Detroit

[NovakOmaha]

I'll always be an Omahan but I'm enjoying Detroit.

Some have asked me about my comment about downtown Detroit and what's going on there.  I'll pass along some interesting things.  It's still rough but there is definitely a vibe.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller ... o-detroit/

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/04/04/ ... -building/

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroit/i ... mpani.html

http://www.compuware.com/about/headquarters-photos.html

http://www.hcwreview.com/blue-cross-blu ... n-detroit/


This one has a great pic of downtown.  
http://veryofficialblog.com/2010/05/10/ ... o-detroit/

[jessep28]

I think Detroit is going to be one of those Phoenix cities that rises up from the ashes. I really hope that bridge which will compete against the Ambassador bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario gets built.

[NovakOmaha]

I think Detroit is going to be one of those Phoenix cities that rises up from the ashes. I really hope that bridge which will compete against the Ambassador bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario gets built.

It'll happen.  I love the politics here.  Just so you know, Warren Buffett used to own the Ambassador.

[BRoss]

That's cool. I didn't realize Detroit was recovering so much. The last thing I had heard a while back was that they were tearing down parts of the city and returning it to farm land. Did that ever happen or did things like this stop that?

[NovakOmaha]

That's cool. I didn't realize Detroit was recovering so much. The last thing I had heard a while back was that they were tearing down parts of the city and returning it to farm land. Did that ever happen or did things like this stop that?

The thing is that there is downtown, midtown, greektown, brownstown, mexicantown, etc.  Then there is the rest of the city of detroit.  The city used to have over 2 million people.  Now its way less than a million, although the metro has 4-5 million.  White flight, suburban growth, etc.  whatever it was, people left the city.  The areas that they want to return to farming are outside the popular areas, obviously.  There is a school of thought that if they can shrink the city to accommodate the actual population there will not be as much of a drain on resources.  It will be hard to do and the city council isnt really up to the task right now.  The downtown/midtown area is enjoying many billions of dollars of investment and its paying off nicely.  Downtown has so much potential.  The companies I mentioned above have brought tens of thousands of jobs downtown.  Its a ripple effect.  You bring the jobs, the people shop downtown, eat downtown and finally move downtown.  Then there is demand for retail.  etc.

[jessep28]

I think Detroit is going to be one of those Phoenix cities that rises up from the ashes. I really hope that bridge which will compete against the Ambassador bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario gets built.

It'll happen.  I love the politics here.  Just so you know, Warren Buffett used to own the Ambassador.

According to this, Buffett didn't own the bridge outright, but just a 25% stake until the current owner bought him out.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller ... al-bridge/

[S33]

That's cool. I didn't realize Detroit was recovering so much. The last thing I had heard a while back was that they were tearing down parts of the city and returning it to farm land. Did that ever happen or did things like this stop that?

The rich and those with jobs might be recovering, but the poor are just as poor. Detroit is kind of a one-sided recovery, so to speak. But congrats to those who are doing better, I guess.

[NovakOmaha]

By the way, a few years ago the Lions had an open house at Ford Field, the indoor stadium where they play, on the first night of the draft.  It was a great time.  My son was maybe 6-7 at the time and I took him down.  They let the fans on the field, had a tour of the locker rooms and a chance to meet the mascot.  They also had the draft on the jumbotron.  I have pictures of my son sitting on the 50 yard line, with Ndamukong Suh  on the jumbotron over his shoulder, Suh on the phone with the Lions.  I also have a pic of my son IN a locker, and a video of him walking down the tunnel and out the inflatable Lion's mouth.  It was a great time.

It's a very cool stadium, right next door to Comerica Park, home of the Tigers.  The area around the stadium has tons of bars & restaurants and is close to a lot of great areas downtown, yet right off the interstate.  It has a ferris wheel, a carosel, lots of great food and its a wonderful place to watch football.  If the team would improve it would be even better.

Here is a link to the Lions web site:

http://www.detroitlions.com/ford-field/ ... story.html

[jessep28]

I wouldn't mind living in Detroit if it wasn't Michigan. I think I still have mosquito bites from the 6 years I spent in Saginaw (that area is a swamp).

[NovakOmaha]

I wouldn't mind living in Detroit if it wasn't Michigan. I think I still have mosquito bites from the 6 years I spent in Saginaw (that area is a swamp).

The thing I've found since we moved here in 2008 is that the weather in Detroit doesn't have the oppressive extremes that Omaha does.  I tell people here that Omaha weather is Detroit weather on steroids.  Way less heat & humidity in the summer and not as much of the wind chill and below zero weather in the winter.  At least in the Metro Detroit area.  Can't speak for the rest of the state.

I haven't walked out of my house here in the Summer and been slammed by 100 degree, oppressive humidity heat.

[iamjacobm]

A documentary called "Detropia" is playing at Film Streams right now.

[youtube][/youtube]

[jessep28]

Here's another one.

[youtube][/youtube]

[StreetsOfOmaha]

From the Detropia trailer: "This isn't just a Detroit problem... it's an American problem."

Man. That really says it.

I'll have to ckeck out that documentary.

Detroit is sooooooo far gone, like virtually any other American city that saw urbanization before the turn of the 20th Century... Only Detroit is reeeeealy gone. Sure, young creative types are having a heyday because it's a blank canvas, but that's never going to bring back Detroit. The city is not so much recovering as it is hitting rock bottom and leveling off. I suppose circumstantially this can be seen as a positive.

But the truth is (and this is the stuff I talk about all the time on here that nobody wants to hear about), what happened to Detroit (and the rest of America) is a regrettable, painful tragedy, the causes of which, though varied and complex, have everything to do with the character of America and the cultural peculiarities of its people.

What we don't understand in the US (because here cities like Detroit are "normal") is that creating and protecting enduring, life-enriching human living environments isn't supposed to be a battle.

---------

Here's an example from St. Louis, but it's the same in Detroit or anywhere else, just in varying degrees. If this doesn't make you weep for America, then, my friend, you don't have a soul.

This is 23rd Street on St. Louis' Near North Side. It used to be completely filled with gorgeous 19th Century brick rowhouses and commercial buildings---in other words, there used to be a real city here.

Now take a walk. It has more in common with a Nebraska cornfield than with anything resembling an urban city neighborhood.

http://goo.gl/maps/nIokV

That's the destructive power of American society. The power to make vast city neighborhoods literally vanish within a few decades. And again, it's the same all across this country. Don't take my word for it. Play around with Google streetview and see for yourself.

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P.S. Novak, take a look at that streetview link above, re-read the quote from Mumford in my signature, and tell me you still think he was crazy.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Since this is a Detroit thread, here is a Detroit example. Remember, this is in the middle of "urban" Detroit. I literally just looked at the map and dropped the little streetview man down in an area I knew should be urban.

Just look.

http://goo.gl/maps/VBKWM

[Garrett]

Sometimes its better to have an open field than it is to have a crime infested broken down ruin. Where the cities of old had fires to care for this, now it must be done manually. Tragic, sometimes needed.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Making the judgement of which is better (open fields or crime-infested ruins) is only possible once you've hit rock bottom. It would be better if we never abandoned our cities in the first place. This is what I'm saying; this is what we've got, and, since the days of endless economic growth are over, we're stuck with the bed we've made for ourselves.

Furthermore, rather than the dichotomy you described (either open fields or crime-infested ruins), I would argue that what we largely have now is a lamentable amalgam of the two: crime-infested open fields.

It's true, however, that there is a tipping point, where the population density for a large area of formerly-developed, formerly-urban land approaches zero and the crime drops off because there are simply no people around, not even vagrants and criminals.

It's at this point that a city is no longer a city and the land basically returns to its primeval state, with only pockets and corridors of primitive human settlements at its periphery. In Detroit (and America), these primitive settlements are known as "cool neighborhoods" and "hipster havens," where young "creatives" inhabit the residual ruins of their former society.

[NovakOmaha]

Interesting story.  There are some people who haven't gotten the memo about just giving up on America.

http://www.freep.com/article/20121125/B ... dyssey=tab

Not sure why it didn't link but it's from the Detroit Free Press & its about development in the midtown area.

{Admin edit} Link fixed

[Big E]

$1.25-$2 per square foot will do that.

That's a ridiculous number if I read that right.