Detroit as seen through an outsider's eyes

[Simon Bar Sinister]

Time magazine is doing a yearlong series of reports on Detroit. In this week's installment, this test short (a "taster" for a full-length doc) was featured. It's 26 minutes long, but well worth the watch.

[Slogo]

I don't care. I still love the city. I've both the good and bad sides of it.

[darknight1]

Something tells me this will be a lot like that report either ABC or NBC Nightly News did on Detroit years ago.

[KatRN05]

I think the city still has tons of potential. I'm hoping Bing remains in office after the election and we get some city council members who won't parade around and make asses of themselves.

[taysteewonderbunny]

That was really beautiful and mostly congruent with my experience here, especially when I lived on the west side and rode the Warren crosstown bus from one end of the line to the other every day. I saw blocks with only one or two houses on them, vacant lots converted to watermelon patches, but also some smaller, and though not bustling, relatively stable storefront areas. There are some gaps in the feature. None of Detroit's art and cultural centers were featured, nor were any of the still surviving and relatively affluent neighborhoods. I love Detroit. I have many hopes for it. I still think I would fare better elsewhere, sadly.

[pomba gira]

I think the city still has tons of potential. I'm hoping Bing remains in office after the election and we get some city council members who won't parade around and make asses of themselves.

The city council members are the key. Detroit has been run by self-serving jackasses for decades, and it's created a whole culture of corruption.

I can't stand living in Detroit... but it's still Home, and I want to see the city do well. I hope the doc shows some of the beauty of Detroit as well as the blight... there are still beautiful neighborhoods and thriving retail centers, and they really aren't that hard to find.

[Onyx]

Interesting report.

Love the urban gardening idea and hope it catches on more (but I wish some of those little farms were neater. They could really beautify things a lot and provide food and even employment, but there's no reason for them to look so trashy).

I would love Detroit to thrive again. Probably industry won't return in any major way but maybe that fellow in the film has a point. Maybe things are turning back for us all to a different economy, with trading, bartering, more farming, less corporate.

Edited October 17, 2009 by Onyx

[Jacques Treatment]

I would love Detroit to thrive again. Probably industry won't return in any major way but maybe that fellow in the film has a point. Maybe things are turning back for us all to a different economy, with trading, bartering, more farming, less corporate.

There are a number of things that Detroit can do to thrive again:

1) Make the connection between motors (which change energy into motion) and turbines (which turn motion into energy), and convert the auto industry into green energy industry, building windmills and wind turbines. There's plenty of extra money available from the government to build this portion of the "smart grid," so why not use it constructively. We have the factories--some will just need a bit of conversion work.

2) Nurture the budding Michigan film industry. (That's part of what SMACC is all about.) Of course, we're going to have to change the way the THEATRE portion of the industry works, too, but that's easy enough.

3) Turn our weaknesses into strengths. Have some high-school gardening courses as biology electives; they could grow on small parcels of land on school grounds, and the vegetables grown could be used in the cafeteria (or by home economics classes at the same school). Make arrangements with Habitat for Humanity to have educational building projects to reduce urban blight.

4) Along the lines of (3), above: Get some "reality programming" here, wherein people are given demolition vehicles and given the chance to destroy selected buildings. Locals win prizes, Detroit no longer has to pay for the demolition process, and people get to watch the blight come down on national TV. Everybody wins.

Hold on. I think I'm going to have to pitch that last one to somebody.

--J,

I have no joke here, I just like saying, "Urban Renewal"

[darknight1]

The city council members are the key. Detroit has been run by self-serving jackasses for decades, and it's created a whole culture of corruption.

I can't stand living in Detroit... but it's still Home, and I want to see the city do well. I hope the doc shows some of the beauty of Detroit as well as the blight... there are still beautiful neighborhoods and thriving retail centers, and they really aren't that hard to find.

Sadly this is a dying city though. Not only does Detroit's problems fall directly with these self-serving jackasses who dare call themselves "City Council", but also what I perceive to be an extremely corrupt auto industry. As long as you have a thing known as Big Oil in existence, the auto industry will not see much change until it's too late. It's directly connected to the massive amount of urban decay throughout the Detroit area. Free trade is yet another factor. At no other point since the dawn of the Industrial Age has this nation experienced such a massive free fall as it's in. It's why I laugh when I hear these so-called "experts" (unemployed mouthpieces to be honest) go out there into the media and say that we're finally turning around. No, we're not. We'll be in this for a long time, and Michigan, to be quite honest, is not the best spot to be in if you're out of work or barely working. For years, men such as Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Lee Ioccoca, and (laughably enough) Ross Perot have laid out brilliant plans on how to permanently end our problems with unemployment, homelessness, and countless other issues that are more or less a result of free trade and involvement in world affairs, yet nobody will listen to them. For instance, this ridiculous and rather sorry ordeal many have the guts to call a health care reform "debate". We all know the outcome of this already: nothing will be done. Partially, it's due to these sorry assholes who attack the idea of universally free health, vision and dental care for all as being "socialists" or even more dubiously as "communists". These morons are of the type and background where their primary experience with said systems dates back to long ago treks to the former Soviet Union, our former adversary for much of the 20th century, and also Cuba (why we cannot grow some balls and get over this ridiculous taboo over even dealing with Cuba is stupid). The UK and most of Western Europe implements universal health care systems in their nations and aren't called communist or socialist. So what's the problem here? Another aspect of this are the drug companies and the food companies. Both are extremely close. Food companies will put who knows how many pathogens into the things we eat, making us sick again and again, while the drug companies are happy just to sit back and treat the symptoms, and not even make an attempt to cure anything. No small wonder no cure for cancer has surfaced yet (I suspect that cures for countless diseases and minor illnesses are locked up somewhere, but they won't release them for fear of losing their precious profits). And with the auto industry - it's simple: as long as oil exists, we'll never see any change there. It also doesn't help that too many third world nations are all too willing to offer up little to no taxes and workers who will basically be doing slave labor for very little wages to the auto industry in return for leaving America. I think it's time we start criminalizing that. I bet you then no company would dare uproot American workers from their factory jobs and devastate entire regions in the process.

[Simon Bar Sinister]

this is the opening segment from a special which aired on BBC2 last Saturday. Hopefully, BBC America will pick it up.

[candyman]

this is the opening segment from a special which aired on BBC2 last Saturday. Hopefully, BBC America will pick it up.

Wow now I really want to see this. Never knew it was that bad...just heard bits and pieces. Sadly I doubt much can be done to bring it back now. Too many things were let go and it seems that what is left is being stamped into submission. Squeeze the auto industry by the balls any more and POOF it will all be gone.

And to darknight1...look at Europe...and I mean LOOK at Europe right now. Its all shitty and we can either stay like we are which is being ass raped or we can go to what they have which is...well, the same shit just in a few different languages. Getting rid of big oil will also do nothing for Detroit or any of us. Actually, those large industries that are now sitting vacant were put out of business because of US! It was the people, the government, and the economy that made them hollow shells. People following the environmental way probably don't care...but those factories could be put to good use for what we want but that will probably never happen. You talk about politicians being stuck in Cold War Era thinking...well how about the people that only see large factories as they were back in the Industrial Revolution. Detroit is the PERFECT example of what happens when you toss the baby out with the bath water...it is a landmark of things to come to all of us if we don't actually expand out way of thinking PAST what we think is modern thinking. Change is not always bad...but look what it did to Detroit...

[Jacques Treatment]

Wow now I really want to see this. Never knew it was that bad...just heard bits and pieces. Sadly I doubt much can be done to bring it back now. Too many things were let go and it seems that what is left is being stamped into submission. Squeeze the auto industry by the balls any more and POOF it will all be gone.

That's the really stupid thing--it doesn't HAVE to be "all gone." Motors, especially electrical ones, have a lot in common with turbines: motors take energy and convert it into motion, while turbines take motion and turn it into energy. It would be VERY easy for any of these companies to switch from building cars to making windmills and other wind-harnessing devices--they'd just need to have their parts suppliers build different molds for new parts (it's not like they don't do this on a regular basis, anyway). They'd even be able to draw on government grants related to building the green energy "smart grid."

[candyman]

That's the really stupid thing--it doesn't HAVE to be "all gone." Motors, especially electrical ones, have a lot in common with turbines: motors take energy and convert it into motion, while turbines take motion and turn it into energy. It would be VERY easy for any of these companies to switch from building cars to making windmills and other wind-harnessing devices--they'd just need to have their parts suppliers build different molds for new parts (it's not like they don't do this on a regular basis, anyway). They'd even be able to draw on government grants related to building the green energy "smart grid."

I know about engines I took the engineering courses for them. A lot in common only goes so far...its called the 80/20 rule...80% of the stuff is cheap and easy to do while the other 20% is going to be painful.

After going through WAY too many case studies on the wind turbine systems in my materials and other engineering classes I don't see an advantage that will be what people want. Yes it can improve some things...but not what people want or expect and it will be a really expensive, loud, large shadow casting, skyline killing forest of giant pinwheels. INDIVIDUAL efforts I totally agree with. They are far more efficient and with the right home kit people could really loosen their dependence on the grid. A few props on your roof, maybe even a solar cell, and a small battery system would make anyone happy. But why ask the auto industry to take on this project? There are TONS of out of work engineers and technicians, me included, that would KILL to work at a newly re-opened factory in Detroit that was opened to mass-produce cheap home energy systems.

One thing the auto industry could contribute to would be a decent option for methane powered generators. If the government wanted to fund something that creates power, is cheap, is proven to work very well, and won't take up lots of space in the beautiful wilderness then funding a program to get as many farmers as possible on the methane power generation thing as possible would be great. Right now that lack of properly priced and built methane generators is sad...

If they want a "smart grid" they should by all means make it...but keep it small and local without giant farms where efficiency goes down and jobs are at a minimum.