15 ms·

Detroit in Ruins

269 points by rglover 15y ago

jsavimbi 15y ago
I'd never seen water flowing out of a basement before.
kleeg 15y ago
Are there significant policies that contribute to this blight? Seems like such a waste.
encoderer 15y ago
If you want to see a side of this story the MSM doesn't cover, watch this great documentary with Johnny Knoxville: http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit
- pyre 15y ago
  That link didn't work for me, but this one did: http://www.palladiumboots.com/video/detroit-lives#part1 http://www.palladiumboots.com/video/detroit-lives#part1
jeffepp 15y ago
There is a TON of opportunity in Detroit. A lot of smart money has already started pouring into the city.
- kevinskii 15y ago
  Care to elaborate?
  - GaltMidas 15y ago
    I think Dan Gilbert spent all of his Lebron money on skyscrapers and Detroit Venture Partners for one. Pete Karmanos for two.
- jjm 15y ago
  I know all about that city, and let me tell you I seriously doubt it is anything close to the opportunity that exists elsewhere. Just because 'some' money is coming in doesn't mean it will come out of the slump that _IS_ Detroit. Between scandals (do i really need to cite?), poor getting even poorer (which is insane), the violence[1][2], and people leaving [3], it makes it a hard choice for anyone to want and stay. The real unemployment rate is hovering around 50%[4] for goodness sake! It will take years and hundreds of times more money that is coming in to get that city back. Until that happens the city is not going anywhere but down. Though houses are being given away for $1000[4], and stats that show it is really cheap to live in Detroit (really, i wonder why) doesn't mean it's a good deal! If your a hacker, debug your situation. Get out before you get caught in a segfault or infinite loop. A good place to start investigating: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/06/29/the-best-places-for-business-and-careers/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/06/29/the-b... [1] http://www.freep.com/article/20110727/NEWS01/107270448/Despite-dip-violent-crime-Detroit-homicides-still-rise http://www.freep.com/article/20110727/NEWS01/107270448/Despi... [2] http://www.detnews.com/article/20110808/METRO01/108080359/Detroit-will-put-desk-cops-on-street-to-stop-rising-murder-rate http://www.detnews.com/article/20110808/METRO01/108080359/De... [3] http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/24/vanishing-city-the-story-behind-detroit%E2%80%99s-shocking-population-decline/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/24/vanishing-city-the-story... I haven't even seen the 2011 stats yet, but 2000-2009 clearly showed a huge decline. I wouldn't be surprised if 2011's numbers are accelerated. [4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/detroits-unemployment-rat_n_394559.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/detroits-unemployme...
  - jjm 15y ago
    About the houses, I didn't cite correctly. There is a missing bullet. [5] http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/08/detroit-mayor-dave-bing-offers-cops-abandoned-homes-for-1-000/ http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/08/detroit-mayor-dave-bing-of...
  - jeffepp 15y ago
    It's pretty clear you don't know "all about" Detroit, it's nice that you quote a few articles though (especially one from 2009). The opportunity that I mentioned is not in residential (yet) although I would be a buyer of raw land near downtown. There are some truly awful areas, but there are also some really great areas of Detroit -- especially Midtown -- where there are very low vacancy rates and an influx of college grads who want to live in a vibrant urban environment. Billionaires are buying (with both hands) commercial buildings for pennies on the dollar. I'm going to bet they know a bit more about "opportunity" than the authors of your articles.
saturdaysaint 15y ago
This is unsympathetically referred to as "ruin porn" around Detroit. Yes, there are an exceptional amount of abandoned buildings (there are about 600,000 people in a city that could probably comfortably hold 3x that), but there are also world class universities, sports arenas, restaurants concert venues, houses and apartments, etc. http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/htdocs/something-something-something-detroit-994.php http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/htdocs/something-something...
- trotsky 15y ago
  A few thoughts on “ruin porn” from the site admin: http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47 http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47
  - pyre 15y ago
    > How would you feel about an unending stream of > tourists arriving daily in your hometown to pick > over the carcasses of your ruined neighborhoods, > taking pictures of devastation to show their friends, > stealing souvenirs to hang on their walls at home, > and leaving without making even the slightest effort > to understand or improve the condition of your city? I'm curious why one would expect tourists to improve the condition of the city. Most tourists don't go places to volunteer as part of a rebuilding error. Also a great comment here: http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47#comment-14 http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47#comment-14
    - cafard 15y ago
      Is Detroit really troubled with an unending stream of tourists?
      - nitrogen 15y ago
        Were that the case, it should be easy to make enough money off of them to restore the city.
- TomOfTTB 15y ago
noelwelsh 15y ago
I'd like to know more background on this. Why don't people move into the empty buildings? Housing in the UK is fairly scarce and empty buildings are likely to be colonised by squatters. After ten years or so squatters can actually claim the property. I thought artists would like the opportunity to get a big studio at a discount rate, and hackers who are bootstrapping would sure make their capital go a lot further in Detroit.
- neutronicus 15y ago
  Detroit is crime-ridden and cold. Why not just move to another part of the US?
  - noelwelsh 15y ago
    Sure it's cold, but it's cheap and apparently still has decent facilities. I'm not sure on the crime -- how much is that story a media beat-up? Are there other parts of the US where you can be near a large urban centre and pay virtually nothing? (It's an honest question! And yes, I could probably look this up somewhere.)
    - stevenbedrick 15y ago
      "Anecdote isn't the plural of datum", and all of that, but here's a point for the scatterplot. I was in Detroit visiting family a year or so ago, and we spent a day driving around the downtown area sightseeing (featuring commentary by elderly relatives about theaters, stores, restaurants, etc.). At one point, while leaving the Indian Village neighborhood, we came across a police roadblock; a series of U-turns and detours revealed that, in fact, the police had closed off an area several blocks on a side including a good-sized stretch of Jefferson (a major road in Detroit). There were several police helicopters buzzing around, lots of armed cops, etc. etc. This was during rush hour. After talking to some of the officers and some bystanders, we discovered what was happening: somebody had, upon being evicted from some sort of residential treatment facility, begun threatening people with a gun. When the police arrived, he shot at them, and then ran away. The police were currently trying to figure out which of several buildings he was in, and had closed off most of a neighborhood as well as a major street to try and contain the situation.[1] In most cities, this sort of thing (major police operation, shots exchanged between police and armed member of public, street closures, etc.) would have been big news; that night, none of the local news broadcasts even mentioned it (one traffic report that afternoon did mention the closure of Jefferson, but didn't go into details). No headlines in the paper the next day, either.[2] My point here is that this sort of thing was apparently commonplace enough that it wasn't considered to be a newsworthy event, and none of my Detroit relatives seemed particularly surprised or concerned. 1. Notably, the particular chunk of neighborhood in question was at least half-abandoned (judging from the amount of ivy covering every second house). 2. Technically, by "the paper the next day," I mean the Detroit Free Press's website. At that point in time the DFP wasn't printing week-day paper editions.
riceadam 15y ago
Being from Detroit, it's great to see young tech companies springing up in the city but I think that video Knoxville did with Palladium Boots sugar coats things a bit too much. Hipsters starting underground bars/clubs and photographing urban decay is not going to revive the city. A plan for a $500m railway was recently approved and I can't see any way it's going to be successful in its first phase. My main issue with the proposal as it is now is the fact that the line only extends to 8 mile. For those of you unfamiliar with the city, the mile roads lie parallel to the Detroit River and span outwards all the way into rural areas. Driving into the city, things start to go downhill fast around 8 mile -- which is why everyone knows what it is now thanks to Eminem's movie. If I'm going to a sporting event or casino from my house in the burbs, I'm not going to drive 15 minutes to 8 mile, park my car in a shady parking lot, and get on a train when I could just drive another 15 minutes instead. Anyway, for this new train venture to be even remotely successful I think the track would have to extend to at least 12 mile if the city is looking for an influx of wealthy suburbanites.
JAVagueArgument 15y ago
From an entrepreneurial perspective this web site is a gold mind for film locations and location scouts. Sad as it is that this is the state of such a city, but it could be turned on it's head for profit.
- riceadam 15y ago
  Unfortunately, Rick Snyder is doing away with the state's film industry credits: http://thedc.com/nPBpLQ http://thedc.com/nPBpLQ Thanks, Rick!
  - JAVagueArgument 15y ago
    Yeah, that isn't good, but just means location scouts and film makers will have to get creative, now there is a real challenge for an entrepreneur.
edw519 15y ago
It doesn't have to be this way. Perhaps with some planning and leadership, Detroit could follow Pittsburgh's example: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/11/pittsburghs_renaissance_holds.html http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/11/pittsburghs_renaissa...
- pitdesi 15y ago
  Yes. See also: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/can-pittsburgh-save-detroit/ http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/can-pittsburgh-save-de... http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/changing-gears-what-detroit-might-learn-pittsburgh http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/changing-gears-what-det... Honestly though, all of these studies harp on different things that Pittsburgh has done than Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, etc... but the main thing that Pittsburgh has that pulls it through is fine research universities (mostly CMU and Pitt). Detroit doesn't have that, and it's hard to build. Yes, Ann Arbor is only 45 minutes away... but it's really worlds away. (I went to CMU and UMich, CMU is much more Pittsburgh than UMich is Detroit)
arethuza 15y ago
David Byrne did an excellent article based on cycling through Detroit: http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2010/09/092310-dont-forget-the-motor-city.html http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2010/09/092310-dont-forget-the... Interesting to read about Glagow being used as a positive reference for post-industrial regeneration!
GaltMidas 15y ago
They aren't very up to date. Many of these have been replaced. The velodrome is maintained by people who simply like to ride. It doesn't look like that picture at all. We get it. There are many urban wasteland piles of crap and thousands of houses that are abandoned. Downtown Detroit is represented here by about 5% of what is actually there as far as ruins go. Next to the skyscrapers are brand new buildings housing Quicken and CompuWare among many others. Dan Gilbert actually bought a couple of the buildings shown here to move the rest of his people into. "Skyscrapers are on sale!" -- Dan Gilbert at TedXDetroit. It's not perfect but I wonder how many people actually think that this is what is "normal". I mean come on...Irish Hills? They aren't even in the same metro area, let alone Detroit. I would need a map to even find them. Next to the "CPA" Building is one of the hottest restaurants for hundreds of miles.
tomlin 15y ago
This isn't just a Detroit problem. Residents of just about every mid-to-high pop. city could pick a few eerily similar buildings on this site left in the very same states. Living in Ontario, Canada, I can say our situation isn't quiet as progressed as Detroit, but the cracks are definitely starting to show. I think Detroit shows signs of what is to come on a larger scale if we don't start putting people and civics as a front-and-center issue. Detroit's pain should serve as a great education and not simply thought of as a worst case scenario. Not all is lost for Detroit, as it is in a great position of pivot that would normally be masked by the bureaucracy of a "well run" city.
RexRollman 15y ago
For the stupid people (me), can anyone tell me what the "urbex" after Detroit means? I didn't see it on the website.
- psyklic 15y ago
  urban exploration
  - Luyt 15y ago
    Thanks, I thought it was 'urban exploitation' ;-)
ethank 15y ago
What bugs me about the poverty-porn you see from Detroit is that if you really wanted to, you could do the same documentation in the wealthiest segments of Los Angeles, just by going a few blocks over. If I really wanted to, I could take my DSLR over to Canoga Park in Los Angeles and make it seem like I'm in a third world country. It's less than a mile from my home.
- probablycorey 15y ago
  Sure, you can do that in certain parts of LA. But you can see these ruins almost everywhere in Detroit. It's really one of the most depressing cities I've ever been to.
  - jrwoodruff 15y ago
    Yea - Detroit is a sobering experience. I was honestly in shock the first time I went downtown. Bad parts of town and abandoned or nearly abandoned plazas are not new to me, but the scale of decay in Detroit - 20,000 people on the streets! - is overwhelming and depressing.
  - ethank 15y ago
    Just down the street from me is a house that has been abandoned for a few years. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.172165,-118.634398&ll=34.172204,-118.634384&spn=0.000826,0.000603&sll=34.1701,-118.65773&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&num=1&t=h&z=21 http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.172165,-118.634398&ll=3... If I wanted to take some photos it'd be nice ruin porn. Of course the properties to the right and left are million dollar homes.
    - probablycorey 15y ago
      I get your point that there is "ruin porn" in almost any city. I don't think you get my point though. Detroit is almost entirely "ruin porn", there are no million dollar homes next to any ruins in Detroit, I doubt there are any million dollar homes in Detroit at all.
- nkh 15y ago
winestock 15y ago
My brothers run a property service company that maintains foreclosed homes in Detroit and parts northwest of it. When they need extra help, I ride along with them. Detroit and Pontiac are not the kinds of places that one would care to go by oneself, even for muscular young men. On more than one occasion, we would be approached by "youths" (one of them wasn't even that young) who were clearly drug dealers. One of my brothers confirmed this to me. The smell of marijuana smoke was another tell. Once, we were leaving a property just as several police cars were converging on a group of huddled young men. Those young men had been giving us the evil eye and my brother hurried us out of there. In some houses, the mold grew as tufts of fur spackling the walls in patches bigger than a man's hand. Garbage, broken furniture, and other debris was piled higher than our waists in some houses; the previous tenants had been mentally ill hoarders. We hiked through those rooms more than we walked into them. Last winter, we found a house where ice covered the basement up to a foot below the roof. I stepped on the ice on the stairs going down and my foot cracked through. I missed a cold and putrid bath by catching the walls just in time. When they first went into that business, my brothers were assured that -- sooner or later -- they would come upon a drug house or a dead body. I live in the suburbs. I do not want to live in Detroit.
- ryanwhitney 15y ago
  Their prediction sounds accurate to me. A few years ago my friends and I checked out the old DPS Book Depository. After walking around, we decided against going inside. Later that winter a frozen body turned up in the elevator shaft. While there might be hope in some new downtown lofts with development spreading outward, the neighborhoods surrounding Detroit are just plain scary, even to drive through.
- jacksonpollack 15y ago
  Since you tend to go there only when dealing with foreclosed homes, perhaps you aren't seeing some of the nicer places? I have plenty of friends who live in Detroit and love it. I used to live there myself and loved it. Yes, there is ruin porn a-plenty, and many nasty areas. But there are also neighborhoods where you can live for really cheap and be part of a great, caring community. Of course, I'm sure my thoughts on the matter in no way reflect the majority's opinion. I've lived in Toronto for 4 years now, and not a day goes by without me pining to go back to Detroit.
tomotomo 15y ago
Each year a large number of people come to Detroit from around the world to photograph and then publish either articles or entire books on the "ruin porn" in Detroit. Some of these books sell for a pretty penny. But a number of the subject buildings in these photos have been redeveloped over the years: http://www.dtownie.com/2011/08/10/the-mecca-of-ruin-porn http://www.dtownie.com/2011/08/10/the-mecca-of-ruin-porn
shawnee_ 15y ago
This is just plain disturbing (also, does not require a bunch of clicking) http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/02/07/captured-the-ruins-of-detroit/2672/ http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/02/07/captured-the...
nkh 15y ago
I grew up in Michigan. If you want to see some of the prominent architecture that has been abandoned check out this site: http://www.forgottendetroit.com/ http://www.forgottendetroit.com/ If you drive down Woodward Ave. to go to a Tigers game you get the sense you are in postwar Germany in parts. Some of the highrise buildings have facades on them so they look like functional buildings from the baseball stadium. However when you walk around the back side, the windows are blown out and they are abandoned.
- lukejduncan 15y ago
  Another great one from an amazing photographer http://www.lostdetroit.com/ http://www.lostdetroit.com/
- sneak 15y ago
  I grew up in Detroit. I presently live in Berlin and have for several years. I disagree with your analogy.
dkastner 15y ago
My new business plan: 1. Abandon the city for the wealthy suburbs 2. Leave the poor behind, defund infrastructure 3. Sell tours and photos of neglect and destruction 4. Profit! Some things to consider: * While the population of Detroit proper has fallen, the total population of the metro area has remained fairly static over the past 40-50 years http://www.somacon.com/p469.php http://www.somacon.com/p469.php * The Detroit suburbs are just as nice as your typical American suburbia. * The State of Michigan is training hundreds of Emergency Financial Managers who now have the power to go into any municipality the State deems "financially unsustainable," dissolve local governments, and terminate any contracts (union or otherwise) in order to force a balanced budget. So while urban areas continue to be defunded by the state and by fleeing wealthy residents, they are put in the precarious position of trying to balance their budgets or risk a hostile takeover. * Meanwhile, we all have a good time looking at the pictures.
rmason 15y ago
Some see chaos, others see opportunity. The story you're not reading about Detroit is that after hitting rock bottom in 2008 it's starting to turn around. I've got a friend Henry Balanon who was recruited to a new startup, Detroit Labs, which is backed by Detroit Venture Partners http://www.modeldmedia.com/startupnews/detroitlabs080911.aspx http://www.modeldmedia.com/startupnews/detroitlabs080911.asp... Though it's been slow in getting started because of the state's right to farm law that never anticipated urban farming things are moving forward. http://www.freep.com/article/20110808/BUSINESS04/108080324/Commercial-farming-start-Detroit-1-000-trees http://www.freep.com/article/20110808/BUSINESS04/108080324/C... I've personally witnessed a number of 'unnofficial' farming efforts already underway that have never sought city permission. Also the city under Mayor Bing has started to direct more of their limited resources towards neighborhoods that can be saved and away from lost causes. http://www.detnews.com/article/20110729/METRO01/107290367/1409/metro/Bing-ready-to-make-%E2%80%98hard-decisions%E2%80%99-to-revitalize-neighborhoods http://www.detnews.com/article/20110729/METRO01/107290367/14... There have been two very successful Maker Faire's in Detroit that have showcased the enormous talent in the city. http://www.detnews.com/article/20110730/METRO01/107300364/1409/METRO/Maker-Faire-showcases-local-inventions http://www.detnews.com/article/20110730/METRO01/107300364/14... There are urban pioneers that are remaking entire neighborhoods. There's huge opportunites in the city, you just have to pick your spots.
- nowarninglabel 15y ago
  Tooting our horn again, but Kiva is another one that sees opportunity: http://www.kiva.org/detroit http://www.kiva.org/detroit The loans we put up for Detroit were funded in a matter of hours, so there was also plenty of folk who thought it worth funding.
ddw 15y ago
At my last job I biked through North Philly everyday. There are some ok neighborhoods, but there are plenty of abandoned strips that look like they were bombed in WWII. It's so sad because you can look at them and say "that used to be a department store and that was a grocery store" and you can almost imagine the people walking around in the 70s (the last time there was probably activity). But these Detroit photos with theaters and libraries and rec centers closed....damn.
antidaily 15y ago
But we're getting a Whole Foods!
lincolnwebs 15y ago
Detroit is not its abandoned buildings. It is Midtown and Woodbridge, it is Boston-Edison and Indian Village, it is Eastern Market and the rekindled downtown blocks. Detroit is the "Live Midtown" campaign, the "Live Downtown" campaign, and the M1 rail alliance. It is grass-roots groups & websites like TweeTea and Detroit Moxie. I'm not a Detroit native, but I see this city for what it is: a mountain of opportunity for anyone who can see past the popular headlines.
dtap 15y ago
As I see in the comments here, and in general public sentiment, there is an extreme bifurcation. People who believe and people who don't. I grew up in the suburbs and will be moving downtown in a month. A lot of people, my parents, my girlfriend and some of my friends think I am crazy. When you see pictures like this, it is hard not to blame them. But once you get past the empty buildings and wasteland, there is something magical about the city. Not a single person who lives in Detroit does so lightly. Everyone loves this city and firmly believes in its future. It provides opportunities unlike anywhere else. For example, there are 6 bars within 500 feet of my front door. I can see Comerica Park from my bedroom. The prospect of a Tigers playoff run makes me extremely excited. No where else can I get this experience for the amount of rent I am paying. It certainly has its problems, largely created by 30 years of inept city government and the collapse of the auto industry. But we have smart people running the city and the state and a large, well-funded, group of people who have a contagious belief in its future. If anyone from HN is ever in town and wants to grab a beer downtown, I'd be glad to show them around.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  > It provides opportunities unlike anywhere else. For example, there are 6 bars within 500 feet of my front door. So... it provides an opportunity to drink? New York has that, too, and it's not blighted by urban decay. (Well, not anymore.)
deleted 15y ago
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brownie 15y ago
Nice site. The documentary Detroit Wild City covers this subject pretty well.
hartror 15y ago
I always wonder how entire cities ended up as ruins that were then lost and subsequently found by archeologists. It seems like what is going on in Detroit and other cities and towns is similar to what must have happened in many city's cases over the millennia.
shabble 15y ago
I'm surprised at some of the remains, especially in the public health section - hospitals and clinics. There are rooms full of medical records, along with drugs, surgical equipment, and (possibly) radioisotopes. Probably not the latter, and they're just old x-ray machines, but the Goiânia accident[1] is what might happen if there are. It seems almost like a desperate evacuation over hours and days, rather than, as I seem to find, over years. There's strong parallels with the photos from Pripyat in terms of the stuff left behind. Did the city lose big chunks of population near simultaneously, or was it a constant trickle away? Why didn't the building owners make some sort of planned move? At least that way they could rip out the valuable stuff, and destroy things like medical records. [1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_...
- Luyt 15y ago
  That story about Goiânia made my neck hairs raise. I wonder, did the radiological therapy machine not have any 'radiation danger' signs on it? Or maybe the scavengers ignored it, or didn't recognize it as such.
5minuteplan 15y ago
Check out this 10 bed 10 bath house in Detroit for $500K. Wow that is a lot for your money! http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1771-Seminole-St-Detroit-MI-48214/88167213_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address} http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1771-Seminole-St-Detroit-M...

Detroit in Ruins

269 points by rglover 15y ago

jsavimbi 15y ago

I'd never seen water flowing out of a basement before.

kleeg 15y ago

Are there significant policies that contribute to this blight? Seems like such a waste.

encoderer 15y ago

If you want to see a side of this story the MSM doesn't cover, watch this great documentary with Johnny Knoxville: http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit

pyre 15y ago
That link didn't work for me, but this one did: http://www.palladiumboots.com/video/detroit-lives#part1 http://www.palladiumboots.com/video/detroit-lives#part1

jeffepp 15y ago

There is a TON of opportunity in Detroit. A lot of smart money has already started pouring into the city.

kevinskii 15y ago
Care to elaborate?
- GaltMidas 15y ago
  I think Dan Gilbert spent all of his Lebron money on skyscrapers and Detroit Venture Partners for one. Pete Karmanos for two.
jjm 15y ago
I know all about that city, and let me tell you I seriously doubt it is anything close to the opportunity that exists elsewhere. Just because 'some' money is coming in doesn't mean it will come out of the slump that _IS_ Detroit. Between scandals (do i really need to cite?), poor getting even poorer (which is insane), the violence[1][2], and people leaving [3], it makes it a hard choice for anyone to want and stay. The real unemployment rate is hovering around 50%[4] for goodness sake! It will take years and hundreds of times more money that is coming in to get that city back. Until that happens the city is not going anywhere but down. Though houses are being given away for $1000[4], and stats that show it is really cheap to live in Detroit (really, i wonder why) doesn't mean it's a good deal! If your a hacker, debug your situation. Get out before you get caught in a segfault or infinite loop. A good place to start investigating: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/06/29/the-best-places-for-business-and-careers/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/06/29/the-b... [1] http://www.freep.com/article/20110727/NEWS01/107270448/Despite-dip-violent-crime-Detroit-homicides-still-rise http://www.freep.com/article/20110727/NEWS01/107270448/Despi... [2] http://www.detnews.com/article/20110808/METRO01/108080359/Detroit-will-put-desk-cops-on-street-to-stop-rising-murder-rate http://www.detnews.com/article/20110808/METRO01/108080359/De... [3] http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/24/vanishing-city-the-story-behind-detroit%E2%80%99s-shocking-population-decline/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/24/vanishing-city-the-story... I haven't even seen the 2011 stats yet, but 2000-2009 clearly showed a huge decline. I wouldn't be surprised if 2011's numbers are accelerated. [4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/detroits-unemployment-rat_n_394559.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/detroits-unemployme...
- jjm 15y ago
  About the houses, I didn't cite correctly. There is a missing bullet. [5] http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/08/detroit-mayor-dave-bing-offers-cops-abandoned-homes-for-1-000/ http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/08/detroit-mayor-dave-bing-of...
- jeffepp 15y ago
  It's pretty clear you don't know "all about" Detroit, it's nice that you quote a few articles though (especially one from 2009). The opportunity that I mentioned is not in residential (yet) although I would be a buyer of raw land near downtown. There are some truly awful areas, but there are also some really great areas of Detroit -- especially Midtown -- where there are very low vacancy rates and an influx of college grads who want to live in a vibrant urban environment. Billionaires are buying (with both hands) commercial buildings for pennies on the dollar. I'm going to bet they know a bit more about "opportunity" than the authors of your articles.

saturdaysaint 15y ago

This is unsympathetically referred to as "ruin porn" around Detroit. Yes, there are an exceptional amount of abandoned buildings (there are about 600,000 people in a city that could probably comfortably hold 3x that), but there are also world class universities, sports arenas, restaurants concert venues, houses and apartments, etc. http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/htdocs/something-something-something-detroit-994.php http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/htdocs/something-something...

trotsky 15y ago
A few thoughts on “ruin porn” from the site admin: http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47 http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47
- pyre 15y ago
  > How would you feel about an unending stream of > tourists arriving daily in your hometown to pick > over the carcasses of your ruined neighborhoods, > taking pictures of devastation to show their friends, > stealing souvenirs to hang on their walls at home, > and leaving without making even the slightest effort > to understand or improve the condition of your city? I'm curious why one would expect tourists to improve the condition of the city. Most tourists don't go places to volunteer as part of a rebuilding error. Also a great comment here: http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47#comment-14 http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47#comment-14
  - cafard 15y ago
    Is Detroit really troubled with an unending stream of tourists?
    - nitrogen 15y ago
      Were that the case, it should be easy to make enough money off of them to restore the city.
TomOfTTB 15y ago

noelwelsh 15y ago

I'd like to know more background on this. Why don't people move into the empty buildings? Housing in the UK is fairly scarce and empty buildings are likely to be colonised by squatters. After ten years or so squatters can actually claim the property. I thought artists would like the opportunity to get a big studio at a discount rate, and hackers who are bootstrapping would sure make their capital go a lot further in Detroit.

neutronicus 15y ago
Detroit is crime-ridden and cold. Why not just move to another part of the US?
- noelwelsh 15y ago
  Sure it's cold, but it's cheap and apparently still has decent facilities. I'm not sure on the crime -- how much is that story a media beat-up? Are there other parts of the US where you can be near a large urban centre and pay virtually nothing? (It's an honest question! And yes, I could probably look this up somewhere.)
  - stevenbedrick 15y ago
    "Anecdote isn't the plural of datum", and all of that, but here's a point for the scatterplot. I was in Detroit visiting family a year or so ago, and we spent a day driving around the downtown area sightseeing (featuring commentary by elderly relatives about theaters, stores, restaurants, etc.). At one point, while leaving the Indian Village neighborhood, we came across a police roadblock; a series of U-turns and detours revealed that, in fact, the police had closed off an area several blocks on a side including a good-sized stretch of Jefferson (a major road in Detroit). There were several police helicopters buzzing around, lots of armed cops, etc. etc. This was during rush hour. After talking to some of the officers and some bystanders, we discovered what was happening: somebody had, upon being evicted from some sort of residential treatment facility, begun threatening people with a gun. When the police arrived, he shot at them, and then ran away. The police were currently trying to figure out which of several buildings he was in, and had closed off most of a neighborhood as well as a major street to try and contain the situation.[1] In most cities, this sort of thing (major police operation, shots exchanged between police and armed member of public, street closures, etc.) would have been big news; that night, none of the local news broadcasts even mentioned it (one traffic report that afternoon did mention the closure of Jefferson, but didn't go into details). No headlines in the paper the next day, either.[2] My point here is that this sort of thing was apparently commonplace enough that it wasn't considered to be a newsworthy event, and none of my Detroit relatives seemed particularly surprised or concerned. 1. Notably, the particular chunk of neighborhood in question was at least half-abandoned (judging from the amount of ivy covering every second house). 2. Technically, by "the paper the next day," I mean the Detroit Free Press's website. At that point in time the DFP wasn't printing week-day paper editions.

riceadam 15y ago

Being from Detroit, it's great to see young tech companies springing up in the city but I think that video Knoxville did with Palladium Boots sugar coats things a bit too much. Hipsters starting underground bars/clubs and photographing urban decay is not going to revive the city. A plan for a $500m railway was recently approved and I can't see any way it's going to be successful in its first phase. My main issue with the proposal as it is now is the fact that the line only extends to 8 mile. For those of you unfamiliar with the city, the mile roads lie parallel to the Detroit River and span outwards all the way into rural areas. Driving into the city, things start to go downhill fast around 8 mile -- which is why everyone knows what it is now thanks to Eminem's movie. If I'm going to a sporting event or casino from my house in the burbs, I'm not going to drive 15 minutes to 8 mile, park my car in a shady parking lot, and get on a train when I could just drive another 15 minutes instead. Anyway, for this new train venture to be even remotely successful I think the track would have to extend to at least 12 mile if the city is looking for an influx of wealthy suburbanites.

JAVagueArgument 15y ago

From an entrepreneurial perspective this web site is a gold mind for film locations and location scouts. Sad as it is that this is the state of such a city, but it could be turned on it's head for profit.

riceadam 15y ago
Unfortunately, Rick Snyder is doing away with the state's film industry credits: http://thedc.com/nPBpLQ http://thedc.com/nPBpLQ Thanks, Rick!
- JAVagueArgument 15y ago
  Yeah, that isn't good, but just means location scouts and film makers will have to get creative, now there is a real challenge for an entrepreneur.

edw519 15y ago

It doesn't have to be this way. Perhaps with some planning and leadership, Detroit could follow Pittsburgh's example: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/11/pittsburghs_renaissance_holds.html http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/11/pittsburghs_renaissa...

pitdesi 15y ago
Yes. See also: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/can-pittsburgh-save-detroit/ http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/can-pittsburgh-save-de... http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/changing-gears-what-detroit-might-learn-pittsburgh http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/changing-gears-what-det... Honestly though, all of these studies harp on different things that Pittsburgh has done than Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, etc... but the main thing that Pittsburgh has that pulls it through is fine research universities (mostly CMU and Pitt). Detroit doesn't have that, and it's hard to build. Yes, Ann Arbor is only 45 minutes away... but it's really worlds away. (I went to CMU and UMich, CMU is much more Pittsburgh than UMich is Detroit)

arethuza 15y ago

David Byrne did an excellent article based on cycling through Detroit: http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2010/09/092310-dont-forget-the-motor-city.html http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2010/09/092310-dont-forget-the... Interesting to read about Glagow being used as a positive reference for post-industrial regeneration!

GaltMidas 15y ago

They aren't very up to date. Many of these have been replaced. The velodrome is maintained by people who simply like to ride. It doesn't look like that picture at all. We get it. There are many urban wasteland piles of crap and thousands of houses that are abandoned. Downtown Detroit is represented here by about 5% of what is actually there as far as ruins go. Next to the skyscrapers are brand new buildings housing Quicken and CompuWare among many others. Dan Gilbert actually bought a couple of the buildings shown here to move the rest of his people into. "Skyscrapers are on sale!" -- Dan Gilbert at TedXDetroit. It's not perfect but I wonder how many people actually think that this is what is "normal". I mean come on...Irish Hills? They aren't even in the same metro area, let alone Detroit. I would need a map to even find them. Next to the "CPA" Building is one of the hottest restaurants for hundreds of miles.

tomlin 15y ago

This isn't just a Detroit problem. Residents of just about every mid-to-high pop. city could pick a few eerily similar buildings on this site left in the very same states. Living in Ontario, Canada, I can say our situation isn't quiet as progressed as Detroit, but the cracks are definitely starting to show. I think Detroit shows signs of what is to come on a larger scale if we don't start putting people and civics as a front-and-center issue. Detroit's pain should serve as a great education and not simply thought of as a worst case scenario. Not all is lost for Detroit, as it is in a great position of pivot that would normally be masked by the bureaucracy of a "well run" city.

RexRollman 15y ago

For the stupid people (me), can anyone tell me what the "urbex" after Detroit means? I didn't see it on the website.

psyklic 15y ago
urban exploration
- Luyt 15y ago
  Thanks, I thought it was 'urban exploitation' ;-)

ethank 15y ago

What bugs me about the poverty-porn you see from Detroit is that if you really wanted to, you could do the same documentation in the wealthiest segments of Los Angeles, just by going a few blocks over. If I really wanted to, I could take my DSLR over to Canoga Park in Los Angeles and make it seem like I'm in a third world country. It's less than a mile from my home.

probablycorey 15y ago
Sure, you can do that in certain parts of LA. But you can see these ruins almost everywhere in Detroit. It's really one of the most depressing cities I've ever been to.
- jrwoodruff 15y ago
  Yea - Detroit is a sobering experience. I was honestly in shock the first time I went downtown. Bad parts of town and abandoned or nearly abandoned plazas are not new to me, but the scale of decay in Detroit - 20,000 people on the streets! - is overwhelming and depressing.
- ethank 15y ago
  Just down the street from me is a house that has been abandoned for a few years. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.172165,-118.634398&ll=34.172204,-118.634384&spn=0.000826,0.000603&sll=34.1701,-118.65773&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&num=1&t=h&z=21 http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.172165,-118.634398&ll=3... If I wanted to take some photos it'd be nice ruin porn. Of course the properties to the right and left are million dollar homes.
  - probablycorey 15y ago
    I get your point that there is "ruin porn" in almost any city. I don't think you get my point though. Detroit is almost entirely "ruin porn", there are no million dollar homes next to any ruins in Detroit, I doubt there are any million dollar homes in Detroit at all.
nkh 15y ago

winestock 15y ago

My brothers run a property service company that maintains foreclosed homes in Detroit and parts northwest of it. When they need extra help, I ride along with them. Detroit and Pontiac are not the kinds of places that one would care to go by oneself, even for muscular young men. On more than one occasion, we would be approached by "youths" (one of them wasn't even that young) who were clearly drug dealers. One of my brothers confirmed this to me. The smell of marijuana smoke was another tell. Once, we were leaving a property just as several police cars were converging on a group of huddled young men. Those young men had been giving us the evil eye and my brother hurried us out of there. In some houses, the mold grew as tufts of fur spackling the walls in patches bigger than a man's hand. Garbage, broken furniture, and other debris was piled higher than our waists in some houses; the previous tenants had been mentally ill hoarders. We hiked through those rooms more than we walked into them. Last winter, we found a house where ice covered the basement up to a foot below the roof. I stepped on the ice on the stairs going down and my foot cracked through. I missed a cold and putrid bath by catching the walls just in time. When they first went into that business, my brothers were assured that -- sooner or later -- they would come upon a drug house or a dead body. I live in the suburbs. I do not want to live in Detroit.

ryanwhitney 15y ago
Their prediction sounds accurate to me. A few years ago my friends and I checked out the old DPS Book Depository. After walking around, we decided against going inside. Later that winter a frozen body turned up in the elevator shaft. While there might be hope in some new downtown lofts with development spreading outward, the neighborhoods surrounding Detroit are just plain scary, even to drive through.
jacksonpollack 15y ago
Since you tend to go there only when dealing with foreclosed homes, perhaps you aren't seeing some of the nicer places? I have plenty of friends who live in Detroit and love it. I used to live there myself and loved it. Yes, there is ruin porn a-plenty, and many nasty areas. But there are also neighborhoods where you can live for really cheap and be part of a great, caring community. Of course, I'm sure my thoughts on the matter in no way reflect the majority's opinion. I've lived in Toronto for 4 years now, and not a day goes by without me pining to go back to Detroit.

tomotomo 15y ago

Each year a large number of people come to Detroit from around the world to photograph and then publish either articles or entire books on the "ruin porn" in Detroit. Some of these books sell for a pretty penny. But a number of the subject buildings in these photos have been redeveloped over the years: http://www.dtownie.com/2011/08/10/the-mecca-of-ruin-porn http://www.dtownie.com/2011/08/10/the-mecca-of-ruin-porn

shawnee_ 15y ago

This is just plain disturbing (also, does not require a bunch of clicking) http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/02/07/captured-the-ruins-of-detroit/2672/ http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/02/07/captured-the...

nkh 15y ago

I grew up in Michigan. If you want to see some of the prominent architecture that has been abandoned check out this site: http://www.forgottendetroit.com/ http://www.forgottendetroit.com/ If you drive down Woodward Ave. to go to a Tigers game you get the sense you are in postwar Germany in parts. Some of the highrise buildings have facades on them so they look like functional buildings from the baseball stadium. However when you walk around the back side, the windows are blown out and they are abandoned.

lukejduncan 15y ago
Another great one from an amazing photographer http://www.lostdetroit.com/ http://www.lostdetroit.com/
sneak 15y ago
I grew up in Detroit. I presently live in Berlin and have for several years. I disagree with your analogy.

dkastner 15y ago

My new business plan: 1. Abandon the city for the wealthy suburbs 2. Leave the poor behind, defund infrastructure 3. Sell tours and photos of neglect and destruction 4. Profit! Some things to consider: * While the population of Detroit proper has fallen, the total population of the metro area has remained fairly static over the past 40-50 years http://www.somacon.com/p469.php http://www.somacon.com/p469.php * The Detroit suburbs are just as nice as your typical American suburbia. * The State of Michigan is training hundreds of Emergency Financial Managers who now have the power to go into any municipality the State deems "financially unsustainable," dissolve local governments, and terminate any contracts (union or otherwise) in order to force a balanced budget. So while urban areas continue to be defunded by the state and by fleeing wealthy residents, they are put in the precarious position of trying to balance their budgets or risk a hostile takeover. * Meanwhile, we all have a good time looking at the pictures.

rmason 15y ago

Some see chaos, others see opportunity. The story you're not reading about Detroit is that after hitting rock bottom in 2008 it's starting to turn around. I've got a friend Henry Balanon who was recruited to a new startup, Detroit Labs, which is backed by Detroit Venture Partners http://www.modeldmedia.com/startupnews/detroitlabs080911.aspx http://www.modeldmedia.com/startupnews/detroitlabs080911.asp... Though it's been slow in getting started because of the state's right to farm law that never anticipated urban farming things are moving forward. http://www.freep.com/article/20110808/BUSINESS04/108080324/Commercial-farming-start-Detroit-1-000-trees http://www.freep.com/article/20110808/BUSINESS04/108080324/C... I've personally witnessed a number of 'unnofficial' farming efforts already underway that have never sought city permission. Also the city under Mayor Bing has started to direct more of their limited resources towards neighborhoods that can be saved and away from lost causes. http://www.detnews.com/article/20110729/METRO01/107290367/1409/metro/Bing-ready-to-make-%E2%80%98hard-decisions%E2%80%99-to-revitalize-neighborhoods http://www.detnews.com/article/20110729/METRO01/107290367/14... There have been two very successful Maker Faire's in Detroit that have showcased the enormous talent in the city. http://www.detnews.com/article/20110730/METRO01/107300364/1409/METRO/Maker-Faire-showcases-local-inventions http://www.detnews.com/article/20110730/METRO01/107300364/14... There are urban pioneers that are remaking entire neighborhoods. There's huge opportunites in the city, you just have to pick your spots.

nowarninglabel 15y ago
Tooting our horn again, but Kiva is another one that sees opportunity: http://www.kiva.org/detroit http://www.kiva.org/detroit The loans we put up for Detroit were funded in a matter of hours, so there was also plenty of folk who thought it worth funding.

ddw 15y ago

At my last job I biked through North Philly everyday. There are some ok neighborhoods, but there are plenty of abandoned strips that look like they were bombed in WWII. It's so sad because you can look at them and say "that used to be a department store and that was a grocery store" and you can almost imagine the people walking around in the 70s (the last time there was probably activity). But these Detroit photos with theaters and libraries and rec centers closed....damn.

antidaily 15y ago

But we're getting a Whole Foods!

lincolnwebs 15y ago

Detroit is not its abandoned buildings. It is Midtown and Woodbridge, it is Boston-Edison and Indian Village, it is Eastern Market and the rekindled downtown blocks. Detroit is the "Live Midtown" campaign, the "Live Downtown" campaign, and the M1 rail alliance. It is grass-roots groups & websites like TweeTea and Detroit Moxie. I'm not a Detroit native, but I see this city for what it is: a mountain of opportunity for anyone who can see past the popular headlines.

dtap 15y ago

As I see in the comments here, and in general public sentiment, there is an extreme bifurcation. People who believe and people who don't. I grew up in the suburbs and will be moving downtown in a month. A lot of people, my parents, my girlfriend and some of my friends think I am crazy. When you see pictures like this, it is hard not to blame them. But once you get past the empty buildings and wasteland, there is something magical about the city. Not a single person who lives in Detroit does so lightly. Everyone loves this city and firmly believes in its future. It provides opportunities unlike anywhere else. For example, there are 6 bars within 500 feet of my front door. I can see Comerica Park from my bedroom. The prospect of a Tigers playoff run makes me extremely excited. No where else can I get this experience for the amount of rent I am paying. It certainly has its problems, largely created by 30 years of inept city government and the collapse of the auto industry. But we have smart people running the city and the state and a large, well-funded, group of people who have a contagious belief in its future. If anyone from HN is ever in town and wants to grab a beer downtown, I'd be glad to show them around.

pavel_lishin 15y ago
> It provides opportunities unlike anywhere else. For example, there are 6 bars within 500 feet of my front door. So... it provides an opportunity to drink? New York has that, too, and it's not blighted by urban decay. (Well, not anymore.)

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brownie 15y ago

Nice site. The documentary Detroit Wild City covers this subject pretty well.

hartror 15y ago

I always wonder how entire cities ended up as ruins that were then lost and subsequently found by archeologists. It seems like what is going on in Detroit and other cities and towns is similar to what must have happened in many city's cases over the millennia.

shabble 15y ago

I'm surprised at some of the remains, especially in the public health section - hospitals and clinics. There are rooms full of medical records, along with drugs, surgical equipment, and (possibly) radioisotopes. Probably not the latter, and they're just old x-ray machines, but the Goiânia accident[1] is what might happen if there are. It seems almost like a desperate evacuation over hours and days, rather than, as I seem to find, over years. There's strong parallels with the photos from Pripyat in terms of the stuff left behind. Did the city lose big chunks of population near simultaneously, or was it a constant trickle away? Why didn't the building owners make some sort of planned move? At least that way they could rip out the valuable stuff, and destroy things like medical records. [1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_...

Luyt 15y ago
That story about Goiânia made my neck hairs raise. I wonder, did the radiological therapy machine not have any 'radiation danger' signs on it? Or maybe the scavengers ignored it, or didn't recognize it as such.

5minuteplan 15y ago

Check out this 10 bed 10 bath house in Detroit for $500K. Wow that is a lot for your money! http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1771-Seminole-St-Detroit-MI-48214/88167213_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address} http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1771-Seminole-St-Detroit-M...