Comments on: Fascinating Weekend Read: A House Tells the Story of What Happened to Detroit; UPDATE: Linked to Non-Subscription Version of WSJ Article

By: Lewis

Lewis — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:00:26 +0000

Musicgirl, you make a lot of sense.

Everywhere you go you will find people who take pride in their homes and those who don’t. Much of it is eduction: how you were raised to think of property care and maintenance. Another part of it is your own personal sense of self-worth.

The very vile racist commenters on this site only seek to exacerbate the extreme problems that racism cause in America.

By: Stop Sending Me His False Video: Steven Crowder Pulls “Facts” Out of His Butt

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:19:52 +0000

[...] Actually, as I noted at the end of October, it’s $7,100. Not that this is much better, but I don’t deal in “Steven Crowder pulled it out of [...]

By: Musiccgirl

Musiccgirl — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:46:05 +0000

I think one of the biggest issues here is first time home owners, mostly black, who never had the experience of maintaining a home as they grew up. My parents owned their home as I was growing up and it was not uncommon for me or my siblings to help dad on home repairs. Thus when I became a homeowner, I knew what was needed to maintain it. I am married to a black man (I am white) and we maintain the home together because he was also fortunate enough to have this experience growing up. There are parts of Flint that are primarily white and it is as run down as the low income black areas. It is a culture of pride (or lack thereof). We were brough up to take pride in our homes. Many were not or grew up in apartments where someone else was responsible for the upkeep. So start teaching these basic lifeskills again. We nned to get a sense of pride in our culture again. Do away with the mentality of owedness.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:56:01 +0000

My great uncle had to move out of Detroit in the 60′s because of the black tide.
I wasn’t born yet but as it turns out when my cousin was 5 years old the black kids would chase her home, beat her up, pull her hair out because of her skin color. All the time. She’s a nurse and the city is a hell hole. An old girlfriends dad did home improvements and had to let a thief take his tools after catching him as a knife was pulled on him and he had obeyed the law and carried no weapon. He vowed to never work another job in “D” town. I imagine if he’d have shot the black guy for his tools the riots would’ve started earlier. All over the country this scenario played out and the politicians let them take the cities and turn them into slums filled with crime.

By: CSM

CSM — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:53:52 +0000

You can read the article here for free:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.california/browse_thread/thread/ce26ab2d29597f52?pli=1

By: Steve Ventry

Steve Ventry — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:56:55 +0000

“Auto management and labor unions”?! Detroit was a wasteland before the auto industry went away. You never noticed Detroit went from White to black? Right along with all our schools in the 60′s? You don’t see a mild correlation there?

By: Steve Ventry

Steve Ventry — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:51:44 +0000

When have you ever seen a race of people use bayonets to push their own race out of the way, to allow a different race in? Only Whites have done this. And you think racism is evil? Hell, it’s normal. “Diversity” results in the death of the idiots who practice it.

By: Duck in Denver

Duck in Denver — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:40:59 +0000

DG….great observations……..the sense of entitlement cultivated since the 1960s does indeed bear a large responsibility for these conditions.

By: DG in GA

DG in GA — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:51:38 +0000

I grew up in suburban Detroit, and remember well the riots of the late 60′s. Liberal writers and politicians constantly criticize “white flight” as though the only reason middle and upper-middle class white people left the inner cities was to get away from black people. They left to get away from crime and poverty – which was exacerbated by the Lyndon Johnson “Great Society” programs of the late 60′s. What is sad – almost criminal – is how liberal programs have destroyed not only the City of Detroit but the great state of Michigan!

One question I do have is this: Those who criticize “white flight” seem to be saying that the only way a city can remain vibrant is if it is home to a majority of white people. Isn’t that racist? These same people supported busing schoolchildren in the 60′s (how well I remember THAT). Their argument appeared to be that the only way black children could learn anything is if they were sitting next to a white child. Isn’t that racist?

By: Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:56:28 +0000

Time Magazine has bought a house in one of those neighborhoods and will do a year-long series on Detroit. You see pictures of once proud hotels with grand pianos still in there – all teeming with leaks and rats now.

The Fisher Body plant, used by GM until the 1990s, is deserted.

The problem feeds on itself with so many abandoned houses and an occasional inhabited one – the police can’t cover everything with such a shrunken tax base. Someone suggested that the best thing to do is raze these neighborhoods and turn them into green belts.

At blame, of course, were both the auto management and the labor unions.

I tried linking to the WSJ article and like the other poster I’ll be darned if I will subscribe to them just to read an article.