detroitJon

Imagine a city with wide, flat roads, excellent pavement, and no traffic. Now imagine a neighborhood so centrally located that anything worth anything is within a 15 minute bike ride. Not only that, the neighborhood looks more like the country side than the center of a major metropolis. Pretty sweet huh?

Spaulding Court, a community owned and managed townhouse complex currently has one completely remodeled townhouse unit available for rent. See the craigslist post here:

https://detroit.en.craigslist.org/wyn...392875982.html

$1200/month if you have a car, $750 if you don't.

countersTrike

Sounds like a bit of heaven, and I am temporarily out while my condo is rebuilt including ADA red tape. With temperature extremes out the front door I would either freeze or melt. Us Californians are doomed if it is not between 50 to 70 degrees. This is a tourist trap nightmare here, but I grin and bear it!

detroitJon

there's a hostel next door if you'd like to come for a visit...

https://www.hosteldetroit.com/

Roody

People are starting to see Detroit as a laboratory for new visions in city design. We've speculated on this forum before about how cool it would be if the Motor City became a pioneer of carfree living.

I hope this plan pans out. Development money can be hard to come by in places like Detroit, especially with a new governor who is hellbent on eliminating programs that drive urban development.

From the photos, it looks like Spaulding Court has a lot of work ahead of it. I hope they can pull it off. I'm thinking about returning to Detroit when I retire in a few years.

https://spauldingcourt.com/
https://detnews.com/article/20100906/...amation-effort

I-Like-To-Bike

"$1200/month if you have a car, $750 if you don't." If they can sell $750-$1,200/month townhouses in that neighborhood, they can sell anything.

Roody

Actually Corktown is a desirable neighborhood right now. Townhouses and lofts in a similar area here in Lansing are going for over $1200 right now. I know this is laughably low rent if you live in MYC, Boston, or many other larger cities!

detroitJon

we have it better than most spots in the city. it's a remarkably charming place to live.

Robert Foster

where is this place in relation to this map? https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mi/detroit/crime/

Malloric

Just Google Streetview around the hood. One man's "charming" is another's wasteland with a few vestiges of humanity left. The majority of the neighborhood is empty lots. It's absolutely mindboggling to me that this exists two miles from downtown Detroit.

Robert Foster

Thanks for the links Roody. With very few exceptions I have always looked into the neighborhoods I have considered moving to and have a good idea of where I wouldn't feel comfortable. If I can be honest it looks a bit risky moving into the Spaulding court area for families but maybe not for young singles. I guess I just don't understand what holds people to a city or area when it seems like it would be so much easier to move to some place else.

My second question would be just what work is available close to that area to support that kind of rent? And no I don't think it is too high if there are jobs in the area to support such rent.

countersTrike

Man o man! What an interesting Google tour!!! My condo is going up all new, including the foundation. When I mentioned ADA - that is Americans with Disabilities Act- every inch accessible for me due to my wheelchair (that is why I ride a trike by the way). I used to enjoy a challenge 50 years ago but after 8 more years that is WAY more challenge than I am fit to take on. Rent is much higher here; but for a year until the rebuild is finished, I think I will suffer! Best of luck with that mansion; but I think I will sit this one out.

Robert Foster

You ride a Cat or Delta?

Ekdog

Wish we had some lots like those in my 'hood. Just think of the vegetables you could grow.

Roody

Well Detroit is not for everybody. But none can deny that amazing things will happen there over the next few decades--and I think amazingly good is more likely than amazingly bad. Detroit is the city that retooled in a few months to arm America and the world in World War II, and that Spirit of Detroit is definitely still alive.

Roody

Obviously employment can be a challenge.

The whole downtown area is close to Spaulding Court, so of course there are many professional and office type jobs available there. The auto industry is still strong in Detroit, and Wayne State University and University of Detroit are not too far away.

A lot of the people who are moving to Corktown are self-employed artists, musicians, and designers. They are coming to Detroit because the studio space and living space is so affordable, among other reasons.

I think that what bothers Detroiters is that decades of unfavorable and inaccurate publicity have given the American public the wrong idea about Detroit. Most Detroiters are normal people living normal lives. Their life is no different from yours. The city looks a little different from yours because there are a lot of vacant spaces, but the life lived there is a typical American life.

There's an argument to be made that Detroit invented the car culture as well as the car itself, so sprawl has alway been an aspect of the Detroit cityscape. It reall isn't very different from Southern california, in that regard. Metro Detroit is immense in area. Boston, Manhattan and San Fransisco would all fit inside the Detroit city limits, and the suburbs cover much more area than the city itself.

I-Like-To-Bike

Perhaps you could encourage some of the Detroit gentry to emmigrate, and Detroit Lighning might open up some new spaces for gardening in the formerly occupied lots.

Robert Foster

Yes, but what you are talking about in a positive note is a bit like the first Algebra questions were were asked in school about filling a bucket with a hole in it. Detroit is losing population according to all official estimates so how important is the move by some artistic types going to be. I know we have fought over terms before but once again according to the WSJ

"In 1950, Detroit was the fifth-largest city in America, behind New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and it was in the top 10 as recently as the 1990 Census. Now, Detroit is likely to fall to 19th, behind Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio."

This time no one can claim white flight because that isn't the population leaving. My question has to be simply what posible inducement could be offered to a reasonable family person to risk the future of their family on an attempt to rebuild a city. What is the something causing people to leave Detroit in such record numbers?

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...733151470.html

countersTrike

I ride 2 tadpole trikes: EZ-Tad and a Catrike Pocket. 6 years a fully enclosed velomobile, but no home - no velo!

Robert Foster

I have been tempted to get a bent trike as a base for a velo but it gets so warm here I don't know how well it would work. But I do like the idea of a trike bent. you always have a chair with you.

detroitJon

I'll bypass my vigorous defense of Detroit and just point out that there's a very successful hostel in Detroit that happens to be right behind Spaulding Court. It's a nice place to visit and a nicer place to live (as long as you don't have to deal with the schools).

Here are some pictures if you're interested: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...68556503160475

Roody

The article you linked to seems to have part of the answer:

It's a little like the frontier--lots of open spaces, cheap property, many opportunities to grow. We'll see if enough people like it to increase the population. Of course, some people are saying the population doesn't have to go up. It might be better just to reinvent the city with the smaller number of people thay have now. I checked this book out of the library but haven't read it yet. It got some good reviews:



https://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/1177...gining-Detroit
https://www.amazon.com/Reimagining-De.../dp/0814334695

I-Like-To-Bike

The books with a Detroit setting that I enjoyed were written by the Detroit Area's best fiction writer, Elmore Leonard. Try Swag or perhaps City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit.

Roody

Thanks for the suggestions. Have you read Loren Estleman and William X. Kienzle?

Robert Foster

The question that still hasn't been answered is why is detroit still losing population and why are the traditional minority population leading the migration, according to WSJ? I understand 30 something single artistic types moving into affordable areas even if those areas are not "prime" areas compared to where the majority of the population loss is moving. But bad rap or not someone must have an opinion why these open spaces are being created.

In every major city I have ever lived in or visited the artistic community has lived in or created a colony in an area that is not traditionally populated by families. For the artistic community price is one of the chief factors it seems. So yes people have presented the positive things that are changing the face of Detroit but what is the reason people are leaving today? Once again it isn't a class or race matter no matter how someone tries to slant it. The numbers of the last census simply do not support Detroit as a growing population in any real aspect. The OP asked a question about something that might interest prople that are leaving and I ask why are they leaving in the first place? I suspect urban blight has something to do with it if some of the links posted by Roody are to be believed.

myrridin

Such exodus' seem largely based upon economics. Lack of employment opportunities. We could argue about the reasons for such lack, but that would undoubtedly venture into a political discussion. The basic reason is simple: other areas offer better conditions for business, so business relocates to those areas and employment opportunities diminish in the less favorable area.

Something like low cost (or high desirability) housing only helps an area if employment is available. Usually such communities as the OP described would only serve to reshuffle the location of existing population, not bring in new population.

Given all of the desirables, how many would choose to live in Hawaii (or choose some other desirable spot), if they could find employment there? Indeed California, which has many desirable attributes seems to be experiencing an exodus, largely caused by the availability of jobs...