Detroit - Something Fun to Do?
Jun 18th, 2016, 07:04 PM
#25
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As it turned out, we would have had to wait an hour to tour the Motown Museum, so we went to the Heidelberg Project instead and enjoyed talking with Tyree Guyton, the artist behind the installation.
We're currently enjoying time with family in Woodstock, Ontario this weekend. Thanks again, everyone!
Lee Ann
We're currently enjoying time with family in Woodstock, Ontario this weekend. Thanks again, everyone!
Lee Ann
Jun 19th, 2016, 12:45 PM
#27
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What a treat to get to talk to the artist.
I have been doing some sightseeing of my own these past few weeks. I did notice that a lot of places don't open until 10 or 11. Good for me because I am not a morning person but not so good for actual tourists that need to maximize their time.
I have been doing some sightseeing of my own these past few weeks. I did notice that a lot of places don't open until 10 or 11. Good for me because I am not a morning person but not so good for actual tourists that need to maximize their time.
Jun 19th, 2016, 02:35 PM
#28
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The 'worth' of visiting the Heidelberg Project is not only in the 'art' but seeing a very desolate area of Detroit (safe in the daytime at least) - you can see blocks of boarded up houses and empty overgrown lots - a sobering thought that this could happen in the world's 'most advanced country'!
Jun 22nd, 2016, 02:30 PM
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tomboy - yes incredible that these images could come from such an advanced country as ours:
https://www.google.com/search?q=detr...w=1745&bih=868
Detroit once had a population of 2.2 million at its heyday - now 600,000 or so - El Paso just passed Detroit in population - Detroit which was once one of the top five populated cities in the U.S.
I grew up in the Detroit suburbs and remember as a kid our family going to downtown Detroit - everyone did for shopping - no malls, etc and the downtown was hopping - Detroit itself had propserous ethnic enclaves - Italians, Poles in Hamtramck, Germans, Irish, Afro-Americans and many others - it was such an interesting and alive city- so sad now to go into Detroit - the downtown with casinos and GM HQs and sports arenas is booming but outside of that--- a wasteland- a black mark on the U.S.
https://www.google.com/search?q=detr...w=1745&bih=868
Detroit once had a population of 2.2 million at its heyday - now 600,000 or so - El Paso just passed Detroit in population - Detroit which was once one of the top five populated cities in the U.S.
I grew up in the Detroit suburbs and remember as a kid our family going to downtown Detroit - everyone did for shopping - no malls, etc and the downtown was hopping - Detroit itself had propserous ethnic enclaves - Italians, Poles in Hamtramck, Germans, Irish, Afro-Americans and many others - it was such an interesting and alive city- so sad now to go into Detroit - the downtown with casinos and GM HQs and sports arenas is booming but outside of that--- a wasteland- a black mark on the U.S.
Jun 22nd, 2016, 04:58 PM
#31
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Wow PalenQ. Do you still live here? Yes there are some rough areas just like there are in most cities. However, there are also many beautiful areas that are not near the sports arenas, etc. I don't know of any city that has stayed exactly the same as it was 50 years ago.
Jun 23rd, 2016, 07:28 AM
#32
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I don't know of any city that has stayed exactly the same as it was 50 years ago.>
Yes but no city has suffered the citywide deterioration as Detroit has. I do not live in the Detroit area but not far away.
Yes but no city has suffered the citywide deterioration as Detroit has. I do not live in the Detroit area but not far away.
Jun 23rd, 2016, 03:39 PM
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I'm not sure that 50 years is quite right for that. The longest year of my life was 1968 to 1969, which is very close to 50 years ago, teaching in Pontiac. The riots were sort of over, and Detroit was a total mess. I've actually heard it's better now than then. No?
Jun 23rd, 2016, 04:24 PM
#34
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No IMO it is not better now than then - Downtown is much better but the wide swathes of empty overgrown lots and derelict buildings have only increased.
Pontiac has deteriorated too though its downtown is vibrant with many pubs and nightspots - Flint though is a mini-Detroit.
I've been to every large city in the U.S. and none is so awful so many places - all over outside the downtown - that Detroit must be the very worst.
The riots actually exacerbated white flight of what little whites were left. in 1969 there were still some auto plants now there is just one left in the city itself.
Yes lots of artists have flocked here for cheap rents and a kind of ambiance they like but that is just a dent in the rubble. But murders are down - over 1,000 a year in the 70s but now much less as there are simply much fewer folks to be murdered I guess.
The big thing that gets me is that suburbia - afluent for the most part - could give a rat's rear about Detroit and the poor old folks who are stuck there, afraid to leave their homes often, and too poor to relocate.
Detroit white cops were often racists and that sparked the riots - my racist uncle was a Detroit cop in the 50s and he would brag to use about stopping 'n-word-s and asking for the license and giving them a ticket - he said many would simply tear up the ticket so he cleverly put the driver's license inside the ticket he handed them so they would rip both up.
Dearborn, adjacent to Detroit was all-white (which includes Arabs of which there have always been quite a few of) and any black driver daring to drive there would be instantly pulled over. Dearborn had a racist Mayor Hubbard who was proud of the big signs at the entrance to Dearborn from Detroit "KEEP DEARBORN CLEAN" and everyone knew what that meant!
Pontiac has deteriorated too though its downtown is vibrant with many pubs and nightspots - Flint though is a mini-Detroit.
I've been to every large city in the U.S. and none is so awful so many places - all over outside the downtown - that Detroit must be the very worst.
The riots actually exacerbated white flight of what little whites were left. in 1969 there were still some auto plants now there is just one left in the city itself.
Yes lots of artists have flocked here for cheap rents and a kind of ambiance they like but that is just a dent in the rubble. But murders are down - over 1,000 a year in the 70s but now much less as there are simply much fewer folks to be murdered I guess.
The big thing that gets me is that suburbia - afluent for the most part - could give a rat's rear about Detroit and the poor old folks who are stuck there, afraid to leave their homes often, and too poor to relocate.
Detroit white cops were often racists and that sparked the riots - my racist uncle was a Detroit cop in the 50s and he would brag to use about stopping 'n-word-s and asking for the license and giving them a ticket - he said many would simply tear up the ticket so he cleverly put the driver's license inside the ticket he handed them so they would rip both up.
Dearborn, adjacent to Detroit was all-white (which includes Arabs of which there have always been quite a few of) and any black driver daring to drive there would be instantly pulled over. Dearborn had a racist Mayor Hubbard who was proud of the big signs at the entrance to Dearborn from Detroit "KEEP DEARBORN CLEAN" and everyone knew what that meant!
Jun 26th, 2016, 10:20 PM
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PalenQ Quote ". I do not live in the Detroit area but not far away."
Not far away? Your profile says that you live "on the banks of the Au Sable" River. Even to a closer Au Sable River community such as the Mio area, that's at least 200 miles away from the City of Detroit. Other River communities might be as far as 250 miles. I would not define that as "not far away".
Let me guess - you're a retiree who left metro Detroit 10, 20, 30 years ago, and haven't been back more than a couple of times since. Does Detroit have problems? Sure it does, many (but then so does Mio - I can take you to places near Mio where you would be afraid to stop your car.)
The desolation, gloom, and doom you paint of Detroit is at minimum 5 years out of date, and more like 15 or 20 years out of date. (By the way, yes, thing were extremely bad in Detroit the past, but that does not excuse you from making things up for dramatic effect - you quote "murders....over a thousand a year in the 70's"? NEVER. Not even close.)
It's one thing for you to get together for breakfast at the local north woods diner with all of your other retired buddies who moved "up north" decades ago and recount your memories of the 60's, 70's, and 80's in Detroit; I am sure you all like to extrapolate that since Detroit was such a horrible place then, therefore it must still be horrible today. Feel free. But don't go spreading these misconceptions on the internet.
Instead of promoting your own personal agenda, why not stick to the original poster's question of an entertaining activity that she can spend a morning doing.
Not far away? Your profile says that you live "on the banks of the Au Sable" River. Even to a closer Au Sable River community such as the Mio area, that's at least 200 miles away from the City of Detroit. Other River communities might be as far as 250 miles. I would not define that as "not far away".
Let me guess - you're a retiree who left metro Detroit 10, 20, 30 years ago, and haven't been back more than a couple of times since. Does Detroit have problems? Sure it does, many (but then so does Mio - I can take you to places near Mio where you would be afraid to stop your car.)
The desolation, gloom, and doom you paint of Detroit is at minimum 5 years out of date, and more like 15 or 20 years out of date. (By the way, yes, thing were extremely bad in Detroit the past, but that does not excuse you from making things up for dramatic effect - you quote "murders....over a thousand a year in the 70's"? NEVER. Not even close.)
It's one thing for you to get together for breakfast at the local north woods diner with all of your other retired buddies who moved "up north" decades ago and recount your memories of the 60's, 70's, and 80's in Detroit; I am sure you all like to extrapolate that since Detroit was such a horrible place then, therefore it must still be horrible today. Feel free. But don't go spreading these misconceptions on the internet.
Instead of promoting your own personal agenda, why not stick to the original poster's question of an entertaining activity that she can spend a morning doing.
Jun 27th, 2016, 09:49 AM
#37
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MT - I go to Detroit regularly - I have residences in the Detroit area where I spend a lot of time and also Up North. My opinion was meant to be sympathetic to Detroit's plight and to ignore the obvious is not it - but anyway you feel that Detroit outside of Downtown is not a horrible place - seems you may not have visited that part of Detroit lately - the photos are not from 1960s, 1970s or 1980s but very recently.
I do wish that folks outside of Detroit, from the Gov on down would care more about Detroit rather than doing terrible things like the un-democratic Emergency Manager thing.
Anyway maybe painted too bleak a picture but certainly not as rosy as you make it out.
I do wish that folks outside of Detroit, from the Gov on down would care more about Detroit rather than doing terrible things like the un-democratic Emergency Manager thing.
Anyway maybe painted too bleak a picture but certainly not as rosy as you make it out.
Jun 28th, 2016, 08:26 AM
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Actually, Palen, I visit all parts of Detroit quite often. As far as my painting a rosy picture of Detroit, as you say, I don't see any thing I've written that is "rosy" - in fact, I wrote that Detroit has "many problems".
All I want is BALANCE and FAIRNESS. When I see you say,
"But murders are down - over 1,000 a year in the 70s but now much less as there are simply much fewer folks to be murdered I guess"
it makes me slightly upset, because, first, it's just flat inaccurate, and the smirking crack about "fewer people to murder I guess" doesn't add any information to the discussion except make you feel better.
There ARE many good thing happening in Detroit, both downtown and in the neighborhoods - not only from the point of view of visitors, but also from the resident's perspective - I could list them, but this is not the place to do so. I also would be the first to tell you that it might take decades for things to get to the point of an acceptable urban environment in Detroit.
Let's try to answer the OP's question without going on any editorial excursions.
All I want is BALANCE and FAIRNESS. When I see you say,
"But murders are down - over 1,000 a year in the 70s but now much less as there are simply much fewer folks to be murdered I guess"
it makes me slightly upset, because, first, it's just flat inaccurate, and the smirking crack about "fewer people to murder I guess" doesn't add any information to the discussion except make you feel better.
There ARE many good thing happening in Detroit, both downtown and in the neighborhoods - not only from the point of view of visitors, but also from the resident's perspective - I could list them, but this is not the place to do so. I also would be the first to tell you that it might take decades for things to get to the point of an acceptable urban environment in Detroit.
Let's try to answer the OP's question without going on any editorial excursions.
Jun 28th, 2016, 09:34 AM
#39
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The OP has left Detroit thus I went off in a tangent - OP got the info.
One thing we have in common - we love Detroit and wish it can bounce back and yes there are many efforts - I agree that I may have sensationalized a bit too much.
One thing we have in common - we love Detroit and wish it can bounce back and yes there are many efforts - I agree that I may have sensationalized a bit too much.
