A Moving Article on Detroit, Home of the Big Three

What Matt Labash describes is deader than San Francisco.

I grew up in the Detroit area. I have driven by virtually every one of the places he describes. That was before the 1967 riots, which happened the day my ex and I got married in Grosse Pointe.

The last time I visited was in about 1975. I saw the burned out shells both in 1967 when I came back from the honeymoon and all during my final year year in the area rounding out my engineering masters degree at Univ of Mich.

2000 buildings destroyed in a spasm of human discontent have an undeniable emotional impact like a physical blow. The description shows this has spread.

Empty shells of buildings had their impact even in the 70s on my two visits to the in-laws. Most of those were tenements. Matt described major office buildings abandoned.

I cannot deny that the druggies, needles, and all that nonsense in San Francisco is bad. Their police are not out gunned, out manned, untrained, and unequipped as far as I can see. The Detroit police are. Have the fire stations in San Francisco been stripped of their brass poles for their cash value?

Detroit is not just dead, she has been humiliated in her dying. Anything that could have provided a tax base has been driven out. I saw that start.

I cannot say, as a fugitive from the Detroit area, that I am at all fond of the city. But what has happened to her leaves me heartbroken.

I watched Detroit start to die while I was in college. So I saw much of how it began. What frightens me at the moment is that the state of California is trying for a replay on a much grander scale. That's Democratic party leadership for you.

{o.o} Joanne Dow said that.

Mike, I'd love to hear your reactions from reading it. My view was from both the North and mostly the East of Detroit while yours was from the North.

JD of CA 4:41AM December 23, 2008