Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
nytimes.com
Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
1–10 of 182 posts
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#2Detroit is an odd place.
For years of going there for work it was tough to find locally owned restaurants in favor of chains, it’s do-able but you might end up in weird places like a polish restaurant literally in the basement of a house a few blocks off Woodward.
The people who identify with Detroit really do so. There is at first an inexplicable pride of being “from the D”, but it’s nice, there are really diverse art scenes, I’ve had great food, and really most people are quite friendly for being eastern half of the country.
It’s an odd place.
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#3I make several trips to Detroit each year (entirely music related) and after every visit the voice in my head that says "move to Detroit" get's louder and louder. The place is definitely still having a rough time but it feels so much more promising over the last couple of years and I'd love to be there permanently. Just have to convince my wife...
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#4Detroit is an odd place. For years of going there for work it was tough to find locally owned restaurants in favor of chains, it’s do-able but you might end up in weird places like a polish restaurant literally in the basement of a house a few blocks off Woodward. The people who identify with Detroit really do so. There is at first an inexplicable pride of being “from the D”, but it’s nice, there are really diverse a…
> It’s an odd place.
This is the most bullish thing you can say. An odd place is special vs. the rest of generica.
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#5I lived in Brush Park and still walk through it on the way to Tigers games.
What's interesting about the handful of Victorian restorations is that there are large apartment buildings behind built around them, sometimes directly adjacent.
When they were being restored there were green vacant lots around, within a couple of years they could be in the shadow of the new buildings.
In walking through the neighborhood, I wondered if I'd move back there. I doubt it. It's still a bizarre city where there is very little downtown shopping, eerily quiet to walk around, almost no grocery stores. With the new bars and restaurants popping up, everyone said they wanted to live there, no-one I knew actually did it.
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#6Weird that the article does not cite a single economic or demographic indicator to support its assertion. For example, Detroit's population has declined so far this decade at about the same pace as it declined from 1990-2000 (though not at the disastrous pace it declined from 2000-2010, when the city lost a quarter of its population). Sounds like far from a revival.
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#7What are the economic indicators that things are looking up? The place is still losing population as of last year, and it's not even clear if it's slowing down.
http://www.dailydetroit.com/2017/05/25/detroit-continues-los...
(2016 appears to be the last year census data is available.)
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#8Detroit is an odd place. For years of going there for work it was tough to find locally owned restaurants in favor of chains, it’s do-able but you might end up in weird places like a polish restaurant literally in the basement of a house a few blocks off Woodward. The people who identify with Detroit really do so. There is at first an inexplicable pride of being “from the D”, but it’s nice, there are really diverse a…
> It’s an odd place.
That's exactly how I felt living in Baltimore. Now that I live in New York, everyone and everything seems so normal, but in a dull kind of way. America's downtrodden and resurgent smaller cities have a lot going for them in terms of culture, character, the resiliency of their people. I really hope they can find some measure of economic success.
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#9Detroit is an odd place. For years of going there for work it was tough to find locally owned restaurants in favor of chains, it’s do-able but you might end up in weird places like a polish restaurant literally in the basement of a house a few blocks off Woodward. The people who identify with Detroit really do so. There is at first an inexplicable pride of being “from the D”, but it’s nice, there are really diverse a…
Mario's[1] for excellent Italian food. Xoxhimilco[2] for excellent Mexican food. Antonio's[3] in the burbs. New Peking[4] in GC for excellent Chinese food.
I've lived in Michigan 30 years now. Came here for grad school, first at MSU, then down to Wayne State for Ph.D. Never left.
There is something about this place. Even when we are getting the crap kicked out of us ... we don't give up.
It took a long time to get rid of most of the corrupt city management. Some are still there, and the city council are generally throwbacks to the bad time.
Detroit school system is still ... crap. Private and charter schooling is doing a great job of fixing that, giving parents a choice, and forcing the schools to compete for students. This helps.
There are many other anachronisms throughout the region and state. Some of these are quaint, some of them are incredibly frustrating, off putting, etc.
If we could only attract more money to the area, this would be a great place to form small companies seeking to be large companies. Low burn rates/costs. Lots of talent that wants to escape the autos, and other failed regional initiatives (life science corridor anyone?). Ann Arbor has a nascent/tiny startup scene. Should be bigger.
[1] https://www.facebook.com/detroitmarios/
[2] http://www.xochimilcorestaurant.com/
Re: Detroit Was Crumbling, Now It's Reviving
#10Detroit is an odd place. For years of going there for work it was tough to find locally owned restaurants in favor of chains, it’s do-able but you might end up in weird places like a polish restaurant literally in the basement of a house a few blocks off Woodward. The people who identify with Detroit really do so. There is at first an inexplicable pride of being “from the D”, but it’s nice, there are really diverse a…
I went to that restaurant after I ran the 2014 Detroit Marathon...locked my wife(then girlfriend's) keys in her car. Great food!