did they firebomb detroit?

[datasuspect]

went there this weekend.

a very disconcerting experience. never been there before, but lord have mercy that is one sorrow-inducing place.

it literally blew my mind that so much infrastructure was allowed to stagnate and remain derelict.

i guess they are renovating the downtown area, but i shudder to think what it was like maybe even 10 or 20 years ago . . .

[MnFats]

1. It was revenge for Dresden

you didn't hear?

[datasuspect]

2. i didn't get the memo

i was paroled only last month.

[drumwolf]

3. Wow. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like.

I've heard that the city's infrastructure is so stagnated that there are even large formerly-urban areas that are turning into farmland, gardens or just plain wilderness. There's an article about this which originally came out in the New York Times last year. It's quite a bizarre phenomenon.

Hmmm. Maybe I should go out and rent "8 Mile." Any Detroit residents or visitors see it? Is it an accurate representation of what Detroit feels like?

Oh, and another thing: it did not LITERALLY blow your mind -- you're still alive to write about this, and you'd be dead if it LITERALLY blew your mind. Sorry to be an asshole about this, but it's a pet peeve of mine when someone misuses the word "literally."

[Worst Username Ever]

6. I just laughed so hard I literally crapped my pants.

[datasuspect]

7. that's fine professor

but in electronic communications such as these, i try to use a more informal (and i understand that use of the word "literally" to convey emphasis is a malapropism, but i'm not writing a scholarly treatise here) approach to english.

sorry to be an asshole about this, but it's a pet peeve of mine when someone grandstands about their grammar-related pet peeves. especially when it concerns internet-based communication.




anyway

oh yeah, detroit.

that is an intriguing article. thanks.

[HereSince1628]

4. You're close, take a day hop over to Gary and see how that looks

Rusty, and its rusty from Pennsylvania to Minnesota.

Or check out the Waste Management sites on Chicago's southside say around and south of 130th. Those were once workers neighborhoods...

The greed for every last dime caused US steel production that had save the world just 2 decades earlier to become obsolete and uncompetitive. That led to mini-mills and outsourced the steel which in turn killed the mines and sent the assembly work south and then souther-er-the border which left the factories empty and rusting.

And now that the disease has made us post-industrial it is threatening other sectors.

Personally, I think it was a strategic economic blunder.

If a nation hasn't a self-sustaining national economy, either its 1) a colony, 2) trying gain possession of colonies, or 3) trying to keep control of its colonies...

Guess which way the Neocons see it going?

[Burma Jones]

14. I was born in Gary and remember the thick yellow skies

and the dead fish on the shores of Lake Michigan. It's tough being a Colonial Power, they never last you know.........

[kwassa]

17. Steel moved offshore because we didn't modernize quickly

and we also can never meet third world labor rates for unskilled labor. It is really an unsolvable problem. American steel was fat and lazy and got caught napping.

I worked in a huge mill as a summer job during college, and it is out of business, essentially. Northern Ohio.

I was born in the Detroit suburbs.

[HereSince1628]

23. I know, as I said they were squeezing out the last dime rather

that reinvesting. The US had a HUGE jump on the world after WWII and the investor class chose to sit and go to sleep on that lead.

The investor class CAN'T be trusted to build or maintain anything. They buy, and divest.

[lpbk2713]

5. Has Ron Artest been in Detroit lately?

He might be raising hell again.

[MotorCityMan]

8. Yes, Detroit; where the weak are killed and eaten

I've lived here are my life and love the city. It has it's good areas as well as REALLY bad areas, pretty much like any other major city.

Of course, thanks in part to our Glorious Leader, the city has NO money, and I will be the first to admit, it needs lots of work.

[datasuspect]

9. at least they have modern squad cars in detroit

i remember tooling around gary about 4 years ago and their police force was still rolling '86 crown vics.

but the sense of detroit's former greatness (detroit WAS a principal city at one time) juxtaposed with dereliction gave me a strong sense of sadness.

i suppose when they laid out the roads going into the town center, they must have been planning for greatness. what was interesting was all the 50s, 60s, 70s era signage and the views coming from the outskirts into the city.

most striking was the train station. that building is simply amazing. and it stands there, aloof, forlorn, and pockmarked.

weird.

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

10. Detroit is really in a sad situation.

It was nice in the 1950's and early 60's. The huge J.L. Hudson's on Woodward was an anchor for the downtown area. Everyone from a 75 mile radius shopped there.

After the 1967 riots, white flight accelerated and it continues today.

The Detroit Institute of Arts is one of the finest Art Museums in the US. Greek Town has good food (and gambling if you're into it.)

Check out this site for some heartbreaking photos:

http://www.white-history.com/hwrdet.htm

(I'm a little suspicious about this site, I checked out the home page and it said it was "March of the Titians A History of the White Race". Although they do state on their link for the Ruins of Detroit, "Please note: This photographic essay is not meant to imply that all areas of the cities in question resemble the photographs". I hope they are not a supremacist group.)

These other sites also provide photos and information on Detroit.

http://detroityes.com/industry/17fisherpainting.htm

http://www.soulfuldetroit.com/web01-soulfuldetroit/

http://www.msu.edu/user/sherid16/general.html

[datasuspect]

11. wow

double wow.

do you know of any other sites similar to the one you posted?

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

12. I'm not familiar with any other sites

"The Ruins of Detroit" was a big deal when it hit the Internet.

I had another site bookmarked that showed before and after photos, I'll try and look for that one.

You're right about the train station. It looks so desolate.

[lpbk2713]

13. Damn shame the way things evolve sometimes.

Some of those homes were obviously something to be proud of at one time. And some of those buildings had splendid architecture.

[mark414]

20. whoa shit that is depressing

[enigmatic]

15. Here's a great site about Detroit:

http://detroityes.com/home.htm

I go there often..

[Spider Jerusalem]

16. Even now, Detroit is emblematic of the Automotive Age.

The fifties and sixties came along, and newfound prosperity meant that more people could buy a car and a house in the suburbs. The collapse of a lot of the American auto industry at the same time...Detroit's raison d'etre as a major urban centre...accelerated the process of decay and resulted in what you see there. Detroit is probably the most extreme case, but I can think of dozens of other American cities that have areas of decay just as bad as anything there (just not on so large a scale).

[bif]

18. The Detroit Prairies?

There are whole sections where there are nothing but fields. I've driven through there and seen tons of pheasants and other wildlife. It's like being out in the country. Pretty sad indeed.

[bif]

19. Why did you visit Detroit?

Just curious.

[datasuspect]

21. slow day

me and the ex rented a car and just pointed in a direction. ended up in detroit because it is near windsor, ontario. had a relatively good time, but the contrast between detroit and windsor is surreal.

[bif]

22. Windsor is pretty nice.

Excellent restaurants. Although I liked it better before they built the casino.

Like I always say about Detroit: "It's a nice place to live, but I'd sure hate to visit it.