Check out a painting called "The Triumph of Death" I think the painter got PTSD from the black plague. It shows a king off in one corner messed up from plague and surrounded by his precious coins. I think theres a lesson in there that dipshit 1% types would like to ignore
Does Detroit have a dedicated paid group of Reddit PR people or something? I mentioned Detroit in a negative light one time a few months ago on the Toronto subreddit and got bombarded with downvotes and hate lol
Not to say there's anything wrong with your city, it's just crazy how many people will go to bat for it online in such a seemingly wide range of subreddits 😅
I’ve traveled to Detroit for work on occasion over the last 5 years or so, and from what I see they are really trying to turn the city around.
Trying to bring work back, roads and infrastructure updates, and it just seems to be getting better.
No city is going to be perfect.
Some other cities I’ve been to quite a bit I could say the opposite, but Detroit keep moving forward!
This past year was the first time in ages there was population growth in Detroit. Its definitely improved over the years, but still needs a lot of work.
Yeah my fiancé & I are relocating there from Memphis this year. We fell in love w Detroit when we visited once, and we’ve been on an anti-Detroit-hate campaign ever since.
I’d love for Memphis to see some revitalization like that too one day. It gives me hope lol
Memphis isn’t a place I’ve been too much for work other than driving through it on interstate. A coworker I worked with had a really bad experience there working to the point where he moved hotels to across the state line to Mississippi.
That’s really the only person I’ve known who has been there tbh, and then obviously I know Young Dolph RIP
I think mayor duggan had a hand in that.the guy really cares.he is getting my vote for governor as an independent. Maybe he can make progress instead of 2 party gridlock.please consider him i am a fan
Probably a bunch of reasons, most of us grew up here our whole lives, unlike a lot of transplant cities, so we are quite proud. And tired of being shit on, Detroit has grit and doesn't tolerate shit talking.
Unless, we are doing this shit talking ourselves.
Source, I lived 15 years in Detroit proper and 25 within a few miles of Detroit.
I get it, but at the same time, I find a lot of these endless praises to come from people who live either in the suburbs or downtown and don't realize the other 95% of the city is still horribly blighted and has not 'recovered' at all.
And not to bring race into it, but... its a factor. The white residents of downtown (aka 90% of detroit redditors) are living in a very different detroit than the majority of black residents who are not seeing the changes.
Detroit is big, bigger than Atlanta by land size, and recovery cannot be easily generalized.
The "real" story is often complicated. I'm sure there are ranges of recovery
I can't speak for other people's personal experiences but I think the majority of Detroiters and Detroit visitors will say it's better today than 15 years ago. That's my boots on the ground lived experience. Overall, let's say nice things about Detroit, it's cold enough in the D
Last time I visited, it was legit. Detroit is reborn every couple decades. It's super cool right now. But there are still def pockets that would fall into "hide to kids, hide to wife" territory.
Not gonna lie I grew up in Redford off lahser 7mile in the 80s I don’t go near it any more unless it’s Lous Deli if it’s even still there anymore. I’ll take a chance for Lou’s Deli.
I remember belle isle shoot outs and boblo island compared to now being in the city is a breeze the reason I say that if I remember correctly Detroit police back in the day had to tow their cars to certain spots because either they didn’t run or someone stole the wheels off.
Now you actually see nice cars and trucks it’s amazing when I come home.
In December I was in downtown Detroit for the first time in probably 15 years. It was incredible! The amount of bustle and cool shit going on from Campus Martius to the Fox was unreal. I've been in plenty of bigger cities that totally lack that sense of place, and I know there's lots more going on elsewhere in town. FTP.
The city has dramatically changed in the last 15 years. There is a lot to be proud of now. It’s still probably a shit hole to outsiders but you had to be here 20 years+ ago to see the difference.
Lot of people (myself included) are from there that moved away, but still have a lot of love for the place. Would love to go back, but there’s not much reason to when other places are warmer and have better jobs. There are nice places in Detroit so long as you stay primarily in the downtown/midtown areas and small enclaves like Corktown or Indian Village (which feature some truly breathtaking homes), but yeah outside of those places (Detroit is fairly big too) it’s about as bad as you can imagine as far as blight and crime
How's my main squeeze Royal Oak and my crush Ferndale doing?
I'm not from Detroit but in the past visited very often and actually, other than that harsh winters, really like it enough to even consider living there if not for the said harsh and gloomy winters.
Grosse Pointe is not AT ALL in Detroit, it’s a city adjacent to it, what’s more is that your completely ignoring all of the Eastside and Westside of the city, neither of which has been gentrified to the point where people in mass will start moving to unless those places see a massive change is education, infrastructure, crime, or pick anything.
It’s a nice story and one that id love to see continue, but let’s not get it twisted, it’s got a LONG way before I’d say it’s like Chicago
both the westside and eastside are definitely safer present day though. there are a lot of deserted/ an abandoned areas (which obviously can fester crime) but violent crime is 100% declining and it’s not like a bunch of crackheads running around anymore. you might get your car stolen or mugged still if you’re in a horrible area dead of night alone but, there’s improvement lol. and even then there’s a lot more present day cases of other cultures moving into bad neighborhoods and making everything safer, especially rebuilding neighborhoods in the east is super common these days
Just out of curiosity, what is the current murder rate per 100,000? Because in 2022 (not very long ago) it was just under 50, which puts it in the top 50 homicide rates worldwide. My information isn't particularly up to date but it seems like it's still not a particularly safe city
last year 2024 it was 31.9, which was lowest it’s been since the 70s. so ig objectively getting better but it’s definitely still a dangerous city trying to turn things around lol.
Nah man, it's just when you are from Detroit, and you see people who have never been to Detroit talk shit because of what they think they hear or read, it tends to offend, because Detroit is actually really nice, lol.
Like, being from somewhere that has a decades long misinformation campaign surrounding it is crazy.
I like detroit culturally but it is absolutely not 'really nice'. Outside of some small somewhat-rejuvenated areas in downtown and midtown (where less than 5% of the population live), it is still overwhelmingly blighted and impoverished.
The city is number 48 worldwide for highest murder rate per capita as late as 2022, and this list includes Mexican cartel cities. There may be some gentrified areas but it definitely isn't on the level of any safe city in the States or Canada.
I've been to Detroit, I know it can be nice, but that doesn't mean it is a safe and great city.
That being said, I'm sure it's frustrating to have your city constantly be the butt of a joke so I understand your frustration to a degree.
I'm not from the city of, but grew up in the metro area.
I hate to bring race into this (I'm black), but it's usually the white people that moved downtown in the last 5-10 years that do exactly what you speak of. These same people grew up in extremely affluent neighborhoods, and I'm talking multi-million dollar homes. Now that they moved to the city center where major redevelopment has been happening, they are "soooo detroit".
Without even considering their race, you can tell when somebody is actually from Detroit. If you ask a real Detroiter where they're from, they'll say either east side or west side, or the neighborhood/street they grew up on. If you ask somebody that recently moved to Detroit, they will actually say Detroit.
Real Detroiters don't give a damn what you say about the city. Hell, they probably don't even use reddit or even heard of it.
Edit: I forgot to add, those "downtown detroiters" probably never stepped foot outside of downtown or won't even think about it. If they do, they are going back to the burbs.
Edit: like other comments have said, much of the city is still a shithole, including Hamtramck (a city inside of the city). Only downtown and midtown has changed because Dan Gilbert basically bought everything at a deep discount.
See this is exactly what I thought the city was, and your explanation makes sense. Just like any other major city in North America, except with a bunch of dickriders that recently moved there because of gentrification
My partner mentioned going to Detroit on Spring break, telling me all about how "it's changed".
I looked up the murdered rate and it's 55 per 100 000. For context, the other cities we considered for spring break were, were Vancouver where the homocide rate is 1 per 100 000 and İstanbul where the rate is 3. WTF??????
Yeah and I closed Reddit shortly after posting then reopened it to 28 notifications, all from this post I assume. This is literally my highest engagement post (by comments) this whole year 🤣
It kind kf needs it. I moved to metro Detroit in 2011 after being unemployed for a long while and every person I knew tried to convince me not to, especially the Michigander expats which are super common all over.
I don't think my parents or grandparents really believed I lived in a nice part of the metro area until they visited and found it wasn't a a crime ridden he'll scape.
All that said like, when you find a bad neighborhood here, it is a BAD neighborhood. But the locals have a lot of pride in the city and especially in how it's changed in the last decade or two.
No downvote or hate. I used to talk smack about Detroit too. Went there for the cannabis cup many years ago and I was less than impressed to say the least. Then I went again with a bunch of guys to see the Bears play the Lions at Ford Field and had a blast. Stayed the whole weekend. The AirBnB was trash, and we weren’t from there so didn’t realize it was in the hood until we got there, but we had a fantastic time. There were some fine looking women as well. The football trash talk was all love. The cannabis market in Michigan is crazy too. Everything is half the price and twice the potency that Illinois allows. I recommend. Id love to go back for another weekend.
Yeah I've been to Detroit for an event pre-covid, the downtown area was nice and although we stayed in an airbnb in Windsor (were Canadian so it was easier) the drive to and from the event wasn't ugly. But it was all downtown, in a clearly newly developed and gentrified area. The way people ride out for the city on here you'd think it's a modern day utopia inline with Nordic cities.
It still has a top 50 murder rate worldwide, that just ain't it chief.
This being said, there are fun times to be had in the city, and I never intended to make anyone believe that I dislike the city, because I don't. Im mostly surprised it has such a dedicated fanbase on Reddit lol
I left Florida near 15 yrs ago and moved to Gary, Indiana for almost 2 years. Easily the absolute worst city I’ve ever seen. We had bullet holes in our front door from stray bullets. But the best places to eat are usually going to be outside those gentrified areas. Pro tip: always look for some sharp-dressed black folk, they tend know where the best food spots are. After Gary I moved to Chicago.
People use those metrics about crime, gun violence, or homicide, but that kinda stuff is pretty rare even considering the rankings. If you’re in a gang neighborhood when you shouldn’t be and looking suspect, you might have a problem, but most all of the violence is in specific neighborhoods/areas, so people from outside think it’s lawless Wild West action going on every second of the day, but they’re just normal cities most of the time.
Anywho, I love Chicago, but I felt a kinship with the folks in Detroit. Almost like we were sister cities, but don’t ever go to Gary, Indiana. That place is really bad.
The Detroit Metro area is pretty huge, so I think you are just running into people who live there/have visited (like me.) It's not so bad, it just got a bad rep.
For instance, I'm not from Michigan even but met my good friend from outside Toronto in Detroit.
I'm from Toronto, and have been to Detroit shortly pre-covid for a magic event, so I know it's not as bad as the stories of the 90s and naughts, but the murder rate is still higher than a lot of cities you'd consider dangerous, which is frankly insane (48 highest homicide rate per capita in 2022 worldwide, that's not too long ago, and after the supposed revitalization of the city). They may have reinvigorated some infrastructure and solidly gentrificated the areas tourists visit but the stats paint a very different picture of the city than all the people on here (seemingly you included) are trying their damnedest to. I'm 99% sure there isn't some secret cult of Detroit lovers, but the fact that so many people feel the need to drop a comment and defend the city is kind of astonishing to me.
I'll put it this way, I really enjoyed my time there and found most of the people I interacted with were not in Detroit proper, but outside in Southfield, Farmington Hills, and that one area with a lot of arabs whose name I can't remember. I didn't see much crime anecdotally. I even walked through Detroit proper with luggage after the bus stopped early and said routes done. A stranger walked with me until I got to safety. The only thing that accosted me was his really long diatribe against the Catholic Church. It was otherwise very pleasant and maybe the scariest part of the trip. But I never really had to go back to Detroit proper.
But when discussing Detroit, I think it's fair to include all those areas into the Metro area, which is all I meant.
Yeah that tracks, I'm more surprised at how much love Detroit gets (disproportionately to other cities, from what I can tell) from internet strangers on Reddit all across the subs, not just in their dedicated city sub
It's just the majority of people view it as the city it was 20-30 years ago, where as today it has changed a shit ton, and is actually one of the nicest cities to visit in the country.
Your problem is you badmiuthed Detroit in a subreddit that is pretty close, both geographically, ideologically, and there might be some other criteria that can cause people from Detroit to lurk the Toronto subreddit.
Please go to a subreddit from Czechia and see if taking the piss out of Detroit brings you hate
Pretty sure someone used it as an example of a safe city and I was like uhhhh there are a lot of cities you could classify as "safe" before Detroit gets into consideration. I didn't even know that they have a ~30/100,000 homicide rate, which makes the assertion that they're a safe city even more bonkers.
Anyways, I got a bunch of comments exactly like the ones on the previous comment all defending Detroit lol
It’s because it genuinely changed so much in the last two decades. I’m a MI native, my grandparents were from Detroit. My parents work there often. The city used to be empty, the downtown completely dead. Now it’s genuinely fun, crowds of people and great restaurants. Always people there on the weekends and events happening. It’s coming back to life. Compared to some place like Chicago, obviously it has a long ways to go but it just feels great as a Michigander to see Detroit coming back. So much cool stuff there.
Highly recommend the documentary United States of Detroit to everyone in this thread! Seeing the community’s efforts to rebuild and take care of their city is really cool!
I think Tim Robinson created Detroiters to show the city in a more accurate light. Many cities in the US are similar in condition to Detroit atp, but it’s kinda used as a punching bag and an example of “shit cities”. I have a relative that moved there a few months ago and she’s never said anything negative about her job, the people, or the city. It seems like they are optimistic and really want to improve the city.
It's common for people to randomly shit on Detroit because it was in a very bad state 15-25 years ago. People don't care to learn about the city making a comeback and just propagate random insults.
It’s more like since the 1968 riots and it has been making a come back. It’s been a long and slow road back to something.
What you also need to keep in mind is that Detroit is ground zero for the Industrial Revolution so you have generations that came from the area as proud blue collar workers. That mentality is still alive and well. If Detroit is in your blood you’re not usually a shit talker your a I’ll put my fist in your shit talking mouth before you even know what hit you!
It’s more like since the 1968 riots and it has been making a come back
This is not at all the timeline of detroits decline. The city went through a very steep decline after the riots, then a steady decline throughout the 1970s-1990s, then another steep decline in the 2000s, especially the late 2000s and early 2010s. Its not like it just plummeted all at once in 1968 and has been slowly coming back. In the 1970s, Detroit was not that far off from other typical rust belt cities.
Since the mid 2010s, the downtown area has revitalized somewhat, but by and large the city is still near its lowest point demographically and economically. It is, technically, still at its lowest population in its history as of 2024. More people are still moving out than coming in.
I am not trying to shit on the city or act like its universally some hellhole, but some of the comments here making it out to be the next major hotspot are a bit delusional. Downtown and Midtown have seen some rejuvenation, but... that's 20,000 people. In a city of 630,000.
Sorry to offend your history lesson. But I didn’t feel the need to get into such grave detail. My point is still very accurate the riots triggered the urban sprawl and decline steady from there. Whatever! I will not engage in further debate about this with you. I’ve lived through it. Peace!
It's like when people talk about how dangerous of a city Gary, Indiana is.
Unfortunately it went the opposite way, and now instead of being dangerous it's just empty and sad. Fort Wayne and Indy have much higher rates of crime. Gary isn't even in the top 100 cities for crime anymore.
In 2024, Detroit had a poverty rate of 37.9%, which is the highest in the United States. The unemployment rate was 19.8%, which is more than five times the national average
I don't get where it got personal for you. Are you against Detroit? I don't get your "ermmm well it took until 2025" comment. Is it some sort of competition?
Nothing is personal on my end. I made a comment about feeling bad for a city that’s had a high poverty rate for the last 20 years or so. Then here you come with some snarky comment that didn’t need to be posted in the first place? Seems like you’re the one with something personal on this post. As I stated before, go read a book. It might do you some good. You also strike me as someone who needs to have the last word. So please, go ahead. You know you can’t resist.
It was just one part of the city and emergency officials did a great job of evacuating residents beforehand. There’s also many community organizations on the ground & distributing aid to displaced residents. More information about what kinds of donations are needed can be found here, for anyone interested.
To be real, Detroit really isn't that bad. There are some struggle areas, but it's nothing like what the media portrays it as. I work construction and have handled a number of infrastructure contracts with the city, and honestly, stuff like this is the kind of freak occurrence that could happen anywhere.
As for the social aspect, for the most part it's safe here. I've felt less safe in certain suburbs and other cities than I have in Detroit, even during the latest hours on the worst street.
But also, being from Detroit probably gives a person an edge in handling Detroit, and I might be somewhat desensitized.
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u/hurtme_plenty Feb 18 '25
What an absolute disaster. That poor neighborhood.