Friday, July 31, 2009

Speaking of Detroit

I've been a lot of places and seen a lot of things but nothing could prepare me for what I saw this weekend in Detroit. If you've never been there I can tell you it is every stereotype you've ever heard. Miles and miles of ghetto lined streets lead to the heart of this run down city on the Detroit River. The sad part is it obviously was once a beautiful and thriving metropolis. Now the once grand homes of America's upper class sit in utter decay serving only as crack houses and squatter shacks. It is such a massive cesspool I wonder if it can ever be fixed; at least not with anything less than its complete destruction. Oddly, you can stand in the middle of all this mess and see a thriving and beautiful Canadian city just a mile or so away across the river. I have to wonder where it all went so wrong? How could America loose an entire city?

22 comments:

juliet said...

Anyone see Micheal Moore's 9/11. There is a scene where the soldiers are driving through a town in Iraq that had seen a lot of fighting and the soldier from Detriot says " I can show you places where I live that look worse than this."

Doug said...

Houses in Livonia MI (west suburb Detroit) can be had for $1.
All you have to do is pay the property tax and it's all yours.
I haven't seen Detroit but I have seen New Orleans and it can't be much better.

Dave said...

Is this the bankrupt America to come? Will every city in this once great country soon look like this? I believe it is entirely possible. What a nice place we leave our children, grand children and great-grand children. Spend and borrow like there's no tomorrow... and once the feds own it all, they will tighten the vice and squeeze the lifeblood right out of us. Wake up America, take your country back. We the People..

juliet said...

uhh... Dave Detroit fell apart some time ago, when it became okay for big business to dump the people who worked in the factories that made them so much profit. They shut down and moved manufacturing outside the USA. And under our last administrations they got big government subsidies.

Dave said...

My point exactly.. and so it continues across the country.

rac said...

I would agree Doug. Not sure what it's like now but the pre-Katrina housing projects in New Orleans were equally scary.

juliet said...

Yes and where did the crime element go when Katrina shut down business as usual in New Orleans. They went up to Philadelphia and over to Houston. Crime surges up in both those cities. I don't want to do any racial profiling here so I won't mention any ethnic statistics.

Sean said...

Politically, the city consistently supports the Democratic Party in state and national elections (local election are nonpartisan). According to a study released by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, Detroit is the most liberal large city in America,[113] measuring only the percentage of city residents who voted for the Democratic Party.
-- wikipedia

Pat said...

So what are you saying Sean? Liberals are more prone to commit criminal acts? You're really scraping the bottom of the trash bin now Sean.

Sean said...

RAC asked - I have to wonder where it all went so wrong? How could America loose an entire city?

I replied that Detroit is the most liberal of cities. Liberalism is not the answer - it is an empty promise of "hope". Liberalism seeks to remove individual responsibility (and therefore freedom). Liberalism brings big labor unions which suck dry both the workers and the companies. Liberal dems are voted in year after year on feel good slogans and don't get anything done.

Then, one day, you look around and say "where did it all go wrong" with Detroit? What happened to New Orleans? Why isn't someone wiping my ass and feeding me? Take a good long look at what liberalism brings and then think it you really want more Hope and Change for your country.

Pat said...

Sean, what did your shining leader do for New Orleans?

Sean said...

New Orleans has been run (down) by Democrats for decades. They received billions in federal funding to improve the dikes (and did not). The protocol for FEMA requires that the governor (also a democrat during Katrina) request federal aid before it is initiated. (this is, I suppose, a holdover from when states actually had a say in what the federal government did to, I am mean, for them.)

So, if you want to look at Katrina - start with the city and state government.

Pat, maybe you should also ask your party what they did to Detroit? Or, have you abandoned that topic now in favor of "Just blame Bush"?

Dave said...

The only feds that came to the rescue after katrina was the US Coast Guard.. and they didn't wait for uncle sam to call. But more to the point, what did the corrupt leaders of new orleans/louisiana do to prepare for katrina, or to resurect their corrupt city with billions of US tax payer dollars afterwards? The federal government is not your saviour.

Pat said...

Amen. obviously our president, at the time, was only there for a photo op.

Doug said...

Sean,
I believe that the liberals and conservatives can all agree that ass wiping is best left to the affected individual.
Actually the dikes of New Orleans are an Army Corps Of Engineers project.
Sean is correct that corruption and graft at the state and local levels have greatly compromised the infrastructure of that city.
Coupled with the man made destruction of wet lands and barrier islands this is what led to the flooding of the city.
Katrina actually didn't even hit New Orleans, making landfall east of there in Mississippi where the surge was way worse. Water backing into Ponchatrain and the east canals is what led to the levee failure.
It could have been a lot worse. And some day it probably will.

rac said...

Sean, you seem to view the world in very simplistic terms. I suppose when you stub your toe at night it's the fault of liberalism. Somehow I don't think it's that easy. The problem with your theory is right across the Detroit river is a very liberal city in a very liberal country (they even have socialised medicine) which is supposedly (I've never been) the complete opposite of Detroit. Not to mention many of the outlying suburbs of Detroit are very nice... and very wealthy. Every major metropolitan area has its slums, even your conservative cities. If you like I can point out plenty of conservative towns filled with white trash that would slit your throat for a dollar. As long as we continue to see the world in black and white (figuratively) then we will never effect real change. You're a smart guy Sean, why don't you use your intellect to really examine the problem instead of taking the easy way out. Broad labels don't work in complex situations. It's all about the details.

Pat said...

Yea, Juliet. saw it. TRUTH sister.

Joanna said...

I agree with you RAC and Bush was in charge when that hurricane was coming.With knowledge of it,he should've mobilized the National Guard, in the least,but nothing was done from him.

Dave said...

Jo, what do you mean president Bush did nothing? Everybody knows he's the one who pushed the red button on his weather machine and turned the dial to create katrina and send it toward new orleans..

Pat said...

Lol David! He should have pushed the "smart" button.

Sean said...

Joanna - who does the National Guard report to? Is it the president of the united states or the governor of their state. Go ahead, take your time. Look it up - I'm not going any where.

Joanna said...

The governor mobilized the Nat'l Guard but,they were overwhelmed.Conservatives criticized Bush also for not asking the military to mobilize in time. Hence people being trapped on roof tops for days and you know that could have been thought out better. It was truly like a 3rd world nation in the U.S. of A.