Comment by lukejduncan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lukejduncan | Hacker News Reader

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I'm from Detroit, and in high school use to sneak into these abandoned buildings and take pictures. I loved it, and it was a distinct characteristic of the city for me. At the time I would have called myself an urban explorer.

There are many Detroit cheerleaders in and around the city who would dismiss this as "ruin porn" and then bash whatever media outlet published the articles. Detroit has perpetually been in a state of self-declared "renaissance" dating all the way back to the founding of the city and the motto on the city flag that translates to something along the lines of "out of the ashes rises the phoenix."

I love Detroit, and loved my time living downtown. For me, the ruins were a part of that and what I loved. It's also ultimately what led me to move as there wasn't much happening in the city. On the occasions when things did happen, they happened with banners and streamers and proclamations about how this is a testament to the cities viability.

Detroiters need to learn to love what's unique about their city. Embrace the history. Rome celebrates it's ruins, why can't we? In celebrating the ruins, maybe we can't stop being so sensitive to it and start drawing attention to the rampant corruption that has left this city in this state. Maybe if we stop ignoring the past, and its affect on the present we can shape the future.

Was Rome celebrating its ruins in 400AD?

Surely there's some interesting things to celebrate, but a 50 year old crackhouse that's still occupied by crack addicts probably isn't one of them.

What makes Rome's 'ruins' great is - well, probably a bunch of things - but certainly the longetivity is one of them. There's nothing impressive about rotting crack houses.

There are a few abandoned buildings in Detroit that might count as having grandeur, like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Central_Station, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Army_of_the_Republic_Buil.... I agree that acres of rotting single-family homes isn't so impressive.

My real point is this: Detroiters are in denial. They all cry that the media and the world doesn't portray them properly while pretending that nothing is wrong with the city.

Celebrate the beauty that exists (Michigan Central was actually what I was thinking of with the Rome comment) and take advantage of the rest. Do you know how cheap it is to live in the city? Yes: there are acres of abandoned rotting land, but what's keeping Detroit from turning it's warehouses into startups? Imagine SOMA on a city scale.

> what's keeping Detroit from turning it's warehouses into startups? Imagine SOMA on a city scale.

What's missing is the things start-up employee type of people are looking for in a city: density, diversity, transit, food, Asian girls...

Hah. Detroiters are in denial. Right. Detroit is in revival in the sense that there is a very small amount of investment occuring in a couple of small areas. Before this, there was NOTHING. They've gotten three or four major companies to move downtown, including the major league teams and it appears that cobo hall might even get some help from the suburbs. Seriously, prior to 2003 there was very little to talk about. It's been slow going, but I think the "revival" is real.

The thing that people miss when comparing Pittsburg and other cities to Detroit is that it is square MILES upon miles of complete ruin. The "ruins porn" is good for the city because it raises awareness of what destruction can take place when you remove the underlying economic structure from a community.

In terms of "startups", you are free to do -- there are city taxes, but it's probably doable in some areas, but keep in mind the lack of city services and that it is still a very, very dangerous city.

To be pedantic, Rome wasn't in ruins in 400AD. The Visigoths wouldn't sack it for another decade and the Vandals plunder and raped the city proper more than 50 years later. The last nominal imperator was dethroned by a barbarian in 476AD.

Hey, doesn't your username mean "skull fucker"?

EDIT: This isn't linked to your post at all, just wondering.

Something like that. You're not the billionth person who's asked or anything.

So no prize?

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