Downtown Detroit becoming hip, vibrant and, gasp, white. Can't have that.

[Anti Federalist]

Will downtown Detroit be a white enclave?

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131117/OPINION01/311170002#ixzz2lgRHy1SC

Nolan Finley

The divide around here once was between Detroit and the suburbs.

Now, in the words of race warrior Shirley Stancato, it’s becoming between “downtown and those other people.”

The other people the New Detroit head is talking about live in Detroit’s rapidly disintegrating neighborhoods. They’re largely African-American, and a high percentage are poor. Downtown, meanwhile, is a magnet for creative and upwardly mobile young people of both races, but the tilt is heavily toward whites.

“It’s an issue,” says Stancato, whose organization is dedicated to closing the racial divide.

“It’s a symptom of concerns that are just underneath the surface.”

The resentment broke through during the recent Detroit mayoral campaign. The downtown vs. neighborhoods conflict became a sub-theme that both candidates had to address on the campaign trail.

How could it not? Downtown seems immune to Detroit’s broken finances. It’s booming thanks to private investments and its sudden emergence as a cool city for young people to live and work in.

Private dollars take care of everything from street clean-up to security within the downtown and Midtown zones.

It’s a different story in the neighborhoods, where the city’s inability to fund basic services is evident on nearly every block.

Something else is bubbling, too. A lot of nights you can stand in downtown Detroit and think you were in Minneapolis instead of at the core of the blackest city in America.

With a few exceptions, the new hip hotspots have an overwhelmingly white clientele. Often, the downtown crowd is an almost exact reversal of the city’s 80 percent black, 20 percent white and others racial makeup.

I talked with several downtown denizens over the past few weeks, and all seem to have noticed the same thing, but they can’t say for sure why it’s happening. Most say diversity is one of the things that draws them to Detroit.

A few offered that its a natural reflection of the influx of new downtown residents and workers, who are predominately white.

But there are still more than 600,000 African-Americans living in the city. And yet you can often find more diversity in the bars and restaurants of Birmingham than in the ones downtown.

Stancato says it’s not something we can shrug off. “The response has to be intentional,” she says. “Are we focused on this and are we willing to have a conversation about it?”

New Detroit is working on programs to help white and black young people, particularly those living in Detroit, get comfortable with each other.

Over my nearly four decades of working downtown, there are few subjects I’ve become more weary of than the racial divide. Even so, I can recognize that no good can come of making the central city a white enclave.

Stancato is right. This merits an intentional response, and a lot more talk

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131117/OPINION01/311170002#ixzz2lgRHy1SC

[Anti Federalist]

Pssst, Those White People Are Moving Back to Detroit

Karen De Coster

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/pssst-those-white-people-are-moving-back-to-detroit/

Yes, white folks are moving into the city in droves, and they are only part of a wider group of people bringing density and the customer base to Detroit’s booming core. And some folks are not hip to it. Shame on Nolan Finley of the Detroit News for giving this loon, and others like her, serious air time and consideration. Folks like Shirley Stancato are now referred to as Detroit’s “race warriors.”

As my Detroit: From Rust to Riches blog has been documenting for some time now, Detroit has become the place to be, and has thus moved from being a city known for white flight to a city where all kinds of people - including white people – can’t get here fast enough. Occupancy rates in popular Midtown have pushed over 95%. I’ve lived here my whole life and I have never before seen such a fun and amazing hodgepodge of people that are living in the dense downtown areas. And there are still some naysayers kicking up a fuss over gentrification, housing prices, and … white people moving back to the city. To quote Nolan Finley:

Downtown, meanwhile, is a magnet for creative and upwardly mobile young people of both races, but the tilt is heavily toward whites.

What he didn’t add was that during Detroit’s pre-2007, pre-renaissance period, young whites who would graduate from local colleges would leave here as fast as they could pick up their paper diploma and pack their vehicle. Human capital came, graduated, and went. These same young folks are flooding into the city to live the creative and exciting urban life that was never before available to them. Empty nesters who left during the reign of the city’s worst regimes have also come back to their roots. Here’s a simple quote from Finley that explains a bit more about why Detroit is thriving while the world expects it to be dying.

Downtown seems immune to Detroit’s broken finances. It’s booming thanks to private investments and its sudden emergence as a cool city for young people to live and work in.

Private dollars take care of everything from street clean-up to security within the downtown and Midtown zones.

Aha, he gets it! However, while private investment ramps up and takes over basic services; commences restorations; builds new housing; and provides creative entertainment, dining, and nightlife, “race warrior” Shirley Stancato says white people coming downtown “is an issue” and “are we willing to have a conversation about it?”

This story drew 500+ reader comments almost overnight, and the reason is that people here are sick and tired those who cannot let go of the past, and instead, they hash over the same old rusty ground, pulling out the race card along with class warfare. I’ll quote from a friend of mine, Thomas E. Page, whose comments appear in the comment thread:

Finley, Stancato and the media should be celebrating increased diversity downtown and midtown. What’s happening in Detroit has already happened in cities such as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. More white folks have moved into the City and more black folks have moved into the suburbs. Look at the region as a whole and these demographic changes indicate that the region is being less segregated. And that’s good.

The way to put race behind this community is to put it behind us. I don’t know of any other community that wallows in the past, and then puts a racial spin on just about everything. I refuse to get sucked into that vortex that goes nowhere. Most Detroiters want the same things: City services that serve; a fair tax system; police who respond when called; trash that gets picked up when scheduled; street lights that work; places to shop; places to work; cultural opportunity; etc. And the color of someone’s skin is totally irrelevant to this. My neighbors, most who are black, complain about the exact same things I do. The establishment of Council by Districts and the recent mayoral election are proof that people – black, white, brown, yellow – welcome, in fact demand, change.

[CPUd]

When they had the Jimmy Buffett concert this summer, the radio station had dumped tons of sand into an empty lot, where they set up booths. There were lots of old white people there drinking. The rest of the downtown area looked abandoned.

[angelatc]

When they had the Jimmy Buffett concert this summer, the radio station had dumped tons of sand into an empty lot, where they set up booths. There were lots of old white people there drinking. The rest of the downtown area looked abandoned.

Yeah, Karen loves Detroit for sure, and it is true that the downtown area is attracting some young professionals to the condos and lofts, there's not really much growth in the single family housing.

As long as they can put a gate around it, they'll give it a chance. I can't figure out why though - the taxes are terribly high, and the city council is 100% Democrat.

[Brian4Liberty]

Investment? Renovating? Rebuilding? Private money for city maintenance?

This must be stopped! This is an existential threat to the USSA!

[angelatc]

Investment? Renovating? Rebuilding? Private money for city maintenance?

This must be stopped! This is an existential threat to the USSA!


The city council will start taxing white people. That will solve their problems.

[Anti Federalist]

The city council will start taxing white people. That will solve their problems.

LOL

I'm not sure how much of these articles to believe, because, like you said Karen D. loves some Detroit.

At the same time, there is another source saying the same thing.

[angelatc]

LOL

I'm not sure how much of these articles to believe, because, like you said Karen D. loves some Detroit.

At the same time, there is another source saying the same thing.

I live here. Downtown Detroit is indeed having somewhat of a resurgence, but the single family home areas are not showing any improvements.

And I still would not want to walk to my car after leaving a restaurant at night there.

[Brian4Liberty]

I live here. Downtown Detroit is indeed having somewhat of a resurgence, but the single family home areas are not showing any improvements.

And I still would not want to walk to my car after leaving a restaurant at night there.

I used to go to places like that when I was younger. The parking lot would be across the street, and private security and bouncers would ensure that people made it to their cars. You were on your own after that. Don't get lost on the wrong streets...

[angelatc]

I used to go to places like that when I was younger. The parking lot would be across the street, and private security and bouncers would ensure that people made it to their cars. You were on your own after that. Don't get lost on the wrong streets...

Yeah, Greektown is a prime example of that. There's a row of restaurants and such on the same block as the casino, and you can walk to them, no probem. But you can literally look across the street and see the gangs hanging out in the shadows, waiting for some poor tourist to cross that line.

[Anti Federalist]

Yeah, Greektown is a prime example of that. There's a row of restaurants and such on the same block as the casino, and you can walk to them, no probem. But you can literally look across the street and see the gangs hanging out in the shadows, waiting for some poor tourist to cross that line.

Sounds just like Atlantic City.

Or at least the way it used to be...haven't been there in years.

[Keith and stuff]

Look at the most recent unemployment data. Detroit still has a HORRIBLE unemployment problem but it is improving faster (in the greater area) than the US as a whole.

http://cmsimg.freep.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C4&Date=20130721&Category=OPINION05&ArtNo=307210033&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&Raw-Data-Detroit-s-unemployment-rate-over-last-decade

And since the summer it's gone down even further. Don't get me wrong, I'd never suggest anyone move to such a horrible place, but the place is improving.

[invisible]

This is just the market attempting to correct itself from the housing bubble. For years, I predicted that the same thing would happen in Baltimore: that the suburbs would get so expensive, that a vacuum was being created which would eventually start sucking people back into the inner city. Many laughed and said that would never happen, but it did. One friend of mine bought a house about 10 years ago on the edge of what was considered a bad neighborhood. At the time, perhaps 25% of the block was vacant, and he was one of maybe 3 or 4 white people on the block. Now, only two houses on his block are vacant, and only because they're on the verge of falling over, and the neighborhood is evenly integrated. I imagine that the same thing is happening in many other urban cores.

[FloralScent]

This is just the market attempting to correct itself from the housing bubble. For years, I predicted that the same thing would happen in Baltimore: that the suburbs would get so expensive, that a vacuum was being created which would eventually start sucking people back into the inner city. Many laughed and said that would never happen, but it did.

That and they've been dropping section 8 housing into the suburbs as fast as they can build them.

[anaconda]

Can someone explain the cryptic OP article to me? I don't understand: is this Shirley Stancato person saying that it's bad that 20% of the people in Detroit are white and want to live there? And what does “It’s a symptom of concerns that are just underneath the surface” mean?

[anaconda]

Kind of reminds me a little of this article I saw yesterday, about resentment against the influx of productive high tech workers in San Francisco:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/us/backlash-by-the-bay-tech-riches-alter-a-city.html?_r=0

[LibForestPaul]

How could it not? Downtown seems immune to Detroit’s broken finances. It’s booming thanks to private investments and its sudden emergence as a cool city for young people to live and work in.

All according to plan.

[acptulsa]

Can someone explain the cryptic OP article to me? I don't understand: is this Shirley Stancato person saying that it's bad that 20% of the people in Detroit are white and want to live there? And what does “It’s a symptom of concerns that are just underneath the surface” mean?

That's secret code for, 'My editor won't let me say it, but there are Americans of African descent who happen to be racist.'

[eduardo89]

Downtown Detroit will be getting even better with the new Red Wings stadium and the big development around it.

[2young2vote]

For those of you who have never been there, I took this picture a year or so ago: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h93/andrewshooter/2012-12-29183805.jpg

It is exactly as angelatc described it, a block or two of a fun, happening area, and as soon as you leave those couple blocks you will see gangs, abandoned sky scrapers, and seedy looking people.

They will never continue this growth unless they allow a free market to boom.

[specsaregood]

Sounds just like Atlantic City.
Or at least the way it used to be...haven't been there in years.

In AC nowadays it is the gang in uniforms you have to worry about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1E309rAXTk

[Anti Federalist]

It looked pretty well lit up when I passed by a few weeks ago.

http://i.imgur.com/QL3MhrU.jpg

[Brian4Liberty]

Downtown Detroit will be getting even better with the new Red Wings stadium and the big development around it.

That is getting a lot of play in real estate investment circles. There will be some money heading that way.

[Origanalist]

This thread is reported to the SPLC. Hate crime in progress.

[eduardo89]

This thread is reported to the SPLC. Hate crime in progress.

Don't worry, Danke has been dispatched to deal with it.