 
Paulmcall
Member
Username: Paulmcall
Post Number: 87
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 11:52 am: |    |
How many here grew up in Detroit and left for a variety of reasons?
What would persuade you to come back? |
Thejesus
Member
Username: Thejesus
Post Number: 866
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 12:16 pm: | |
Technically, my family left when my grandmother's house in Redford stopped being Detroit...
I could only see myself moving to the areas around downtown/midtown in the foreseeable future, not to any of the other areas, but some of the things I'd like to see are:
1. More shopping options
2. Grocery store
3. Movie theater like the ones in the suburbs
4. More national chain restaurants like in the 'burbs
5. The eyesore buildings either rennovated or removed...
6. Expansion of the people mover to midtown and WSU campus
I'm not saying all these things would have to occur for me to move back, but each one would make it more likely... |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 1325
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 12:40 pm: | |
Sorry, Detroit is history for me. Period.  |
Douglasm
Member
Username: Douglasm
Post Number: 809
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 12:51 pm: | |
Well, my brother lives on the west side.....
I departed in '73 for Colorado. It wasn't that there were jobs available there and not in the Detroit area, it's that I was young, foolish and wanted to be someplace new. BTW, I moved to Washington in '78 chasing a girl. The relationship with the girl lasted another 6 weeks after I got here, but I've been in the Evergreen State ever since....
My grandmother abandoned Highland Park when she died in '70, and when my Dad retired (for the second time) in 1980, they moved to their cottage between Clare and Farewell.
As to coming back? I've made a life out here and to move back would mean abandoning my wife, kids and grandkids. Dora and I visited about 15 years ago, and so much had changed, both in the city and the 'burbs--I grew up in Ferndale--I felt like a tourist. That (and not the condition of the city) was an uncomfortable feeling.
(Message edited by douglasm on April 08, 2007) |
Durango
Member
Username: Durango
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 1:03 pm: | |
I am new to forum. My parents are still in Detroit. They were born and raised there. My brother migrated from Detroit to Southfield to Novi. I graduated from Renaissance HS in 1986 and went to Lincoln University in Missouri to pursue a degree in Agricultural Economics. I returned to Detroit to complete an internship in 1987 and I only return to visit my remaining family in Detroit. I left to pursue career opportunities that were as different as possible from the manufacturing end of the automotive industry that provided jobs for most of my family members. My migration pattern has taken me from Michigan to Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado all in the Agricultural Industry. I only have fond memories of growing in the Franklin Park area of Detroit's far westside in the late seventies and mid-eighties. |
Jiminnm
Member
Username: Jiminnm
Post Number: 1228
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 1:56 pm: | |
We left Detroit in 1999 and moved to NM. I see nothing back there now, or predicted for the near term, that would cause us to return. I've grown too accustomed to the sun, the mountains, the sun, warmer weather, the sun, the hiking, the desert, the pueblos, much lower taxes and insurance costs and, oh yes, no more dreary winters when you can go 30 days without seeing the sun. My wife is even more adamant, saying that she will never move back. Period, end of discussion. We were both raised in the city, are products of DPS (Cass & McKenzie), and spent years at WSU and UofD.
My parents left in 1990, only a couple of months after my dad retired, after living their entire lives in the city. They lived in what was supposed to be a nice area near State Fair between Hoover and Schoenherr, but saw no reason to continue to live where their garage was broken into more times than they could count, where there were several attempts to break into their house (including some guy who tried to kick their front door down while they were home and only left when my dad stuck a gun in the guy's face), where my mother didn't even feel safe walking to their garage, where a house a few doors down was a crack den and eventually burned down, etc. etc. Multiply that by tens of thousands who felt the same way and the effect of that feeling through those families and you can explain a large part of the reduction in Detroit's population and why it may well be several generations before there's any substantive growth in Detroit's population. |
Buyamerican
Member
Username: Buyamerican
Post Number: 58
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 1:57 pm: | |
Born and raised in Detroit on Lycaste and then Montclair between Vernor and Kercheval. Went to school there, married there, lived 7 Mile and Hayes area, worked there, had kids there, raised the kids there. Children could only go to kindergarten then went to Catholic schools in suburbs because Detroit schools were becoming too violent. Moved after 50 years of residence. For the last 10 years of my Detroit residency my memories were not favorable. Neighborhoods changed drastically and thugs took over. Gunshots at night, no one cared about their neighbors anymore, houses started looking pretty shabby. I didn't feel I could keep my family safe so we left. I would have loved to stay and live out my remaining life in Detroit because I loved it so, but towards the end, I got very bitter. Hope you're not sorry you asked, you got an honest answer. |
Kathleen
Member
Username: Kathleen
Post Number: 2196
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 2:02 pm: | |
When my parents moved to Arizona back in 1989, it was the first time in some 140 years that my family did not have a physical presence in the city of Detroit!
After 10 years, they returned to be with family through my dad's terminal illness; they never moved back into the city, opting for a short term stay in Eastpointe and then settling in Chesterfield where Mom still lives. |
Durango
Member
Username: Durango
Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 2:52 pm: | |
I am sure most people have the desire to return to the birthplace. My current line of work limits my ability to live in Detroit. Otherwise, until the economy becomes more diverse in southeastern Michigan, the public school system within Detroit improves, everyday public services improve, middle-class neighborhoods become safe, and basic businesses such as grocery stores are readily accessible, I can't return to the city of Detroit to live. |
Durango
Member
Username: Durango
Post Number: 3
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 2:53 pm: | |
I am sure most people have the desire to return to their birthplace. My current line of work limits my ability to live in Detroit. Otherwise, until the economy becomes more diverse in southeastern Michigan, the public school system within Detroit improves, everyday public services improve, middle-class neighborhoods become safe, and basic businesses such as grocery stores are readily accessible, I can't return to the city of Detroit to live. |
Mackinaw
Member
Username: Mackinaw
Post Number: 2664
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 3:00 pm: | |
My mother was born and raised in Detroit south of 6-mile near U-D, and when married moved into the rental district of GP Park, then, briefly, GP Farms, and then GP City. I assume the motivation was the public school system as she began having children, and the fact that Detroit was in some of its darkest days late in the Coleman Young administration. Her parents, however, stayed in Detroit until near their death in the 90s.
My father's parents had already moved from East Grand Boulevard to Grosse Pointe Woods in the 1960s, thus he grew up entirely outside of Detroit, and while he works in Detroit and interacts with it daily, you can tell that my mother is more comfortable with the city.
I've always felt that my ties to the city have been pretty strong, even though I've never formally resided there. Most of this is due to the fact that I grew up within a block of the city limits.
My plan is to live in Detroit, as soon as possible, after my education is complete. I don't put any conditions on this; I'm planning on doing it regardless. |
Ericdetfan
Member
Username: Ericdetfan
Post Number: 41
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 3:16 pm: | |
My mom, sister, and I left the warrendale neighborhood in 2002. After a rash of incidents in that latter years, my mom was getting up in age and wanted a more secure area to live in. We moved to Dearborn heights and my mom says that this neighborhood is too much like Detroit and wants to move farther out. 2 of my uncles still live in Detroit, also in Warrendale.
I wanted to move back 2 years after we moved here, not nesassarily to Warrendale...If not it would prolly be in the downtown area. My Fiance, however; is fairly adamate about not wanting to live in Detroit, so I prolly will never live there again. |
Harpernottingham
Member
Username: Harpernottingham
Post Number: 166
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 3:19 pm: | |
Lived on the east side (Harper and Nottingham) for 25 years. Finally left the city in 1996 for obvious reasons. Break-ins, shitty neighbors, shitty city services (or lack thereof), did I mention shitty neighbors? and one drive-by shooting. I shouldn't feel guilty about leaving a hell hole, but thanks to 13 years of Catholic school, I do feel a little guilty.
Everyone I grew up with has fled the old neighborhood. I meet lots of folks who grew up in the burbs and have since moved into the city.
I wish you all better luck than I had there.
--From a (relatively) safe location in "the Dales" of Ferndale, where no one yet has tried to steal my car. |
Andysrc
Member
Username: Andysrc
Post Number: 161
Registered: 07-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 3:37 pm: | |
My dad's family moved from Detroit to Southfield in 1956, I think. When I was born, we lived in Troy for five years until we went to North Carolina in 1985. We moved around for a bit and then settled in Ohio. After college (2002), I ended up back here in Ferndale.
Now I'm leaving again a week from today to take a new job in NYC. I tell myself I'll be back one day, but I guess you never really know. |
Mama_jackson
Member
Username: Mama_jackson
Post Number: 230
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 3:55 pm: | |
My mom's family moved out of Detroit during the Prohibition, first to Canada then to Hartland. (Family rumor says to avoid being arrested for making beer or liquor they moved to Canada.) |
Kathinozarks
Member
Username: Kathinozarks
Post Number: 358
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 4:25 pm: | |
Summer 1992 |
Detroit313
Member
Username: Detroit313
Post Number: 307
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 4:27 pm: | |
My family moved from Detroit in phases;
1990: Father, uncle, aunt were transferred to Spring Hill, Tenn (Saturn)
1992: Brothers and cousins joined after houses were built outside of Nashville,Tenn
1993: Mother and I moved
1997: Most of mother's side of family moved to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Texas
2001:I moved back to Detroit after I transferred from University of California at Riverside
2004: Moved to NYC
2006: Brothers moved back to Detroit (plan to moved to Los Angeles in 2008)
1941-present All of father's side remain in Detroit, Inkster, Dearborn, Westland, Southfield, Troy, Grosse Pointe, Redford, Canton, Ann Arbor, Milford and Sterling Heights.
honestly I would move back to Detroit after I retire. Home is where the heart is. 313 |
Miketoronto
Member
Username: Miketoronto
Post Number: 530
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 9:24 pm: | |
I don't know the exact date, but it was I believe it was the 70's when the last one of my family members made the move to the suburbs from inner city Detroit.
Actually my dad always tells me the story how our now dead uncle would not leave the City of Detroit like the rest of our extended family did. He lived in some neighbourhood off Gratiot, and was the last white guy on the block. He resisted the move, untill he was in a doctor office one day, and a guy came in with a gun to rob the office, and the doctor actually shot the guy in the office. Thats when our uncle found out the doctor always carried a gun with him.
That and the fact that over the years the black people on his block started treating him badly for being white. So he then made the move to the burbs.
He even had guns in the house to protect himself.
He did resist, but as I said he then had to move out because his safety was a concern.
(Message edited by miketoronto on April 08, 2007) |
Granmontrules
Member
Username: Granmontrules
Post Number: 62
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 9:43 pm: | |
Born (University District), raised and still live here with my wife ( born Warrendale area) and kids (born Grandmont). We aren't leaving. |
Ptero
Member
Username: Ptero
Post Number: 110
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 10:27 pm: | |
Mom and Dad resisted moving to Grand Rapids for work until I was out of High School. Dad travelled for work for two years to keep me here. That meant a LOT as I was at Cass. In '71 they finally made the move from the west side to GR. I ended up back in Detroit to go to Wayne for undergrad and grad school. Lived on W. Canfield, 7/Lahser, and near Lonyo and McGraw through those years. I moved to Rochester to be close to work after grad school. |
Hysteria
Member
Username: Hysteria
Post Number: 2706
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 10:31 pm: | |
I still have family in Northville Township but most of my family left in the late 1970's and early '80's. General Motors provided dealership opportunities for my family in Illinois and Indiana, so we split. Metro Chicago and Northern Indiana turned out to be strong markets for GM Heavy Duty trucks and even GM Motor Homes at that time. I remember going in the new RVs as a little kid thinking the convertible couches and rusty orange interiors were so state-of-the-art and modern. |
Jrvass
Member
Username: Jrvass
Post Number: 69
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007 - 10:51 pm: | |
Hysteria,
The old 30-40 foot models? I think I know exactly the ones you mean.
My parents left in '49-50 to go to Saginaw & his first job at GM. Returned later to Pontiac. Uncle Fred died in 1989 and we sold the Palmer Woods house. That was that.
Living in Detroit? Well, I currently live in Waterford and work in Lansing. How about a bullet train connecting Detroit/Lansing?
I'd consider it based on fuel ($100/wk) savings.
James |
Oladub
Member
Username: Oladub
Post Number: 29
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 12:15 am: | |
I've left Detroit twice. My parents received a letter about 1964 informing them of a decision to remove my stepbrother and myself from Finney and bus us to some inner city high school. My Father, a carpenter, bought a lot and built a house near Mack and Baseline by the time school reopened. I was not told about the letter until a couple of years ago.
I later moved to W. Ferry in Detroit while attending WSU and working as a construction laborer. I transferred to MSU and E. Lansing. |
Savannahsmiles
Member
Username: Savannahsmiles
Post Number: 29
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 12:23 am: | |
I left for the last time in 1988. I didn't really want to leave, but my father was getting up in years and wanted me to "come home". I don't regret it because he passed away three months after I moved to TN. As much as I miss Detroit, I doubt anything would make me consider moving back. I moved twenty-five times during my youth and I do not ever want to do my kids like that. Also, my husband is a good ole country boy. He'd feel like a fish out of water in a place like Detroit. 
My mother left Detroit the same time I did and moved to be with her parents, brothers and sisters in W. TN.
My oldest brother and his family moved to E. TN in 1990. My middle brother moved to W. TN in 1998, and my youngest brother is about to make the move South just as soon as they close on the sale of his house. |
Barnesfoto
Member
Username: Barnesfoto
Post Number: 3320
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 2:12 am: | |
My Grandfather, who had followed his siblings to Detroit from the hamlet of Auburn, Ontario, was the first to move out. He lived in a series of boarding houses, the first at 62 Alfred (a very handsome Brush Park house that still stands), but moved to Garden City upon his first marriage in the late thirties, then settled in a very rural Redford Township in the early forties.
My Father's parents left the Grand River-Greenfield area upon their deaths. His siblings left the area after the riots.
My parents left Old Redford at the end of 1979, when it was time for my little brother to start Kindergarten...The old neighborhood was stable for a while, but when the economy got bad in the early 80's, it became obvious that my parents had made a good move.
I lived with them for a few years while attending WSU and moved to Southwest Detroit in 1986.
I've left Detroit several times, and lived in several very interesting places in the world, but no place feels more like home than SWD. |
Tayshaun22
Member
Username: Tayshaun22
Post Number: 356
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 2:20 am: | |
On Mom's side, about 1930 to Lincoln Park.
On Dad's side, 1925 from Sault Ste. Marie to Lincoln Park. |
Chuckles
Member
Username: Chuckles
Post Number: 94
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 7:54 am: | |
I was born and raised in Detroit, I married and had two children in Detroit, I started a small business in Detroit...Detroit had been very good to me.
Then in 1974 I was told to buss my two children to the inner city from a walking distance school where I lived in zone 28...
So I packed up and left Detroit for Livingston County, South Lyon, (No bussing there)...
((the school my children had to leave was already a racially mixed environment and a very positive experience))
I have since moved back part way (Plymouth) and am considering another move to Wyandotte.
My inlaws have spent their entire lives in Detroit, Warrendale mostly...
Detroit's demographics have changed too radically for me to live in my old neighborhood and I cannot afford the insurance Redlining that is ongoing for Auto and Home...
I know Detroit like the back of my hand and still find many many reasons to visit frequently but to live there like the old days...no way.
Downtown Detroit a totally different situation, very positive, growth oriented...maybe a catalyst for a New Detroit but unlikely.
Bottom line is Detroit lacks a healthy Tax base and is mostly comprised of very poor people, economically disadvantaged people, like it or not there it is.
Whadayathink
regards
(Message edited by chuckles on April 09, 2007) |
Lmr
Member
Username: Lmr
Post Number: 8
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 8:39 am: | |
I have been in Minnesota since January, 1984. I graduated from Wayne State University in December of 1983 and got a great job offer here in Minnesota. At the end of 1983 the job prospects weren't that good in SE Michigan as it was kind of a down time.
My mother moved to Minnesota in 1989 to live near me when she sold her house due to declining health. She is now deceased.
Later on I married someone from Wyoming (the state) and we plan to move back there when we retire.
I don't have a large family in Detroit but I do have very long roots there, back at least to the 1830's when my ancestors operated a boarding house on Atwater St., near where the Renaissance Center is at now.
We do get back to Detroit every few years. One reason we have for going back to Detroit is to buy our vehicles - don't laugh - the car and truck inventory in Detroit is unsurpassed anywhere and incredible compared to these small town dealers in rural Minnesota or Wyoming. |
56packman
Member
Username: 56packman
Post Number: 1210
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 8:54 am: | |
1969--from 7 mile/Lahser to NE Livonia, because we could. Dad was doing better at work, we could afford a nicer place. |
Craig
Member
Username: Craig
Post Number: 170
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 9:17 am: | |
I bailed for the same reasons cited above: virulent racism, unending crime and harassment, neighbors dumping trash into their backyards, vandalism, taxes, loud radios, etc.
My first nights in suburbia were heaven - living under constant fire I had been unable to recognize the stress that had been building. Relief came with no longer worrying about whether or not the car would be gone in the AM or the house burglarized or some any of another from a long list of affronts to decency.
I'm back in Detroit all of the time, sometimes for work and sometimes for play. But now that I have a young family I assert that whatever pull "home" still had is fully supressed. I'll never subject the people that I love to what I experienced. Drive slowly on the streets north of Fenkell and east of Burt Road and then tell me how welcoming "home" is to you.
Extreme circumstances under which I'll come back??? Gated communities for regular working guys, i.e. the same security for me that the silver-slipper districts are able to finance for themselves. |
Gtat44
Member
Username: Gtat44
Post Number: 106
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 10:43 am: | |
Born April 1964 at the old Sinai Hospital
Lived on Patton between Kendall and Acacia until age 8. West side Jjaba! Still remember the Clark gas station on Schoolcraft and Evergreen, and I think Earl Scheib was over there too.
Moved to Lappin St. between Rex and Redmond in 1972 basically grew up there. Bounced around the east side after leaving home. Linnhurst and Chalmers, Manning and Kelly, Novara and Crusade, Lodewyck and Chandler Park, Woodhall and Chandler Park, then Elroy and 8 Mile. technically it was Warren but I was 4 houses off 8 Mile.
Left in 2003 my 2nd wife became pregnant and her parents who live in Indianapolis were getting up in years, and the baby of the family was having a baby so......We wanted to plan things out but the county of Macomb bought our house like several others in that area. So, we had 60 days to get out. Live in a small rural town about 20 minutes from Indianapolis called Whitestown. We both agree we will be back at some point, we both have always wanted to have a house on Chandler Park Drive. Wouldn't mind living on West Outer Drive either, I used to love those big houses over near Stoepel Park and I would dream about owning one on my Sunday drives. |
220hendrie1910
Member
Username: 220hendrie1910
Post Number: 67
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 10:53 am: | |
My grandmother lived at 220 Hendrie in 1910 (whence the handle) and at 210 Blaine in 1920, then married a Newfoundlander and never returned. Her sister married a GM exec and lived through enough of Detroit's decline for my Nannie to pronounce that she was glad to have left.
I sometimes look at that vacant lot on Hendrie and wonder if it wouldn't be cool to rebuild on that spot. (Ignoring the constant roar from two freeways, of course.)
Minimally-related-to-Detroit in Ottawa. |
Mackinaw
Member
Username: Mackinaw
Post Number: 2666
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 11:11 am: | |
"Gated communities for regular working guys."
Why would you have any motivation to live in any city if you didn't want to be part of a neighborhood? Gated communities are a symbol of upscale modern suburban life, and though there are some in Detroit (i.e. south of Jefferson on the far east side), the landscape there is completely suburban...it is Detroit only in name.
Are you telling me that there is not one regular neighborhood in Detroit that you feel is safe? You're kidding yourself if you believe that.
Fear is the number one thing that has killed this city and all cities for that matter. Suburban living arrangements are what our reactions have created. |
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