gladstoned
Well-Known Member
You have found the right place.
Detroit. Good idea or crazy as hell?
- Thread starter gladstoned
- Start date
abe supercro
Well-Known Member
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/01/complaints_about_detroit_gentr.html?mobRedir=false
Complaints about Detroit gentrification once again rooted in feelings, not logic
Published: Thursday, January 05, 2012, 12:41
By Jeff T. Wattrick | jwattric@mlive.com
We’ve all heard this idea, mostly from rural conservatives, that it feels like President Obama is “destroying America.” When challenged about how Obama is changing America, folks usually fall short of specifics. Even when they cite policies they don’t like, say health care reform, they can’t really quantify how it’s “destroying America.”
The same train of thought exists among some long-time Detroiters who feel that newer, wealthier residents are pushing them out of the city, or otherwise making them feel unwelcome in their hometown. When you ask for examples or quantifiable evidence of gentrification, the specifics are few and far between.
Jan. 5, Detroit News: Many potential home buyers in Corktown, Midtown and downtown often get outbid, many real estate agents said. It's a combination of not enough high-quality inventory and stiff competition.
Amber Wilson, 28, knows this firsthand. The Southgate resident wanted to move to Corktown, but quickly found herself outbid on at least three residences earlier this year.
"Some Oakland County couple paid more than $100,000 cash for a loft, because they wanted their daughter to move back from Chicago. I can't compete with that," said Wilson, a graphic designer who had been pre-approved for a $120,000 mortgage loan. Nor did she want to buy a home in disrepair, which seemed the only other option for her in that neighborhood.
In downtown, the Trolley Plaza apartment complex was bought by new owners, who upgraded the facility, changed the name to Washington Square Apartments and increased the rent 20 percent or more.
"It went from diverse to mainly young and white," said Jack Sexton, a former resident. "That's too bad because a lot of people wanted to stay but they couldn't afford it."
Leaving aside the irony of a suburbanite complaining that she's been displaced from the loft market, what's the takeaway here? That, on some micro-level, Detroit’s downtown real estate is being treated as downtown real estate? The horror! Market-rate real estate is worse than Hitler!
Let’s not forget that life at Trolley Plaza’s before “gentrification” was hardly idyllic. One resident was killed in a tragic elevator accident. Poorly maintained buildings at bargain prices aren’t exactly the same thing as social justice.
What’s more, long-time Trolley Plaza resident Andy Olesko disputes the claim that the building is lily-white. Olesko says the rent increases followed significant and necessary upgrades to the Washington Blvd. high rise. While he’s witnessed more professionals move into the building, he says the population remains diverse.
“There's been an influx of young whites for sure, but this place is still pretty diverse,” Olesko wrote on his website, Hot Fudge Detroit. “No one is confusing it for a J. Crew catalog model hostel. Unless you're trying to make a point for a story I guess.”
But, of course, the gentrification narrative in Detroit isn’t about displacement or quantifiable demographic change, it’s all about feelings.
 
Jan. 5, Detroit News: Two years ago, a group of young adults took over an abandoned house near North Corktown and attempted to make it into an art project. The problem is no one informed the neighbors, said Jeff DeBruyn, who runs the Manna Community Meal soup kitchen and the art/community project called Imagination Station.
"It mysteriously got put on fire twice," he said.
No one claimed responsibility for the fires. DeBruyn said he has talked to neighbors, many of whom felt threatened by a group of newcomers who made no attempt to engage with the residents.
So, the people working on an abandoned property is more threatening than the abandonment and decay itself?
More to the point, did old-time Corktowners torch the thing or not? I mean, if you’re going to infer this was a crime of xenophobia, lay out the evidence. There’s a big difference between someone who doesn’t like the kids down the street, and someone who torches their house.
Maybe to DeBruyn it feels like this property was torched because neighbors were afraid of change, and maybe Sexton feels Trolley Plaza’s owners wish to make the building your new Birmingham, and maybe Southgate graphic designer Amber Wilson feels like she should get a place in the Grinnell Lofts for $80 grand, and maybe some people feel like Barack Obama is Malcolm X’s love child, but one's feelings can't will something into reality.
Feelings don't count. Sorry if that sounds mean, but life isn’t a kindergarten. What one feels, no matter how deeply they feel it, is irrelevant unless it can be backed up with arguments rooted in logic, reason, and facts.
Complaints about Detroit gentrification once again rooted in feelings, not logic
Published: Thursday, January 05, 2012, 12:41
By Jeff T. Wattrick | jwattric@mlive.com
We’ve all heard this idea, mostly from rural conservatives, that it feels like President Obama is “destroying America.” When challenged about how Obama is changing America, folks usually fall short of specifics. Even when they cite policies they don’t like, say health care reform, they can’t really quantify how it’s “destroying America.”
The same train of thought exists among some long-time Detroiters who feel that newer, wealthier residents are pushing them out of the city, or otherwise making them feel unwelcome in their hometown. When you ask for examples or quantifiable evidence of gentrification, the specifics are few and far between.
Jan. 5, Detroit News: Many potential home buyers in Corktown, Midtown and downtown often get outbid, many real estate agents said. It's a combination of not enough high-quality inventory and stiff competition.
Amber Wilson, 28, knows this firsthand. The Southgate resident wanted to move to Corktown, but quickly found herself outbid on at least three residences earlier this year.
"Some Oakland County couple paid more than $100,000 cash for a loft, because they wanted their daughter to move back from Chicago. I can't compete with that," said Wilson, a graphic designer who had been pre-approved for a $120,000 mortgage loan. Nor did she want to buy a home in disrepair, which seemed the only other option for her in that neighborhood.
In downtown, the Trolley Plaza apartment complex was bought by new owners, who upgraded the facility, changed the name to Washington Square Apartments and increased the rent 20 percent or more.
"It went from diverse to mainly young and white," said Jack Sexton, a former resident. "That's too bad because a lot of people wanted to stay but they couldn't afford it."
Leaving aside the irony of a suburbanite complaining that she's been displaced from the loft market, what's the takeaway here? That, on some micro-level, Detroit’s downtown real estate is being treated as downtown real estate? The horror! Market-rate real estate is worse than Hitler!
Let’s not forget that life at Trolley Plaza’s before “gentrification” was hardly idyllic. One resident was killed in a tragic elevator accident. Poorly maintained buildings at bargain prices aren’t exactly the same thing as social justice.
What’s more, long-time Trolley Plaza resident Andy Olesko disputes the claim that the building is lily-white. Olesko says the rent increases followed significant and necessary upgrades to the Washington Blvd. high rise. While he’s witnessed more professionals move into the building, he says the population remains diverse.
“There's been an influx of young whites for sure, but this place is still pretty diverse,” Olesko wrote on his website, Hot Fudge Detroit. “No one is confusing it for a J. Crew catalog model hostel. Unless you're trying to make a point for a story I guess.”
But, of course, the gentrification narrative in Detroit isn’t about displacement or quantifiable demographic change, it’s all about feelings.
 
Jan. 5, Detroit News: Two years ago, a group of young adults took over an abandoned house near North Corktown and attempted to make it into an art project. The problem is no one informed the neighbors, said Jeff DeBruyn, who runs the Manna Community Meal soup kitchen and the art/community project called Imagination Station.
"It mysteriously got put on fire twice," he said.
No one claimed responsibility for the fires. DeBruyn said he has talked to neighbors, many of whom felt threatened by a group of newcomers who made no attempt to engage with the residents.
So, the people working on an abandoned property is more threatening than the abandonment and decay itself?
More to the point, did old-time Corktowners torch the thing or not? I mean, if you’re going to infer this was a crime of xenophobia, lay out the evidence. There’s a big difference between someone who doesn’t like the kids down the street, and someone who torches their house.
Maybe to DeBruyn it feels like this property was torched because neighbors were afraid of change, and maybe Sexton feels Trolley Plaza’s owners wish to make the building your new Birmingham, and maybe Southgate graphic designer Amber Wilson feels like she should get a place in the Grinnell Lofts for $80 grand, and maybe some people feel like Barack Obama is Malcolm X’s love child, but one's feelings can't will something into reality.
Feelings don't count. Sorry if that sounds mean, but life isn’t a kindergarten. What one feels, no matter how deeply they feel it, is irrelevant unless it can be backed up with arguments rooted in logic, reason, and facts.
abe supercro
Well-Known Member
they did catch the guy behind the Detroit River "floaters". the phycho posed as being homeless to gain the sympathy of naive couple, so they allow him to move in. end if story. at least killa is in custody.
gladstoned
Well-Known Member
Crazy ex's. That's usually the case too, isn't it?
abe supercro
Well-Known Member
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hartman
This guy was talented, but his wife's substance abuse and likely mental illness caused Phil to be sleeping in the wrong place, wrong time. Avoid the perfect storm.
This guy was talented, but his wife's substance abuse and likely mental illness caused Phil to be sleeping in the wrong place, wrong time. Avoid the perfect storm.
abe supercro
Well-Known Member
Home Metro Wayne County
JULY 14, 2012 AT 9:47 AM
State to target blighted Detroit neighborhoods
BY KAREN BOUFFARD DETROIT NEWS LANSING BUREAU 15 COMMENTS
Lansing— The state's plan to help Detroit demolish houses, cut crime and send social workers into at least three schools could be a template for efforts in other struggling cities, officials said Friday.
Gov. Rick Snyder's office said it is about to roll out a plan to send a SWAT team of police, bulldozers and officials from the Department of Human Services this fall to clean up east side city neighborhoods rife with crime. The effort's goal is to make routes safer for children walking to school.
The areas around two middle schools — Ronald Brown and J.E. Clark preparatory academies — and a high school, East English Village Preparatory Academy, will be the focus, said O'Dell Tate, president of the MorningSide neighborhood association, a community partner in the project.
The three schools are in or adjacent to the MorningSide neighborhood, which is bordered by East Outer Drive, Alter Road, Harper and Mack avenues.
DHS director Maura Corrigan said Friday as many as six Detroit schools could become pilot projects this fall. If proven effective, the effort will be expanded to Flint, Pontiac and Saginaw — the other Michigan cities among the nation's Top 10 for violent crime, according to the governor's office.
Snyder has made helping those four cities fight crime a priority, singling them out in a special address he gave in March on public safety.
"The goal is targeted and focused use of demolition dollars in neighborhoods that are identified for revitalization so that taxpayer dollars can be used in the most effective way," Corrigan said.
"Our goal is to take what we learn from these efforts and spread it around to other Michigan cities."
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, in a statement Friday, said the plan "reinforces my position that tangible assistance from the state is critical to our efforts to transform Detroit."
Bing said Snyder plans to use money from the National Mortgage Settlement Fund to pay for the demolitions.
Last month, Bing said the city planned to tear down 1,500 dangerous and abandoned structures by the end of September. The 90-day campaign is part of a goal to demolish 10,000 vacant structures by the end of his four-year term in December 2013.
Corrigan said putting social workers into the schools will make it easier for families to get vital services.
"(Snyder's) goal is all 135 elementary schools in the four core cities," she said.
Details of the plans were reported Friday by Deadline Detroit, an online news publication.
State and local agencies have been working for months to identify rotting structures to be torn down, Corrigan said. Detroit firefighters with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers have spent hundreds of volunteer hours snapping pictures of vacant buildings near the schools.
It's unclear how much the plan for Detroit will cost.
Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said extra police and bulldozers will be brought in to clean up crime and raze abandoned houses.
"This ties into what the Gov. Snyder has been talking about for some time and is one of the ways the state can help support the city, Wurfel said in an email to The News.
It "builds upon the state's commitment to help address blight as outlined in the financial stability agreement between the city and state," she added.
Tate said the plan would be rolled out Aug. 2 at Clark Preparatory Academy.
"The governor's office, the mayor's office, the sheriff's office and many other departments are all involved and on board," Tate said. "This is going to be a phenomenal project."
Roy Roberts, Detroit schools' emergency financial manager, confirmed the district has been working on a plan with the governor's office and other agencies.
The plan "is centered around making the school the hub of the community," Roberts said in a statement Friday.
The plan addresses "factors that impact the academic potential of the students in those environments: Health, safety, secure routes, stable housing, community and volunteer support," he added.
kbouffard@detnews.com
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120714/METRO01/207140342
Police searching for gunmen who shot 3 on Detroit’s west side
Police are on the lookout for three men who shot and wounded three other men on the city’s west side last night.
JULY 14, 2012 AT 9:47 AM
State to target blighted Detroit neighborhoods
BY KAREN BOUFFARD DETROIT NEWS LANSING BUREAU 15 COMMENTS
Lansing— The state's plan to help Detroit demolish houses, cut crime and send social workers into at least three schools could be a template for efforts in other struggling cities, officials said Friday.
Gov. Rick Snyder's office said it is about to roll out a plan to send a SWAT team of police, bulldozers and officials from the Department of Human Services this fall to clean up east side city neighborhoods rife with crime. The effort's goal is to make routes safer for children walking to school.
The areas around two middle schools — Ronald Brown and J.E. Clark preparatory academies — and a high school, East English Village Preparatory Academy, will be the focus, said O'Dell Tate, president of the MorningSide neighborhood association, a community partner in the project.
The three schools are in or adjacent to the MorningSide neighborhood, which is bordered by East Outer Drive, Alter Road, Harper and Mack avenues.
DHS director Maura Corrigan said Friday as many as six Detroit schools could become pilot projects this fall. If proven effective, the effort will be expanded to Flint, Pontiac and Saginaw — the other Michigan cities among the nation's Top 10 for violent crime, according to the governor's office.
Snyder has made helping those four cities fight crime a priority, singling them out in a special address he gave in March on public safety.
"The goal is targeted and focused use of demolition dollars in neighborhoods that are identified for revitalization so that taxpayer dollars can be used in the most effective way," Corrigan said.
"Our goal is to take what we learn from these efforts and spread it around to other Michigan cities."
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, in a statement Friday, said the plan "reinforces my position that tangible assistance from the state is critical to our efforts to transform Detroit."
Bing said Snyder plans to use money from the National Mortgage Settlement Fund to pay for the demolitions.
Last month, Bing said the city planned to tear down 1,500 dangerous and abandoned structures by the end of September. The 90-day campaign is part of a goal to demolish 10,000 vacant structures by the end of his four-year term in December 2013.
Corrigan said putting social workers into the schools will make it easier for families to get vital services.
"(Snyder's) goal is all 135 elementary schools in the four core cities," she said.
Details of the plans were reported Friday by Deadline Detroit, an online news publication.
State and local agencies have been working for months to identify rotting structures to be torn down, Corrigan said. Detroit firefighters with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers have spent hundreds of volunteer hours snapping pictures of vacant buildings near the schools.
It's unclear how much the plan for Detroit will cost.
Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said extra police and bulldozers will be brought in to clean up crime and raze abandoned houses.
"This ties into what the Gov. Snyder has been talking about for some time and is one of the ways the state can help support the city, Wurfel said in an email to The News.
It "builds upon the state's commitment to help address blight as outlined in the financial stability agreement between the city and state," she added.
Tate said the plan would be rolled out Aug. 2 at Clark Preparatory Academy.
"The governor's office, the mayor's office, the sheriff's office and many other departments are all involved and on board," Tate said. "This is going to be a phenomenal project."
Roy Roberts, Detroit schools' emergency financial manager, confirmed the district has been working on a plan with the governor's office and other agencies.
The plan "is centered around making the school the hub of the community," Roberts said in a statement Friday.
The plan addresses "factors that impact the academic potential of the students in those environments: Health, safety, secure routes, stable housing, community and volunteer support," he added.
kbouffard@detnews.com
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120714/METRO01/207140342
Police searching for gunmen who shot 3 on Detroit’s west side
Police are on the lookout for three men who shot and wounded three other men on the city’s west side last night.
abe supercro
Well-Known Member
[video=youtube;Ly2xMmJ5uHs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly2xMmJ5uHs[/video]
alley.walker
Active Member
There is a reason that truckers would rather not stop in the gateway..... There is another reason they have neck tearing pitbulls and bulldogs in the cab.
Corso312
Well-Known Member
Don't get me wrong..I am not some cold hearted prick..But I think anyone who would bring a homeless stranger into their home to live needs their head examined..a recipe for disaster.
gladstoned
Well-Known Member
I thought it was her exboyfriend.
Huel Perkins
Well-Known Member
It was....
abe supercro
Well-Known Member
"Known" house guest was ex., they let him stay which would have to be an edgy circumstance. Psychos' last name was Bowling. Do you think, for one split-second, that he considered during the dismemberments how their heads resembled bowling balls? Also lose the hands and feet, then toss what's left and circular saw in the river. Freaky D.
gladstoned
Well-Known Member
http://www.freep.com/article/20120802/NEWS01/120802090/Vacant-Detroit-becomes-dumping-ground-dead?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
This answers the question of my thread. I backed out of buying a really nice crack house. http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2221-Marlborough-St_Detroit_MI_48215_M49777-48054?ex=MI541617493&source=web.(I have worked that price down to the $2,500!) I know this area of the east side. This is a good neighborhood. Anyone interested should drive around this neighborhood. Having my 2 year old nephew and the whole murder capital thing, kinda clashes right now.
I went and signed back up at the local community college for some more thinking. I will do that and grow some meds till the snow comes and goes again. Maybe one of these packs of seeds will put me on the other side of Alter this time next year and I'll be going to Wayne State.
This answers the question of my thread. I backed out of buying a really nice crack house. http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2221-Marlborough-St_Detroit_MI_48215_M49777-48054?ex=MI541617493&source=web.(I have worked that price down to the $2,500!) I know this area of the east side. This is a good neighborhood. Anyone interested should drive around this neighborhood. Having my 2 year old nephew and the whole murder capital thing, kinda clashes right now.
I went and signed back up at the local community college for some more thinking. I will do that and grow some meds till the snow comes and goes again. Maybe one of these packs of seeds will put me on the other side of Alter this time next year and I'll be going to Wayne State.
no carrier
Well-Known Member
If you're planning on going to Wayne State look in the Woodbridge area. Fantastic area, large houses, mostly all wayne state university students.
kingzt
Well-Known Member
Hey keep looking there are so many houses down there, I in the same boat looking for a house or renting a place to grow now. Detroit would be ideal since the low cost in the house market but being safe is my number one priority. A couple months a go my buddies caregiver got shot and robbed on the eastside. Some shady people were watching him for a couple days and made their move one night. He gave them his money he had on him and then they shot him in his leg and ran up in the house. They couldnt get much thank god the neighbor seen came out with a shotty and scared them off.
gladstoned
Well-Known Member
http://www.freep.com/comments/article/20120809/NEWS01/120809016/grandfather-vietnam-war-veteran-shot-trying-to-protect-grandchildren
Boy did reading this piss me off!!
Boy did reading this piss me off!!
username474
Active Member
I was sickend by this story yesterday. At least they are all going to get caught. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120810/METRO01/208100380/1409/metro/War-vet-killed-trying-protect-his-granddaughter I thaught yesterday that it may have been random enough that they would get away with it.
gladstoned
Well-Known Member
I read from the beginning that it was neighborhood kids that they knew. Stupid motherfuckers stole the cable box!?