Detroit to Demo 10,000 Homes. . .Historic & All

[Gaspar]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703950804575242433435338728.html?mod=rss_US_News

[sauerkraut]

It need to be done. sad but true.

[TheArtist]

I have run into a number of articles about different cities doing similar things.  Detroit in particular has had such huge population losses and isnt likely to grow much in the near future.  "Right-sizing" seems an inevitable positive move for the city.

[Townsend]

So should we remove Broken Arrow and teach them the virtues of downtown living?

[waterboy]

I don't want any of those darn small town suburbanites messin' up my downtown. Likely they'll want to tear down stuff to make room for their Tahoes and Humvees. Then they'll want to replace Topeca with Starbucks. No thanks.

[Townsend]

I don't want any of those darn small town suburbanites messin' up my downtown. Likely they'll want to tear down stuff to make room for their Tahoes and Humvees. Then they'll want to replace Topeca with Starbucks. No thanks.

We teach them correct virtues.  None of that crazy shite.

[Ed W]

I read that Detroit is turning into urban wilderness as deer and other wild life move into formerly populated areas.  That, and the the whole city no longer has a single grocery store.  That's hard to imagine, and frankly I don't know that it's true.

Still, it's looking like it will be the first abandoned major city in the United States.  We had boom towns in the old west that sprang up and died just as quickly.  But Detroit may be the very first fully modern city to nearly disappear. 

I have a co-worker who grew up there.  He blames the city's decline on our penchant for buying foreign automobiles.  I think that's only partly true and that the problem is more complex, involving economics, poor decision making, conflicts over class and ethnicity, and probably some other things I haven't considered.

[Red Arrow]

We teach them correct virtues.  None of that crazy shite.

At least that's your plan.

[Red Arrow]

I have a co-worker who grew up there.  He blames the city's decline on our penchant for buying foreign automobiles. 

The bigger question is why "we" didn't buy US nameplates.  I say nameplates since many "foreign" cars are at least assembled in the US.  My Buick was assembled in Canada. I like to consider Canada our friend as well as neighbor but they are not the USA. 

[waterboy]

Affluence produced a taste for foreign labels in all products. True or not, people began associating quality with imports and higher prices in the 1980's. Detroit hastened that movement by raising prices and reducing their quality.

Those of us who restored old cars as a hobby during the 80's and 90's would always laugh about the new cars coming out during that period. We didn't think any of them would last long enough to ever be collectible!

[nathanm]

So should we remove Broken Arrow and teach them the virtues of downtown living?

It would be more akin to demolishing everything in south Tulsa when, after years of population losses, all of Tulsa south of 51st street was almost entirely abandoned.

As far as why we don't buy US "made" vehicles, I think a lot of it these days is inertia. Fords, at least, are much more reliable now than they were 20 years ago. The fit and finish on the GM cars I've driven over the last year or two is also much better than it had been in the past.

Twenty years ago, the difference between getting in a domestic car and a Japanese car was like night and day. The Japanese makes hadn't yet moved towards the higher end materials, but everything in them was put together very well. Detroit just wasn't focused on quality. Ironic, since we're the ones who instilled the value of quality in Japanese manufacturers after WWII.

It was never so much about the workers as the process, as is shown by the good quality of the foreign cars built in the US.

[Conan71]

I read that Detroit is turning into urban wilderness as deer and other wild life move into formerly populated areas.  That, and the the whole city no longer has a single grocery store.  That's hard to imagine, and frankly I don't know that it's true.

Still, it's looking like it will be the first abandoned major city in the United States.  We had boom towns in the old west that sprang up and died just as quickly.  But Detroit may be the very first fully modern city to nearly disappear. 

I have a co-worker who grew up there.  He blames the city's decline on our penchant for buying foreign automobiles.  I think that's only partly true and that the problem is more complex, involving economics, poor decision making, conflicts over class and ethnicity, and probably some other things I haven't considered.

Government entitlement programs which encourage mediocrity and continue to enslave the under-classes.

/requisite GOP talking point

[TheArtist]

Detroit lost its automobile industry like Tulsa lost its oil industry.  Both losses were predictable and both had decades to see the writing on the wall.  Is partly a guess, but its always appeared to me that Detroit refused to "see the writing on the wall" and at the same time continued to put all its fight and eggs into the automobile basket.  I wouldn't say that Tulsa should be held up as some paradigm of how to survive these kinds of scenarios, but Tulsa has manage to diversify enough to survive the massive losses it incurred.

  I have heard that the suburbs around Detroit do quite well, have nice homes, decent schools, etc.  I point that out to some of the suburbanites here when they say they dont care what happens to Tulsa and that it doesnt matter to them. If the central city gets a bad reputation, it hurts the entire region, suburbs included.  I have also heard that the central core of the city isnt all bad and has a number of bright spots with new development and infill.  Generally, its that first ring out that is the worst area.  Essentially you have a donut with the hole being the decent core, the donut itself bad, then the outer suburbs nice. The "donut" emptied out, with the remaining population and businesses moving to the core and outer suburbs.

[sauerkraut]

Detroit at one time was a rather high class city, in the 1920's the city really rocked, then race riots started in the 1960's and people fled to the suburbs, the ones who could not move were stuck and crime, murders, and drugs had a perfect spot to live & grow..

[Hoss]

Detroit at one time was a rather high class city, in the 1920's the city really rocked, then race roits started in the 1960's and people fled to the suburbs, the ones who could not move were stuck and crime, murders, and drugs had a perfect spot to live & grow..

Wow, our own personal Wikipedia, right here on TNF!