What killed Detroit?

[aoakley]

No one has "killed detroit" it is still very much alive. There are abundant buildings to scrap, endless drugs to buy and sell right out in the street openly, lots of cars to steal, anything goes. You name it, do it here. So to say detroit is dead is patently untrue. Nurture, embrace and love it. Look out, this baby bites.

[Retroit]

^

Sounds like Detroit needs to be killed.

[hybridy]

um, the automobile killed detroit-duh

[reddog289]

I for one would agree and hate to say it but the Auto did have a great deal in the demise of this city.I come from a large family that has their roots in the city.But most of them left before the riots and before CAY. I had a simular disscussion with a cousin about this subject a long time ago.I said race relations made people leave Detroit. My fathers side was from Kentucky/West Virgina they were the first to go leaving my Grandma till 1979 when a man was caught in her bushes and that was that.But as my mothers side lasted in the city till 1987 there was a shadow coming over the city as well as the burbs. I will say it as anyone can figure out,If you have your workers moving to the burbs cause their job is there, they aint gonna miss the city with its crime and such. And if they were white and didn't like blacks Hell that would be a Godsend to them.
I will say this Colman did not help things IMO it was always the City VS the burbs.
I myself am only 40, yet I do remember chain grocery stores in the city as well as other stores, thriving churches and other things. AND WITH THAT my memories are only 35 yrs old to say the least.And for the most part Whites and Blacks lived amougst one another.Sad to say it when my Grandparents left 20 yrs ago I thought while they might be closer to where I live I will miss the old neighborhood.2o yrs later I have those same thoughts.

[royce]

The decline of Detroit is multi-fold. Coleman Young is far from being the "killer" of Detroit. On the contrary, I think one of Young's crowning achievements was balancing the police force racially. Given the hostility that Young and other blacks experienced by a predominantly white police force over several decades, Young's initiative to bring more blacks into the police force and promote more black officers was his way to quell the hostility between blacks and the mostly white DPD, especially following the riots.

However, when Young promoted black officers whose scores on police exams were lower than white officers, in order to balance command ranks, he created a backlash from not only white officers but white citizens who saw Young's "affirmative action" as "reverse discrimination." For many whites, if Young, a black mayor, was doing this to white police officers, then it was only a matter of time before he would start taking jobs away from them in other city departments. Having blacks in positions of power made many white Detroiters nervous and so many decided to leave the city.

In conclusion, I just want to say that many leaders from Detroit's past, as well as Michigan's past, have made poor decisions regarding the "best laid plans" for Detroit." Truly the blame game covers thousands.

[Danny]

What Killed Detroit?
1. Political reformation of the late 1800s. The People of Detroit are sick and tired of corporate and political greed coming from its city council and its district wards. So Mayor Hazen S. Pingree had to clean all of their mess.

2. District wards corruption due to politicians buying votes from its supporters. The Ward system was eliminated and City Council by Detroit voters was established.

3. Segregation: When an influx of Blacks came to Detroit via Great Black Migration, they wanted to find work and homes. But the white folks don’t want any blacks to live in their areas. Therefore Black folks were confined in Black Bottom, Paradise Valley, Soul Town at Tireman Ave. and Beechwood St, and W. 8 Mile Rd. near the Royal Oak TWP. border.

4. The Demarcation Wall: When developers build new Detroit sub-divisions of Green Acres, Sherwood Forest and Palmer Woods, the developers build a 5 ft concrete wall separating the black community from the white community.

5. Suburban Development in the 1950s: When the Levittownesque cookie cutter sub-divisions were being developed. White folks, mostly from Detroit, started to move over to those areas causing the population to decline.

6. Freeway Development: When Urban freeways were being developed it allow more whites from Detroit to move quickly to the suburbs The term “White Flight” begins.

7. New Malls: When Northland Mall and other Malls were being developed. People of Detroit headed out to those places instead of shopping in their own mom and pop stores in their Detroit neighborhoods. The Result: most mom and pop retail strips in some Detroit areas were disappearing within 10 to 40 years.

7. The Automobile and Manufacturing best land offers: According to Wayne State University History of Michigan Professor Hyde, He contended that when the suburbs offered land space to Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and others dirt cheap, they started to build their factories out there. The Result: Warren, Sterling Heights, Livonia has GM and Chrysler had their plants; Wixom and Willow Run in Van Buren has Ford while Detroit started to lost its manufacturing base. This is due to higher city taxes in the 1950s the cheaper taxes in the suburbs.

8. The Demolition of Black Ghettos: When the White controlled Detroit City Council wanted to demolished all of Paradise Valley and build the Chrysler FWY, Blacks relocated themselves other mostly white Detroit neighborhoods.

9. The Jewish/Black Exodus: After Paradise Valley became “Paradise Lost!” the relocated blacks followed mostly the Jews to other Detroit neighborhoods from West of Woodward to the borders of Northwest Detroit and Later to Oak Park, Southfield, Lathrup Village, the Northern parts of Farmington Hills and parts of West Bloomfield and Bloomfield TWP. JJaba contended that a organized Jewish community will moved to another community every twenty five years. The Ghettoman contended that as long as the Jews have a local synagogue to walk to in order to observe their weekend fast of Shabbot, The Jews will remain in their community.

10. Detroit Real Estate Urban Steering: In the 1960s to make more profits to lure whites to the suburbs, real estate agents hired black kids to ride their bikes into mostly white neighborhoods, making them to sell their houses right away.

11. The Curse of 1967: When the 1967 riot started from a “Blind Pig” raid at a corner bar located to 12th St. and Clairmont Street, hundreds of rioters loot and burned down thousands of homes and businesses. The Hardest Hit. Along 12th Street North of W. Grand Blvd, Dexter Ave, along the northern sector of Grand River Ave. towards 6 Mile Rd. at the Old Redford Area, E Jefferson Ave. to Alter Rd. and Mack Rd. near the Grosse Pointe Woods border near the Morningside and East English Village area. And parts of Mack Ave. from E. Grand Blvd. to Conner Rd. The Result more whites leaving Detroit in accelerated numbers.

12. STRESS: When Mayor Roman Gribbs developed an undercover Detroit Police tactic all Stop The Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets in the 1970s, lots of Detroiters were in pat downs from Detroit Police Officers disguised as ordinary citizens.

13. The Young Years: When Coleman A. Young became Detroit’s first Black mayor in 1973, He Told all the crooks and thieves to“ Hit 8 Mile Road!” He cancelled STRESS, start programs to have low-income residents buy or rent Detroit homes and businesses, started Mini Beats, cut Detroit Police Depts. He tried to lure black entrepreneurs to Downtown Detroit but that didn’t work, Engage in the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979, Assist with the Dodge Main Plant that cause from all of Poletown to be town demolished. After he left the city Detroit was in worse shape and Downtown Detroit become an instant ghost town.

14. The OG era: The various Detroit Gangs like the Young Boys Inc, The Coney Onlies and Black Killers ruled the Ghettos of Detroit, everyone feared them for they would kill anyone who steps in the way.

15. Detroit became office majority black city after 1975.

16. The Mangoonian Party era: By the 21st Century years after Kwame Kilpatrick was elected Mayor of Detroit, He mostly partied rather than doing city business. He started an alleged stripper party at the Manoogian Mansion that resulted of several conflicts from his wife Carlita, who called the police chiefly Gerry Brown and his deputy. Kwame fired them for what he claimed that they broke his chain of command. Kwame hires his friend Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Cox to investigate the party. After the investigation he ruled it was “ urban legend” and no charges had been made. Former Detroit Police Chief Brown and hid former deputy filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Mayor Kwame. The case want bizarre when Brown’s attorneys asked Kwame and Christine Beatty that did they have an alleged relationship. Each of them said no. By January of 2008 The Detroit Free Press released an article claiming that Kwame did have a relationship with Beatty through text messages. The whole City of Detroit and suburbs were shocked. Kwame apologizes on local T.V. from his church, but some people don’t buy it. Later Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy charge Kwame and Beatty with perjury and obstruction of justice, Later both of them got a plea deal get some jail time and pay $1,000,000 in restitution. Kwame’s plea deal calls from resignation as Mayor of Detroit and no to run for re-election for any political office until 2013. He accepts the plea deal. Beatty plea deal calls for some jail time and restitution not to engage in city business. She accepts.

So what Killed Detroit? All of Us!

[izzyindetroit]

Danny,

That is the most comprehensive summary of Detroit's exodus I have ever seen.

Thank you.

[DetroitPlanner]

Q: What killed Detroit?

A: The decline in manufacturing due to the export of factories from Detroit and the Free Trade importation of foreign products.

Everything that Frum mentioned is merely a side effect of this.

Finally! Amen brother! I'd also like to add the fact that we are a one industry town that never realized that it should not have all its eggs in one basket. This does not mean we should abandon manufactuing technology, but we need to have things other than that. Our house of cards has toppled.

[firstandten]

After "67" and going into the 70's the influx of drugs coming into the city was terrible. Of course this destablized the black community. One example was that there use to be many black owned party stores and other types of shops. With the increase in crime which always comes with drugs many store owners were robbed and a few were murdered in their stores. Some tried to counteract it by putting up the bulletproof glass we see in just about every store today. But since about this time the Chaldean community was beginning to assert itself economically, many blacks sold there stores to them many time for cash. And if the black store owner had a liquor license he got a premium price for it. Today you see very few black party store/grocery story owners in the city.

[psbpm]

After "67" and going into the 70's the influx of drugs coming into the city was terrible. Of course this destablized the black community. One example was that there use to be many black owned party stores and other types of shops. With the increase in crime which always comes with drugs many store owners were robbed and a few were murdered in their stores. Some tried to counteract it by putting up the bulletproof glass we see in just about every store today. But since about this time the Chaldean community was beginning to assert itself economically, many blacks sold there stores to them many time for cash. And if the black store owner had a liquor license he got a premium price for it. Today you see very few black party store/grocery story owners in the city.

The Chaldean "mafia" had taken over the party stores, supermarkets, coneys, gas stations and now more recently dollar stores, soul food joints catering to the 'hood, in which they'll never eat what they sell to customers. And if you saw a black owned establishment in these recent years, you don't see it anymore. Black business owners were muscled out by these folk who for years have kept a very low profile. I was told by a few black party store owners I had gotten to know on a first name basis as one would normally do, that they were given ultimatums by who they wouldnt say, out of fear it seemed. Guess who was in the location not much longer after it closed?
These people hate black folks, I've heard 'em say it out loud but yet they make the money off of the people they hate. Not all come across as like that but most do.

[Danny]

That's right psbpm,

The Chaldeans do run the ghetto marts in Detroit ghettohoods sometimes selling out of date products to black folks and gyp them out of their change; stablizing the black communities into a point of no return and no hope.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

There's smart and there's G-Mart smart.

In Memoriam: Neda Soltani

[JVLIVS]

I wish I would've caught on to this thread a little sooner. I blogged about something similar and hopefully not off-topic.

http://jvlivs.blogspot.com/2009/07/will-detroit-rise-again-in-this.html