Detroit today. Why is Detroit a ghost town? Before and after photos
It was in Detroit that my first and largest trip to the United States began. Then I wrote several posts, but I got too carried away abandonedthat are actually mesmerizing.
2 I also had a separate report about the abandoned places of the city. Today, half of the photographs are already history, Detroit is being actively cleaned up: it is too expensive to restore buildings that have stood for a quarter of a century, and when abandoned, they are dangerous, there are a handful of homeless people, drug addicts and criminals.
3 Yes, Detroit has bad neighborhoods. As in every American city there will definitely be a ghetto. There are several more such areas here, for obvious reasons.
4 Detroit bankrupt, Pindos are dumb- commentators sometimes write to me. I smile while reading this. After all, they were not there, but they persistently broadcast the same point of view, either imposed on them by the TV, or simply work “according to the manual,” leaving comments on behalf of bots.
- look dear man at your beloved America - Detroit for example.
- You ask your girlfriend to go to Detroit and tell the world how great they are there. As always, the pendos cannot see the logs in their own eyes ...
- there is still amersky city of Detroit, that's where the capitals -liberoids tried.
- What do you not recommend to the Pindos to first pull Detroit out of bankruptcy - and then climb into Vukrovyna and other places far from their places of residence?
- It’s the Americans have no money to save their native Detroit, the Pindos have no money ...
5 On the one hand, Detroit is really an ass. There you can buy a house with land for a thousand dollars. On the other hand, everything changes. The gasoline crisis that erupted in the early 70s led to the fact that people massively stopped buying cars, and it was the car factories that raised Detroit to a high level at one time.
Instead of people who had left, others began to come. As a rule, African Americans from the southern states, to whom land was sold for a symbolic dollar. They were supposed to work. And they didn't. The crisis grew, plus a change in the contingent of residents did their job, Detroit began to turn into a ghost town.
6 But the peak of it all came in the eighties. Much has changed since then. In the 80s and New York looked different. Over time, everything began to improve. When the big three car corporations returned to profit, the city began to change.
7 Detroit is like a puff pie: a very decent Downtown (downtown), full of abandoned Midtown, decent residential outskirts that are interspersed with the ghetto. Mixed but not mixed.
8 There has been no population influx here for a long time, the city is notorious. If he will bring him to Detroit - for work, for a good position and with appropriate housing. But many are trying to get out of here. In America good job - it's all. The only way to get out of the damn ghetto. When a miracle happens, people arrange a garage sale: there is no point in clinging to things and carrying around useless belongings.
9 The flea market I went to was a flea market, not a garage sale.
10 Want the secret to the success of a prosperous neighborhood or city in America? Why is one block occupied by expensive villas, and just across the intersection - by fences, trellises and a ghetto? It's all about taxes, they almost always remain where they are received. Where many people have good wages and pay high taxes, schools, infrastructure are better, better life... Where people are sitting on benefits do not pay taxes - devastation and decay. I think it is primarily because of this tax differentiation that America looks so differently. Doesn't the US government have enough money to buy new buses? Enough, but the city is engaged in the purchase of transport. To the extent that everyone independently chooses which police or medical vehicles to buy.
11 And now I will show you the city center. Most of these photos were not included in my 2012 posts.
12 See what abandoned and decaying Detroit looks like, the burp of American democracy!
13 Detroit's downtown was one of the wealthiest in America. The city was actively built up and developed in the thirties, during and after the Great Depression.
15 I wonder what the gaiters will write in response to these photos?
16 Skyscrapers here are not high, 30-40 floors, built in the "Chicago" style.
17 It's very beautiful inside.
18 There are also abandoned, completely empty skyscrapers, but it was not possible to get there.
19 Nothing small town, if you look closely.
21 Lots of amazing “historic” buildings. All of them were also built in the middle of the last century.
22 They don't build like that anymore. Many abandoned houses were demolished and multi-storey car parks were built in their place.
23 Imagine, all these buildings are parking lots! And they function, there are cars.
24 General Motors headquarters. It's interesting inside, I went to visit them and. This building also turned out to be interesting: either it was empty, or it was built by an auto corporation, I don’t remember without Google, but I write the text without the Internet. In any case, GM moved its headquarters there specifically to support Detroit's Downtown budget with its tax deductions. And for the city to come back to life.
25 Legendary train station, Michigan Central. This huge abandoned building is probably the most famous of all Detroit abandoned buildings. When I arrived, it was already impossible to get inside, the building was fenced off. Now, as far as I know, glasses have been inserted there and they are doing repairs.
26 They don't stand on ceremony here with dead houses, even if they are beautiful. The city has no opportunity to maintain and restore them, often there are no owners, but such buildings are a hotbed.
27 Weird neighborhood. Quite a residential building, behind - three abandoned prajekt towers. Such "candles" were built for socially disadvantaged segments of the population in the 40-50s. An alternative to our "Khrushchev". Then these very layers scattered throughout the city, and that's what it led to. Then, in 72, there was also a turmoil like those that now periodically occur or Baltimore.
28 The city center is flooded with lights, Midtown is in the foreground.
29 When someone proposes to “look at dead Detroit, with whom pindos, what have they done?, just give them a link to this report.
30 I even miss Detroit a little, I have fond memories of it. And I plan to return this fall for my upcoming big trip across Canada. She is here across the river.
It's interesting to see who is right.
American real estate agencies sometimes publish ads, seeing which you want to rub your eyes. Didn't it seem like it? A thousand dollar mansion? Two-bedroom lawn, downtown? Yes, it happens. Detroit.
Detroit is the city with the cheapest real estate not only in America, but, perhaps, in the entire western hemisphere. But before buying a house for a dollar, consider whether you need such an acquisition.
In the middle of the last century, Detroit experienced a heyday. The center of the automotive industry, the city-industrial giant, it was fashionable and promising. Detroiters considered it shameful to travel by buses and trams: in the city of Ford and Chrysler, everyone considered it his duty to have a car.
Now they sell not cars, but crack and heroin, and dark-skinned drug lords in gold and fur coats roam the streets, like in a bad American movie. Here you can buy a house for a dollar or a piece of land for 100. Detroit has become like a post-apocalyptic ghost town.
Canadian detroit
In 1701, the French colonist and military leader Antoine Lome de La Mot-Cadillac, who arrived in the New World, on the territory of present-day Canada, to develop the lands reclaimed from the Indians, founded a settlement on the shores of the strait connecting Lake Huron with Lake Erie. Initially, it was named Fort Pontchartrain-du-Detroix, and later turned into the familiar Detroit. By the way, "Detroit" in French means "strait".
The strait, with access to the two Great Lakes, was an unusually advantageous location, and the new settlement very soon turned out to be an important transport hub for the developing region.
For a long time, Detroit remained a Canadian city, changing only "owners": in 1760 Detroit went to the British. And even after the War of Independence, which separated the United States from Britain and its colonies, Detroit did not become part of the new state. The city became American only in 1796.
Early 19th century most of the city burned down in a fire, and it was actually rebuilt.
For more than 40 years, Detroit was the center of the Michigan Territory, which then became part of the United States and became one of the states. Later, the state capital was moved to the city of Lansin, but Detroit remains Michigan's largest city. Before the beginning Civil War it became one of the staging points of the "Underground Railroad" along which black slaves fled from the South to the North.
Until the middle of the 19th century, the basis of the city's economy was shipbuilding. And in 1899, an event took place that determined the fate of the city - near Detroit, Henry Ford built an automobile plant.
After the founding of the famous Ford Motors company, other automotive giants also opened their concerns in Detroit: Chrysler, General Motors and American Motors. The city turned into the automotive capital of the country and began to grow rapidly. The late 19th and early 20th centuries are called the "golden era" of Detroit.
Detroit in its prime
For the next fifty years, Detroit flourished: it literally became a symbol of the American auto industry. However, this success predetermined his subsequent fall. The public transport system practically did not develop here. Who needs trams and trolleybuses in the city of Ford and Chrysler? Public transport is for the poor, the car giants preached. Residents of wealthy Detroit should only drive their own cars.
The townspeople with cars were leaving for quiet suburbs, the city center was empty. This phenomenon is called "white flight". High-income white Americans did not want to live surrounded by black workers, who were hired in large numbers by the automobile concerns. As there was an outflow of wealthy citizens from the city, the treasury was empty, and, accordingly, funding for local schools, kindergartens and hospitals decreased. Which, in turn, caused further population drain.
Old Detroit
Detroit suffered its worst blow in 1973 when the oil crisis broke out. Many American car manufacturers went bankrupt, unable to compete with European and Japanese competitors: they produced more efficient cars in terms of fuel consumption. Concerns were closed, people lost their jobs, the city's population was rapidly declining.
Detroit had approximately 2 million inhabitants in the 1950s. Over the next 30 years, the population of the city decreased by 600 thousand, then by another 200, and so on. Now the population of the once noisy and wealthy Detroit is less than 700 thousand people.
Entire areas were abandoned. And if in other cities poor outskirts are considered dangerous, in Detroit the opposite is true - the center of the former automobile capital suffered the greatest destruction. Brightly lit shops sit side by side with empty buildings with smashed shop windows and windows. Everything that remains inside the houses abandoned by the ruined townspeople is taken away by looters. Trees sprout through broken roofs. The empty building of the Packard plant was occupied by the homeless.
It is not surprising that the city breaks records for the cheapness of real estate: for $ 500 you can buy a mansion here, for example, in the area of \u200b\u200bSteel Street, which was once considered prestigious. Steel Street, which translates to “quiet street,” no longer lives up to its name. There are hardly any quiet corners left in Detroit. There is an active drug trade in the city. Armed gangs are driving around the city and robbing people.
Ghost town
The site in the ashes, which was left after the last fire here, can be bought for $ 100. Detroit is the go-to spot for legendary dollar bids for a home.
Here's an example. The two bedroom house on Ervington Street was built in the late 1920s. Over the past six years, they tried to sell it 12 times - about a couple of times a year. In the end, the price was reduced from 70 thousand to one dollar.
But no one wants to buy a house here for this money either: who needs a mansion in a city filled with drug dealers, looters and homeless people? Crime is growing from year to year, and the police force is only reduced due to lack of funding.
In addition, the matter, of course, will not do with a symbolic dollar. In fact, the owner will have to give the state 30-40 thousand dollars a year - Detroit is famous for perhaps the highest real estate taxes in America. And the repair of the plundered structure will cost several tens of thousands more.
However, sometimes there are buyers. Usually they are foreigners: British, Australians, Spaniards, Swedes. Often they call agencies, tempted by the incredibly low price and not figuring out what's what. And after that, they either abandon their idea, or, having already bought, they understand what they are getting themselves into - and strive to quickly get rid of the source of fixed costs. The house is put up for sale again, and this is repeated many times.
However - an interesting observation - the situation is gradually changing. According to experts, over the past two years, the real estate market in Detroit has revived somewhat. House and apartment prices increased by 23%. Of course, not all real estate here is sold for a pittance: there are houses in the city and for 15-20 thousand dollars. And, judging by the recent rise in prices, there is a demand for this property.
Will someone still populate the ghost town, and Detroit will get a chance for a second bloom?
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19th century
After the revolution, Detroit remained a Canadian town for a long time and passed to the United States only in 1796. In 1805, most of Detroit burned down in a fire. From 1805 to 1847 Detroit was the capital of the territory and then the new state of Michigan. During this time, its population increased greatly. In 1812 it was again occupied by the British during the Anglo-American War (-), a year later it was recaptured by the Americans and received the status of a city in 1815.
Many buildings and mansions in the city were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Detroit entered the “golden age”. At the time, it was called the "Paris of the West" for its luxurious architecture and Washington Boulevard, brightly lit by Edison bulbs. The favorable location on the waterway of the Great Lakes system made the city a major transport hub. The basis of the urban economy in the middle of the XIX century. was shipbuilding. At the end of the same century, the advent of automobiles inspired Henry Ford to create his own model and the Ford Motor Company (1904). The factories of Ford, Duran, the Dodge brothers (see Dodge), Packard and Chrysler turned Detroit into the automotive capital of the world.
XX century
Over the past decades, the state and federal authorities have continued to try to revitalize the city, especially its central part... One of the last initiatives in the 2000s. was the creation and construction of several casinos, which are expected to help strengthen Detroit's economy.
Climate
The climate of the city is significantly influenced by the Great Lakes, softening it. In general, the city has a temperate continental climate, despite the fact that it is located 2 ° south of Crimea. Winters are short, mild and snowy, summers are long and warm, often hot. Scorching heat and severe frosts are infrequent, nevertheless the most heatwhich was recorded was 40.6 degrees Celsius (July 24, 1936), and the lowest was -31 degrees Celsius (December 22, 1872). The average temperature in January is -2.8 degrees, in July +23.3. Precipitation is distributed relatively evenly throughout the year, but most of it falls in the spring and summer. In total, 787 mm fall out in a year. precipitation.
Detroit in art
Literature
The main events of the novel "Wheels" by writer Arthur Haley take place in Detroit. Here Detroit is described as the center of the US automotive industry, a snapshot of the life and everyday life of various social strata who lived in Detroit in the middle of the 20th century.
Music
In 1959, Motown Records was founded in Detroit. In the 1960s, a special direction of rhythm and blues was developed here - the so-called "Motown sound" ( Motown Sound). The most prominent stars of African American music of those years began their careers on this label -
Today, the city of Detroit in the United States is often called abandoned. For many reasons, this once thriving metropolis, the center of the American automotive industry, is last years went bankrupt and emptied. So let's find out why Detroit, a civilized city in the middle of America, became a ghost!
Detroit - the history of an abandoned city
As you know, at the very beginning of the 20th century, Detroit experienced its heyday. Extremely beneficial geographical position at the intersection of the water routes of the Great Lakes made it a major hub for transport and shipbuilding. After Henry Ford created his first car model and subsequently a whole plant - the Ford Motor Company - the production of luxury executive cars of that time began here. During the economic boom during World War II, more and more people from the southern states began to come to this richest city in the country, especially African Americans, who were attracted by jobs at Ford factories. Detroit was experiencing a demographic boom.
But years later, when the Japanese became the kings of the automotive industry in the global world economy, the products of the three giants Ford, General Motors and Chrysler could no longer compete with them. Presentable and expensive American models turned out to be completely uneconomical. Plus, in 1973, the global gasoline crisis erupted, pushing Detroit even further to the brink of the abyss.
Due to de-industrialization, massive workforce reductions began, and people began to leave the city. Many moved to more successful cities where they could find work, while others - mostly low-paid workers or unemployed living on welfare alone - remained in a poorer city. And since the number of taxpayers was decreasing, this could not but affect the economic situation for the municipality.
Riots and riots began, mainly associated with interracial relations. The abolition of racial segregation in the United States also contributed to this. Outbreaks of violence, unemployment and poverty have led to the fact that the center of the gradually crumbling city was inhabited by blacks, while "whites" live mainly in the suburbs. The movie "8th Mile" was shot about this, where the main role is played by the famous rapper Eminem, a native of Detroit.
Detroit today highest level crime in the country, the number of murders and other violent crimes is especially high. This is four times more than in New York. This situation did not arise overnight, but has matured since the 1967 Detroit riot, when unemployment pushed many African Americans into mass atrocities. It is noteworthy that the tradition of setting fire to buildings for a holiday, which arose back in the 30s of the last century, today has acquired frightening proportions. Detroit is now considered the most dangerous city in America; drug trafficking and banditry flourish here.
The deserted buildings of the ghost town of Detroit are gradually being destroyed. Here is a photo of an abandoned train station in Detroit, ruined skyscrapers, banks and theaters. Residential buildings in the city are selling very cheaply, the real estate market has simply depreciated, which is not surprising given the current demographic situation in Detroit.
Correspondents of TUT.BY have already been to Detroit - once the capital of American mechanical engineering, which today is not experiencing the most better times... We talked about how they saw this city in the “Big journey of TUT.BY”. Alisa Ksenevich writes about another Detroit - to which one wants to move for a "settled life." Because he's amazing, says Alice. And that's why.
I wanted to get to Detroit for a long time and passionately, fascinated by the dark, mysterious, viscous like syrup, aesthetics of the films "Only Lovers Alive", "The Lost River", the work of documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and musician Jack White, as well as the groovy song from the latest album Red Hot Chili Peppers. The whole trip seemed to me like a blind date - in my head there are a lot of images, expectations, but what is there in reality? With Detroit, though, I had instant chemistry. This had already happened once - with New York, and I believed that no other city could knock this wedge out. But, getting to know Detroit and its inhabitants, looking at the details, I became more and more affirmed in the desire to move here after I say goodbye to the turbulent youth in New York and want a settled, family life. Detroit is amazing! And let me tell you why.
Escaping beauty
There is a genre in the art of photography, which in the USA is called "porno-ruins" - when photographers specially travel to Detroit and other cities with signs of desolation and take poignant pictures of abandoned buildings.
I tend to notice beauty where others see ugliness. One of the main properties of beauty is escape. People are aging, buildings are collapsing, gardens are overgrown with wild grass, and an effort must be made to peer at them and get a feel for their history.
There is no need to make an effort to admire the beauty of San Francisco or the beaches of Los Angeles. But they do not sink into the heart, at least to me.
I would say about Detroit in the words of Rainbow Rovewell (author of Eleanor and Park): “She was never beautiful. She was like art, and art doesn't have to be beautiful. It should make you feel something. "
Detroit's abandoned colonial homes (the city was founded in 1710) are beautiful with the beauty that I love - complex, tragic, but still majestic.
I spent a day on the "porno ruins" of Detroit, although they certainly deserve more. People on my way rarely came across, cars stopped a couple of times - the drivers sympathetically asked if everything was okay with me, if I was lost and if I needed help.
As I explored the inside of the house, I had the feeling that someone was watching me or that I was filming a thriller. Ringing silence, dust, some rubbish crunches underfoot, the midday sun breaks through the curtains (how long have they hung on these windows? 30-40 years?) ... Things are scattered on the floor: multi-colored rags, mattresses, wall clocks, a sewing machine, liquid mouthwash, a book with children's counters ... The kitchen cabinet froze in the position of the leaning Tower of Pisa, inside there are two whole porcelain plates with flowers.
I go up to the second floor along the stairs springing under my feet. The house smells musty, the meat chandeliers have been torn from the ceilings. The bathroom contains a cracked mirror and a partially collapsed mosaic. In the children's room there is a chest of drawers of excellent work, they no longer make such, and on the table next to it there is a Bible. Thick, expensively bound with gold embossing, powdered with dust. What happened to the family who lived here? Where are they based? What would you feel if you returned to your once beautiful and rich home?
Digesting the surging emotions (horror, sadness, admiration), I walked towards the house, where I stopped during my stay in Detroit. I couldn't wait to discuss my impressions with his mistress.
"I am learning to love Detroit as a parent learns to love an adopted child"
We didn’t know Tate Austen. When from the many options on airbnb I chose a room in an old mansion in the historic district of Detroit, I could not even imagine that its owner would be a native Petersburg woman and that we have a mutual friend - sculptor and film festival director Rosa Valado, who rented me a room for a year in New York. Even the interiors of both houses are similar: antique furniture, elegant dishes, attention to detail. Tatiana (Tate) Austen has been living in the United States for 26 years, of which 18 in New York, 8 in Detroit. A ballet critic, a graduate of the Moscow Literary Institute and the Leningrad Theater Institute, she revolved in the field of art all her life. In New York, she and her husband had their own gallery. In 2009, when the American economy bottomed out, the couple moved to Detroit.
“We saw a TV program that told about the economic decline of Detroit, about the terrible state of the most beautiful houses built before the sixties of the last century,” says Tatiana. - We immediately wanted to go there and see everything with our own eyes. Detroit was truly a "ghost town" at the time. There were almost no cars on the roads, people on the streets. City lighting was absent in many areas. The beautiful high-rise buildings in the city center were abandoned and empty. If desired, one could climb onto the roof of such a building and fry kebabs there, which many did. Looking at these buildings, I got the feeling that they are like orphans looking for a loving family that will restore them and bring them back to life.
Seven years ago, real estate prices in Detroit were unbelievably low. You could buy a house for 7-10-15 thousand dollars. Tatiana and her husband began to buy and restore historical, brick houses built in the colonial style, looking for new owners for them. However, the main reason and purpose of their stay in Detroit was to create a museum where we could promote types of contemporary art based on light: photography, video, projection, laser, neon, three-dimensional technology and so on. They purchased an abandoned bank building, restored it and began to hold exhibitions, the first of which was called Time and Place. The Kunsthalle Detroit Museum existed until 2014. Its activity had to be suspended, as it was not possible to obtain financial support. local authorities and funds.
Now, after 7 years, home prices in Detroit have increased 10 times, which still makes them affordable compared to similar housing prices in other states. The abandoned warehouse premises of downtown (the business, most comfortable area of \u200b\u200bthe city) are being converted into trendy, comfortable lofts. Cars are cheap. The food is great. Many young people under the age of 30 are moving to Detroit who want to do business and start families here.
“I have a love-hate relationship with this city,” admits Tatiana. - I hate Detroit because it cut me off from the cultural and social life that I enjoyed living in Manhattan. On the other hand, I have overcome my fear of the unknown. Being a ballet critic and poet by vocation and education, I learned to understand electrical wiring, plumbing systems, roof repairs - no manicure can withstand this. In New York, I was (and still am) an educated consumer, a part of a grateful audience, a social butterfly.
In Detroit, I became part of the force that is changing the face of the city, one of its trustees. I have changed buildings, events, even the lives of some people. I'm learning to love Detroit, like a parent probably learns to love an adopted child. I miss the theater, my hyperactivity in New York, but here there is an opportunity to do something that would be impossible in other cities. In eight years, Detroit has changed the way other cities change in several decades! Being a part of this story, observing the process from the inside and actively participating in it is an extraordinary feeling. I have a friend here, a black woman 94 years old. She remembers Detroit from 1926. So she says, "People come and go, but if they stay, they stick to Detroit."
Remnants of luxury
On the second day, I had a long walk planned with Detroit native Damon Gallagher. Many Americans have such an attractive feature as mobility. They move relatively easily from one city (or state) to another in search of better opportunities for study, a career, and a family. Wherever Damon lived and what he did not do! He also had a bar in New Orleans called Flying Saucer, and his own rock band in Oakland, now a small recording studio in Detroit next to an antique store.
I'm in a great mood, and I start humming one of my favorite songs from the Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Don" t you worry, baby, I'm like ... Detroit, I'm crazy ... "Damon winces in disgust.
- What does Anthony Kiedis (frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers - A.K.) know about Detroit to sing about? He never lived here! Let him compose songs about California. Who can really say something about Detroit through his work is Jack White (White Stripes frontman - A.K.). He grew up here, his mother worked as a cleaner in a Masonic temple. He saved this temple when it was about to be closed for debts and put up for sale at auction.
But this is already interesting! I ask Damon to take me to the temple - the largest Masonic temple in the world.
The building is, to be sure, majestic, occupying the entire quarter. 14 floors, about 1000 rooms. Within its walls, the best musicians of the world perform (Nick Cave, The Who, Rolling Stones, etc.), immersive performances are held (a fashionable format nowadays, which involves spectators wandering around the floors and rooms in which theatrical performance takes place).
In 2013, Jack White anonymously donated $ 142,000 to the temple - this is how much the Detroit Masonic Temple Society owed the state in unpaid taxes. In gratitude for this broad gesture, the Masons renamed the cathedral theater of the temple to the Jack White Theater. So, in fact, the identity of the mysterious patron was revealed.
This is not the first time Jack White has helped his hometown. In 2009, the musician donated 170 thousand dollars to renovate a baseball field in a park where he played ball as a child.
Ten years ago, Dan Gilbert, head of America's largest home loan company Quicken loans, relocated headquarters to Detroit, and with it 7,000 interns. He purchased and renovated over a hundred buildings, allowing his employees to live in those buildings, paying subsidized rent for the first year. Another ten thousand specialists came for the first batch, which became a catalyst for the development of small business and the restaurant industry. After almost half a century of disintegration and oblivion, the city began to revive and develop rapidly.
There is another beautiful structure in downtown that looks more like a cathedral than a commercial center - the Fisher House. The building was built in 1928 by the brilliant American architect Alexander Kahn. When we went inside, my jaw literally dropped. Marble, granite, bronze, vaulted painted ceilings, mosaics, stunning Art Deco lamps and chandeliers. Everything is real, since that time, in excellent condition. In my opinion, it was sacrilege to open a coffee shop within these walls with a plastic counter, cheap coffee and donuts. However, it is there. I wanted to close my eyes and imagine myself here in the 1920s, when Detroit was at the peak of its power and two million people were scurrying back and forth, like New Yorkers are scurrying back and forth now.
The building of the former railway station, built in 1914, left a sad impression. In those years, it was the tallest train station in the world and served over 4,000 passengers a day. After the war, many Americans switched to private vehicles, which reduced passenger volume to a critical level, and it was more profitable for the station owners to sell the building than continue to maintain it. Nevertheless, it was not possible to find buyers - no one wanted to purchase it even for a third of the cost of its construction. In 1967, shops, restaurants and most of the waiting room were closed in the station building. In 1988, the station itself stopped working. Floods, fires, raids of vandals have disfigured the pearl of architecture.
In 2009, the city government decided to demolish the building. A week later, a Detroit resident with the speaking surname Christmas (Christmas - English) challenged the decision in court, citing national legislation, in particular the 1966 Act on the Preservation of Architectural Objects of Historical Significance. A person with a strong civic position who dares to go against the authorities deserves admiration in himself. The fact that he won this trial can be regarded as a miracle. For me, this is another reason to love America.
How much is the quarter now?
The outskirts of Detroit resemble Minsk Shabans until we run into a fence, artistically sprinkled with paint and pasted over with pieces of mirrors of different sizes. Behind the fence is a house, decorated from top to bottom with the same mirror mosaic. The owner of the house is an artist and owner of the largest collection of beads in the world. We were unable to view the collection because the owner was not at home.
Heat and humidity make themselves felt. In the shop we go to buy water, I am surprised to see the bulletproof glass separating the seller and the buyers. I have seen such counters only at a few points of sale of alcohol in disadvantaged areas of New York.
- Even alcohol is not sold right there! - I wonder.
“It's safer to live in Detroit, but still not to the point where armed robbery is not possible,” Damon replies. - The unemployment rate is high in the city. Here, even pizza after 10 pm is not served - the delivery men fear for their lives.
Until the early 2000s, there was not a single major food chain in Detroit. The glory of the most criminal city was entrenched in the city in 1967, when during the riots on the streets of the city 43 people died, 1200 were injured, 2500 shops, 488 private houses were burned and destroyed.
It all started with a police raid in the "Blind Pig" bar, in which they illegally sold alcohol and arranged gambling... The bar was crowded when law enforcement arrived, with 82 African Americans celebrating their friends' return from the Vietnam War. The police arrested everyone indiscriminately. Passers-by, gathered in the street, began to resent the lawlessness and throw bottles at the cops. The conflict gave rise to mass riots - about 10 thousand people took to the streets and began to smash and rob shops, churches, private homes. At that time, in Detroit, the unemployment rate for blacks was twice the unemployment rate for whites. Outbreaks of violence, looting, looting shook the city for five days. Fires blazed in the buildings. It was possible to pacify the raging crowd only with the involvement of military divisions.
About thirty thousand families left Detroit, having ceased to pay property taxes. Electricity was no longer supplied to the deserted areas, the roads were overgrown with weeds, and wild animals began to visit. Even now, you can meet pheasants in the city, and something is constantly roaming about in the bushes.
Detroit's beautiful and varied churches were destroyed by vandals. It got to the point that the local punks entertained themselves by burning the church on the eve of Halloween, thus marking the "night of the devil." On this night, many American children are playing pranks: overturning trash cans, hanging toilet paper on trees, but Detroit's children have reached a new level.
Some of the houses have survived in a condition that is attractive enough for buyers, and found new owners through auctions. So, five years ago, Damon's friend bought a whole block - 8 houses in a row - for 50 thousand dollars. His dream was to settle his friends and relatives in these houses. To those who decided on an adventure, he sold the houses with a minimal mark-up. The rest were renovated and sold at a good profit.
"We do not need this your gentrification"
In the evening I go to a bar where the unknown White Stripes used to play. The establishment is no different from those that thrive in New York - a stylish, ironic interior, a bartender with a pronounced sense of self-esteem, hipsters like to hang out in these. A guy named Stan speaks to me. Young teacher, teaches Spanish and English in high school. Grew up in a "white" suburb of Detroit, in his free time he plays in a rock band with a name, after hearing which I laughed for a long time, but did not dare to tell Stan that this "meaningless set of letters", which the guys called themselves out of principle, so that to be different from everyone, in Russian it has a completely definite (and rather slippery!) meaning.
We talk with Stan for two hours about music and Detroit, and later we are joined by his friend Etienne, a chemical scientist who came to Detroit six years ago from France. Etienne is also in a band with a slippery name - he plays the trombone.
“To tell you the truth, we don't like Detroit getting trendy,” the guys say. - Wealthy hipsters come here, buy real estate, these coffee shops with vegan pastries and coffee for $ 7 a cup have appeared ... The territory of Detroit could contain San Francisco, Boston, Manhattan, and still have room. And 740 thousand people live here. We know each other by sight. Six years ago there was a feeling that this city is ours, we know all its features, cool places. And now business comes here, competition, all this "renaissance" is taking place, about which the New York Times has been writing super-optimistic articles for five years. But after all, with all this improvement and the rise of the real estate market, the face of Detroit is changing, the composition of its inhabitants, living here is no longer as cheap as it used to be - rental prices have doubled over the past three years!
By the way, about the prices. In a restaurant with excellent service quality and excellent cuisine, the price of any cocktail is $ 2. Second course - $ 3. I peered at the menu for a long time, not believing my eyes. Maybe this is some kind of special promotion? Maybe a typo? It was psychologically difficult to accept the fact that the chicken curry, which I pay $ 14 in New York, costs five times less here. Some kind of parallel reality, by God.
The young teacher, earning less than three thousand a month, lives alone in a two-room apartment in the city center, paying $ 550 in rent. He has enough money left for food, clothing and entertainment. The group Stan plays in does not even rehearse in the garage, but in the building of a former glasses factory. The guys collectively pay $ 100 a month to rent this space! No wonder so many creative people - artists, musicians - are moving from New York to Detroit. Thanks to this new blood, Detroit has a great music scene and simply gorgeous murals.
I understand well the desire of Stan and Etienne to leave everything as it is. The same renaissance is now going through Bushwick, the area where I live. Two years ago, it was a dormitory, artistic Brooklyn neighborhood with affordable rental rates and one grocery store per ten blocks. There weren't many places for leisure, but they were cool - with parties for friends, an eccentric and strange crowd, bars where everyone could read poetry and give concerts. As a result of all this musical and artistic movement, Bushwick became fashionable. A Michelin-starred restaurant was opened here. Tourists began to come here. Hotels and apartment complexes with concierges have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. I don't know if I can afford Bushwick in two years. In any case, it will no longer be the unique, charming in its underdevelopment and freedom of expression area that I fell in love with.
I ask Stan what he likes and dislikes most about Detroit.
- I like that here you can make a real contribution to the musical, cultural, political life cities. A simple example is the building of an aquarium on the urban island of El Bel. The oldest aquarium in America, built by the famous architect Albert Kahn, has been empty since the sixties of the last century. The building was closed in 2005. In 2012, with the help of a small group of Detroit volunteers, the aquarium was filled with fish - about 1000 fish of more than 118 species. Now this symbol of the city is open to the public. I like that Detroit residents are confident in themselves, but not arrogant and optimistic about life. I like that there is so much history in this city that even having lived here all your life, you continue to learn something new and be surprised. I do not like the degree of corruption of the authorities. The city needs leaders who care more about the city than their own egos and welfare. The money, which, in theory, should go for the improvement of schools, improvement of the social sphere, flows into the pockets of millionaires who are building another sports stadium or casino. Why do we need a fourth casino? So that people who are not rich become even poorer? The fact that the former director of Detroit's central library is in prison for embezzling public funds speaks volumes. The quality of school education in Detroit itself is, to put it mildly, lame. Good schools are in wealthy, "white" suburbs. The police are also not particularly vigilant. People drive as they want, often drunk. An inspector stopped my acquaintance. They found weed in the car, alcohol in the blood of a friend. Then the inspector said: "The main thing is that it is not cocaine!" and let him go without even fining him.
Detroit shocked me, charmed, puzzled ... I don't even want to convince people about it, especially those who have never been there. This city is not for everyone. But maybe just right for me. In short, we need to find out if the band with the slippery name does not need a keyboard player.
Alisa Ksenevich
Moved to New York 5 years ago. Prior to that, she worked in Belarus for 5 years as a correspondent for the newspaper "Observer", wrote for the "Women's Journal" and Milavitsa.
During her life in New York she wrote the book "New York for Life", which is sold on Amazon.
TUT.BY book chapters on the portal.