Will Detroit become a ghost city?

Post Reply New Topic

I was looking at abandon buildings on youtube and I come across downtown Detroit and I was so amazed by how many abandon buildings there were in the city. There were more videos about it and I was surprised at how many empty houses they have. I think it was marked as one of the worst cities in the USA. I also read it has the highest unemployment rate and lot of schools have shut down. I suppose people move because their kids have to go to school, they have to move for a job so I suppose they abandon their home because they can't sell it.
I have also noticed how the population has decreased since the 1950's. No wonder there are so many vacant buildings and houses. There is 900,000 something people left in the city.

I forgot to add "No, Obama will fix it, he said there will be change."

change could be Detroit is abandoned

People were talking about on youtube how they are hoping Obama will fix it and some argued the city can't be saved. The buildings look like Life After People.

Detroit will still have a purpose as a bordertown. though it may only need 50 000 people to do what is needed.

I think it will eventually get better, 8 years of Bush has ruined alot
of cities, urban decay is happening in alot of areas, not just Detroit.

Detriot was going downhill before Bush took office. I read the stories behind abandon buildings. The train station there shut down in 1988. The Lafayatte Building closed in 1997 and was shuttered. I read about other places there closing in the 90's. Some closed before that.

I don't see Detroit becoming a ghost city.

The problem with Detroit is that its economy was too dependent on the automotive industry, and didn't really invest in attracting other sectors (healthcare, technology, etc.).

Many cities in that part of the country are experiencing similar issues, though not as much as Detroit. They made manufacturing their main economic mainstay (which is why that part of the country is known as the "Rust Belt")

Another city with many pockets of urban decay is St. Louis. See the site below:

Built St. Louis

I'll invoke the spirit of Gerturde Stein and say this about Detroit: "There is no 'there' there!"

Could be. It looks like America's worst city at this stage.

The riots of '69 (or was it '68?) are to blame.

It was during Reagan's tenure that NYC, Chicago and Los Angeles got real bad.

the economy is dead, and the slums are getting worse, but there are rich parts of Detroit, those are just the places that have free baseball parking

It's only a matter of time until all of the old traditionally industrial cities in America go into decay. One only has to look at the Soviet Union to see close counterparts to what is taking place here today only they went through it all over 25 years ago. We're just playing catch-up in the game of change.

1967 actually. Lot of people blame it on that. I was thinking it wrecked the city but the population was going down before the riot took place but the riot could still be part of it. If you look at the videos on youtube or google. You will see all these abandon houses and buildings and some of the houses are burned and some are falling down and you will see mean comments about African Americans for the videos. The city just never rebuilt itself and cleaned up the mess. I wonder if they left the burnt buildings too.
There is also good parts of Detroit but lot of people seem to focus on the bad parts. There are even abandon cars.

I've spent a bit of time in Detroit. There are parts that are definitely a ghost town. Then there are the new "gated" housing developments. There shouldn't be any parking problems because there are so many vacant lots.

The mindset in Detroit needs to change. No one else is going to solve the problems of Detroit - the people need to find ways to pull together to solve the city's problems.

Z