A look at lovely Detroit

[Samilcar]

Originally Posted By: 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.


No. Estimates of net energy return range from a low of 6% to a high of 67%, with 30% being a commonly agreed on figure. The only way to find a negative energy return for corn based ethanol is to assume that one of the end products (distillers grain) is simply thrown away instead of being turned into livestock feed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance

 

[ThirdeYe]

One more thing I'd like to add, it's a shame that all of that beautiful architecture is going to waste. I'm glad to hear that the Book-Cadillac was finally restored and re-opened. I would love to see something happen to the Michigan Central Railroad building and many of the other abandoned works of art there.

 

[CMB]

As a Michigander I can tell you that the race riots and white flight put the city on a downward spiral. Everyone who could afford to get out did. Those who couldn't stayed and as time passed, the city continued to decay. IMO Detroit will never be a nice place to live. The suburbs however are very nice.

 

[dhise]

I still have the shotgun my dad bought during the '67 riots.

Sometimes I like to get up early on Sunday mornings and take a drive through Detroit and check out areas I haven't been to before. There are still few pockets of nice areas usually restricted to a few city blocks, then back to the ghetto. The historical district is pretty nice, but then the city really kills the residents with crazy high property taxes in those areas.

 

[Kestas]

It also doesn't help that you have to pay 3% income tax if you live and work in Detroit... 1.5% if you work in Detroit and live elsewhere. No such tax in the suburbs, except Highland Park, which is an island city in Detroit.

 

[cousincletus]

Very sad. In the mid-1980s, I left the Pittsburgh area because there was no chance of getting a decent job due to the steel industry collapse. Free trade is great, isn't it?

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: CMB
As a Michigander I can tell you that the race riots and white flight put the city on a downward spiral. Everyone who could afford to get out did. Those who couldn't stayed and as time passed, the city continued to decay. IMO Detroit will never be a nice place to live. The suburbs however are very nice.


You can probably echo this exact sentiment anywhere in the Rust Belt: After WWII, the cities were crowded, so the affluent fled to the 'burbs, so the gov't built freeways, so more people fled, which eroded the inner city tax base, which degraded services, so more people left; repeat.

Now, urban sprawl is beginning to become a major problem.

 

[Gary Allan]

Demolish ..landscape... turn it into some place that resembles where everyone split to.

 

[Mr Nice]

Quote:
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.


Lets not forget the fact that they were born here in the USA, land of opportunity if you are willing to get off your butt and do someting with your life. Just cause some people don't have an education (high school or college) doesn't mean that they will live the rest of their life in some nasty ghetto.

 

[jsharp]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/33474587

Detroit House Auction Flops as Buyers Spurn Urban Wasteland
Published: Monday, 26 Oct 2009 | 2:19 AM ET

By: Reuters

In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.

After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book as thick as a city phone directory, the energy of the county auctioneer began to flag.

"OK," he said. "We only have 300 more pages to go."

 

[Gary Allan]

There's always the Nero method of urban renewal. Mayor Wilson Good used it in one part of Philadelphia.

 

[AcuraTech]

Not much left of Detroit proper. Population has been shrinking since the 50's. Many areas of the city are now urban prairie. It's almost surreal. Lot's of the skyscrapers downtown are actually empty. There was a brief renaissance a few years ago, but since the economy crashed it's back to business as usual. It doesn't help that what few auto workers (blue and white collar) remain continue to get laid off.

Detroit is a survey of what happens when an urban area puts all of its eggs into one basket, and then the eggs crack and rot away. The city may recover someday, but probably not in our lifetimes.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Quote:
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.


Lets not forget the fact that they were born here in the USA, land of opportunity if you are willing to get off your butt and do someting with your life. Just cause some people don't have an education (high school or college) doesn't mean that they will live the rest of their life in some nasty ghetto.
Good point. I know a guy who escaped from Romania in the late 80s to come here and live free.

 

[Mr Nice]

My dad is Hungarian and came here in 1954 without a pot to [censored] in and no money.
My mom is from Panama and came here in 1958 without a pot to [censored] in and no money.
If I saw either of them begging for money, I would tell them to get a job !!!!!!!!

NO excuses for being an adult here in the USA and go through life on some Gov support cause you are too lazy to get a job.

 

[greenaccord02]

+1 and if you can't get somebody to hire you, it might be time to start your own business.

 

[PandaBear]

IMO it is an education and influence thing. People in 3rd world knows what to do and what it takes, but didn't have the opportunity. When they migrate to a better country they have hope, that's very important.

Kids grew up in a depressing neighborhood with bad influence (poor parenting, drugs, alcohol, child abusing family, etc) tends to have a very negative outlook of life, and that IMO is the biggest problem.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Video is 10 minutes long. Enjoy.



This area of Detroit should look in the Chicago phone book and see if there are any descendants of the O'learys from 1871 and ask them if they have any cows. If they do, they need to bring one over. (Okay, I know the part of a cow starting the Chicago fire is fictional)
Seriously, Detroit had some of the highest paid blue collar workers in the world and it turned to this. That's terrible.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
It also doesn't help that you have to pay 3% income tax if you live and work in Detroit... 1.5% if you work in Detroit and live elsewhere. No such tax in the suburbs, except Highland Park, which is an island city in Detroit.


Yep, my dad has to pay that...it would be nice if they actually dig something with it.


I know this really sounds bad, but the best thing to happen to this city is if a major fire burned it down.....

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
+1 and if you can't get somebody to hire you, it might be time to start your own business.


Or join and armed service branch....I think this along would help people...

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: 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.



I can agree.

Free land and no taxes for a few years would be a good start for the builders.


Then add some new houses with people who care, and maybe something will happen...