A look at lovely Detroit

[crinkles]

Originally Posted By: mpvue
this is what I've been thinking of lately; they need to allow/encourage obsolete cities to return to their natural state. think about it, why did cities sprout/grow where they are? access to rivers for transportation or natural resorces. now that those things aren't applicable anymore, there should be a concerted effort to 'shut down' Detroit. instead of trying to fix the schools or job training, those people should be relocated to where the jobs are. recycle what you can, implode the rest, and let nature take over.
maybe a crazy, impossible to implement idea, but other cultures throughout history have relocated entire populations. China STILL does it.


they should make a study of what will happen if humans disappear, how nature takes over the city. will be the most interesting experiment i can imagine. fence it off and leave it.

this has happended with chernobyl but you can't really go visit it much. apparently, wild animals have taken over.

 

[msparks]

Wow, very eye opening. Would suck to grow up in that.

 

[bretfraz]

Great video, I enjoyed it. The music added some bleak tension, nice effect.

That area looks like a fantastic location for a post-apocalyptic movie. Get Christian Bale or Jude Law to star in it.

When the world ran out of oil, everyone turned on each other over night. We sent soldiers to protect what was left of the precious juice, ignoring the battle that was going on here in our own cities.

After years of fighting, U.S. Army Ranger Sgt. Brock Landers is finally sent home. What he comes back to is worse than the place he left. Burned out neighborhoods, abandoned cars, his home town in ruins. He thought the war was over, but it's really just begun.....

I'm sure film crews are all over the place shooting the scenery. It's a dreamscape for an artist.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: crinkles


this has happended with chernobyl but you can't really go visit it much. apparently, wild animals have taken over.


I'd love to go visit the Chernobyl area.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
Who's fault is it that area looks like a war zone ?


Probably 1-2% of the people that live in a given DMZ or live combat zone. You can't really expect the remaining 98% that have to share that same DMZ/LCZ turf to be all that civic minded. I'm sure they already have their hands full in one form or another.

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: bigmike
Man, I grew up in a ghetto. I know all about neighbors doing drug deals, shootouts, never going anywhere without a gun, wondering if someone is going to do a driveby, etc. I still went to college and got 2 degrees, work 2 jobs, and own 2 decent vehicles and a house. I don't listen when people tell me they can't get out. These people are the same - they need to better themselves because nobody else is going to do it for them.


+1 I left a broken home at 16 to work as a steel mill laborer 3rd shift and then learned a trade (masonry). Worked 60 hours a week (2 jobs)and attended college at night. I got 3 degrees. Moved on to a professional career. Now I own my own business have 2 homes, kids in private schools & colleges., boat, Harley and my wife drives a Lexus. All my friends are still back in the old hood...stupid & lazy. They tell me I am just "lucky".

 

[PT1]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: crinkles


this has happended with chernobyl but you can't really go visit it much. apparently, wild animals have taken over.


I'd love to go visit the Chernobyl area.


yeah, but Chernobyl was caused by 2 scientists playing with the reactor. They were simulating what would happen if the core of the reactor over heated and the emergency cooling pumps failed. Then the pumps really did fail

and the resulting heat created a hydrogen bubble inside the dome and blew the top off. Detroit has been in decline for decades. Something to do with the city management style I am told.

 

[jcwit]

My respect for you PT1 has just gone up 1000%. To bad your friends couldn't see your work ethic.

 

[doitmyself]

The rags to riches stories move me.

Been there, done that, along with billions of others. The movie rights have already been sold for that story (Rudy, Rudy, Rudy). I think I stopped telling mine one year after putting myself through college without mommy and daddy to help me.......however, I still have to walk to and from work every day...and it's up hill both ways......through 3 feet of snow or mud......with one leg in a cast......and the other foot amputated....... Relax guys, just poking fun....

My hard earned career is a lifestye worth more than any possessions could ever provide. Peace.

On a lighter note, my wife and I saw Robin Williams tonight. Great show, great laughs. He looks great after his heart surgery. HE'LL BE IN DETROIT THIS WEEKEND TO ATTEMPT TO SAVE THE CITY!

 

[Loobed]

If you want to see a personal view of Detroit or any other city, go to google or Yahoo street maps and look at the street view. It's like driving around town from the safety of your home, plus you can drink beer. If there is an area where the camera truck didn't go, you know it is a bad neighborhood.

 

[javacontour]

Parts of East St. Louis look this way. However, on a smaller scale.

 

[TallPaul]

One of the problems with all the empty structures is that nobody wants to pay to have them demolished, and the City of Detroit doesn't have much money. You should see the shabby streetlights on the west side of downtown (and maybe all over town) that are so rusty they occasionally fall over. I saw one down that had 5 road signs on it one windy day. A coworker's car got clobbered by another one--that made the evening television news. City put tacky plastic covers over the bases of the posts presumably to hide the rust. About the only thing this city is good at is writing parking tickets.

 

[javacontour]

So why can't a city offer the property for free to those who would develop it?

They wouldn't have to develop it right away, but clearing it immediately in exchange for the rights to the land might make sense.

If the property is abandoned and owned by the city, then why not something like that.

It's little different than folks speculating on rural land.

Why not encourage environmental groups to go in there and strip out anything of value for recycling. Create green spaces? There are many of these groups who say the environment is important, so why not let them put their own time, talents and treasure into reclaiming these areas.

 

[Kestas]

A small part of Detroit's demise is the city's requirement that any house for sale must first be brought up to code before it can be sold. Naturally the intention was to provide people with a safe and decent home to live in. The unintended consequence was that some homes were so far gone and devalued that the owners decided it was cheaper to abandon their house. Meanwhile there are a whole class of people who could otherwise live in these substandard homes. No such requirement exists in the suburbs.

 

[bigmike]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Originally Posted By: bigmike
I don't listen when people tell me they can't get out. These people are the same - they need to better themselves because nobody else is going to do it for them.


Oh boy, now you opened a can of worms. I disagree. If they were the same, wouldn't they have chosen to have two degrees like you, instead of living in the slums?

I think that some people that have been raised one way their ENTIRE life don't know HOW to help themselves. If you threw 100 flatlanders into a lake, would they all learn to swim by instinct? No, many would drown.


How would you know?

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
A small part of Detroit's demise is the city's requirement that any house for sale must first be brought up to code before it can be sold. Naturally the intention was to provide people with a safe and decent home to live in. The unintended consequence was that some homes were so far gone and devalued that the owners decided it was cheaper to abandon their house. Meanwhile there are a whole class of people who could otherwise live in these substandard homes. No such requirement exists in the suburbs.


I had to bring my home up to code before I sold it. I had to fit GFIC outlets, put in a dedicated outlet for the garage door opener (extension cord not acceptable) and refit the toilets with Non-siphoning fill valves and larger house numbers on the house.

I think it was a list of about 9 or 10 items.

But then I didn't let my house run down. The code changed since I bought the house in 1996, so when I sold it in 2007, things changed.

So while I can see it as an unintended consequence, if the place is maintained in the first place, it's usually worth doing the work in order to sell it.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: bigmike
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Originally Posted By: bigmike
I don't listen when people tell me they can't get out. These people are the same - they need to better themselves because nobody else is going to do it for them.


Oh boy, now you opened a can of worms. I disagree. If they were the same, wouldn't they have chosen to have two degrees like you, instead of living in the slums?

I think that some people that have been raised one way their ENTIRE life don't know HOW to help themselves. If you threw 100 flatlanders into a lake, would they all learn to swim by instinct? No, many would drown.


How would you know?

the human survival instinct is pretty strong. I'd surmise that being thrown into a lake wouldn't drown all that many. now, being thrown into the ocean, well, you can only tread water for so long before you get too tired.
point is, people are capable of amazing things if they are forced to. but you have to have the willpower. I was reading something the other day about the hopelessness of the Detroit schools and how these kids had no opportunities. only after you read a few paragraphs did they admit the girl already had a kid at 16, and the boy dropped out. sorry, but I can't develop sympathy for those choices.
if you are young in Detroit w/ no hope, well, get a few bucks together and get on a bus to NYC or go south. just get out and do SOMETHING.

 

[wavinwayne]

mpvue: "if you are young in Detroit w/ no hope, well, get a few bucks together and get on a bus to NYC or go south. just get out and do SOMETHING."

I couldn't agree more. Sometimes the only way forward is to leave everything behind.

 

[addyguy]

In the 'Ethanol Debate', there is always the complaint that using corn for fuel takes it out of the food system, and drives up prices.

So why not take abandoned industrial areas like what is left of Detroit, level it, and turn it into a mass of cornfields for ethanol? The pollution won't into the 'food chain' b/c the stuff will be used to make fuel.

I know the volume won't replace a significant chunk of fuel requirements for the US, but it will help. Have thousands of acres of corn feilds, and a couple of large processing plants at the edge of them. The corn grown will provide a double bonus of slowly cleaning pollution out of the ground.

I think it's a great idea.

 

[PandaBear]

addyguy,

The problem with corn ethanol is that you need diesel and fertilizer to grow, and the amount you consume cost more than the amount of energy you get back, even when you consider not having to reduce food supply.