The Carcass Of A City -- Detroit: Formerly Elegant, Now Empty
I'm in Detroit for four days for the annual alternative newsweeklies conference. I worked as an intern during my senior year of high school at WDIV, Detroit's NBC station, which used to be downtown.
I got to drive downtown and hang out there on my lunch breaks.
That was in the 80s. The place was bustling and filled with people.
Now, even during the day, during the week, nobody's here, and the place is all run down and in ruins. (I'm pretty sure those people in the picture were fellow conference attendees heading to the evening event.)
This building below even had a tree growing right through it.
This, below, is the old Detroit Free Press building at around 9 p.m. on a Friday night. It's a ghost town.
Front of the Freep below.
There was one unexpected blast from my past during the conference: Detroit First Amendment lawyer Herschel P. Fink spoke. Afterward, I went up to thank him for what he does, talk free speech, and ask him if he knew Marc J. Randazza, the wonderful First Amendment lawyer who defended me pro bono when TSA worker Thedala Magee and her lawyer tried to squeeze $500K out of me.
I'd thought Fink looked somewhat familiar when he was speaking, but figured I was mistaken. But, no sooner did I say hello than he said, "I remember you from Michigania!"
That's University of Michigan family camp -- nerdy camp for adults, with a bunch of speakers all week, and stuff for kids to do like boating, arts 'n' crafts, etc. When I was a kid, my sisters and I used to go up north with my parents and stay in a cabin there for a week on Walloon Lake. I look pretty much like I did at 8, but I still find it amazing that he recognized me.
And finally, a beautiful book about Detroit -- both documenting the ruin it's become and showing hope for what it can be -- is Julia Reyes Taubman's Detroit: 138 Square Miles.
That's a fun story. That camp sounds like a much better deal than Ted, which has been getting some bad press lately. Growing up next to a large college campus conveys wonderful advantages... We just need to remember that those advantages were taken from taxpayers at gunpoint.
This, from an unexpected source, was the warmest thing I've seen about Detroit for years... But its Silver Lake-style hipsters come off like children playing on the abandoned set of a Hollywood Western.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at June 9, 2012 8:22 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/10/detroit_formerl.html#comment-3226038">comment from Crid [CridComment at gmail]Michigania was great. And Dr. Barbara Oakley also takes a considerable bit of shine off Zimbardo's reputation in her book "Evil Genes," though I don't have it with me and I'm too tired to "search inside this book" on Amazon.
Will look at Knoxville's doc when I'm on a better Internet connection. I'm guessing he's showing the Heidelberg Project. http://heidelberg.org/
Amy Alkon at June 9, 2012 8:43 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/10/detroit_formerl.html#comment-3226053">comment from Amy AlkonA bit from Oakley, but not very detailed, on Zimbardo here:
http://www.educationnews.org/articles/28811/1/An-Interview-with-Barbara-Oakley-Evil-Genes/Page1.html
Amy Alkon at June 9, 2012 9:01 PM
The tragedy of Detroit is that they had to purposefully forget how to organize the city in order to achieve the current squalor. The populace buys into wishful promises, then ignores the decline which results from that bad policy. The politicians blame everything but what they are doing, and do twice as much of the same. The people will not admit that they were fooled. They keep to this opinion all the way down.
Robert A Heinlein: Bad Luck
"Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded here and there, now and then, are the work of an extremely small minority. They are frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as bad luck."
Andrew_M_Garland at June 9, 2012 10:52 PM
In 1969 I toured the Free Press building with my Journalism class. It wasn't yet called "The Freep," and everybody still used typewriters, many of them still manual. Just about everybody we spoke to was thrilled to be working there!
This was pre-internet, pre-Woodward & Bernstein, and in those days it seemed a good reporter could be part of solving all the world's problems. It's so sad to see the building as just another empty building, when it used to be a place where magic happened.
Trudy W Schuett at June 10, 2012 1:09 AM
That's a Heinlein quote, Garland. great quote. (This is a very bad week to say such a thing, but: I don't much care for science-fiction types.)
But I think a majority of Americans have decided that there's nothing special about making money... Even making a LOT of money. It's just assumed that anyone who's been successful had the government at their back... And both Republicans and Democrats have done their God Damnedest to make that true.
Obama wasn't kidding when he said the private sector was "doing fine" earlier this week. The private sector is not a concern for him. If anything, government thinks the private sector is the enemy.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at June 10, 2012 1:27 AM
Bad, late night, Formula One-distracted typos. I meant to say your Heinlein quote was great....
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at June 10, 2012 1:37 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/10/detroit_formerl.html#comment-3226487">comment from Crid [CridComment at gmail]Great Heinlein quote, Andrew.
Here's mine -- and maybe not enough of a definition for you:
"Government: We're here to bend you over."
Amy Alkon at June 10, 2012 3:36 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/10/detroit_formerl.html#comment-3226490">comment from Amy AlkonI also like:
http://easyopinions.blogspot.com/2008/11/political-dictionary.html#BadLuck
Amy Alkon at June 10, 2012 3:39 AM
I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
I R A Darth Aggie at June 10, 2012 8:32 AM
I grew up in Saginaw. It's getting bad there, too. I'm so glad I left when I did - every time I go back to visit relatives is more depressing than the last.
Daghain at June 10, 2012 8:58 AM
I grew up reading Heinlein, I can honestly say he had a great deal of influence on my world view.
A few of my favorites are:
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.
Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes.
May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.
Kat at June 10, 2012 10:03 AM
Amy,
Here is the problem with government. As you point out, it announces "We're here to bend you over".
Then, it breaks half the people by bending them the wrong way, and often loses interest in the other half while filling out the paperwork.
Andrew_M_Garland at June 10, 2012 10:46 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/10/detroit_formerl.html#comment-3227071">comment from Andrew_M_GarlandHah, perfect, Andrew.
Amy Alkon at June 10, 2012 12:04 PM
While I never attended camp Michigania, I did spend many summers on lake Waloon. I have friends with a home on the lake. Hemingway used to live on the lake. His sister continued to live there until her death a few years back. It's a beautiful area.
AlllenS at June 10, 2012 8:25 PM
Here lies Blue State Model, 1932-2012. His rotundness was matched only by his sanctimoniousness.
Cousin Dave at June 11, 2012 9:44 AM
I got an email awhile back with photos of Hiroshima, 65 years after it was A-bombed, and Detroit, 65 years after it wasn't. I probably don't need to mention that the contrast didn't favor Detroit. . .
Rex Little at June 11, 2012 10:19 PM
Rex takes comment of the week. That is fuckin' fabulous.
Amy, send him a Goddessblog sports visor.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at June 11, 2012 10:52 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/10/detroit_formerl.html#comment-3229407">comment from Crid [CridComment at gmail]Rex absolutely wins the thread. The Goddessblog sports visor is in the mail.
Amy Alkon at June 11, 2012 11:21 PM
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