nettlebed

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi...graphy-detroit

I found the photographs of the libraries and schoolrooms particularly poignant...

It seem amazing to me that these places just get deserted...

Mummy in the foothills

They are tragic, it looks like a whole civilization just got up and walk away leaving things lying there. Amazing and sad.

nettlebed

Indeed. It puts me strongly in mind of ancient places that I have seen in Egypt and the Sudan.

NatashaB

Really interesting - i obviously knew Detroit had declined somewhat but had no idea of the level of wealth that used to be here.

Leslie

I can't believe that some of that stuff hasn't been salvaged and used in new builds.

Sally Redux

Or Planet of the Apes.

amazing photos.

nettlebed

I was surprised at some of the grandeur too. I suppose it shows the vulnerabilities of being an economic monoculture. Back in the heyday of the US love affair with the automobile, with gas at 10c a gallon, and the rest of the economy meaning that many people could buy a new car each year, it must have seemed like it was never going to stop.

meauxna

Wow.

Zoe Bell

I don't think I've seen anything more heartbreaking and symbolic than the abandoned library

MarylandNed

Yeah - I saw that article when it was first published. There are abandoned buildings in every city but Detroit is by far the worst case in North America (at least among major cities).

I've driven through Detroit a couple of times - once to see an England/Germany football match in Pontiac and once to go to a job interview in Auburn Hills (both suburbs just north of Detroit). At the job interview, I asked if anyone ever went into the city and they looked at me as if I had just grown horns! Eventually someone said they'd once gone to a baseball game downtown and someone else had friends who went to a Greek restaurant downtown. "White flight" to Pontiac, Auburn Hills and other suburbs has destroyed Detroit's inner core.

I know people from in and around Windsor, Ontario who travel over to see the NHL's Detroit Red Wings play ice hockey at Joe Louis Arena. Whenever I visited Windsor and looked over the river to Detroit, the downtown core looked deserted even at 5pm on a week day.

Scots_Boy

There is a fantastic documentary about the history and decline of Detroit called Requiem For Detroit (directed by Julien Temple), I've just moved to Michigan so its especially relevant to me but I'd recommend it to anyone, I saw it on BBC 2 but it was also on Youtube a while ago.

Its an amazing illustration of how the American dream can go wrong and shows some very interesting facts about the way people and modern society behave, its not all bad news though, there is some good stuff about individuals and small groups trying to improve things. It provoked a quite lot of discussion in the British media when it was shown early last summer.

cluedweasel

I'll second this. I saw it last year. Very powerful, but with a lot of positivity at the end.

scrubbedexpat099

An interesting example of what happens when your force out your tax base.

I saw something on US TV, that was about how they were clearing whole blocks to do urban farming and give some value to the properties remaining.

ian-mstm

This whole thread makes me sad. I did my undergraduate work at the University of Windsor, right under the Ambassador Bridge, and then continued to live and work in Windsor after I graduated. I was there for 10 years from 1973-1983. I still have good friends there whom I visit every chance I get.

Back in the day, Detroit was a thriving place... one of the most exciting cities I had ever visited - and I grew up in Toronto so that's saying something! Sure the Detroit River was filthy at the time, but that eventually cleared up due to the invasion of Zebra Mussels (although that's a whole different issue). My friends and I were in Detroit 2 or 3 times each week - going to concerts at Cobo Hall and the Ford Center, shopping, sightseeing, hockey at the Joe Louis Arena, baseball at Tiger Stadium... the list goes on. When the RenCen was finished in 1977 it was one of the most impressive sights (still is, actually) I had ever seen.

While the "Big 3" no longer have as strong a presence there as they used to, there is money coming back into the city... from casinos that were built in the last 10 or so years. It's taking time, but I feel confident that in the next 10-15 years, Detroit will have transformed itself.

Ian

scrubbedexpat099

We nearly moved there, my Dad worked for Ford's.

I can only go from what I have read and what people from there have told me. Seems difficult to see the City coming back, from what I have been told not somewhere you would want to invest your money, a very low tax base and there is only so much they will get from the Fed's.

We have gaming towns, rather than cities. I am told there numbers are way down, even those with a disposition realise that the slots is probably not a good thing when money is tight.

What would be the big plus for investing in Detroit?