New Crowder: The death of Detroit
posted at 9:03 pm on December 21, 2009 by Allahpundit
Portrait of an American nightmare. All his points are well taken, especially about the unions, but I’m wary of drawing too many broadly applicable lessons from Detroit for the simple reason that no place else — outside of Ramadi, say — looks like it. Other American cities have been dominated by the left for decades too, from Berkeley to D.C., and none have the Hiroshima-after-the-blast feel that Motown does. (Democrats currently outnumber Republicans on the New York City Council 46-3.) What Detroit reminds me of, in fact, is a photo set I once viewed online taken in and around Chernobyl by a girl touring the area on her motorcycle. It’s a fascinating gallery, in case you’ve never seen it; follow the link, then compare it to the ghost town Crowder’s walking through here. Horrifying.
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OMG. If there was ever a Godwin’s Law to cover liberal racism that might resemble it. That should leave a mark.
Yoop on December 22, 2009 at 12:58 AM
Ayn Rand literally predicted this in “Atlas Shrugged” When Dagny and Hank Reardon discover the mystery motor in the abandoned car factory. Astonishing here it is in real life!
alohapundit on December 22, 2009 at 1:11 AM
Sure, there are other cities where the left has dominated the landscape, but then, this is chicago, where the good of the city takes the back of the bus to lining the pockets of politicians. Thievery is the name of the game, and it is practiced mostly right in the open there. I promise you everything in the world, if only you will give me all of your money. Trust me. What? You don’t trust me with all of your money? Then you are a racist. What? You’re black,too? Then you are an old uncle Tom, you jerk.
TimothyJ on December 22, 2009 at 1:21 AM
Amusing, but the houses bought on $76/hour are somewhere else.
pedestrian on December 22, 2009 at 1:24 AM
I don’t need to tell you sh*t. But, just for kicks.
As superintendent, my grandfather desegregated the schools in the city I grew up in. I attended one of the schools he desegregated.
Now your turn. I bet you worked in East St. Louis for a whole year didn’t you! Wow! So brave!
crr6 on December 22, 2009 at 12:34 AM
Your grandfather?! And that gives you racial cred because you attended the school how many decades later?? How old are you, 12? And why are you so hateful? What happened to you? Really.
tigerlily on December 22, 2009 at 1:26 AM
Here is a good illustration of how our civilization is written in dust, just as everything else is. Like the man said, all things must pass.
I think Detroit’s longest lasting contribution will be the music that came out of there. Long after the cars are turned to rust some musicologist will be listening to Aretha Franklin, and if anyone is still teaching music history then, someone might even learn to play Cat Scratch Fever.
You can laugh, but we still sing and play melodies from extinct civilizations today.
deewhybee on December 22, 2009 at 1:36 AM
Excellent (AND extremely depressing) video.
LegendHasIt on December 22, 2009 at 1:45 AM
You know looking at that video of Detroit it sort of reminds me of those images of former Soviet model cities in the former USSR that were abandoned once the government money stopped flowing after the collapse of the soviet union.
Hellrider on December 22, 2009 at 1:55 AM
…far outside the reach of the federal laws which mandated what businesses could open and what people could do with their houses with the cash that was pumped in.
Crowder showed you the epicenter of the influx of Federal money. He didn’t show you where the union goons live, as you have rightly pointed out.
In 1986, I bought American — a Ford Taurus MT5 Station Wagon. I ordered it from the factory, with just the accessories I wanted. While my vehicle was on the assembly line, the UAW went on strike. Five months later, I finally got it — and it was missing a lot of parts. The vehicle spent 90 days of its first year in the shop, and even that wasn’t enough — a missing heat shield between the power steering hoses and the exhaust manifold caused a hose failure which destroyed my rack and pinion and the power steering pump. I had to sue Ford to get it repaired…
When a drunk driver ran into it and threw it up onto my front lawn in the early morning in 1997, my wife actually cheered when she saw the mangled mass.
In 2005 when I went to buy a new car, I wanted a Mazda 6. The dealer convinced me to buy a Mazda 3 by saying that about 25% of all 6′s he sold came back in with major things wrong, while none of the 3′s had ever returned, and he was now wholesaling the 6′s to other dealers. The difference, he explained, was that the 6 is built in the Flat Rock, MI Ford plant, while the 3 is built in Hiroshima, Japan; the parts are identical in quality, but the workmanship on the 6 is horrible. I’ve had my 3 for four years now and it is one of the most reliable cars I’ve ever owned — only my 1963 Buick Wildcat was more reliable.
So those $76/hr. guys will never get another dime from me — nor will the car company they own.
unclesmrgol on December 22, 2009 at 2:12 AM
I’ve been to most of those locations, and the last was down the street from a friend of mine.
Precisely why I live in Plymouth Township.
I have nothing but hatred and contempt for Detroit, its government and its people that constantly elect and re-ellect these crooks (Kilpatrick, Conyers, Young, McPhail, etc.) and defend them. Then they have the nerve to charge a city tax.
Virus-X on December 22, 2009 at 2:20 AM
I lived in one of Detroit’s famous suburbs. I worked two years in an inner city organization (2003 and 2004) in high school. It is too late. Detroit is too far gone. It is a shame. Michigan is one of the most beautiful states in the union yet I know family friends fleeing the state in droves, mostly because of the high unemployment ( the autocompanies are just zombies at the present moment, surviving because of federal largesse and everyone knows it). Virginia seems to have more sense than Michigan. Yet I mourn for the state.
nyx on December 22, 2009 at 2:27 AM
Your anecdotal story about US cars is very common. However, JD Powers disagrees with you about quality today.
And where are the $76 an hour folks? (As one post above pointed out.) Overpriced American cars had little to do with the innercity problems there.
And the imports sure don’t have socialist governments in places like Japan and Germany do they?
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 2:44 AM
Amen.
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 2:49 AM
German cars are worse in workmanship than American ones, and you know they have socialist problems. Japan doesn’t, and their cars are the best. If you don’t believe me, go read that socialist rag Consumer Reports.
As for the $76/hr folk, I addressed them. They’ve got the money to flee the problems. I’d have no problem with their $76 wages if they built better stuff and didn’t convince Obama to rip GM away from its owners and give it to the union.
They stole, and I will not further support them. Next car is Japanese — Mazda has me for life.
unclesmrgol on December 22, 2009 at 2:53 AM
Well, Al Gore’s father was a racist and did everything he could to block the passage of the civil rights bill…so I guess that gives Al “cred” as being a racist and obstructionist.
I suppose if you grandfather was a mechanic, you would claim to be a mechanic?
What a strange way you have of feeling important…you actually think what your grandfather did, somehow reflects on you?
Come out of your fantasy world…your grandfather can’t help you…
right2bright on December 22, 2009 at 2:56 AM
Addendum:
Here’s my blog entry addressing two local car dealerships — both of which sell (or, in the case of one, sold) American cars.
unclesmrgol on December 22, 2009 at 2:57 AM
“Other American cities have been dominated by the left for decades too, from Berkeley to D.C., and none have the Hiroshima-after-the-blast feel that Motown does.”
Been to DC much?? If you have, then you know that only the Northwest is relatively safe…NE, SE, you better watch your back, parts of those quadrants look like war zones. 50 years of corrupt local politicians has devastated DC, without federal money it would be just like Detroit. And while Berkeley is sustained by the University and government programs, next door poor Oakland is embroiled in the education-poverty-crime cycle with no end in sight…at the hands of liberal Democrats.
EasyEight on December 22, 2009 at 2:59 AM
Can anyone point to a city where the school district is not run by, and had for dozens of years, by liberals, and point to success?
Point to a school district run by liberals or the unions, and point out a successful school district…
I don’t think it exists…not education minorities is the most contemptible thing that the liberals have done.
right2bright on December 22, 2009 at 2:59 AM
Look at USC, for decades (since the 50′s) it has been in a location where they have watched the decline of their area. Not having the sense to actually help turn that area around. One of the most crime ridden areas in the U.S…and a “brilliant” university just sat and watched it crumble and decay.
Liberal intellect ain’t so smart…
right2bright on December 22, 2009 at 3:03 AM
New Orleans.
Theophile on December 22, 2009 at 3:25 AM
Haven’t been to Berkeley lately?
joncoltonis on December 22, 2009 at 3:27 AM
Japan is not a socialist country? Ok. Unions not in bed with the company and governments? Sure.
And let me know the next time your lovely Consumer Reports offends the Birkenstock crowd. They just endorsed Obamacare. They don’t take advertising but they sure know their subscribers and their stuff is anything but scientific. Talked to an appliance repairman about their picks? Any of a variety of other people who deal with their endorsed crap?
Oh you may have missed that while you were studying all the free trade and free enterprise in Japan. They don’t play with currency or slap duties on our stuff, do they?
http://americaneconomicalert.org/view_art.asp?Prod_ID=3354
Put a US flag on your Mazda and feel patriotic. Try to forget that nations become rich by actually making things and not doing what both recent POTUS leaders have had us doing.
Finally, I offer the the most obvious and recent example. All those trade deficits don’t have us afraid of the Chinese do they?
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 5:17 AM
Japan also spends a fortune on the military, too, don’t they?
I’m sorry, I am enjoying this.
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 5:28 AM
Or Richmond? How about Oakland ?
macncheez on December 22, 2009 at 6:30 AM
Having taken a class about the Japanese economy and labor landscape from a Japanese economist, I can safely say you have no idea whatsoever how Japanese unions work. Japanese unions operate how unions should operate.
Any 2 workers are free to form their own unions at any time, every worker is free to join any union they want. The result is unions have to be extremely attentive of worker needs and desires or as frequently happens the workers (or at least a large subset of them) will break away from the union and form a new one that does. Also, due in part to having to pay attention to their workers’ needs but also due to the major problems that occurred in the 60′s when they attempted it, the Japanese unions have no role in politics.
Japanese unions are very good, American ones are abominations. Yes I can also say from personal experience (I spent some time working at one of the very non-union Honda plants here in Ohio) and what I learned in the class, that the Japanese very much despise American unions.
I don’t really know what the point of that remark is. If you’re saying it’s better economically to spend less on the military, yes it is. But the world isn’t just economics, and someone needs a powerful military if the relative stability a prosperous advanced economy needs to function is to be maintained. Japan and Europe have both benefited from not having to spend much on their militaries, becuase the US did, and if we stopped they would then have to. Well, they wouldn’t have to if they didn’t mind losing what they have over the next 10-50 years.
Anyways, you might try something else for fun than posting easily slapped down nonesense.
jarodea on December 22, 2009 at 6:37 AM
Have you been to many American cities Allah? No none has the immense scale of utter destruction Detroit has, but then none of them were ever as big as Detroit (which I believe was the 5th largest US city with 2 million people in the 50′s?). Cleveland and St. Louis are probably the closest, and they were also theo nly two I think which were in the top ten of American cities with around 1 million people. From Oakland to Milwaukee to Toledo to Newark there are a lot of union dominated liberal run mini-Detroits.
jarodea on December 22, 2009 at 6:41 AM
Here’s my post on this subject:
The PJTV people have a guy named Crowder who goes around doing satire video to point out the absolute foolishness of the left’s ideas. He’s funny. Several months ago, he went to Canada to investigate Canadian healthcare and found it to be lacking. Now he’s in Detroit with a thirteen minute video showing the ugly underside of the city, a result of years of “central government planning.” Now, the left has been guiding Detroit since the early sixties, with the unions and other left agenda types getting their thirty pieces of silver for going along with the liberal plan. The result? People living in Fallujah in 2004 would have refused to move to Detroit. Fallujah was safer. Even today with the violence it suffers.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=9298380
So, what happened and how does that affect the current statist driven agenda by our federal government? Every time you have a few people holding all the money and power inevitably their failings as humans will destroy anything they touch. Whether it is their lack of intelligence, ego, greed, or bias, they will sooner or later taint the effort. Because the money and power is so concentrated, there is no way to offset the weakness with fresh ideas or money or dreams. If “central planning” was a good concept China, Russia, Eastern Europe and even some western socialized nations would be beacons of advancement. They aren’t. In Russia they had almost everything go wrong from bad cars to bad buildings to a reactor go critical and blow up. In China you had better hope the building you are in wasn’t built by them when the first tremors of an earthquake starts, it will probably pancake on you, as it did on almost all the children in one town a couple of years ago, wiping out an entire generation. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/22/china) Eastern Europe fared little better, with years of central planning crushing free will and innovation.
So, why do the so-called leaders in Detroit and D.C. think they can do better? They don’t. I think they get the fact they aren’t going to make a difference, but the ones in charge have the cash and the power and they aren’t going to let it go by saying, “oops.” The goal has shifted from any remaining idealist concept of making a better city to just getting as much cash as you can and then getting out. In D.C. the federal “leaders” aren’t far behind. Truthfully, I believe a number of them figure the Ponzi scheme they’ve been running for generations is about to collapse and they are just robbing anything they can to get cash and buy time. That goes for both sides of the aisle. Neither party is willing or able to take the hit for telling us the truth, so they continue to do what it takes to survive on a personal level. Look at the number of politicians “retiring” today. Why if things are going so good? They know it is crashing around them. They know a number of them are going to get fired anyway. They know the direction of the country is leading to failure and they want out before their names are written into history alongside Mussolini, Hitler, Chavez, Stalin and Mao.
Crowder tries to be funny, but you could tell he was struggling. He felt the impact as much as anyone watching the video felt. I had a buddy in my department who rode with the Detroit PD. (I think his brother worked there.) Anyway, he said that it looked and smelt and acted like the cops were in combat every day. Their cars were trashy, their uniform were trashy, they jobs were trashy because things had just went south and nothing was going to change. Imagine Robocop- (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop) coming to life, without the city saving superhero, just the carnage and destruction.
When the conservatives resist centralized government planning, it is not because we aren’t open minded or fair or just. We realize that history as taught us it is a bad, bad, bad, idea to let a few run the many. Nothing good will come of it, just like nationalized healthcare which in a few short years will resemble Detroit gutted inner city.
Great.
archer52 on December 22, 2009 at 6:44 AM
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 6:48 AM
Before you take the economics course, think about the remarks you made on military spending. Your whole diatribe made no sense relative to the discussion. When stuck, just toss out some facts that have no relation to anything. Nice going.
Start here: Maybe if we charged for our forces that are used to protect Japan, we would be in better economic shape. What a foolish idea for the richest nation on earth!
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 6:54 AM
You got it.
Try to turn Somalia into Switzerland. The Dems can’t do it. That is for sure.
The question is whether free enterprise can do it. But they will not try with so many better options around.
That is the cold, hard fact.
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 6:58 AM
How does this happen, elect liberals …
America are your listening?
tarpon on December 22, 2009 at 7:15 AM
This is the America I have watched go down the tubes over my 65 years on this earth with my adult years spent working across this great country, but no one in power seems to listen. Maybe the visuals here will help. This is all part of us losing our economic freedom and civil liberties; the senate passing the healthcare bill being a perfect example.
You can do something by taking back our nation . . . one corner at a time by Standing with us. Go to patriotscornerclub.ning.com and see what the individual can do to wake up America.
amr on December 22, 2009 at 7:16 AM
Ouch, I mispelled a word on a comment thread without spellchecker. Classic liberal response when they have nothing better than well, call reasoned remarks a diatribe.
Anyhow to respond to your questions, yes I took a class on Japanese industry and labor. In college as part of a degree you often take upper level classes on specific elective topics. One of mine was on the Japanese labor and industrial scene. So yes you know nothing of how Japanese unions work, sorry, reality is what it is.
As for dumping and open markets, perhaps if you hadn’t lost sight of the forest for the trees by focusing on spell checking what I wrote and instead read it you would see that I didn’t say anything about that. Yes the Japanese have done it, but compared to the detrimental effect of the UAW, it’s small potatoes for US auto companies. Ultimately, it wasn’t a big deal for the nation as a whole since the Japanese eventually had to move a good amount of auto production to the US for economic reasons. I’m very aware of trade imbalances and their effects, as some have discovered in economic threads here. Yet, they weren’t part of what you said to which I respoded now were they?
As for the military, yes as I’ll post a second time since your reading skills seem to be a bit below your spelling skills, “I don’t really know what the point of your remark is”. So I made a reasonable assumption and expected a reasonable correction in the event I was incorrect (a bit too high of an expectation it seems for a lefty).
Anyhow, it may surprise you to know we do charge Japan for forces stationed there. Given that my statement on military spending and the economy is correct, I’m not sure what you mean there. If you mean PCI, the US isn’t the richest nation on earth by the way.
jarodea on December 22, 2009 at 7:17 AM
Sure we can. Why not? The Dems have turned Detroit into the Somalia of the U.S.A.
/
CWforFreedom on December 22, 2009 at 7:21 AM
I do have to say, slapping down lefty NONSENSE is kind of fun :). Reminds me of my days in yahoo political chat.
jarodea on December 22, 2009 at 7:22 AM
There is nothing in this video that is false or exaggerated in any way. Yet, they continue to elect corrupt, laughingstock “leaders” who continue to blame whitey for every problem. It’s just sad!
LonelyMassRepublican on December 22, 2009 at 7:23 AM
looks like the truth hurts, you liberal piece of sh**.
oh and your grandfather was a typical liberal racist, no doubt. you went to your integrated schools, then came home to your white neighborhood….probably within a gated community. I’m sure he thought just like you do, that people of color couldn’t make it without his help…
so what city was it? tell us, so we can see how successful it was? it couldn’t be detroit, now could it??
oh and yes your ‘ideals’ we’ve seen the results of your ‘ideals’ in places like detroit. with ‘friends’ like you, people of color sure don’t need enemies.
right4life on December 22, 2009 at 7:30 AM
thats why the democRATs want to turn the country into detroit…dependent, uneducated, and reliable…
right4life on December 22, 2009 at 7:35 AM
Public housing was the final nail in the coffin for some of these neighborhoods that are now pretty much leveled. The urban meadow desolation tends to radiate out from projects.
Leftist policies you can see from space:
39.978001, -75.174746
40.023375, -75.140256
40.276081, -76.889395
Pittsburgh is doing the right thing by tearing down the three high rise projects in East Liberty and rerouting the streets back to their original configuration – pre urban nightmare social engineering. It’s costing a ton of money to undo the damage that was done in the 60s.
forest on December 22, 2009 at 7:39 AM
You mean it’s creating a ton of economic stimulus for Pittsburgh. /obama (or any lefty)
jarodea on December 22, 2009 at 7:42 AM
<blockquoteAnd in fact his de-segregation plan did work. He was booked around the country and the world to showcase his strategy.
crr6 on December 22, 2009 at 12:44 AM
given that busing has been a total failure, and ended all around the country…tell us how his plan worked? and where did it work? if you are SO proud of him, you should have no problems telling us what city it is…that you don’t, speaks volumes.
right4life on December 22, 2009 at 7:45 AM
The difference is that Detroit (and Toledo, and Pittsburgh, etc.) produced stuff and had a manufacturing-based economy. Berkeley produces radical liberal intellectuals. DC produces nothing and only God knows why there is a purpose for NYC to exist.
highhopes on December 22, 2009 at 7:49 AM
Well done.
elfman on December 22, 2009 at 8:02 AM
LOL! My thoughts exactly as I was watching this.
Ask and ye shall receive:
NavyMustang on December 22, 2009 at 8:06 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dEVv1g6G1A
Whoops! Here’s the link.
NavyMustang on December 22, 2009 at 8:07 AM
Never sure who to blame in these failures of whole cities scenarios. But, in the case of Providence I think I know how it all started. Wealthy and/or crooked politicians have always dominated the State. The first(wealthy)like the Sheldon Whitehouses in RI and the Kennedy’s and Kerry’s in MA pride themselves on their do gooderism. The problem is that while they can escape the environments they produce with all the give aways, the welfare, the AFDC, the working class cannot. Working class neighborhoods become increasingly filled with the homeless, addicts and petty theives, welfare cheats etc etc. Slowly but surely the working class trickles out then runs for it’s life. The neighborhood is then irreparably damaged. If it hasn’t already, the area evolves into one easily and regularly exploited by the crooked brand of folk(definitly including pols)and becomes a less severe Detroit. Those people who try to fight back or reclaim their area are labelled bigoted, narrow minded, racist and so on. Then they are actually prosecuted by laws passed by the likes of the Kerry’s and the Whitehouses, so that the deck is stacked against them and for the destructive element.(I am recalling the good folks of Southy in Boston struggling to keep their area free of this). Meanwhile the people who are the root cause of all this live in areas like Ocean Drive in Newport RI where the hoi polloi can drive past the hedges and gates maybe, but never live there. Social engineering I suppose, to use an old fashioned term. These do gooders cannot fix the world but they are too arrogant to know it or to take the blame for the consequences when they do. We are right to run screaming from the spectre of socialism and any Party or politicians that espouse it. Sorry, again for the length and the amateur analysis.
jeanie on December 22, 2009 at 8:28 AM
Crowder knows how to show the truth so much better than Moore could. He allows you to make up your mind in the end.
MSGTAS on December 22, 2009 at 8:28 AM
I take regular business trips. Detroit was on the list last year. Two weeks later I was amazed at the sense of relief I felt when the wheels lifted off the runway. It was palpable.
It is actually quite sad.
Irritable Pundit on December 22, 2009 at 8:33 AM
A shining monument to lib government and what they do. Detroit has its hopeandchange. The rest of the US will catch up if Obama has his way.
Wills on December 22, 2009 at 8:48 AM
Detroit: Where the weak are killed and eaten.
Mike Honcho on December 22, 2009 at 8:48 AM
“And on the other side of town, you’ll bet yourself a beatin’.
In this town, there’s a feeling of low down dread,
So get on out of here, before you’re dead…” – Bobby Lane – “See America“
forest on December 22, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Oh by the way bambi lovers, they just revised the 3rd quarter growth trend. Yes its downward as we predicted. Looks like your propaganda machaine can’t get anything right. There’s your hope and change freeloaders.
bluegrass on December 22, 2009 at 9:33 AM
coming to a city near you….
jbh45 on December 22, 2009 at 10:06 AM
This is true of our last election, too. Unions and ACORN control these cities and their voting. Also, the “race card” is now freely thrown down whenever anyone questions policies that are proven to destroy and enslave the less fortunate.
I cried when I watched this video, because it gives a glimpse of what our nation will become. Atlas Shrugged perfectly illustrates this. Ayn Rand’s premise that religion caused this, however is wrong. Leftist Socialistic “feel good” “nanny government” in action caused this. jeanie said it best:
Hear hear. The Kennedys live in Hyannisport. The DC politicians live in Georgetown, or VA. Go to SE DC and you take your life in your hands, if you are not of the ‘hood. Last time I was there, they still had some places destroyed in the riots of 1968 (after MLK was assassinated). DC is TOTALLY dependent on Federal handouts, but it is the capital city, therefore it must APPEAR to be nice. That’s why the downtown mall and museums are accessible. Stray a few blocks the wrong way, and it looks like Detroit’s younger cousin.
I used to be a liberal – then I woke up. I saw reality for what it is. These Leftist liberals have done nothing but take away and destroy. Hopelessness is the result, not “hope” and “change.”
Fight them. Fight them with all you have. Never give in – that is what they are hoping for. Cool-headed reason, logic, and turning the tables on them WILL succeed. As we speak, leaders like Allen West in FL are rising up; we need to have leaders who will use the Alinsky tatctics against these leeching moochers.
Thanks for letting me rant. I cry for Detroit, and our nation, if these Democrat Socialist Fascists succeed. We must stand and fight for or liberty!
DINORight on December 22, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Cleveland OH is becoming very much like Detroit. Entitlement city.
If one goes to the UP in Michigan, eveyone is on the dole there too. Liberals are killing this country and the middle class who supports it.
elclynn on December 22, 2009 at 10:25 AM
IlikedAUH2O on December 22, 2009 at 6:48 AM
//
We live in a capitalist country. I will give my money to whoever gives me the best product. Right now, it damn sure aint a UAW built car.
I would rather give my money to socialist Germany or Japan before giving it to the communist blood-sucking leeches known as the UAW.
uknowmorethanme on December 22, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Wow.
becki51758 on December 22, 2009 at 10:29 AM
given that busing has been a total failure, and ended all around the country…tell us how his plan worked? and where did it work? if you are SO proud of him, you should have no problems telling us what city it is…that you don’t, speaks volumes.
right4life on December 22, 2009 at 7:45 AM
//
crr6 is the epitome of white-guilt liberals. He/she feels justified in their racism because someone old guy he’s related to de-segragated a school years before they were born.
uknowmorethanme on December 22, 2009 at 10:31 AM
That was informative and sad, of course I saw this all on a slightly smaller scale while I was growing up. I can still remember when Gary was a beautiful, ethnically diverse city with a great economy. It was a model for what other cities could achieve. Thanks Hatcher.
Tommy_G on December 22, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Here is another example of empirical evidence that liberalism is a failed ideology. What is baffling is that liberals fail to maintain a grasp on reality.
rukiddingme on December 22, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Er, how to put this? For some decades the people in Detroit have hated whitey more than they have liked themselves. This is why they keep electing and reelecting the same incompetent crooks. In Detroit nothing works. Trash isn’t collected. The streets aren’t plowed. The schools are hopelessly broken. But the people take a perverse pride in it. Perhaps the ruins are living and visible assurance that the white man is gone forever. Liberals and the Democratic party and their own politicians are happy to benefit from this resentment, particularly since it costs them so little.
dhimwit on December 22, 2009 at 10:46 AM
If you visit the site Political Byline, somebody pretty much calls Crowder out on his ‘dishonesty’ and stooping to the level of yellow journalism. If you werent aware, Pajamas media is Jewish owned, and that must be why they did this ‘hitpiece’ on detroit. He was upset that they didnt contact him so he could give them a more honest assessment of the city. Sorry to rain on your parade pal, but its a smoldering pit and a giant magnet for all the cash that flows out of Lansing, lot of good it does em. Keeps the fires burning I guess.
TheVer on December 22, 2009 at 10:51 AM
I agree with Allahpundit about not making too many political assumptions with regard to Detroit’s decline.
After all, Lead, South Dakota, home of Homestake Gold Mine, was for a long time South Dakota’s richest community. It’s as conservative a community as they come in an area between the Rockies and the Mississippi River.
Homestake Gold Mine closed in 2001. Lead’s population is only about 45% of what it was in 1960. Lead’s school district student count is only about 30% of what it was in the 1970s. Yet the place is still quite conservative.
BradSchwartze on December 22, 2009 at 11:01 AM
True, pretty much any medium to large city is run by lefties. Detroit is a worst case scenario, not typical.
Enrique on December 22, 2009 at 11:02 AM
It actually started in 1950:
imo, that is the number one reason for Detroit’s decline. A dramatic loss of wealth and knowlege that relocated to wealthy suburbs. A close second is Detroit’s entirely corrupt political system, which pretty much put the nail in the coffin. Detroit’s new mayor, Dave Bing, while technically a Democrat, is anything but. I’m hopeful he can push the city in the right direction, but ultimately, Detroit’s city employees are going to have to acquiesce as they are currently the biggest leeches in the D. It’s either that or bankruptcy.
I’m a 20 year resident of Dearborn, transplanted from Houston. Even with all its current ills, I love Michigan.
Chest_Rockwell on December 22, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Here is what Hiroshima looks like today.
Tommy_G on December 22, 2009 at 11:12 AM
A small community sent into steep decline by the exhaustion of a gold mine which was its essentially only employer, and a megacity of 1.85 million (5th in the country, 1.4% of US population) being sent into a steep decline due to the unions destroying it’s largest employer and liberal politicians destroying the rest are two very different things. As I’ve already mentioned, Detroit isn’t the only city to which this happened. It’s just the largest.
jarodea on December 22, 2009 at 11:13 AM
This statement is beyond moronic. It’s indicative of a person living on their own private fantasy island.
TheUnrepentantGeek on December 22, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Step across the city line, from Dearborn to Detroit. Like the difference between Earth and the barren Moon.
Yoop on December 22, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Can you walk down the street at night in relative safety in Lead?
forest on December 22, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Yoop, I’ve done it countless times.
I like Detroit. I wouldn’t live there, but I like to visit.
Chest_Rockwell on December 22, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Strangely, people get defensive when you attack them. SHOCKER!
Golly, you sure sound defensive! See how that works?
Oh yes. You turn that tide! I’m sure you’ll ride into court on a white stallion and cure the world of its racism by … becoming a public defender or a patent nerd or something.
And one day, when your bringing home a loaf of organic gluten free bread from Whole Foods, you’ll realize you’ve made it. Then you’ll give ten bucks to NPR and upcycle a paint can or whatever so you can feel EVEN MORE RIGHTEOUS.
God but you’re pathetic.
TheUnrepentantGeek on December 22, 2009 at 11:25 AM
*you’re
TheUnrepentantGeek on December 22, 2009 at 11:25 AM
I sure hope the detroitification of America FAILS!
RBMN on December 22, 2009 at 11:30 AM
I was born and raised in E. St. Louis in the 50′s – it was a beautiful city. Go back and look at it now – it is Detroit on steroids. Illinois is the most corrupt state in the union as far as I’m concerned. The LibDimcrats totally destroyed this city also. Glad I’m in Texas – a right to work state!!
whatzit2u on December 22, 2009 at 11:32 AM
But the country needs more of those liberal, feel-good lawyers, now more than ever.
Perhaps she’ll graduate in time to help that women who is still standing in line, IN DETROIT, waiting for her share from Obama’s stash.
Yoop on December 22, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Hmm! MORE pathetic insults and ignorant babble! I guess neither side has a monopoly on hypocrisy in ‘tolerance’.
Well, I’ll give you an example anyway, wingnut. An open field was allocated for low-income housing in the midst of our middle-class neighborhood. Our neighborhood lobby forced the city to build close-spaced but separate homes instead of slum apartments. Fears about ignorant, violent ghetto-dwellers were voiced until we learned the neighborhood was to be populated by Sudanese refugees.
The result: a quiet, clean new neighborhood by people who have known actual hardships and are grateful for what America provides. Happy endings all around, although I note with great amusement that the imports beat our native product by quite a bit.
Dark-Star on December 22, 2009 at 11:38 AM
Coming to this party late, as some of us still work for a living. I went into Detroit as many as 5 days a week from 1990-2005 on business, visiting automotive suppliers and the car co’s. themselves. I recognize many of the places in the video. It never was safe, but got palpably worse over that time. Michiganders tell me that the major kickoff of the problems was when Coleman Young came right out and told white people to leave the city, that he didn’t want them or their money around. So they did. You can still literally tell where the city limits of Detroit abut the suburbs without reading a sign. And many times, said suburbs station a police car at those borders to stem the overflow of crime.
When the Super Bowl was in Detroit in 2006, there were restaurant and bar businesses that established themselves in vacant buildings around Ford Field for only that 2-3 week period and closed up and left immediately after the game.
On Robocop – in the original movie, the defunct steel mill that they film in actually is not Detroit. The two major mills there are still operating in Dearborn and Ecorse. The mill filming was done in Monesson, PA in a place where I spent some quality time before it closed up in 1984. The mountains in the background are a dead giveaway – nothing like that within 100+ miles of Detroit.
You wanna see bad management, bad unions, and the incredibly swift decline of an area, go to my hometown of Aliquippa, PA. At its peak in the 1970′s, the 5-mile-long steel mill of Jones & Laughlin / LTV Steel employed something like 25,000 people, including every male on my dad’s side of the family. The plant was capable of producing almost every form of product you can make steel into, probably the most product-diverse plant in the country. Tin can stock, steel wire and cable, structural beams, pipe, sheet stock, etc. Terrible management strategic decisions and bad union work ethic caused the place to close in 1985. Most of the mill property is now a grass field and the downtown area is no longer safe to enter, even in the daytime. My generation (I’m now 54)basically moved away. The town and its residential neighborhoods (Called “Plans”, from when it was established as a company town in the very early 1900′s) are left with a few very old residents, along with very young drug gangs. I remember a time as late as the 1960′s-early 1970′s when you didn’t need to lock your doors in those neighborhoods. “Block Watch” didn’t have an organization, it was what each of you did.
These are much more “teachable lessons” that should scare the heck out of the country as a whole.
SteelGuy on December 22, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Were you attempting to make a joke, or is it just your astounding ignorance that has me laughing like crazy?
Dark-Star on December 22, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Reagan: A Shining City on a Hill.
Obama: a smouldering ruin in a ditch.
profitsbeard on December 22, 2009 at 11:57 AM
It doesn’t take long for our old friend entropy to tear down what we have built, does it?
I’m wondering what rural Alabama would look like if as many gubmint dollars were spent on it as have been spent on Detroit?
Bob's Kid on December 22, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Detroit died because people just don’t use cars anymore.
/s
mankai on December 22, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Here’s a dirty little secret: Detroit has also been crippled by “black fight”. Basically any blacks with the resources and skills to make a living elsewhere have been abandoning the city for decades.
Mike Honcho on December 22, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Having lived in the heart of it… I’d guess a lot more drug addicts.
mankai on December 22, 2009 at 12:30 PM
More like the deepest indebted nation on earth…
bbordwell on December 22, 2009 at 12:41 PM
The above statement is 100% true.
I worked in Detroit for about six years in the 90′s. Parts are definitely safe- mostly because there is no one there. The main business areas (the safe parts) become deserted after dark. Can you get yourself in trouble? Of course.
One of the points that is never made because it’s “politically incorrect” is that Detroit is filled with crooked black politicians screwing over black constituents. Almost 100% of the crime is black on black. That’s not talked about either.
It’s a mess there. It’s been a mess since the 70′s. This is not new.
shibumi on December 22, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Here in the south suburbs of Chicago, Gary is just up the road. And yet almost no one from this area has ever been in the parts of Gary in those photos. It’s an isolated social disaster.
When your car is stolen here in Chicago Heights, Midlothian, Alsip, Homewood, Orland Park or Tinley Park — they find what remains of it in Gary tomorrow. The south side of Chicago has worse: Phoenix, Dixmoor, Harvey, and Ford Heights.
Jaibones on December 22, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Having made many trips to Detroit I never could understand why my customer was spending so much money in a place that is all but dead. It is now an ugly dirty place in most parts with spotted areas that are nice. Not a place I would ever want to raise my family in.
Teleycoman on December 22, 2009 at 12:59 PM
You can’t fix stupid. But let me at least spit on it:
Hey, crrvx, ever think that “deindustrialization, white flight and globalization” might be the result of “micro-level decisions” of city and state governments? If Detroit is the product of powerful global forces beyond the control of state and local governments, then explain Oakland County, Michigan, on the north side of 8 mile road.
Nitwit.
Jaibones on December 22, 2009 at 1:09 PM
I remember when I was a kind growing up in the suburbs of Detroit. One of the coolest things that could happen was when my Mom would take my brother and myself “downtown”.
We would go on Saturday, catch the bus and off we went. You know the on the streets were so many people there that it was difficult to stay on the side walks.
I still have two used books that I bought at Hudson’s.
I had reason to go there about 10 years ago.
It reminded me of Berlin after the war.
I never when back.
enginemike on December 22, 2009 at 1:13 PM
LMAO. No. I don’t think the Detroit City Council caused globalization.
That was so stupid, I’m saving it.
crr6 on December 22, 2009 at 1:14 PM
You finally got something right. The Japanese never did dump here. They had lower costs because they weren’t being held hostage by their labor unions.
Just because the UAW thinks it should be illegal to work for less than what their members charge doesn’t mean it actually should be.
MarkTheGreat on December 22, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Aww. That was an adorable little rant. Do you feel better now?
Remember kids, according to UnrepentantGeek (sounds someone to listen to!) getting an education and caring about urban issues is “pathetic”.
What’s not pathetic is apathy! And thinly veiled disdain for people more successful and driven then you!
crr6 on December 22, 2009 at 1:20 PM
If this isn’t a bannable comment, it should be.
MarkTheGreat on December 22, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Visiting N.O. before the hurricane, I could definitely agree with you.
What a cesspool of trash it was. I can imagine it isn’t any better.
And if it weren’t for the human toll, I would have said good riddance to New Orleans after Katrina.
Badger40 on December 22, 2009 at 1:35 PM
The only reason other Left-dominated/run cities are not like Detroit is that they still have some kind of industry or revenue generation going on (New Orleans has tourism, San Fran/New York has media, internet, tech cos still).
Otherwise you see cities fall apart like Detroit, mostly because the car industry in America is now outsourced to Mexica/Canada and all the second or third-tier suppliers are also outside the US now.
US automakers also did a nice trick of demanding repayments from their suppliers. I forget what they called it, but Ford/GM/Chrysler claimed they were overcharged or demanded more efficiency from the suppliers and thus wanted some of their cost back or something. I wish I could do tell a car dealership that I want some money back because the costs to buy a car were too high in my opinion.
Ironically Nissan has plants all over TN (where there is no Union requirement) and also second-tier suppliers and support (logistics) companies, and are doing okay.
Neo on December 22, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Kind of reminded me on the new movie The Road.
pseudonominus on December 22, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Redistribution, union strangle-hold, racial politics, hatred of capitalism, political criminals.
Detroit is the petri dish of marxism.
Stalingrad, right here in our back yard.
notagool on December 22, 2009 at 2:13 PM
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