Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
You are quite right, unfortunately that a lot of the “outdoor rooms” (neighborhoods) are empty. Furthermore indeed Detroit (proper) never was a very dense city. However my own recollection growing up in an East Side neighborhood was that vaguely-defined neighborhoods were contiguous within the city, unlike separated by major highways or large tracts of land as are many suburban developments; and secondly many services were local within the neighborhood, i.e. storefront businesses on light commercial, walkable streets. And children attended their local schools.
As a child and early teenager, I could get along quite well in my neighborhood (outdoor room), about 2 miles in greatest length, by walking, bicycling and taking a bus. Unlike Boston though, as you point out the distances were greater (but parking was never at a premium). Also, as I recall, bus services were better, and there was even a street car to downtown.
I agree that there was and is strong neighborhood identification in Detroit.
I grew up in Highland Park, which was an incredibly self-contained city surrounded by Detroit. We Parkers were intensely proud of our little city. We had our own newspaper, schools and utilities, which we believed were far superior to Detroit's.
Perversely, we were even proud of our bad points. When we had the highest murder and crime rates in the nation, our mayor said on national TV that all the crimes in Highland Park were caused by Detroiters and suburbanites sneaking over the border...and almost all Parkers agreed with him!