Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[hack]

Canada doesn't have an insane umemployment rate and it doesn't look like Nuremberg c1945. Detroit is a gigantic third world ghetto. It's unbelievably bad. About half of the city has been abandoned. You could shoot a post-apocalyptic movie there without having to build any sets. There isn't another city in the first world, except for maybe New Orleans, where the failure of elected leadership has been more obvious and more disastrous than Detroit.

Even if that's true it does nothing to prove your point. is it true? I don't know. You could look at Windsor and note that the place does not look like Detroit and Windsor has faced the same economic challenges as Detroit. You could wonder what's different and take note, but I don't think you really want to do that, Hanni. I know your politics; you won't like the answer. But, yeah -- New Orleans. Wiz pointed out DC. A good friend from St. Louis that lives here now jokes about how sometimes he can go get a good reminder of home with a drive through Detroit. I can show you parts of Florida and parts of Texas that I've seen that are essentially third-world in terms of basic infrastructure. And of course there's Baltimore.

Detroit simply isn't exceptional.

[Mike]

Detroit proper is without a doubt one of the shittiest places in the first world. It's not even debateable.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Are there good neighborhoods in Detroit? Having been to DC a lot, I can report it's a city of extremes. The NW part of the city is ridiculously wealthy. Everywhere around the White House, the Mall is very nice too. The East or SE in Anacostia is where things are bad. Come into DC from the East along New York Ave and you will see some bad neighborhoods.

Overall nowhere near as awful as Baltimore though.

[hack]

Detroit proper is without a doubt one of the shittiest places in the first world. It's not even debateable.

Sure. But the argument here is that Detroit voters have a unique ability to screw it up for themselves, and perhaps an implication that they get what they deserve. I'm simply trying to point out that people are easily fooled by politicians. It's the same whether those people are rich or poor or black or white or homogenous or diverse or whatever.

What makes Detroit special isn't that its voters relish voting for corrupt bastards. The factors that go into a comprehensive Story of Detroit are numerous and interesting and could be discussed further, but my only point here is that Detroit's voters aren't unique in their ability to be fooled by politicians.

[lineygoblue]

I would mention the 800 lb gorilla sitting in the room, but nobody wants to pay attention to him anyway.

[DennisT]

Let's just leave Rob F out of this.

[Hannibal]

Sure. But the argument here is that Detroit voters have a unique ability to screw it up for themselves, and perhaps an implication that they get what they deserve. I'm simply trying to point out that people are easily fooled by politicians. It's the same whether those people are rich or poor or black or white or homogenous or diverse or whatever.

What makes Detroit special isn't that its voters relish voting for corrupt bastards. The factors that go into a comprehensive Story of Detroit are numerous and interesting and could be discussed further, but my only point here is that Detroit's voters aren't unique in their ability to be fooled by politicians.

Unique? No

Especially potent? Yes. You do make a point about people being fooled by politicians, but most people have some kind of limit. Some breaking point where they will finally conclude that a change is needed. The people of Detroit don't.

I'm not really sure what your point about Windsor is. Coleman Young was never their mayor and, incidentally, Windsor isn't a gigantic toilet. I'm not really sure what this has to do with my politics either. In my lifetime, Detroit has never been run by people who even remotely share my politics.

Are there good neighborhoods in Detroit? .

I'm pretty sure there aren't any. Since the end of World War II, I'd be interested in seeing statistics that show whether any other major city in the world (>1 Million) has lost as high a percentage of its population as Detroit. As of now, I think that it has lost over 60%.

[WM Wolverine]

I have a good bit of family in very nice neighborhoods in Oakland and Macomb counties.

[lineygoblue]

I imagine that there are some fairly decent neighborhoods in the city limits of Detroit, but I wouldn't know the first place to go looking for them.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I imagine that there are some fairly decent neighborhoods in the city limits of Detroit

Uhhhhhh.....ok. I spent 10 weeks in the Detroit area one summer for a project I was on. 3 weeks in downtown and 7 weeks in the burbs. Burbs were nice. Stayed up by Troy and had a good time. The first week in downtown we were staying downtown. Horrific. The next two weeks we moved our hotel back to the Troy area and commuted and made sure we were the hell out of downtown by 5PM every day.

There are parts of ATL that are scary but nothing like the inner city of Detroit. Wow.

[WM Wolverine]

You afraid of people just because they have a glock and follow you around if you wear nice clothes?

[THE_WIZARD_]

That and they spray paint "honkey lips" on my car...

[THE_WIZARD_]

Wait...that was in St. Louis...nevermind...

[Optimus Prime]

You afraid of people just because they have a glock and follow you around if you wear nice clothes?

As a backup to your primary concealed weapon, with this little bad boy, you only need fear Jesus, (that's por Dios, Jesucristo or "Jes?s (Hey Soos)" ) to our Mexican friends south of the Rio Grande or the 12 million illegals living in the Estados Unidos.

[lineygoblue]

I'm afraid I'd shoot my fingers off just pulling that thing out ...

... but it IS cool ....