Looks like something to watch.

Sad really.

ZAZ: In their shadows, the glazed eyes of the street zombies slide into view, stumbling in front of the car.

Cool, a genuine postapocalyptic wasteland.

(Well, as the article says, maybe not so fun if you live there.)

As he says: This makes it great for filming - park where you like, film what you like - but not so good if you actually live there.

I want to see this.

FTA: On many levels Detroit seems to be an insoluble disaster with urgent warnings for the rest of the industrialised world. But as George and I made our film we discovered, to our surprise, an irrepressible positivity in the city. Unable to buy fresh food for their children, people are now growing their own, turning the demolished neighbourhood blocks into urban farms and kick-starting what is now the fastest-growing movement across the US. Although the city is still haemorrhaging population, young people from all over the country are also flooding into Detroit - artists, musicians and social pioneers, all keen to make use of the abandoned urban spaces and create new ways of living together.

With the breakdown of 20th-century civilisation, many Detroiters have discovered an exhilarating sense of starting over, building together a new cross-racial community sense of doing things, discarding the bankrupt rules of the past and taking direct control of their own lives. Still at the forefront of the American Dream, Detroit is fast becoming the Boobies-American" city. And amid the ruins of the Motor City it is possible to find a first pioneer's map to the post-industrial future that awaits us all.

This gives me hope. Detroit still pioneers. Awesome.

Veeoh: Looks like something to watch.

Sad really.

Nah, it's a good thing. It makes America a well and truly grown up country, complete with ruined cities and everything.

Nehllah:
I'm moving there in two weeks, I've been trying to convince my husband that we should be prepared for zombies.

EIP for when you get here

At least they have the Lions.

I dunno if Detroit is that bad, but at leas there's still a bit of hope (new window).

Trying to be constructive for once, maybe we could use Detroit as an example of what NOT to do with cities in the United States.

You sociologists and local politicians on Fark get on it! I'm a software engineer with few skills in city planning.

If you work for the federal government, shut up, as you can't even balance a budget.

Ah America.......were the cities you build last but a hundred years but yet in Europe theirs last thousands.....how is your dynasty working out???

bmihura: Trying to be constructive for once, maybe we could use Detroit as an example of what NOT to do with cities in the United States.

You sociologists and local politicians on Fark get on it! I'm a software engineer with few skills in city planning.

If you work for the federal government, shut up, as you can't even balance a budget.

aren't you the ignorant shiat!!! Do you think that every federal employee works to balance the budget?? That is the job of Congress, you stupid ass.

SweetDickens: Ah America.......were the cities you build last but a hundred years but yet in Europe theirs last thousands.....how is your dynasty working out???

[obvioustroll.jpg]

No.

There is no hope in Detroit. The End!

Phil beat me to the RoboCop reference. OCP would totally work in Detroit now.

Any Farkers from that area? How bad is it, really? I sense a lot of hyperbole in the article.

SweetDickens: Ah America.......were the cities you build last but a hundred years but yet in Europe theirs last thousands.....how is your dynasty working out???

.01/10

I was raised in one of the numerous suburbs of Detroit, little city called Redford. I remember it being not the best, but not the worst neighborhood in the world. The schools had wide sprawling open grass fields, the stores, shops, etc. were all bustling with activity, even the local malls were doing alright as they started to recover from their 80s fallout. Roaring 90s were in high gear.

Cue 1998, moved to Toledo until 2005 when I moved back into the Detroit Area.

Same neighborhood. Everything, all the parks and schools are fenced in every which way, boarded up storefronts and burned out houses everywhere, small groups of 'good time' people on the streets and occasional street corner. Almost all the malls have been devastated or outright torn down/replaced with strip malls, and those have empty 'please use us' signs all over.

And this was before the economy train wreck.

/love my little city AND it's older brothers/sisters
//really hoping things turn around

FTFA: Passing the giant rubber tyre that dwarfs the nonexistent traffic

That's on I-94 a good ways west of town close to Metro Airport. Traffic there seems pretty heavy to me!

Waiting for the Fallout 3: Detroit add-on.
Come on, this one would be EASY to make. You don't need to CHANGE anything to make it Fallout-ish.

Next time you visit Detroit, dress for success!

I live just outside of Detroit, about 15 miles. It used to take me about an hour an tne minutes to get to downtown during morning rush hour. It now takes me 22 minutes. It's been like this for almost 5 years. Of course, the parking situation is great.

Gilligann: For a minute I thought the author was describing what Detroit would be like in the future. Had no idea it was currently like this.

Damn!

If you go to the street level in google maps, find the location where Jefferson Avenue crosses into Detroit from Grosse Point Park. The change is eerie.

Sad. What is it about modern society which seems to favour the worthless prat? Is it a side effect of a free market?

How about the merits of a planned, political economy?

/discuss

The disparity of wealth in Detroit is quite low so they have that going for them...

Why not bulldoze the empty parts of the city, condense the outer areas, convert whatever isn't polluted ground into farms, homestead it with every black male getting a couple acres and a mule and we call it even as far as reparations go.

Oznog: Waiting for the Fallout 3: Detroit add-on.
Come on, this one would be EASY to make. You don't need to CHANGE anything to make it Fallout-ish.

The Pitt?.

The article makes it sound like this is a recent development. It was a hole when I first went there in the '80's, and it looked like they'd been digging for a while.

/many stories about Detroit, and more than a few scary...yes, it really is that bad.

The 1967 riot showed that the blacks in Detroit wanted the whites out of "their" city. So they left. And took their business with them.

43 years later, we have this...

Frank N Stein

Actually not a troll at all....just an observer of the facts.

You might try it, instead of playing wow or with yourself.

Cyclometh: Any Farkers from that area? How bad is it, really? I sense a lot of hyperbole in the article.

It's pretty accurate. Most of the suburbs are a different story, better but not terrific.

The city suffered the most severe case of white flight back in the 60s & 70s. Add to that a couple of mayors who did their best to make sure that the surrounding suburbs did not want anything to do with the place drove the final nail.

Who says Detroit can't be beautiful?
http://bigdanfoley.tumblr.com/

Oh, and:

Unable to buy fresh food for their children, people are now growing their own, turning the demolished neighbourhood blocks into urban farms

Food grown in Detroit? ewwwww

Detroit is in bad shape. Anyone (including myself) who says otherwise is deluding themselves. Walk or drive along virtually any block in the city and you'll find multiple burned out homes, lots that are slowly turning back into marshland, etc. 40 plus years of neglect will do that to a city.

That being said, there is a HELL of a lot of hope for the city. The new administration is making hard decisions without worrying about the political implications for a change, something that can't be said about any administration going back to the riots of 67. The new city council seems (so far) to be on the ball. And the level of activism, from tree plantings to neighborhood cleanups and on and on, is amazing.

I love this city and I'm damned well not going to let it die without a fight. Give it about 10 years. You're going to be amazed at the changes.

You know, making Detroit look bad is like teasing adult Twilight fans. It's just pathetically easy.

Every time I see a story about the utter collapse of Detroit, I wonder why no big corporations (or foreign governments, or just a couple of rich guys) don't come in and buy everything. Buy a pile of real estate, businesses, and even formerly public buildings for pennies on the dollar.

It might be a post-industrial wasteland today, but it's still centrally located, with access to transportation, etc.

Detroit isn't the only place that went down the tubes like this. There are quite a few cities in the Northeast that lost their manufacturing base and fell on hard times; Bethlehem, PA and Lowell, MA come to mind. What makes Detroit unique is the parasitic government that, instead of working to halt the decline, sucked what life was left in the city out of it.

SweetDickens: Actually not a troll at all....just an observer of the facts.

Link (new window)

Link (new window)

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As far as I can tell the downtown area of Detroit still looks spiffy. The wealthy suburbs are likewise spiffy. Just there is a vast wasteland of deserted land inhabited by the dregs of society. It is kind of a shame, but I hate the Red Wings. Go Blackhawks!

nicksteel: Cyclometh: Any Farkers from that area? How bad is it, really? I sense a lot of hyperbole in the article.

It's pretty accurate. Most of the suburbs are a different story, better but not terrific.

The city suffered the most severe case of white flight back in the 60s & 70s. Add to that a couple of mayors who did their best to make sure that the surrounding suburbs did not want anything to do with the place drove the final nail.

There was that complete bastard who ran the place for years (decades?) post-white flight and basically put the city where it is now. Can't remember his name, but he was a piece of work.

Highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive.

/DNRTFA

"Starbucks? Forget it."

Actually, there's one downtown. 3760 Woodward Ave at the corner of Mack Ave.

http://maps.google.com/maps?layer=c&cbll=42.347626,-83.057764&panoid=7hDmLR8Ug8 U OpaN8XcD-2A&cbp=12,344.13,,0,12.53&ved=0CE4Q2wU&ei=yuaaS-nHMobAM7L4_cED&ie=UTF8& hq=&hnear=503+Forest+Ave,+Royal+Oak,+Oakland,+Michigan+48067&ll=42.347681,-83.05 7655&spn=0,359.998974&t=h&z=20

SweetDickens: Ah America.......were the cities you build last but a hundred years but yet in Europe theirs last thousands.....how is your dynasty working out???

I've seen your cities. Beautiful, yes. But your population has no where to spread out, or run to depending on how you look at it.

Perducci: Every time I see a story about the utter collapse of Detroit, I wonder why no big corporations (or foreign governments, or just a couple of rich guys) don't come in and buy everything. Buy a pile of real estate, businesses, and even formerly public buildings for pennies on the dollar.

It might be a post-industrial wasteland today, but it's still centrally located, with access to transportation, etc.

What would they do with it? What would you do with the people currently living there?

There are plenty of good locations near vital cities that would be cheaper to buy and develop. Detroit does not have a viable work force available for what you propose. The UAW workers have been spoiled and would refuse the work.