DETROIT

The population of Detroit dropped 4.5% from 2000 to 2003...40,000 people. I am shocked that there are still 911,000 people apparently still living in America's very own third world city.

Comments

[windspike]

Detroit is the perfect example of pure and unadulterated institutionalized, systematized, economic racism perpetrated by the corporate elite of, pirmarily, the auto industry.

Let's just take a look at the difference between Detroit City Proper and Grosse Point! Hummmm, why don't the auto execs live downtown? Hummm, why are the streets in detroit littered with potholes and the folks in Grosse Point enjoy tree lined, freshly paved bulevards?

The list goes on and on...

As to why are there people still there? because they are stuck and the tax cuts didn't trickle down.

Adios mi amigos

[rock city]

I have great affection for Detroit and wish it could get back on its feet. It was, after all, the major city we looked to and my father worked in most of my life.

A legendary mayor we know so well named Coleman Young sure as funk didn't help matters. It's difficult to try and invest in a city that isn't interested in having you. Luckily subsequent Mayors have been more open. Unfortunately, they had fat Governor John Engler to deal with.

Detroit needs an alternative industry (besides casinos, raves, and liquor stores) to employ it's folk and attract more folk. A daunting challenge.

[RC Sr]

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) to see a special exhibit and to once again be overwhelmed by Diego Rivera’s fresco depicting life in the Motor City. Rivera’s fresco was commissioned by Edsel Ford in 1932 and supported by the Ford Motor Company. Yes, the automotive industry is directly responsible for this left wing social commentary on the walls of one of the region’s most revered institutions.

Such are the contrasts of this sad city. Casino’s thrive here, but so too does the Music Hall, Ford Field, a world class orchestra and the new baseball park. The population dwindles, but the Woodward corridor is showing some life. There’s even a CVS pharmacy on Woodward Avenue—a sure sign of local foot traffic. Some neighborhoods are being re-constructed and some, like Cork Town, are reviving.

It’s a city where a million people came downtown to see the Red Wings when they last won the Stanley Cup. It’s the same city that hosted a million Piston fans celebration (incident free I might add). The Wings and the Pistons—the largest NHL payroll and NBA’s blue collar team. A contrast, just like the city these teams represent.

I worked in Detroit for many years and grew to respect the city and its people despite Mayor Coleman Young’s crusade to build the 8 Mile Road wall to separate Detroit from the hated suburbs.

Late one evening, a friend of mine and I stopped in at a local coffee house near the campus of Wayne State University on Detroit’s infamous Cass Corridor. At closing time, one of the employees came over to our table and offered us a couple pounds of coffee left over from the night’s grindings. It was good stuff and I never forgot the kindness. (Would this happen at your local Starbucks?)

Detroit’s people are the most courteous according to a recent poll. I frequently shop in the western part of the city. It’s a convenient place for my friend and I to meet (she lives in one of those Detroit neighborhoods). We are in the minority in these stores being neither African-American nor of Middle Eastern descent. We frequently eat in a local Middle Eastern strip mall restaurant and are the only non-Arabs there. The common courtesies extended to me and my friend by sales staff and customers alike in these local enterprises make us feel at home; a sharp contrast to what I’m sure many outside the area would expect to hear from someone visiting the city with the label of murder capital USA.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend suffered a smash and grab while getting gas at her neighborhood BP station. She’s been mugged several times and her house broken into twice over the years. I’ve been broken into three times while living in Ann Arbor, so I got her beat.

A few days ago, during the Freedom Festival fireworks (an annual event along the Detroit River sponsored by the cities of Detroit and Windsor, Ontario) nine people were gunned down. Most have now been released from the hospitals and nobody died. My friend usually went downtown with her daughter to see the fireworks. Her daughter is now in a Boston college so they didn’t go downtown for this year’s event. I’m glad.

John McCutcheon is a folk singer and song writer. He recorded a Christmas song called “Detroit, Christmas”. It’s a lament about an auto worker who is not earning enough to support his family. There’s a line that goes, “to trade these blues for dancing shoes” that plays in my head nearly every time I drive through Detroit. It’s Detroit’s contrasts that stay with me; the blues and the celebrations; the kindnesses and the muggings; the latest gunning and Rivera’s social commentary. It’s a city of contrasts.

[Rozenia Johnson]

This email is in response to a comment made years ago, however it must be corrected. Where in the world did someone get the notion that Coleman Young had anything to do with building the wall that divides Eight Mile Road from the white neighborhood??? The wall was erected by a white builder who needed to get an FHA loan approved for his nieghborhood's project. Since the FHA did not in most cases approve projects in or near Black neighborhoods, the builder constructed this wall to guarantee his chances. Educate Yourself!!!