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Aiw
Member
Username: Aiw

Post Number: 5198
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 209.216.150.127
Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 9:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Here is today's year in review -> P.D.J.
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Goat
Member
Username: Goat

Post Number: 7992
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 67.71.65.66
Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 11:45 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Too much lost but is anyone willing to post what was achieved?
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Upinottawa
Member
Username: Upinottawa

Post Number: 86
Registered: 09-2005
Posted From: 70.28.0.156
Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 5:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Goat: I will guess that there will be a year in review deux.
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Jt1
Member
Username: Jt1

Post Number: 6343
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 198.208.159.19
Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 5:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Looking at the first picture makes me think where will people park for Tigers game.
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Psip
Member
Username: Psip

Post Number: 742
Registered: 04-2005
Posted From: 69.246.13.131
Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 5:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Did anyone notice the copper on the roof of the ML? was that stripped before demo?
A link?
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Missnmich
Member
Username: Missnmich

Post Number: 475
Registered: 11-2004
Posted From: 70.186.39.150
Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 6:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That was better than past years in review ...
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Psip
Member
Username: Psip

Post Number: 743
Registered: 04-2005
Posted From: 69.246.13.131
Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 7:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My mistake, the sheeting around the top of the M-L was metal not copper.
Pix at
http://www.detroitfunk.com/arc hives/2005/05/15-week/index.ht ml
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Stlgasm
Member
Username: Stlgasm

Post Number: 14
Registered: 12-2003
Posted From: 70.243.143.174
Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 11:01 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Where is the outrage at the prospect of losing Rivertown????!

Detroiters cannot allow this to happen! There's a troubling air of resignation in that city. Make some noise!

I don't see how Detroit will ever be an interesting city if it systematically allows this destruction to occur. Rivertown is one of the last vestiges of a bygone era. Other cities have transformed similar districts into urban treasures.

Detroit's single competitive advantage over newer cities is its historic architecture. Miraculously, there's still enough left to call it a city, but that seems to be quickly disappearing. If Rivertown is demolished for some cheesy new development, what separates Detroit from Houston? In any other city, those remaining buildings would be painstakingly preserved, with new development intermixed. Where's the imagination? Where's the COMMON SENSE?

What Detroit lacks are a handful creative developers that have revitalized St. Louis-- developers who actually care about their city. It's truly sickening to see these pictures, and what's worse than knowing they're gone is knowing that the mentality of wholesale demolition hasn't changed a fucking bit. Detroit is going nowhere with this approach, and it's terribly embarrassing.

Detroit needs a leader who actually cares. It's a sad story. I don't know how you can continue to live with this level of frustration and heartache. The loss of Hudson's probably would've been the last straw for me.

(Message edited by STLgasm on January 04, 2006)
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Ndavies
Member
Username: Ndavies

Post Number: 1490
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 129.9.163.106
Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 11:47 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sorry Stlgasm, I completely dissagree with you. While the loss of tiny outdated manufacturing buildings may seem like a great loss to you. Most of us realize that many of these little buildings were only usefull for the original purposes. They needed to go. They were not the grand buildings of downtown. They were not the midsized manufacturing buildings of the early auto industry. They were tiny back alley machine shops and garages of the early industrial revolution. Most of the buildings were a jumbled assortment of rabbit warrens. Most would have been extremely difficult to economically repurpose.

This area is also not without a plan. The demolition will be quickly followed by construction.

Between the new riverwalk, the state park, the new riverfront development and the buildings that have already been saved, Rivertown will be one of the most spectacular developments in the country. The east riverfront will have some of the most expensive properties in the midwest within the next 5 years. It will definitely compete against anything St. Louis can come up with.

Not everyone wants to live in an outdated drafty badly designed cubbyhole of a building. What Detroit lacks is newly designed, modern, efficient living spaces.

We have far too much old decaying crap and not enough new to attract the kind of mid to upscale taxpayers the city had been losing in droves for the last 50 years.
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Goat
Member
Username: Goat

Post Number: 8001
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 67.70.118.183
Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 12:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Stlgasm, good post and I agree wholeheartedly (except for the last paragraph with regards to Hudson's). One has to look south to see that Windsor made the same mistakes and now there is nothing in this city. Why come here when everyone else is getting casino's? We have nothing to offer and Detroit is going down the same road....for shame!

NDavies, Building houses and accomodations for these people will not bring them back. Fixing the crime image (and the crime problem) and the school system will do more wonders than tearing these buildings down for empty nesters and "cool, hip" people in their late '20s to mid 30's who will only move out when and if they decide to have kids.
1) It will stop the bleeding of residents.
2) People may be willing to come back if the crime is lower than the surrounding area and the schools superior to what's being offered in the 'burbs.

Once it's gone, it's gone.



(Message edited by GOAT on January 04, 2006)
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Ndavies
Member
Username: Ndavies

Post Number: 1493
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 129.9.163.106
Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 12:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sorry Goat, How do you fix a broken school system and police department without money. The city is going broke and will not be able to fix itself without new residents.

Building new homes already has and will continue to bring people back. You have to start somewhere. You start with the affluent people who aren't afraid of the crime and don't have kids in the schools. You build the new housing they are looking for. You tax them at sustainable rates, not gouging the shit out of them. They bring in cash you can use to fix the police department and the schools.

Downtown and the close in neighborhoods have already stopped bleeding residents. Downtown has started to grow. Just as the city grew from the center out, decayed from the center out, it will rebuild from the center out.

The decayed and delapidated typical buildings need to be torn down and removed. Only the exceptional should be kept. Only the exceptional ever survives past it's useable life.

Decayed and dilapidated buildings will not revive the city. New construction and the rehabbing of exceptional buildings will cause new growth in the city.
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Goat
Member
Username: Goat

Post Number: 8003
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 67.70.118.183
Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 - 1:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Therein lies the problem NDavies; A chicken and egg scenario.
A city that is losing money but is still top heavy in government and the DPS school system. A city government that pays outrageous amounts of money for lawsuits that should and could be avoided. A city government that spends money everywhere but where it really should be spent.

I have stated before. Would you rather a stellar school system or more police or would you rather have your garbage picked up each week? Cuts have to be made, where are the priorities? More Navigators please? More bodyguards? The citizens of Detroit need to hold their representatives responsible and until they do the city will continue to struggle.

Why can't they have a vision for Rivertown as stated by Stlgasm instead of levelling it? No direction leads to going in circles something these motor cities have done exceptionally well over the last 30+ years.

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