JONATHAN CHAIT JANUARY 3, 2011
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The Guardian has a wonderful slide show of Detroit's cultural and architectural treasures in ruins:
My sense is that people who never lived in the region understand neither of how great the city once was nor the state of disrepair into which it has fallen.
8 comments
Chait's post on Detroit's lost civilization, Cohn's post on the Republicans' wish to slash government spending, and Professor Posner's personal attacks against liberal jurisprudence and those who support it masquerading as a book review, did you folks have a bad new year's party?
- rayward
January 3, 2011 at 9:17am
My God, that's some collection of pics; beautiful French Renasaince, Gothic and art-deco buildings. Somehow even more engrossing because of their state of disrepair. Was there an ebola virus outbreak in Detroit? The books are still on the library shelves and there's a dentist chair there for the taking! Squatters paradise.
- IggyPop
January 3, 2011 at 9:55am
How sad. Good settings for a zombie video game, though...
- davidfass
January 3, 2011 at 10:07am
I realize the devastation that is Detroit, even though I live on the Left Coast. It is beyond sad.
- liberal reformer
January 3, 2011 at 10:45am
I remember when we used to go to the Big City, Detroit, so many years ago. As my people lived around there--no longer--we kept in touch with the slow, inevitable decline. I remember watching the big ball smash into Crowley's--once a block of a department store. here a link to tragic stories of Detroit's lingering decline: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/aiyana-stanley-jones-detroit also check out Detroit is dying. But, it is not dead yet. by Matt Labash 12/29/2008, Volume 014, Issue 15 Sorry, have no link to it. Both are tremendous, if horrifying journalsim.
- kras
January 3, 2011 at 11:42am
That's what happens when you having a large, well paid, manufacturing class. They build schools, hospitals and churches. The Republican war-against-people-who-work-with-their-hands is wiping all this stuff out.
- DP1024
January 3, 2011 at 12:22pm
"My sense is that people who never lived in the region understand neither of how great the city once was nor the state of disrepair into which it has fallen." Such a gracious attitude! Why no sneering "Life in Detroit: A Continuing Series" post?
- W_Bombay
January 3, 2011 at 2:07pm
Detroit is a fascinating city that sadly has died. In the early 1980's I could not wait to get off work and head Downtown for a little fun. There were so many different areas and mayhem. Alvin's Radio Bar where I saw the largest Black Man I ever saw playing the largest Bass Saxophone ever made to a throbbing Reggae Beat. The Blues Bars and Nightclubs. I remember one new Year's Eve where we heard a woman screaming as a man attempted to Car jack her, and we chased the dude 6 blocks into a dark alley before coming to our senses. Slipping a security guard $ 10 to see the Fireworks from the waterfront Condo party. Stopping in the Gay Bars for a crazy Haloween party where I saw a 6'6" Dude with a Patty LaBelle haircut and 4 inch heels singing, and knowing he just got out of Prison. Fascination, fear and freedom. Detroit was truly something special back then. I drive through the city occasiionally and the decay is something you will never see any where else. Building falling down, abandoned and no one cares.
- CRS9TNR
January 3, 2011 at 8:32pm