Positive Detroit Documentary

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spzretent
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Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by spzretent »

Please watch:
MC5 footage, Dirtbombs and more
http://www.palladiumboots.com/explorations
http://www.lilmoxie.com
Detroit, Music, Sports and Other Stuff(including Spiritualized, Spacemen 3)
redcloud
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Re: Positive Detroit Documnetary

Post by redcloud »

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing that video I really enjoyed it.

Did I tell you that I lived in Pontiac for the first 7 years of my life before moving to Cleveland? Dad once worked for GM but then got a job at a Cleveland based company that made brakes for airplanes. This was the mid 70's so we left pretty much at the beginning of Detroit & Flint's downfall. Having spent my impressionable youth and teen years in Cleveland is why I consider myself a Cleveland native.

Brown and orange forever but I do have a soft spot for the Lions.

Tigers less so because they are in same division as the Indians. :wink:
Laz69
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Re: Positive Detroit Documnetary

Post by Laz69 »

that gave me a big insight into the complete deolation of Detroit... i knew things were thought to be bad, but the landscape just seems forgotten about... shame.

nice doc!
spzretent
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Re: Positive Detroit Documnetary

Post by spzretent »

It comes from decades of one mayor continually pitting the city vs suburbs. Therefore any development was usually done in the suburbs. And the people followed.
The city is littered w/abandoned half burnt out houses. But a new generation has said enough is enough. I have a good friend who is going to pitch the business of growing organic produce year round in a green house that will stand on toxic land. The idea is fantastic. Cheap land, slab of concrete, greenhouse on top of it and voila! We can have locally grown organic produce year round and not have to pay to have it shipped in from warmer climates. Meaning less expensive produce and using far less oil/petrol as far as shipping goes thus reducing our carbon footprint considerably.
There are so many entrepeneurs who cant start something on the cheap and many of the ideas are working. Like the owner of Slow's said in the documentary, he wants to see a slow sustained growth. Something that will last.
I love it here. I know its far from perfect. But the people here(who remain) have something extra going on inside their blood.
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redcloud
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Re: Positive Detroit Documnetary

Post by redcloud »

Laz69 wrote:that gave me a big insight into the complete deolation of Detroit... i knew things were thought to be bad, but the landscape just seems forgotten about... shame.
The plight of Detroit is well documented and the city is always used as an example when one talks about urban decay and the downfall of a once rich, cosmopolitan and influential city. However, drive southeast from Detroit along the shore of Lake Erie and you will see once great cities like Cleveland and Buffalo that are now equally as downtrodden and probably more depressing simply because there is no sign of people trying to reclaim these cities back. Erie, PA is also a sorry, sad place as are several once great upstate NY cities like Rochester, Syracuse and Utica.
clewsr
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by clewsr »

I took some pics of a whole swathe of derelict houses in Liverpool a while ago, before they were knocked down. Randomly put them on facebook, and a friend sent me a link to 'feral houses' in Detroit. Some amazing picture of lost old houses. Very sad, but quite beautiful too.

Are there really more houses than people need in America? Where did all the people go? One of the last things I read about America - in California specifically, was the growing number of 'white collar' homelessness, - people without a place to live, but still doing a 9-5 job. Which seems even madder considering the amount of unoccupied houses.

Good to hear things are on the up in Detroit though. In Liverpool thousands of perfectly good old terraced houses are being knocked down in favour of cheap new builds that wont last 30 years. I don't know why the obsession is all to do with building new houses, and not just maintaining existing places, but I suspect that somewhere along the line it is all about profit.

http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2009/07/feral-houses.html
redcloud
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by redcloud »

The Great Recession has created a much larger "white collar" homeless population who over mortgaged and then lost their job. Portland's homeless population had definitely grown in the past couple years. Because we are a liberal city with many shelters and soup kitchens you can't go anywhere in downtown without seeing our homeless population (they have also been granted the right to sleep on the streets and in disused doorways). Apparently on any given night there are 3,000 homeless on the streets in Portland. Obviously many are mentally ill or down and out addicts but the streets have definitely swelled in the past two years with average joe's who lost their house and job and have nowhere else to go. It is a very noticable problem here in Portland and one of the most contentious issues dividing the city. The thing that really irritates me though is the rising number of 18-25 year old "gutter punks"/crusty hippies with backpacks and dogs that have descended on Portland and just hang about our streets with cardboard signs begging for spare change.
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by toomilk »

redcloud wrote:The thing that really irritates me though is the rising number of 18-25 year old "gutter punks"/crusty hippies with backpacks and dogs that have descended on Portland and just hang about our streets with cardboard signs begging for spare change.
And then post the pictures on facebook...... :lol:
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by spzretent »

We have plenty of homeless here. Lazy homeless who would rather sit on an exit ramp asking for spare change than try and actually get some real job. It may sound callous but I have become very good at just ignoring homeless people.
A few weeks ago I was downtown at Lafayette Coney Island late night and some homeless guy ran after me screaming at me insisting I buy him a hamburger. This was the most aggressive homeless, or just hungry, person I have come across in years. I had to scream right back at him to stop screaming at me. I was with a visitor to Detroit too. He mumbled something to me with the word fuck in there.
The young crusties are the ones who will re-shape Detroit. And they are moving here from other cities because of the low cost of living and blank canvas that Detroit is. Also it is a community who will take in new people and help them find someplace to stay until they get their feet on the ground. Artists, musicians, entrepenuers, activists, farmers.
Which is all really exciting
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redcloud
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by redcloud »

Nothing callous about your comments spzretent. There is a big difference between the true down and out and those who are just lazy and take the easy option with the cardboard signs. We have a large hispanic population and I have NEVER seen a hispanic guy begging for money on our streets. On the contrary, you see them hanging out on one road LOOKING for day work. Anybody who needs cheap labor can pick these dudes up and hire them for the day. Most of our beggers tend to be white and many of them standing on the exit ramps with cardboard signs could easily do the day labor thing too if they truly wanted to work.

The crusty hippie/gutter punks here are not as innovative and lack the inititive as the ones you may see in Detroit. These guys/gals are hip travellers with many tattoos, many piercings, long ass dreads, tatty clothes, guitar slung over their backpack, often with several dingo/jackel looking mongrel dogs at their side. They sleep on our sidewalks at night and during the day they sit on the sidewalks getting high and holding up cardboard signs that say things like "anything green helps", "travelling broke, please can you spare some change" or the real pisser (sense sarcasm here) "hard times have struck...anything helps". No, I don't know their personal stories but my guess is they're just plain lazy and want to hang out on the streets and get high. Portland one year, Seattle or San Francisco the next. Just a hunch.

Times are hard and we have all been hit by the "great recession". I've taken an 8% pay cut but I am grateful I still have a job. We live month to month and I am certainly not going to fund somebody who has chosen the easy option to hang out with buddies and smoke dope. Period.

But, maybe I too have become callous.
spzretent
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by spzretent »

My callousness comes from years of this. I am so cynical that when I see a bunch of kids selling water or candy off an exit claiming it is a fundraiser of some sort I am reluctant to buy anything. I just dont believe them.
On the other hand when I leave a show or a sporting event and there is someone who lugged a cooler full of bottled water and is selling it for $1 or $2 I will buy that all day long. At least they took the initiative to go to the store, buy a case of water, put ice in a cooler and fill it up. I know that water is .10 cents a bottle. But I dont care. Good for them.
There used to be a guy who asked for spare change that hung out by St Andrews Hall in the 80s/90s. He used to tell jokes for $1. We always gave him money. His name was James. I'm sure I have told this story before. I was on the guest list to see the band James. I had no real desire but the local record company person insist I go. None of my employees would go. So I went to see them myself. And there was a sit down(pun intended I guess) dinner w/the band. So I parked, was walking in there was James the joke man. He told me a joke. I gave him $1. Then I asked if he was hungry. He said i'm always hungry. I said come w/me, I walked in w/James. Introduced him to the band James and cut him loose on a deli buffet. He was so beloved down there everyone was cool with it. Especially the band, who loved it.
James ate like a king that night.
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runcible
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by runcible »

Great story and a nice gesture - I never heard that before!
spzretent
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by spzretent »

I will never forget the looks on peoples faces when i walked upstairs with and uttered the words:
James meet James.
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clewsr
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by clewsr »

good story. a guy in Liverpool used to, and probably still does write little poems for £1. He used to surf pubs, postcard in hand and would deliver you your own personalised poem on a subject of your choice. Him and James should join forces.
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by Laz69 »

just stumbled across this webpage re: some photographers documenting Detroit as it is now...

http://www.mitchcope.com/projects/detroit-book/

Might be of interest to a few
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

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I posted this link on my facebook page and oh what a shitstorm it caused.
I think the photos are incredible. This city is fucked up. But not beyond repair. The people who are going to turn it around are entrepenuers, artists, musicians, urban farmers. Its pretty cool to watch happen.
I guess people object to many of the people in these photos. Detroit is a big city. Every big city has folks like this. I think these photos speak volumes.
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Laz69
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by Laz69 »

i thought that it was probably a good snapshot of the diversity that exists in Detroit considering its current state of affairs. lots of people don't like being shown the truth unfortunately.

Out of curiosity, whats the huge big tall building that appears in a few of them... ?
spzretent
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

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with the blown out windows? The old Central Train Depot. Kind of the building that is a microcosm of everything screwed up about Detroit.
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by Laz69 »

Its a fabulous looking building... must have had some stature back in the day... i hate seeing buildings like that just abandoned
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by redcloud »

From a fine arts viewpoint, these photos are absolutely beautiful and astonishing. They evoke so much atmosphere and emotion, yet they are (for the most part) man made landscapes. The photographers have created a stunning portfolio that is reminiscent of Edward Hopper's abandoned landscape paintings.

From a humanist/American viewpoint...it sickens me that my country/my government just sat back and watched as this once HUGELY influential city decayed. The internal politics in Detroit and Michigan certainly didn't help but DC turned a blind eye while the city collapsed and burned (literally!). It does, however, bring me great hope when I read Alan's enthusiastic posts and watch the various film clips in another thread about how this phoenix is finding a new life pulse and slowly beginning to rise, again.
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

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I suppose some of my facebook friends are blinded by the huge dump the national media have taken on Detroit for decades. So they just think people took photos of what is wrong with Detroit. Why they cant see the beauty is beyond me. Sure there is pain, there is despair, but there is hope. I think that is the underlying theme here.
Look at the pride the resdents of Southwest Detroit take in their Mexican culture in the black & white photos. It is well know around here how hard working and involved the parents are in their kids lives. Slowly I think the African American residents of Detroit are watching these "hipsters" who are artists, and business people starting to make a difference. Retail and restaurants are opening. It makes every neighborhood better. There is so much opportunity here. I can only hope it makes a huge impression and they will follow the others instead of looking at them with disdain.
A few years ago the government was ready to let the US auto industry die a certain death. Especially those southern assholes who have given every incentive possible to Toyota and their death trap cars. All the cover ups. And lookee here, the US auto industry is turning around slowly but surely. Its too bad this was the kick in the ass that was needed. Obama's [people just said enough is enough. Out with the old corporate ideals and in with some fresh, kind of revolutionary ideas.
Now Ford is adding 3 more shifts at some plants around here. Its big news here. It means so much. Not only to the business but everyone who benefits around the plants.
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spzretent
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by spzretent »

Another rather uplifting story about Detroit
http://www.shareable.net/blog/detroit-c ... ican-dream
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redcloud
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by redcloud »

Laz69 wrote:just stumbled across this webpage re: some photographers documenting Detroit as it is now...

http://www.mitchcope.com/projects/detroit-book/

Might be of interest to a few
I teach photography and last year this link was awesome to send my students to. They were blown away by it and it inspired incredible dialogue in my class and a wonderful lesson utilizing Portland as our subject matter. Sadly though, I tried to access this site just the other day and it seems to have now been pulled down! What a shame! I loved these photos...it was pure genius how they managed to capture equally as much expression and soul in the buildings as they did the people of the city.

Bummer!
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by Laz69 »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... kMiIT1VG98

Nice vid of Detroit filmed through the eyes of a drone......
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by spzretent »

Artsy ruin porn.
People here are getting tired of this kind of thing. Its more than abondoned factories/buildings and burned out houses. The funny thing is Belle Isle looks great. That is the park shown in much of the video. Its a gangsta ridden shit hole as soon as the sun goes down.
There are a lot of positive things going on in Detroit. Urban farming, organic food collectives, many new retail shops opened by people with a vision, new restaurants and bars.
The city itself is so fucked up with the mayor and city council at odds all the time and that its so broke the state has to come in and take over the financial part. And inhabited by people who either dont care and wont let anyone else tell them what a financial mess it is.
Its more than abondoned factories/buildings and burned out house.
I've seen the same thing on the train from Leeds to manchester about 15 minutes before the journey ends.
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redcloud
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Re: Positive Detroit Documentary

Post by redcloud »

spzretent wrote: The city itself is so fucked up with the mayor and city council at odds all the time
Sounds like the same problem in Washington D.C. with our President and Congress. Stalemate bickering is not good for anybody.
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