Why Detroit Get Lucky (or Get Out is the new title for blog)
Detroit Get Lucky ($$ or Get Out)
is the new title for blog
Why??
- I was old enough to have memories/opinions of the Rebellion/Riot/Restructuring of 1967
- The recession under Carter at the end of the Vietnam war coincided with graduation
- The city had an inexorable disease
- It was cancer for anyone on the wrong side of Eight mile, and I was too young to die
Moved to NYC in 1985 Moved back to Detroit in 2015
Kept one step ahead of huge rent increases in suddenly hot neighborhoods- by being connected - lived everywhere from Inwood /Washington Heights to GreenWood Heights. Spanned the 5 boros from Rego Park to Hamilton Heights. Took trains to house sit in Bronxville. . Biked home to South Williamsburg and BedStuy. Always slightly ahead of others who were willing to pay $1000 more per month and think nothing of it.
Brownsville to Sarah Lawrence college
Inwood to Greenwood
Rego Park to Hamilton Heights
Williamsburg to Bed-Stuy
I just got back here in time to see the same forces of gentrification/ power/ money/ you name it work on the 7.2 miles that basically start at Wayne State University and proceed downward like an upside down Capital T toward the river splayed toward Cork Town and Indian Village.
Do not like what is occurring. Nothing is connected. People live out their lives in little neighborhood clusters and commute on roads designed to connect directly to job or a career site, with barely a strip mall for variety
Remember these Great Depression Era phrases? It still applies.
"Born with a silver spoon in their mouths"...,Fortune shines upon those. who are willing to take risks...Them that got -gets )
What socially moves this country is the fortunate are those who were educated successfully and are promoted enough--- have a career that produces the most important tool of gentrification -Money.
1965-1985 is not a time to be nostalgic. you had to be lucky enough to get into a good school, and get lucky enough to have parents that did not get laid off . Then you had to have the same mechanisms that kept your parents functioning at a middle class level do the same for you.
It took 3 jobs to get out in 1985.
MW Saturday a 3 day a week commission based job from open to close that was 40 hours if you counted lunch
It was not enough...
So you had another job at the Mall because you looked the part and actually know something about tennis and that was Union too. Little pay raises here and there.
A dollar above minimum wage. 5 hour shifts, every other Sunday Off. @ 15 hours . 40 + 15 = 55
One more job- this one was Fridays. Retail but again skill based. Perfume booth / Jewelry booth in the Downtown Birmingham area. Bonuses on the expensive stuff plus your base pay was over $5 dollars an hour. 40 + 15 + 5 = 60 hour workweek.
60 hours is not a grueling schedule when you have a goal- leaving Detroit. The money was not needed to pay the taxes or the mortgage or the water bill or insurance or all the other things that home ownership required. That stuff never ends.
It would be cheaper to live as a renter! In 1985 any city that had rentals would be better than Detroit - unless you lived off Palmer Park in the Gayborhood. That Art Deco section off Woodward and Mcnichols held all the apartments worth living in unless you wanted to be in Indian Village near downtown, or got lucky and found something safe /cheap near Wayne State University.
Apartments were adventure for the suburban types - it was an adventure for any kid( similar to myself in 1985 living so close to 8 mile in such a well developed neighborhood) - My Northwest Detroit neighboorhood almost had arrived . We had Chain grocery stores, decent Chinese restaurants, steak houses, cleaners... not securely middle class but almost secure - at least in your vision of yourself.
There are less apartments now. And no chain grocery store decent Chinese takeout, steak house or cleaners. Lots of storefront churches or empty storefronts of formerly storefront churches.
Ugly.
Moved back in 2015. I am one of the fortunate ones. With an Education. Traveled and seen gentrification from Brooklyn to Belgium to Beijing.
Helpful hint- If you see commissioned graffiti- your neighborhood is about to get tres expensive...
Okay .Forget about aesthetics. Find that rental in 2017. Security means you are not homeless and can steadily afford that monthly nut.
You would have to live in Pontiac to pay less than $2000 a month now- definitely can not afford those converted office building apartments Downtown https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/rent-growth-since-1960/
Forget about doing the fixer upper thing .Despite the feel goodness of it - you are a piece of flotsam floating in the vast ocean of demolished and waiting for development Detroit. Only 7.2 miles of 131.55newly renovated with all the goods and services that should exist including Parks!!
https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2017/06/13/detroit-mayor-duggans-demolition-program-is-now-the-subject-of-a-grand-jury-investigation
IF you are a fortunate one and are willing to take risks
Here is what luck looks like:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaprobus/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-buying-a-500-house-i?utm_term=.otLZ8VRV7#.mvoanMQMw
Things are not working for the little guy with some cash.
Your house might get taken right out from under your nose - it is the circular file for homeowners , especially retired homeowners with shallow pockets https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/could-detroits-tax-foreclosures-be-unconstitutional/Content?oid=4522278
Very sophisticated shell game According to the article link above - it is definitely unfair
Of course the Auction season is here . It is September in Detroit.
You wan to get in on the action? The list for the 1 in 3 now available houses in Detroit is here
.official Wayne County Foreclosure/Auction list Fall 2017
If you want pictures of the properties in the Fall Auction http://auctions.buildingdetroit.org/Home
Hint :
You will need a ward map not a zip code map to find something.
The list shows every former owner and it tends to be Dense
so have your lawyers do the clearances...
wards map - easier to use the September Auction List (thank you mappery.com)
The September Foreclosure auction list includes other suffering suburbs. You could live in Dearborn, after all.
135.79 square miles of disconnectedness. Once you drive home from your job that is it. You have to drive to a hipster area or suburb (Hazel Park is the next Hamtramack)
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/2015/08/19/hazel-park-gets-hip/32019373/
Mass Transit will get Amazon here Thanks to Alex Hill at Detroitography.com
One can dream of how a truly reborn connected city would appear
https://detroitography.com/2013/12/09/map-detroit-area-rapid-transit/
-if you snag a management job at least you get some perks (Health Care)
Maybe consider a houseboat and live off some shoreline as suggested by this 1986 article http://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/07/realestate/houseboats-emerge-as-a-cheaper-form-of-
housing.html
Labels: abandoned buildings, closed factories, cook, culinary, economy, food trucks, gentrification, housing market, industrial revolution sites, menu, restaurant, urban, urban renewal, winter
posted by Detroit: Get Lucky at
10:44 PM
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