Apologies....

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by benman94

I had an individual actually get into my vehicle and threaten me while I was stopped at a stop sign between McNichols and Gratiot along Gunston.

I ought to print this.. people always make fun of me and accuse me of being xenophobic for locking the doors and putting the windows up whenever I venture into a "sketchy" area.

[benman94]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

I ought to print this.. people always make fun of me and accuse me of being xenophobic for locking the doors and putting the windows up whenever I venture into a "sketchy" area.

I usually do the same, and I live in the city of Detroit itself, so basically all the time. It was a nice day though, mid-morning, and I honestly didn't think anything would happen. I got too comfortable and it very easily could have turned into a carjacking and/or murder. In retrospect, I'm surprised it didn't.

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by benman94

I live in the city of Detroit itself,

Interesting. Is the urban decay as widespread as the media would have us believe, or is it isolated to specific parts of the city?

[benman94]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

Interesting. Is the urban decay as widespread as the media would have us believe, or is it isolated to specific parts of the city?

Actually, sort of both. Detroit is laid out using a spoke and wheel system, so I'll go by that to start. Downtown is fine. The Woodward/Cass corridors are fine for the most part. Michigan is fine out to about 12th street. Grand River is fine until just past the casino. Jefferson is fine clear out past Grand Boulevard. Fort Street is rough. Gratiot is rough. Van Dyke between Jefferson and Kercheval is fine, otherwise the whole street is pretty much a war zone.

Going a bit deeper into the neighborhoods, it sort of depends. The Boston-Edison is fine. The Palmer Park area is fine. Indian Village is fine. Mexicantown and Southwest Detroit is fairly stable, though not exactly "nice". Brush Park is fine. East English Village is fine. Islandview is turning around. Jefferson-Chalmers is fine. The Jos. Berry neighborhood is fine. Pingree Park is turning around, very slowly though. Arden Park is fine.

Then there are neighborhoods I wouldn't dare to venture in under police escort, like Brightmoor, St. Jean and Jefferson, almost anything along Van Dyke or Mound, Briggs, Chaldean Town, what's left of Poletown, etc

Then there are the overwhelming, vast majority of the neighborhoods that aren't exactly "bad" per se, you likely won't end up a crime statistic, but there just isn't anything left. Over on the far east side this is extremely common. Entire groupings of city blocks with perhaps one standing home. Some areas literally look like fields with streets running down the center of them; it's wild. Parts of Grixdale Farms remind me of this. The residential sections of Milwaukee Junction are probably the best example of this.

So I think in some sense, the media gets it right as the majority of the city is still rough around the edges, but in the same breath they won't dare show you Downtown, Midtown, Brush Park, Indian Village, the Boston-Edison, etc, because it doesn't fit the blighted narrative.

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by benman94

Actually, sort of both. Detroit is laid out using a spoke and wheel system, so I'll go by that to start. Downtown is fine. The Woodward/Cass corridors are fine for the most part. Michigan is fine out to about 12th street. Grand River is fine until just past the casino. Jefferson is fine clear out past Grand Boulevard. Fort Street is rough. Gratiot is rough. Van Dyke between Jefferson and Kercheval is fine, otherwise the whole street is pretty much a war zone.

Going a bit deeper into the neighborhoods, it sort of depends. The Boston-Edison is fine. The Palmer Park area is fine. Indian Village is fine. Mexicantown and Southwest Detroit is fairly stable, though not exactly "nice". Brush Park is fine. East English Village is fine. Islandview is turning around. Jefferson-Chalmers is fine. The Jos. Berry neighborhood is fine. Pingree Park is turning around, very slowly though. Arden Park is fine.

Then there are neighborhoods I wouldn't dare to venture in under police escort, like Brightmoor, St. Jean and Jefferson, almost anything along Van Dyke or Mound, Briggs, Chaldean Town, what's left of Poletown, etc

Then there are the overwhelming, vast majority of the neighborhoods that aren't exactly "bad" per se, you likely won't end up a crime statistic, but there just isn't anything left. Over on the far east side this is extremely common. Entire groupings of city blocks with perhaps one standing home. Some areas literally look like fields with streets running down the center of them; it's wild. Parts of Grixdale Farms remind me of this. The residential sections of Milwaukee Junction are probably the best example of this.

So I think in some sense, the media gets it right as the majority of the city is still rough around the edges, but in the same breath they won't dare show you Downtown, Midtown, Brush Park, Indian Village, the Boston-Edison, etc, because it doesn't fit the blighted narrative.

Originally Posted by benman94

If you want to see some really insane looking stuff, look up the Heidelberg project. 110% unadulterated nightmare fuel. I won't even drive past the remnants of it.

This is interesting. It always fascinates me how in some American cities you can go around a corner, or travel a few blocks, and the neighborhood completely changes either for the better or the worse. I've been curious for a while how the reality in Detroit compares to the multitude of media reports, and YouTube videos, since it's more or less at the center of the whole urban decay thing. I think nightmare fuel is an accurate description - you must have to do some careful address checking when responding to craigslist ads!

I recently went to an area I would not normally set for in to buy a Bell & Howell projector I'd been looking for, for ages. It turned out to be a musician who lived there for cheap rent.. I guess you can't always judge a book by its cover, but I do tend to err on the side of caution.

[tubesrule]

Originally Posted by benman94

Actually, sort of both. Detroit is laid out using a spoke and wheel system, so I'll go by that to start. Downtown is fine. The Woodward/Cass corridors are fine for the most part. Michigan is fine out to about 12th street. Grand River is fine until just past the casino. Jefferson is fine clear out past Grand Boulevard. Fort Street is rough. Gratiot is rough. Van Dyke between Jefferson and Kercheval is fine, otherwise the whole street is pretty much a war zone.

Going a bit deeper into the neighborhoods, it sort of depends. The Boston-Edison is fine. The Palmer Park area is fine. Indian Village is fine. Mexicantown and Southwest Detroit is fairly stable, though not exactly "nice". Brush Park is fine. East English Village is fine. Islandview is turning around. Jefferson-Chalmers is fine. The Jos. Berry neighborhood is fine. Pingree Park is turning around, very slowly though. Arden Park is fine.

Then there are neighborhoods I wouldn't dare to venture in under police escort, like Brightmoor, St. Jean and Jefferson, almost anything along Van Dyke or Mound, Briggs, Chaldean Town, what's left of Poletown, etc

Then there are the overwhelming, vast majority of the neighborhoods that aren't exactly "bad" per se, you likely won't end up a crime statistic, but there just isn't anything left. Over on the far east side this is extremely common. Entire groupings of city blocks with perhaps one standing home. Some areas literally look like fields with streets running down the center of them; it's wild. Parts of Grixdale Farms remind me of this. The residential sections of Milwaukee Junction are probably the best example of this.

So I think in some sense, the media gets it right as the majority of the city is still rough around the edges, but in the same breath they won't dare show you Downtown, Midtown, Brush Park, Indian Village, the Boston-Edison, etc, because it doesn't fit the blighted narrative.

Ben
I've got grandparents in Mt. Olivet as well but only go there with one or more other people. My dad worked at St. Jean and Jeff and we lived on Grixdale. The house is gone now as of a couple of years ago when I went to check it out. Sad to see whats happened.
I picked up the Meck TV for Steve a few years ago at an estate sale in Boston-Edison.

Darryl

[benman94]

My Great-Grandparents lived on Cadillac Blvd between Charlevoix and Kercheval prior to buying a farm out in what was then Nankin Township. Great-Grandpa Moyer subdivided the farm over the years and now it's a newer subdivision. The house on Cadillac is long gone.

My Grandparents lived on Chelsea street, close to Conner, before moving out to Warren in the early 60s. He worked for Packard, and later the main Post Office on Fort just south-west of Downtown. Then, my Grandfather moved out to Sterling Heights in the late 60s after my Grandmother passed unexpectedly. The only remnants of the Chelsea Street home are a basement and charred framework. The home in Warren is looking rather rough, but it's there. The southern sides of the inner ring of suburbs are getting nasty...

I currently live in a home in Midtown. Aside from the one break in, and the drunken frat assholes, I don't have any real trouble.

Lately my father has been openly floating the idea of exhuming his parents and moving them to the newer Catholic cemetery out near Rochester but the Archdiocese has been a stumbling block thus far. At least Mt. Olivet is well maintained. Its the neighborhood around it, and simply getting there, that can be downright scary.

I've had good luck finding sets in the wealthier areas of town. I found a color roundie in Indian Village, and my current 621TS in the Jos. Berry neighborhood. I also found a Farnsworth in the neighborhood opposite Oakland University off of Adams out in the 'burbs. That one was a bit of a surprise.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by tubesrule

..... I picked up the Meck TV for Steve a few years ago at an estate sale in Boston-Edison.

Darryl

Since I'm from the USA's original Boston , Boston Massachusetts , and for years we had an electrical generating plant named "Boston Edison" , I'm curious what this "Boston-Edison" you refer to is ? Is it a neighborhood ? A town ? A nickname for an area ?

[tubesrule]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Since I'm from the USA's original Boston , Boston Massachusetts , and for years we had an electrical generating plant named "Boston Edison" , I'm curious what this "Boston-Edison" you refer to is ? Is it a neighborhood ? A town ? A nickname for an area ?

It's a neighborhood in Detroit bounded by Edison and Boston streets just off Woodward. It was built by the wealthy industrialists of the late 19th and early 20th century like Ford, Briggs, Couzens, Fisher, Kresge (K-Mart).

Ben
Lots of common places with my family. My mom was the secretary to the chief engine/chassis engineer at Packard.

Darryl

[benman94]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

Interesting. Is the urban decay as widespread as the media would have us believe, or is it isolated to specific parts of the city?

If you want to see some really insane looking stuff, look up the Heidelberg project. 110% unadulterated nightmare fuel. I won't even drive past the remnants of it.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

I ought to print this.. people always make fun of me and accuse me of being xenophobic for locking the doors and putting the windows up whenever I venture into a "sketchy" area.

I have three cars that the doors lock automatically when the car is put in drive. I generally have the windows shut, as I always use the air conditioner or heater. That's no matter where go.
Right now, I live in" God's country" where the crime rate is in the negative numbers.

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I have three cars that the doors lock automatically when the car is put in drive. I generally have the windows shut, as I always use the air conditioner or heater. That's no matter where go.
Right now, I live in" God's country" where the crime rate is in the negative numbers.

My cars are all manual, and I never had an issue with crime, except for having a car broken into about 15 years ago. I do like to roll down the windows on a nice day (especially in the non-AC equipped cars!), but if there's suspicious looking people walking around, the doors are locked and windows up as a matter of course.

Sandy, you should cut those India call center people some slack.. they're just people trying to feed their family. Imagine going through all of the study and effort to learn English, and then having such a crappy job? I kind of feel sorry for them. Whenever I get an unsolicited call, I always have the same response - I'm sorry, what you say sounds like a great deal, but I don't ever do business with people who give me unsolicited phone calls, because I find them rude and disruptive. Mine are always about new windows and doors.. there's always someone "in my area" wanting to give me a "free estimate" on new windows and doors.