 
Corktown_paddy
Member
Username: Corktown_paddy
Post Number: 18
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 5:46 pm: |    |
For me it was 1968, just before Bobby Kennedy was killed.
The car companies were cranking out the cars,
Motown records was pumping out the music,
The Tigers were on fire.
What a time to be here... |
Thejesus
Member
Username: Thejesus
Post Number: 1764
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 6:05 pm: | |
"The Tigers were on fire."
So was the city...literally...or it was at least still smoldering anyway... |
Jerome81
Member
Username: Jerome81
Post Number: 1601
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 6:25 pm: | |
1659? |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 82
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 6:37 pm: | |
1945. You had to be there. It was the pinnacle of an emotional dedication to the efforts of all the people in Detroit, for the past five years, doing what they had to do to help finish the war. The overall relief was palpable. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 1738
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 6:49 pm: | |
1936. While the world awaited to see what the King of England would do with the Simpson woman, Ray1936 entered Detroit via Women's (Hutzel) Hospital and the world was never the same.
Well, my world, anyway.
Seriously, I agree with Tp about 1945. |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 86
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 7:24 pm: | |
Ray:
I love your post!! I wish I would have thought of it (pertaining to me) first. |
Gannon
Member
Username: Gannon
Post Number: 9795
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 7:31 pm: | |
We had everyone's attention, at least, for both the AllStar game and SuperBowl...not quite in the same year, though.
I'd say 1963, both JFK and MLK had significant speeches here...and that Thanksgiving I came into the world. |
Detroit313
Member
Username: Detroit313
Post Number: 424
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 7:32 pm: | |
I have to say 1929!!!
Why you ask?
Although this was the year the stock market crashed, Detroit was really getting ready to take off!!!
We all know Detroit placed 3rd, behind New York City, and Chicago during the building boom of the 1920's.
Detroit pushed past Philadelphia in industry at No.3 and was gaining on the No.3 spot for population.
But in 1929 Detroit took the lead over them all for issuing building permits for buildings over 20 stories. (17)
The record still stands...... <313> |
Gannon
Member
Username: Gannon
Post Number: 9799
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 7:56 pm: | |
Bad ass post, 313, shows how momentum can carry an area even through a national wealth drain.
I'd like to see THAT again here, now. |
Smogboy
Member
Username: Smogboy
Post Number: 5628
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 8:02 pm: | |
We can only hope for one of those Gannon.
It's tough to imagine that sort of growth in today's economy but one can hope. |
Karl_jr
Member
Username: Karl_jr
Post Number: 56
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007 - 10:58 pm: | |
1945 I agree, we were on top of the world. |
Andylinn
Member
Username: Andylinn
Post Number: 494
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 12:09 am: | |
2006 was a good year for detroit. the best since i've been alive. (24 years)
the world was watching detroit for super bowl XL - and finally they were saying good things.
Mocad opened - finally we have a contemporary art museum - and even the NY times praised it.
book caddy was announced, fort shelby was announced, detroit topped burbs in housing starts for the first time in decades, speculation about quicken began...
tigers won, pistons won, wings did well... (do we have another team?)
everything looked clean as hell (and still does)
clean downtown was begun, the riverwalk was well underway, midtown was booming in full swing,
one kennedy square was just completed (?)
it seemed every major building in the CBD was finally spoken for, (vinton, broderick, kales, globe) polished, or in sadder news demolished...
plus, September 2006 was when I returned from my 4 year college hiatus in ann arbor! how's that for a good year!?
(Message edited by andylinn on August 04, 2007) |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 9128
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 12:34 am: | |
In terms of wealth, the 20's and 40's were best for Detroit. In both eras, Detroit was the wealthiest city on the planet for some of the reasons already detailed. 20's was a time Detroit was churning out a product the world couldn't get enough of. 40's was an era when only Detroit had the production capacity to produce jeeps/planes/tanks/weaponry for the war - and all those govt contracts paid and paid and paid. There were no better times developmentally or financially for Detroit! |
Kaptansolo
Member
Username: Kaptansolo
Post Number: 15
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 12:46 am: | |
For me it was not just one year. The years between 1970 and 1975.
I had a great-grandmother who lived in Sumpter and it seemed like it took hours to get there. The Goodyear electronic billboards that ticked off the auto production were placed at Clairmount and the Lodge Freeway. There was one at Telegraph and I-94.
The auto show was actually called the Detroit Auto Show and the Autorama usually followed a few weeks later. There were motorcycle, custom motorcycle and camper shows at the light guard armories(both east and west). Bel-Air was a drive-in theater.
Montgomery Wards and Federals actually were functioning stores at Grand River and Greenfield.
The Boblo boat was in operation. There was a YMCA at the corner of Dexter and Grand Blvd. There was a bowling alley on the northwest corner of Dexter and Leslie...right across the street from Esquire"s corned beef palace. Livernois still had car dealerships all over the place. Floyd Rice was one of them. It was fun to go to Belle Isle by riding all the way out the Blvd. Seven Sisters and Two Brothers was a cool thing to see. The Pistons actually played in Detroit. The Red Wings played at the Olympia and the ice capades and Peter Pan on ice were also shown there. I always wanted to know where "Southern" high school was??? I just knew there had to be one since every other "direction" was assigned to a school. |
Kaptansolo
Member
Username: Kaptansolo
Post Number: 16
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 1:00 am: | |
I thought that the Riviera and the Great Lakes theaters could have easily been saved. Funny...the world through a child's eyes.
I don't know if they are still around but I had a very narrow foot and my mother used to buy my shoes at Hack Shoe's on Livernois. Always wanted to know what the big long building was on Livernois and Warren. My grandfather lived on Floyd Street and it just seemed Massive. I would learn later that it was the Lincoln plant. Massey Ferguson had a huge yard out by Telegraph and I-94. I remember the Saturdays when they would test the air raid sirens. There was one around the corner from us atop the Wrigley's supermarket on Joy Rd near Dexter(I think that was a Wrigley's).
I saw "the Island at the top of the World" with my dad at the Abbey theater on 14 Mile Rd and I-75.(across from the Oakland Mall). Alleys were actually places where the garbage was collected. What was that Christmas thing they used to have at Cobo Hall for all the children...it was like an indoor fair????? |
Scottr
Member
Username: Scottr
Post Number: 662
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 1:04 am: | |
quote:tigers won, pistons won, wings did well... (do we have another team?)
there's the shock, who also won - i think that's about it.
i'm not sure i could really answer this (for various reasons), although after reading tponetom's post, that would have to be up there, although even my father wasn't even thought of yet. |
Old_southwest
Member
Username: Old_southwest
Post Number: 171
Registered: 07-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 1:10 am: | |
1984
- Bless you Boys |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 9129
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 1:52 am: | |
Scottr's post made me wonder:
What if Detroit was churning out much/most/all of the equipment used in Iraq (like the 1940's) and was wildly thriving because of it. Would there be a different attitude on these threads about the war? |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6313
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 8:19 am: | |
1910 to 1946 is when Detroit ruled the world in the automobile to WWII production. Now this city is a has been, forgotton from the world, being bashed by other folks. |
Steelworker
Member
Username: Steelworker
Post Number: 945
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 8:28 am: | |
my GF's grandpa owned that esquire corned beef palace now he only owns one on schafer near sinai grace. |
Gannon
Member
Username: Gannon
Post Number: 9804
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 10:07 am: | |
Smogboy,
You look for growth, I'm talking sustainability in the face of great drainage nationwide...it will most certainly look very similar to the outsiders.
We will feel less of the pinch that others do, but we need to build momentum in these sustainable portions of the economy.
Find stuff we can make basically from scratch, and sell to a wider geographic area...the state, the region, the nation...the world.
That geometric return on something made here that cannot be made anywhere else...perhaps encouraging the old mantra of Made in Detroit being a trustworthy thing...we have a strong reputation and are oddly hip in certain circles, those are what we need to find more ways to profit from.
Capitalism isn't a bad thing, only lunkheads would surmise that from my many words on the topic, it is only bad when it becomes multi-national corporate without constraints.
Of course, I'd rather all the companies we make be designed as employee-owned and operated...and even co-owned and insured by the citizens through a collective Credit Union...making the dream of a form of socio-capitalism the norm.
I think it would help us consider everyone in society more often, not just our own bank accounts and keeping ahead of those damn Jones'. |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 9131
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 10:29 am: | |
Michigan has always been a mecca known round the world as a place to come for an education. Whether it be at one of Michigan's many fine universities or as a worker for any of the many advanced companies based in or having facilities in Michigan, they flock here by the thousands.
Seems like at some time during these times in the Great Lake State, profs/employers could be encouraged to spend one day bringing these outsiders to Detroit. Give them the history, show them what happened here once - and endures throughout the rest of the world. Some would argue that Detroit's success is the reason each of them are able to be here as students/employees. (Note: there is no industry in the history of man that has provided a living for so many, for so long a period, raising the standard of living for the world and making so many so wealthy, as the auto industry)
After a comprehensive tour, ask these visitors: What would you do? What are the possibilities? Do you see potential, and if so, would you bring your next Microsoft/Ford/Exxon here?
What they never see, they never know - and never think about. And they pass thru Michigan by the millions.
Suggestion: Kick the Chamber of Commerce into gear and have them run a free, multiple-times daily tour of Detroit designed for those who might possibly relocate here someday. Keep it simple and stress the positives. Be ready for any/all questions. |
Gannon
Member
Username: Gannon
Post Number: 9809
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 10:43 am: | |
That is a great idea, Karl.
The Taylor guitar factory outside San Diego, CA, is known to give full tours daily at one o'clock. You show up on time, you're in.
No reason why we aren't doing this here, might be nice for some of those fencing suburbanites, too...get 'em off that fence and comfortable again with downtown. Everybody gets a street map with all the businesses and one-way streets clearly marked!
That would be a fun tour to DO, too. I'd point out the cheap parking places and tricks the meter nazis use to get more money. History, current goings on, near future developments (so anyone on it would know what to expect the next time they came to town, the automatic assumption we should have from ANYONE who dares take a taste)...then a convenient drop point to OTHER specified tours.
Is there some common thread that ties all these tours together?! We've GOT to have a tourist's bureau, or something like it...right?! |
Kaptansolo
Member
Username: Kaptansolo
Post Number: 17
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 10:51 am: | |
I think the problem with your idea Karl...though I agree with you is it is not just Detroit. The entire idea of making things in the U.S. is not even remotely popular and paying a high wage is almost an abomination.
Look at the other rust belt cities and towns that are just like Detroit today. Youngstown, Pittsburgh, Gary. The wonderful Mammoth steel industry that was once the main supplier to Detroit. Also supplying the cables for almost every suspension bridge in America.
The other problem I think that exists is the social "air" is just different.
Do you remember "Stuckey's" candy shop that used to be littered along the Interstate highway system everywhere you went? The different towns had character and mom and pop shops, stops, gas stations and truck stops.
Today...Every exit looks the same. The same fast food at every stop. Have you looked at a service plaza along the turnpikes lately. Improved...YES...but no character.
It was fun to travel and do road trips. Now, I don't think the idea of motoring is even appealing to young people.
I think Detroit would be great like what you are saying if corporations were actually interested in two things....One, being proud of making things at home. Two...paying a high wage.
The south has become the place for manufacturing because the people there are not used to high wages and what the auto companies are throwing at them....they jump at.
(Message edited by Kaptansolo on August 04, 2007) |
Kaptansolo
Member
Username: Kaptansolo
Post Number: 18
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 11:05 am: | |
Plus the fact...back then, though the foreign cars were coming to America they did not have a strong hold. People appreciated Detroit because people liked American cars and American muscle. You could see motorheads fixing cars and building hot rods all of the time and it was a cool thing. But today...I was listening to a young guy talk about his "custom" vehicle and really based on the old standards of "custom", he really had nothing. I mean he bought some wheels and put some seat covers in but we are not talking about the vehicle being chopped and fabricated seats. I mean Harley Earl was from California if I am not mistaken and he was into custom stuff which is part of what got GM's attention I think???(Do not quote me here...my historical knowledge is only what I have read). I was born in 1968 so I don't know everything.
I just think the things that help to make Detroit and the "spirit" of Detroit and what it meant to the world has been synthesized and the new generation "likes" what they are getting......
the Kap |
Kaptansolo
Member
Username: Kaptansolo
Post Number: 19
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 11:17 am: | |
Steelworker-I have not been to Detroit since 2002. What corned beef place is on Schaefer? |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 9135
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 11:50 am: | |
All I'm saying is haul the students/workers down to Detroit and give 'em the tour - plant the seed and let their education/imagination do the rest.
Regarding wages/work force, Detroit will eventually get a wake-up when some big-a** company decides to locate in the D due to cheap land/access to water/natural resources/energy etc and brings along an entire workforce of hardworking Vietnamese/Korean/Chinese/fill -in-blank family/friends/coworkers, immediately posting a sign saying "No Jobs Today" and makes hay.
Wake up, Michigan - the most successful states today are "right to work" and that's where the action is. Want action? Don't stand in the way of progress - and $37/hr sweepers ain't progress in today's world. |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 87
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 8:07 pm: | |
Karl - Gannon - Kaptansolo -
I hope the three of you read this post. It is just a pat on the back for the three of you. What I
read, so far, is some creative thinking, some reality thinking and, most important, some optimism.
We all know that there is no cut and dried 'alley oop' plan to revive Detroit. Certainly not in its
former image.
A change in thinking and in expectations are mandatory. But that philosophy is not limited to
Detroit and its problems. It is country wide. If we leave the planning and the facilitation of those
plans to those who profit the most, meaning, the industrialists and the politicians who support
them, things will get worse.
When I was a kid, once a year or so I would buy a nickel box of Crackerjacks. There
would be a ‘toy’ included in the box. The toy was always marked: “Made in Japan.” I have had a
recurring vision that one day, soon, a little boy in Japan is going to buy a box of Crackerjacks
with a toy included, and the toy will say, “Made in America!”
Is that a joke? Maybe. Maybe not. |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 88
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 8:14 pm: | |
A. P. S. to kaptansolo.
I forgot to mention this. The Stuckeys I remember gave you a free box of candy with a gasoline fill-up. So it was a small box, but it made me stop there every time. |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 9168
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007 - 11:37 pm: | |
And for those of us who dream, Tponetom, just maybe that toy will say "Made In Detroit"
You were there "in the day" and you know how good it was. Detroit might be down - but it's not out, and I believe there's still much hope. That's why I'm here.
Thanks for the kind words - and your memories are gold, please keep posting them. |
56packman
Member
Username: 56packman
Post Number: 1593
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:32 am: | |
1946-'50, the war was over, a generation of men returned from overseas with money in the bank (it's hard to spend your army paycheck in the middle of a battle field) the women who worked in the factories for the last 3 intense years had money in the bank (no new consumer durable goods made for the last three years). The stock of cars on the road was pretty tired, car sales had been very small from 1930-'37, '38-'41 (and the brief '42 model year) saw some gains, but those cars were mostly tired, and after the GIs reunited with their wives they wanted a roof over their head and a new car. Detroit (and South bend) couldn't make cars fast enough. All manner of consumer goods were in high demand and the factories and supplier chains of the other industrially developed nations/cultures in the world were decimated because of the war.
That left the US as the only industrial power in the world at the moment. Detroit was building cars, housing developments, small retail and recreation buildings like never before, with no competition. There were huge labor problems in this era, the unions really got the sense that they had the world by the short hairs, and months happened when the plants were closed due to strikes more days than they were open. Materials were in short supply, crucial to the auto industry--steel, glass, aluminum and copper. Detroit was being celebrated as the victorious "arsenal of democracy' and busy with work.
This region, this industry--more than anything saved Europe, Russia and Asia from the enslaving armies that advanced on them. Some like to think we (the US and allies) were smarter, fought harder, were "in the right" more than Germany or Japan, but it really came down to our uninterrupted ability to keep sending hardware to the points of battle. Three generations later, as the gallant young men who fought that war (and the hardworking women who kept them supplied) are spending their golden years seeing the current generations treat that time, that effort and that war as thought it were ancient history, equal to the Crimean war in irrelevance to their lives. For decades after the war a late model Cadillac was the ultimate symbol of having been successful. It was not uncommon to see successful Jewish professionals drive a late model Cadillac. Today their "statement" car of choice is Mercedes Benz or Lexus. Cadillac built tanks that liberated Europe and M-B built war goods for the Germans, and yes, der Furher drove a Mercedes. Sarah Silverman calls this "the opposite of FUBU"
It all peaked there. High speed, large capacity production came of age during the war, because of the war, and the automakers wanted to keep that huge capacity machinery going even when the market for new cars was satisfied. The Asian makers came along with a car that initially was a joke, unworthy of any serious consideration. Their pursuit of quality meshed with the first oil (manufactured) crisis, they always made small, light fuel efficient cars due to their narrow, ancient roads (laid out before America was discovered) and the scarcity of oil. Although still marginal in body construction, they sold in increasing numbers.
The US manufacturers continued to carry on with "fast out the door is all that matters" thinking, and poor quality was the natural result. The Asian competitors have made Detroit a better town by forcing the US brands to improve. But it's not 1947 anymore, no one cares what the "dirty Japs" did to their buddy, and it's about me, and what I want and need. |
Quozl
Member
Username: Quozl
Post Number: 1140
Registered: 07-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:33 am: | |
1956, don't ask me why. |
Urbanize
Member
Username: Urbanize
Post Number: 2092
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 12:56 am: | |
Detroit Ruled The World?
Wow, that's a new one to me.
If you meant when Detroit Kept a big chunk of Money circulating through the Richest Country the World and many saw the city as valuable and priceless, then I would have to say 1950 (don't attack me on it).
(Message edited by Urbanize on August 05, 2007) |
Detroit313
Member
Username: Detroit313
Post Number: 429
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 2:29 am: | |
Got another year for ya!!!
Try 1935
Detroit was named the City of Champions.
Detroit brought home numerous trophies, but what sticks out the most for me was that the Tigers were so popular they accounted for 25% of the ticket sales of the 35,36 season.
So profitable they were the St. Louis wanted to relocate to Detroit's west side and build another stadium.
Image, Detroit, a two MLB sports franchise city.
HEY if that actually fell through, we would have had a "MOTOR CITY SERIES" last year
(i.e. subway series)
<313> |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 9169
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 2:55 am: | |
56packman, superb post. Thanks for remembering South Bend, an oft-forgotten center of automotive production. Perhaps sometime you can do a thread on South Bend/Studebaker and how it related to Packard? |
56packman
Member
Username: 56packman
Post Number: 1594
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 8:38 am: | |
At one time Indiana was the number two "motor Capitol of the world" having five brands of automobile being designed and built there, independent of the Detroit three. I should have also listed Kenosha, WI with Detroit and South Bend. |