Why Detroit is such a #$%^& for long term residents
Q? Why Detroit is such a #!@#$%^&*& for long-term residents?
A. Several facts no one in polite company will acknowledge..
see the links too
or scroll to the very end to see the facts summarized in a list.
Remember that Detroit is unique in its' status as a destination of the Great Migration for any body who could not make a living between the two world wars (Great Depression) However recessions followed each of the 2 world wars. Keep this in mind...because Detroit goes through economic swings more often that the rest of the country regardless of the Bankruptcy. I count seven national recessions between my preschool years and leaving for NYC in the mid 1980s.Black people disportionately felt every little economic hiccup.
The great Migration occurred several times in Detroit's history.It included southern whites and Immigrant Mexicans as well as blacks, but lets concentrate on black migration. In my case I had parents who after being married on the west coast, and leaving the Air Force and their families in the south- thought Detroit was the next logical step. My dad thought he had a job in Detroit- one that utilized his degree in Electronics. This was post Korean war @ 1953.
Thank Goodness he had a masters electricians degree and education to at least associates level (which was more than most Black men had post war- hence the migration) My parents survived the Eisenhower recession. How ?
Initially my parents lived in as tenants who had skills : Dad was once as a super, then both dad and mom were the live in help for the owners of Knorr Broadcasting Corporation / eventually WKNR Keener 13 radio. The black and white photos of them in full chauffeur and maid ensembles do not bother me because I credit that stint with their ability to impress upon me money really is- its a tool that has to be used with wisdom . I grew up with parents who knew how to get it, despite educations just barely past grade 14... For me this resulted in an education in money: alternating maintenance periods of gaining knowledge (remember knowledge is power )
Also gaining currency in making alliances and contacts by volunteering for after school programs . Finally alternated all that social currency with earning money. This money gave me independence- gas in the car . The social currency resulted in a decent paycheck at the Mall . Of course things have changed- thanks to the internet, and neoliberalism Yet the bootstrap and the boot it was attached to was all was due to a firsthand experience of what luck* and money does. Detroit does not offer that lesson now.
Luck is a nebulous term but if you agree that opportunity exists because of previous circumstances - *call it luck if your timing is right. The timing is now forever off. Most cities no longer have working teens/young adults who have summer jobs and Detroit is particularly bad when it comes to employment over the schoolbreak. For 6 weeks this federal program suggests how the private sector /not -for - profit sector creates summer employment . (Full disclosure I have run the programs- having never qualified for them . I worked for my dads company instead.)
There is no longer a direct federal program for employment . You do have several Federal Programs for Unemployment .This shift, which has happened in the last 30 years teaches you nothing about money . How do you learn how not to have money if there is no money ??https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/disappearance-of-the-summer-job/529824/
My first job required working papers, and I started working on the books in high school - recessions be damned only because I lived at home , so I had a leg to stand on and a bootstrap to pull... My fellow classmates did not include any working poor- we were in private school after all. However all of my fellow black classmates were less than 3 months away from feeling the pain of poverty if our parents income suddenly ceased. You can only freelance so much. (Book -No Shame in My Game opens here)
If you went to private schools from the Kennedy era onwards in Detroit; your timing was excellent . Bussing ,the civil rights movement and other social experiments up to the Rebellion in 1967 just made it more and more difficult to stay employed without a career track. You had to make more than you did the year before. I understood that early- looked at my dads paychecks on the regular. He wore suits to his job although he was not required to do so. Being one of the first black men to integrate the Engineering department and management meant he even got paid during the bankruptcies. Most people who were not in his position lost their jobs...
Unfortunately that ability to make money in this town disappeared by the time I left for NYC in 1985. I had friends who lost teaching jobs because the school was downsizing or closing The school shut down because the factory was no longer paying . People who had less than 10 years on the job for any of the Big Three Auto Companies had to become service workers or move back down south if they wanted to eat. (broke the bootstrap - move before you lose the boot)
Which leaves the retirees and the blacks who make up this town-sitting on it. (losing the boots, cant use the legs anyway) Understand the frustration of the blogger Hungry Black Man who wrote about Detroiters not availing themselves of the excellent restaurant scene in this city- who do not even hit the OG spots- who do not eat out at all... How do you engage these retirees who live within the borders of Detroit who are barely hanging in there, who have no disposable income and when they do- they lack the education of the consumer to want to spend money outside the home.?? You don't engage them ....you live in your world and they live in theirs
Just look at these stats. There is a new label for this phenomenon and the label is taboo - but it explains the stasis ,the wall between newly arrived and Downtown versus your grandparents or aging uncle in 48234.
census.gov quickfacts Detroit
Detroit Median household income (in 2015 dollars), 2011-2015 $25,764
In civilian labor force, total, % of population 16 yrs+,2011 -2015 53.0%
| High school graduate or higher, percent of persons age 25 years+, 2011-2015 78.3% | |||
Bachelor's degree or higher, percent of persons age 25 years+, 2011-2015 13.5% Land area square miles, 2010 138.75 square miles 7.2 miles gentrified
|
population estimates, July 1, 2016, (V2016) for all living in Detroit 672 ,795
|
Enough stats. A picture is a thousand words ???? A fellow blogger Alex Hill of Detroitography.com posits this about his maps and gentrification
"I would argue that these maps don’t tell the story of gentrification at all, but rather the impact of further disinvestment of the neighborhoods where Detroit residents live. As census tracts/ neighborhoods lose population, those who are able to stay are more likely to have higher income, education, etc."
Since we do not engage the people represented in the above statistics ---------is there a work around? Yes if there is work that can be maintained. Do we have the tools to get work, and make it pay? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/15/african-americans-are-the-only-racial-group-in-u-s-still-making-less-than-they-did-in-2000/?utm_term=.3e83cc436ab8
There are neighborhoods that are speculative and possibly open to change if the money flows...
Look at the amount of housing/land new money now owns.
As you know, the Detroit Land Bank has stopped cataloguing properties and the people who have brought properties to flip has slowed. The people who want to make a go of it and do a fixer upper has also slowed. We now have to wait until the development zones finish re- routing the streets to slow traffic/ rehab housing /community. I do not possess an urban studies degree but cul de sacs do not always produce nice results. See any street off the Jeffries . If closed off neighborhoods work it is because of an artistic diverse presence that is not necessarily gentrifying , but integrates itself into the existing fabric.
 |
4th street Garden at end of cul de sac |
Example My favorite cul de sac is 4th street off Holden near Wayne State University off the Lodge and Edsel Ford . This street used to host a fair., then it ceased with the bankruptcy of 2013.As of 2017, two properties on 4th street are in trouble and may end up on the auction list, due to back taxes. Yet the cul de sac spirit lives on - see the artists of Theatre Bizarre at the DIY (Do it Yourself ) fair in Ferndale this weekend. I suspect that if you ask participants of this fair where they make their art now- its not in a cul de sac neighborhood in Detroit. Everybody knows when the artists leave the gentrification usually starts. Here when the artists leave the neighborhood stagnates at rates proportional to those with pedestrian jobs.
Who are they re-designing these neighborhoods for? The old retirees that dot the landscape can barely afford what they have now. New money lives along the Q line corridor .
My old neighborhood - the Northwest section still has some grip on the bootstrap.It is not being gentrified. You could move there if you can afford it . My grade school friend - who has stayed in Detroit all his life suggests I get a concealed weapon permit if I move back to my old neighborhood. He is correct - @40,000 police on the Streets of New York has ruined my streets smarts radar.
Northwest section does not need gentrifying but it does need a decent strip mall with some chain stores and a nationally connected grocery . If you call that gentrification - rethink this. You gotta eat.
It would not hurt to have a hardware store - oops I forgot Home Depot took over the old Grace Hospital spot. Well that makes it easier to fix things up. Wonder how much money it takes since these are not the 500 dollar or even 1000 homes? Heard there is a guy who wrote a book about that...
The wall - a real estate construct that was racist in the extreme , is less than 10 blocks from where I grew up- the redlining actual wall is still there. If it was not for a future private school classmate who knew my dad from the old neighborhood making a connection with a realtor in the Northwest Section ... who knows where I would be now...
I do know my parents of the Great Migration refused to go back down South. Yet recently , the return of people to the South may have accelerated the housing vacancy problem .It is called Unintended Consequences : no job / or fixed retirement savings means you cannot pay the ever growing tax bills and the highest insurance rates and water bills in the US. Makes sense to move to for these people.
There is hope - down South
http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/02/04/2016-nielsen-report-black-buying-power-reached-tipping-point-will-black-america-leverage-create-wealth/
You want hope here- Not cutting and running ? Address the following list of issues.
Underclass - there is no project to socialize and rehouse people here
Internet - turn the internet on here in Detroit for free then make the internet in Detroit a 24 hour remedial education tool up to the associates level Hello Wayne State ,U of D Mercy ,University of Michigan etc time to do a win win- If college is free to the AS some people will pay for the credits to the BS
Education - create after school tutoring centers for Adults as well as kids toto support the internet learning It would be another experiment If we do not increase the degree level of Detroit residents by 2020 ---THREE years from now 70% of the jobs will go to outsiders
Transportation You Need the other Q Line to the airport connecting the existing Q line.Jobs depend on it Detroit needs to be the Mobile City not the Motor City and The train tracks are already here
Crime- the gangs exist because there are members who can not hold certain well paying jobs requiring re schooling However if you paid them to do CCC level work they would probably be too tired to get into trouble. Seriously. Physical Labor that pays @ 20+ an hour is transformative The gangs here have members who have never worked- Do we need a physical Katrina type situation that as an unintended consequence reinforces gang activity/ power - Of course not!
Detroit's' Bankruptcy was our Katrina. Now we need to deal with it with sophistication.
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
12:52 PM
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