  Realitycheck Member Username: Realitycheck Post Number: 505 Registered: 08-2004 |
Our observant detroitblog brother posted 4 evocative images yesterday (1/25), showing "odd things that add up to little glimpses of life in the forgotten parts of Detroit." "This scene," he writes, "illustrates the all-too common realities out here" [cropped from original]:  | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2271 Registered: 10-2006 |
Who doesn't want a four-O while doing your work? | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 531 Registered: 05-2004 |
How would you like to see that in the street in front of your house? One of the many reasons we moved from Detroit. It wasn't like the folks didn't have a garage or drive way, they did! | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2274 Registered: 10-2006 |
True, although, I do think that that is one thing that I considered so great about Detroit when I was there. Everything wasn't refined. The suburbs and their pristine houses and neighborhoods become a bit too sterile. When I moved from Livonia to go to school at the University of Detroit Mercy, that is what I noticed first. While it can be disconcerting, after a while you grow to love it and take it for what it is. Drinking a 40 and working on your car in the street is Detroit and not the suburbs. Sorry. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 1436 Registered: 09-2007 |
Hmm, interesting. I have no comment (especially after reading the previous ones). | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3370 Registered: 06-2004 |
Like it matters that much if it's a 40 in the city instead of a six pack in the suburbs? | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 533 Registered: 05-2004 |
You can find idiots in the city and suburbs but you won't find many people who tolerate having someone work on their car in the street for a week or more in the burbs. | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 503 Registered: 04-2006 |
Working on your car in the street when you have a driveway is kind of an odd thing to do, but in and of itself it doesn't affect my quality of life enough to make me not want to live in a neighborhood where people do it. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 1807 Registered: 03-2006 |
it's just keeping it real man...just keeping it real. Personally that is one of my favorite things about this city. I grew up in Clinton Township which is about as real as Pam Andersons breasts | ||
14andhayes Member Username: 14andhayes Post Number: 15 Registered: 06-2007 |
There is a point when keeping it real goes wrong...very wrong. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1019 Registered: 07-2007 |
thats what i'm talking bout | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4962 Registered: 10-2004 |
So what? Better that they have a safe running vehicle than one that falls apart and hits me. My neighbors fix their cars/trucks on the street sporadically all the time, and I never care. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 1866 Registered: 01-2006 |
Assuming that this photo is the result of a guy (or a doll) working on HIS vehicle, in front of HIS house, while blorbling down a 40 of cheap suds, I don't see anything objectionable. Maybe just slightly tacky, but barely even that. This is Detroit. A lot of us are living from paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes we just figure, Ah hell, I'll pop open a 40 and do this job myself. If this image strikes you as being truly unsightly, you really shouldn't be living in Detroit. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 1810 Registered: 03-2006 |
well said ravine | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 346 Registered: 06-2007 |
Oh, you can find plenty of that in the suburbs (Depending on your definition of "suburbs). Thats the south side of Warren right there. | ||
Realitycheck Member Username: Realitycheck Post Number: 517 Registered: 08-2004 |
quote:And that, Ravine, is keeping language real. Nice. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3378 Registered: 06-2004 |
Ya know what else? The guy has enough faith in his neighborhood to leave his tools and parts unattended for at least a short while. (and despite what detroitblogger wrote, that's a jackstand in use, pretty safe if set properly, not a flimsy bumper jack that will drop a car on someone) | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 2276 Registered: 10-2006 |
Look, I don't know the Detroit that had a Hudsons store downtown, I don't know that Detroit of 1.8 million people. I never 'met' the city until the fall of 2001. To me, drinking a 40 on your front porch is the Detroit that I know. Often I wish that I lived in a city where someone wouldn't give you a second look for doing that. I know that I am a bit cavalier and that most in the suburbs would find it annoying. | ||
Imhere Member Username: Imhere Post Number: 40 Registered: 02-2007 |
I was born and raised in the COD. I've worked on many a car in the street (Even did a engine swap in front of the house). Not saying it's the right thing to do, but I'm as guilty as any. When I was old enough to drink, sitting on the porch having a beverage was no big deal. When I moved to the burbs, I relegated car maintenance to the back yard, but sitting on the porch having a drink still happens. My neighbors, at first, thought I was crazy for sitting out front drinking, but now a lot of them have joined me. | ||
Living_in_the_d Member Username: Living_in_the_d Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2008 |
Yeah, the working on your car part is as old as time itself, Nothing cooler,(depending on the weather). What I would like to know is, where is this homemade busstop? I"m sure that a DDOT one could be put in its place fairly quickly. | ||
Waymooreland Member Username: Waymooreland Post Number: 25 Registered: 11-2007 |
Forgive my ignorance, but if you have a driveway, what is the advantage of working on your car in the street? Do you all know something that I don't, 'cause I just don't get it. As for the 2:00 PM 40 -- I fully support it. Guzzle on! | ||
Imhere Member Username: Imhere Post Number: 41 Registered: 02-2007 |
Waymooreland - I can only speak for myself but the working on the car in the street was basically so I didn't "Tie Up" the driveway if the work took longer then planned. | ||
Living_in_the_d Member Username: Living_in_the_d Post Number: 13 Registered: 01-2008 |
Yeah, seriously, does anyone know where the homemade busstop is in the above aforementioned thread/link, so we can get those folks a real one from DDOT. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3671 Registered: 10-2003 |
"...working on the car in the street was basically so I didn't 'Tie Up' the driveway if the work took longer then planned." So, "tie up" the public street and blight the neighborhood instead? | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 4842 Registered: 10-2003 |
Looks like that guy is replacing a half-shaft. Think he took it in for an alignment afterwards, or just used the old string method, and said a prayer before driving each day? | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3672 Registered: 10-2003 |
I don't like trash on lawns or sidewalks, clutter in backyards, crudely hand-lettered signs, derelict cars sitting in the front yard or driveway, porch parties, fences that are falling down, NOR cars being worked on in the street. To me, it all smacks of low-class values and disrespect for one's neighbors and community. If all of that is "keeping it real," give me the surreal or unreal, any day. Cars should be worked on in the garage, or far back in the driveway. | ||
Goat Member Username: Goat Post Number: 10060 Registered: 10-2003 |
...and if you don't have a driveway? Who is being elitist? | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3673 Registered: 10-2003 |
Oh, please. Then maybe work on the hooptie in the back yard. If there's no driveway, there's probably an alley with backyard/garage access. If you've got an apartment, sorry. Bite the bullet and take the car to a repair shop. There's nothing wrong with being poor and not having resources. But poor doesn't have to mean dirty or trashy. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 541 Registered: 05-2004 |
Amen Fury. | ||
Goat Member Username: Goat Post Number: 10061 Registered: 10-2003 |
Agreed it doesn't have to be dirty or trashy but donig a brake job in front of a house doesn't mean trashy either. Now if the vehicle sits for days then that is another story. As for doing it in a back yard, well that is a bit dangerous considering that the jacks could sink into the ground. Another reason is that maybe a person doesn't have access to put a vehicle into a backyard. In your second paragraph you state there is nothing wrong with being poor and not having resources yet you bemoan the fact that someone is fixing their car on the steet and they should bite the bullet and take the car to a repair shop. So which one is it? Poor with no resources and bring your car in and pay to get it fixed or poor equals trashy? |
