  Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1173 Registered: 11-2005 |
This is a neighbor of mine. She lives over by the Hotel Yorba. What she says about her efforts to improve the city are no exaggeration. This is EXACTLY the kind of person this city cannot stand to lose. I'd say she's Detroit's loss, but I'm sure City Hall won't notice. But I assure you, we in SW Detroit will. http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll /article?AID=/20080313/OPINION 02/803130351 | ||
Mrsjdaniels Member Username: Mrsjdaniels Post Number: 600 Registered: 08-2005 |
very good op-ed..I could have written this | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 5595 Registered: 10-2003 |
Rawk, very sad yet true. Check out the Home Renovations thread in Connect, I have been looking for you there. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1694 Registered: 08-2007 |
Hmmm, the same things were happening in the late 70s as well. I don't think things have improved for neighborhoods in all this time. With the housing slump taking more people out of the neighborhoods, and leaving more neglected empty houses, things just seem to be going backward. Imagine if the vagrancy and abandonment issues were taken care of, just in that one corner of Detroit. What an example that would be. | ||
Single_malt Member Username: Single_malt Post Number: 18 Registered: 02-2008 |
Sad to say but she had faith, she tried, and she just gave up. This Mayoral scandal must have been the last straw. After reading the article, I can't say that I blame her. She has made many efforts and has done her share. Likely more than many. And for what? I'm sad to see her go, but I understand her position in doing so. | ||
Detroitmaybe Member Username: Detroitmaybe Post Number: 13 Registered: 03-2008 |
What an unfortunate story! Detroit most certainly cannot afford to lose her! We must be patient...The best days are yet to come. However, I can't blame her for wanting a better quality of life for her family! ...Another one bites the dust!! (Message edited by detroitmaybe on March 13, 2008) | ||
Cdwaters Member Username: Cdwaters Post Number: 50 Registered: 02-2008 |
Think about what 9 million could have done for her neighborhood. Of course according to Councilperson Collins, that is part of my master-slave mentality. | ||
Chub Member Username: Chub Post Number: 498 Registered: 11-2003 |
This was exactly me a year ago. She is making the right move. If you can sell your house, get out while you can. I did, and now am living a perfectly stress free life in LA. Wow, six years ago, I would have never thought I'd say that. | ||
Registeredguest Member Username: Registeredguest Post Number: 358 Registered: 10-2003 |
How is this editorial so powerful? It merely states the obvious. People like her come with big dreams and plans; they see that the city is a big poor city with problems and corruption [gasp] that can't be solved in 5 years or by one person, and they go. Indeed, it's a shame to loose such a resident, but tell me what is so new and powerful about this perspective? | ||
Swingline Member Username: Swingline Post Number: 1051 Registered: 11-2003 |
Some thoughts on Ms. Hurst's op-ed piece: -- I wish she was my neighbor because it is clear that she understands how important community-mindedness can be to improving the quality of life in a neighborhood. -- While Detroit city government is certainly not a model of bureaucratic efficiency, neither is it a Third World-esque Keystone Kops operation. Lots and lots of things actually work the way they're supposed to in this city. -- She should be complaining just as much about some of her neighbors who are actually responsible for much of the blight and the urban ill she is experiencing. It is actual people who don't take care of their property, whether they rent or own. It is actual families that do not promote excellence in their schooling and in that of their children. City government is not the one responsible for creating under-educated, under-trained and un-skilled adults. Lots of problems in Detroit are the result of people making their own poor choices. -- One shouldn't be critical of the writer's decision to leave. She ran out of gas and her decision to leave was understandable. -- Seeing that she has a young child, one might also suspect that eduction concerns played an unspoken (at least in the op-ed) role in her decision. A legitimate concern indeed. However, as noted in countless threads in DYes, there are many fine options for getting a rigorous, creative and safe education in Detroit. | ||
Fjw718 Member Username: Fjw718 Post Number: 179 Registered: 11-2005 |
exactly, i wasnt that blown away by it. just sounds like a lot of complaining and nagging. good riddance! | ||
Vas Member Username: Vas Post Number: 891 Registered: 01-2004 |
Its too bad because people like her are growing in this city and soon they will have to be listened to. She should run for city council | ||
Southwestmap Member Username: Southwestmap Post Number: 963 Registered: 01-2005 |
Registeredguest: you say "people like her come". I am her neighbor. I have lived in Detroit all my life and I am middle-aged. I have kept the torch burning. I have knocked myself out for my neighborhood and the larger city. I have been on Boards, cleaned vacant lots and streets, I tutor. I am the eighth or ninth generation of my French-Canadian family to be a Detroiter. I am the last of all of them. I know now that this is no city for old ladies and I will have to follow all my relatives and friends out of the city. I have seen more fire-destroyed houses in my neighborhood this winter than ever before. Police response is non-existant - and I don't blame the street cops. They have been bullied and debased by years of insults from their bosses and overly political, incapable leadership. This is a city that doesn't want to improve. I have to wonder if its a racial thing. Do Black Detroiters want this? | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 466 Registered: 06-2005 |
"Sad to say but she had faith, she tried, and she just gave up." That could be said about all of us that left. We tried NUMEROUS times to live comfortably in the city. We also "gave up". | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 707 Registered: 05-2004 |
Only ones who put up with this either have no choice or are insulated because they have enough money to overcome the city's lack of resources for it's citizens. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3792 Registered: 06-2004 |
Detroit voters have to power to change things if they want to. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2838 Registered: 04-2006 |
As much as a city cheerleader as I am around here, this latest Kilpatrick mess has left me disenchanted with the prospects of the Detroit. I can't blame a person that is surrounded by what she spoke of, who then turns on a TV to this mayoral mess and decides to pack up and leave. It's one thing to be living in a city or region that is down on it's luck. It's another to be living under an aristocracy trying to assert it's right to take advantage of it's citizens. To be clear on this, whether that citizen has drank the Kilpatrick Kool-Aid or not, that citizen is still being taken advantage of. Those who realize it can either choose to stay and fight it out, or choose to leave and live his or her life. As long as Kwame Kilpatrick is the mayor of Detroit, I can't knock a person for deciding to do either. | ||
Mrsjdaniels Member Username: Mrsjdaniels Post Number: 604 Registered: 08-2005 |
Congrats to all the 'quitters' as Kwame put it in the SOTC. I, for one, agree with caring about your family and yourself, health and wealth and prosperity. I am proud to be a quitter. | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 1204 Registered: 02-2007 |
"this latest Kilpatrick mess has left me disenchanted with the prospects of the Detroit." One man doesn't make a city. Alot of good cities have horrible leadership occasionally. Detroit is making a lot of progress. I think it could make a great deal more under the proper leadership. | ||
Mbr Member Username: Mbr Post Number: 352 Registered: 03-2005 |
There seems to be a discernible pattern among people who have recently moved to the city. Enthusiasm > Civic participation (local groups, teach kids, pick up trash, etc.) > Frustration (crime victim, taxes, crackheads, graffiti, Kwame, etc.) > Disillusionment (The problems too vast, the payoff too little) > The Crossroads (To leave or stay) > I think that most people I have met who have gone through this cycle choose to stay. Some in extreme circumstances choose to leave and it's hard to blame them. For those of us who stay perhaps we are destined to repeat this cycle every few years forever, hitting the crossroads and making the decision. We all have different thresholds for the problems associated with Detroit, the city needs to find ways to minimize those problems so that people are less likely to get frustrated and disillusioned. | ||
Registeredguest Member Username: Registeredguest Post Number: 359 Registered: 10-2003 |
"I am proud to be a quitter." Congratulations! Do you want a cookie? I, for one, look forward to your next 604 posts which, I hope, will continue to expand upon why you're so proud to be a quitter... | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 5597 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Ah yes. I guess she can "hit 8 mile", along with all those nasty charities that have tried to help the city's residents. Shall I have your Barbara Rose Collins fan club pin sent directly to you? | ||
Bragaboutme Member Username: Bragaboutme Post Number: 54 Registered: 02-2008 |
I don't think that venting in the newspaper will help anything. If your going to vent do it somewhere else, but as for trying to bring attention to problems in your neighborhood along with complaints bring solutions. I live in a part of the city near downtown, I havn't experienced the bad situations that she has had, but I do understand who my neighbors are. With any situation you have to find people who are like you. | ||
Rax Member Username: Rax Post Number: 188 Registered: 11-2007 |
quote: Like where? Here? | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 15 Registered: 03-2008 |
Don't give up, it happens. People will leave and more will come. Solutions to your frustrations will follow. Try to keep it positive. Attitude is so important. It can really make or brake a company, a home, a church, or even a person. It's all about how you react. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3794 Registered: 06-2004 |
The people of the City of Detroit have been abused for so long they don't even give a thought to the power to be had if folks would just stand up for themselves. There is no reason to tolerate the abuse KK has been doling out. It doesn't have to be suburbanites at the protests. It doesn't have to be suburbanites trying to file for recalls. COME ON, DETROIT! STAND UP! | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 467 Registered: 06-2005 |
Many of us love detroit. We all went through the same shit she did. There comes a point when its fight or flight and your tired of fighting! Theres no where else on earth where I feel IM HOME! and there never will be. I was telling a girl at work today, I cant ever go back. Everytime I romance the past and think about coming home, I think about the reality and its just not worth it. Maybe by this lady writing this letter it will help. I'm sure thats not the first letter written and Im sure it wont be the last. When I was up there over new years weekend, I found my perfect little victorian on trumbull for $55,000 and dont think I didnt think long and hard before my memory refreshed. Im still sick that I couldnt have it. I just cant put myself into that situation again. As long as people keep electing these guys and yes, KK, Detroit will will continue to be a lose-lose situation for a lot of us. | ||
Bragaboutme Member Username: Bragaboutme Post Number: 55 Registered: 02-2008 |
Rax, what I was trying to say was there are people who complain about things no matter where they are. For her to do it in the newspaper and not offer solutions, meant she was venting. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 5601 Registered: 10-2003 |
The solutions were self evident. Police that respond, streetlights that work, city servants that don't give you the runaround when you try to report something. A council that doesn't allow slumlords to let enormous hulking buildings rot away on the skyline. I don't think she needed to spell it out any clearer. | ||
Bragaboutme Member Username: Bragaboutme Post Number: 58 Registered: 02-2008 |
I think there are many things that we don't see on the surface that are holding up the process. If it were that simple John I think it would've been done already. Remember the Archer administration implemented many programs that the current administration has stopped as soon as KK got in office. They built the new southwest police station and spearheaded a charge that has been manipulated by KK, while he tries to take all the credit. The last 7 years he has stalled many of that and deter those who's developement when she moved in 99' would've changed her outlook from what it is today to one that say's I'm glad I moved back to detroit. I have no problem with her venting but give me more than just complaints. |
