Originally Posted by
Roody
How can you be so dense? Obviously the people running this project are devoting their LIVES to solving the problems of Detroit. Just getting involved is half the solution. In a place like Detroit, just showing that you care is 1000 times more than what most people do. Sure it might end up to be a waste of time and energy, but you can't know that until you give it an honest shot. If you want a guarantee that your life (or your city) will always be wonderful, and you don't want to work hard to make it so, then Detroit is not the place for you.
Why do they care? Just move to a suburb that already has low crime, good schools, looks pretty and clean. You could waste a lot of time, money, and energy trying to rehabilitate Spaulding Court and rent it to romantic schmucks for $1200 a month.... but you might not find them. For that kind of money, they might just go off and rent a unit in an apartment in a building that isn't a burned out looted wreck in the middle of a wasteland. Say someplace like Royal Oak, MI. Just saying.
If you think California is more than 20 years behind Detroit, you haven't been paying attention to the news lately. If I were you, I wouldn't bother moving to Detroit, but i would start thinking about how some of the SOLUTIONS that people are TRYING in Detroit might help in California too.
California cities, and most every other the rest of the cities in the country, are moving the exact opposite direction that Detroit is. Most cities are growing and infill urban development is about the only area of construction that is still hot. Well, that and green construction is still growing.
Where Detroit is today, that's where many cities will be in less than a generation. This is the general direction our entire society will go if we don't watch out. If solutions are found, they will be found in places like Detroit, by people like the ones working on Spaulding court. That's why people should pay attention to Detroit.
Again, I'm not seeing it. I don't see Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco having less than 300,000 people in the next 30 years. I don't see Houston having less than a million. I just don't. Strolling through a derelict wasteland that is Noe Valley is totally incredible.
Detroit isn't some unique city that foreshadows the decline of American Civilization. Every other city suffered the same thing Detroit did: Suburban flight. That's been a reversing trend in most cities for years. Detroit's behind the game there, not ahead. I think we're in the beginning stages of that.. but Pearl in Portland, South Lake Union in Seattle, and SOMA in San Francisco happened years ago.