Detroit: Bankrupt city turned corporate luxury brand

A little late, but my post is in comparison to Cleveland, OH where for the same prices you could get something much nicer. I would also have many more living options available in Cleveland proper compared to the few areas in Detroit proper worth living.

I will say that if you are moving away from a coastal area then Detroit is pretty cheap and has some interesting things to offer. However, being from Cleveland I can enjoy the positives of Detroit with a 2 hour drive without having to live there.

Wait, I have to do more?

I always felt that it's the word isn't overused, it's that hipstery way of dressing and living is the new fashion now.

We might shut down an intersection for 2-4 minutes while riders roll through the intersection. The corkers or people who block the intersection are instructed to be nice and apologize for delays and to encourage drivers to join us.

We roll at 7:30 which is well after traffic dies down and we do as much as possible to be respectful, like leaving a lane open so cars can pass us.

I hadn't heard of Slow Roll. They might be better at handling traffic than the one Critical Mass ride I saw. They had several thousand riders going through a roundabout. It looked spontaneous as they had no detours posted, and a few cars were stuck in the loop for about an hour. They ride at the same time each (week? month?) so I just remember to not drive through that part of downtown on Fridays in the summer.

Really, though, I've looked into similar things, and can't understand how they're able to do it next to a police precinct without posting detours and without being fined or traffic controlled. But, it's Detroit. There are probably 10 cops covering downtown at any time, and they might not have the resources to police traffic on a Friday evening.

That said, I'm actually interested in this. Did you guys have to go through city hall and set up the detour routes and get permission from the affected businesses to lay down your route? The city I tried to set something up in would have allowed it, but there was a lot of paperwork and it was smaller than an organized ride.

If you're having trouble relating to the numbers, here's a great episode of Parts Unknown that shows how bad Detroit is now, hosted by a guy who really likes Detroit. http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknow... (not so much the videos, but the text below.)

You work in property data -- tell us more. Are you buying? Selling? Neither?

> Take a look here to see how Detroit has fared since 2008: http://goobingdetroit.tumblr.com/

Those are interesting photos, but how do we know whether they are representative of an overall trend? Those locations seem to be selected manually to show houses in decay -- it's not a random sample, and it's probably not a representative sample.

Nobody doubts that there are decaying buildings in Detroit, but to see how Detroit has faired overall, you would need to look at the big picture, including properties that have been restored or rebuilt, but that weblog doesn't show that.

Any references where you could get structured data about property, demographics, etc?

I agree with you. My father grew up in Detroit and I still have plenty of family there. What people don't understand is the scale of the problem and how far it has gone. I really can't see the situation changing unless Detroit either consolidates with some of its healthier suburbs or divests the massive amount of land that's currently draining its very limited resources. I don't think we can declare the city to be in rebound just because a kernel of affluence is reemerging. There's a looong way to go.

I suppose I do take a more macro level view, and have essentially written off many of the neighborhoods (what the banks and others should have done long ago). There are detached little islands of residents trying to make a stand, but -- as that blog shows -- they can't. Much of Detroit the urban area should be returned to nature and then, in a planned and considered fashion, built out again. To some degree this is happening, and it's interesting that many of the blog posts show houses in a very high level of disrepair, followed by an empty field: For the good of Detroit, the empty field is often a better state, and the bail-out Detroit should have gotten is billions to tear down houses and remediate lands that are long past the point of no return.

The resurgence does absolutely have to do with the sense of pride in the city, and the sense that it is a city for doing business, both required for the city to come back. Neither of those help houses neglected for decades on remote strips of perilous streets with no rational civic services.

"They are also gated communities that have the worst "Fuck You, Got Mine" mentality."

Oh, so what mentality would you like them to have? How about:

"Here, come on in, we missed you since the last riot!"

I'm completely not understanding this weird jump of yours where you go from "gated communities" to stereotyping such behavior as one that is due to a "Fuck You, Got Mine" attitude. Oh and it's mostly by racist white people, according to you.

Just let people be, and quit trying to meddle. It's really not rocket science. Why do you have to vilify people you don't like? If they were doing something truly bad, then you wouldn't need to vilify them by calling them racists or selfish.

I think, deep down, you know you have no argument. And you're simply fishing for approval by throwing around boogey-words that people are accustomed to reacting to in the way you want.