ 4:06PM|#
Paul,
Actually, all of them were twists of joe quotes. Even the "most
intelligent commenter" line. Heir
Paul|3.10.09 @ 4:19PM|#
Actually, all of them were twists of joe quotes. Even the
"most intelligent commenter" line. Heir
You guys need to let go. He's gone. I mean, yes, he's crouched in
his empty bathtub, gently rocking back and forth with Obama's
picture clutched in his clammy hands, while repeatedly saying
"change...change...change..." But to us, he's gone.
|3.10.09 @ 4:42PM|#
You all knew I'd have to weigh in, right?
The recently paroled ex-mayor, son of a congresscritter, is a
spoiled brat. He's moving to the Dallas area. Watch your wallets,
Texans.
Our city council is dysfuctional. The council president, wife of a
different congresscritter, is (to put it charitably) bat shit
insane.
The police department has been operating under federal oversight
for years.
The school system is best described as institutional mass child
abuse.
But we do have a monorail!
I'm probably not going to be here much longer. I give a shit about
the city but as evidenced by their votes, the litter, the crime and
the don't cooporate with the surrounding area, just blame them
attitude that prevails, my fellow citizens don't. I'm going to be
one of those white suburbanites who are resposible for all of the
cities woes.
Dearborn is nice.
Alan Vanneman|3.10.09 @ 4:42PM|#
Disregard Alan's last comment. He's fine. Completely. Trust me. He's fine. Fine.
Not a Detroiter, just a crackp|3.10.09 @ 4:50PM|#
Sell Detroit to Canada. It's Motor City's only hope.
The Red Wings will be officially Canadian and the Tigers will serve
better beer at home games.
And don't even get me started on the Lions.
Warty|3.10.09 @ 4:57PM|#
Which is the better Detroit-based movie: Robocop or The
Crow?
Wrong. Gran Torino. We used to stack fucks like you five
feet high in Korea and use 'em for sandbags.
kinnath|3.10.09 @ 5:03PM|#
Great cities have died throughout history as their reason for
being has ended.
There is no good reason why Detroit shouldn't be returned to
greenspace.
Disbelief|3.10.09 @ 5:07PM|#
I've never been to Detroit, so the article and the comments have been amazing to me. Also never been to a city where they abandon roads to trees either. Wow!
BakedPenguin|3.10.09 @ 5:08PM|#
Wow. I just went on homes.com, and there was a 5 bedroom 3 bath for sale for around $110,000. And this was in Grosse Point, which I'd heard was a decent neighborhood.
Paul|3.10.09 @ 5:10PM|#
But we do have a monorail!
You have trains! Oh... oh! Seattle wants to be like you!
Lame C&P|3.10.09 @ 5:15PM|#
The Afghani Quarterback
The coach had put together the perfect team for the Detroit Lions.
The only thing that was missing was a good quarterback.
He had scouted all the colleges and even the Canadian and European
Leagues, but he couldn't find a ringer who could ensure a Super
Bowl win.
Then one night while watching CNN he saw a war-zone scene in
Afghanistan. In one corner of the background, he spotted a young
Afghan Muslim soldier with a truly incredible arm. He threw a
hand-grenade straight into a 15th story window 100 yards
away.
KABOOM!
He threw another hand-grenade 75 yards away, right into a
chimney.
KA-BLOOEY!
Then he threw another at a passing car going 90 mph.
BULLS-EYE!
"I've got to get this guy!" Coach said to himself. "He has the
perfect arm!"
So, the coach brings him to the States and teaches him the great
game of football. And the Lions go on to win the Super Bowl. The
young Afghan is hailed as the greatest hero of football, and when
the coach asks him what he wants, all the young man wants is to
call his mother.
"Mom," he says into the phone, "I just won the Super Bowl!"
I don't want to talk to you, the old woman says. "You deserted us.
You are not my son!"
"I don't think you understand, Mother," the young man pleads. "I've
just won the greatest sporting event in the world. I'm here among
thousands of my adoring fans."
"No! Let me tell you!" his mother retorts. "At this very moment,
there are gunshots all around us. The neighborhood is a pile of
rubble. Your two brothers were beaten within an inch of their lives
last week, and I have to keep your sister in the house so she
doesn't get raped!"
The old lady pauses, and then tearfully says, "I will never forgive
you for making us move to Detroit!"
economist|3.10.09 @ 5:25PM|#
"racist hatred for Canadians
Canadians are a race?"
You've obviously never watched South Park.
"But we do have a monorail!"
You should name it Blaine.
|3.10.09 @ 5:34PM|#
I should be glad Detroit is dying...I live on Lake Erie in
Ontario. With Detroit gone, the lake should get a lot
cleaner.
If you want to save Detroit, best thing you can do is allow all
those Mexicans who want to immigrate to the States move to Detroit.
Would be a huge boost to the economy, Mexicans actually do work for
a living unlike the current inhabitants. A win-win situation.
|3.10.09 @ 5:42PM|#
Its a race to the bottom to see who because extinct the fastest, Flint or Detroit. Dlint's got less to lose, but Detroits falling faster.
jtuf|3.10.09 @ 5:52PM|#
Detroit, which has lost half its population in the past 50
years, ...
Ah, an eco-utopia I see.
|3.10.09 @ 7:59PM|#
I'm originally from the Detroit suburbs. Dad was in the auto
industry and Mom lived there because her family came from the
backwoods of Virginia to work for the then-amazing wage of $5 a
day. It is bizarre and sad how far the city has fallen. The '67
race riots caused huge white flight from which it never really
recovered. It's long been a one-party fiefdom for black big-city
Democrats, as a group not generally known for economic
wisdom.
Fun historical fact: Henry Ford developed and named two suburban
towns for his workers: Dearborn for the whites and Inkster for the
blacks. Apparently the old anti-Semite loved a good joke....
Fascitis Necrotizante|3.10.09 @ 10:52PM|#
What have you eaten today?
Some cake... and some beef jerky.
|3.10.09 @ 11:07PM|#
Anyone know where I can look up how Detroit and the state of
Michigan compare to other cities and states w/r/t local taxes? I
have a hunch...
-jcr
JB|3.10.09 @ 11:13PM|#
economist | March 10, 2009, 5:46pm | #
I think JB has a few issues.
No, just accurately expressing that if Al Queda has to pick one
major city, I would have it be Detroit. Assuming the fallout stays
rather contained.
|3.10.09 @ 11:16PM|#
I hope they pick Detroit.
To add to their tally of Muslims killed, I presume?
-jcr
|3.10.09 @ 11:37PM|#
if Al Queda has to pick one major city, I would have it be
Detroit. Assuming the fallout stays rather contained.
A REAL libertarian would have picked Washington.
Are you one o' them cosmos?
|3.11.09 @ 5:47AM|#
Wow...I had no idea Detroit proper had fallen so mightily. I
know the Rust Belt is struggling (I'm from Ohio after all),
but...wow.
It must look like Manhattan in I Am Legend.
|3.11.09 @ 11:42AM|#
There is a historic neighborhood very close to downtown Detroit
(about 5min from Comerica Park), called Boston-Edison. Its got some
spectacular historic mansions that would cost millions in
equivalent location in almost any other big city. Take a look at
some photos.
here |
here |
here |
here |
here
This used to be where everyone who was anyone in Detroit used to
live. Alas even here we see the results of present day Detroit,
when I drove through there last year I saw some homes on the
outskirts with plywood in the windows.
Robert|3.11.09 @ 9:10PM|#
Of course the car costs more than the house. You can live in
either one, but the car you can drive out of
Detroit.
My friend Nancy showed me some of Detroit in Aug. 2004. Plenty of
free parking around Wayne State U., and we ate at a little hippie
restaurant wedged in tight between empty lots.
So how's this business supposed to work, where politicians keep
people poor because they couldn't stay in office otherwise? Don't
the voters want to be richer?
Brett Stevens|3.12.09 @ 4:48PM|#
It's not racism to point out that diversity doesn't work.
The only reason people accuse others of racism is to make
themselves look good. It's an egotrip.
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245