No after school activities cause once the bus left the school, there was no way to get home unless your parents had 2 cars so a parent could pick you up and sometimes with traffic, the ride could take 45 min. to an hour. Back in those days very few people owned 2 cars....most women stayed home to raise the family....by the 70's women went to work usually just to make enough money to pay all the taxes....
The High Schools were all ready integrated...grades 1-6 was within walking distance from your home, grades 7-9 covered a larger area and variety of students...I went to pershing high school, took a regular bus with a discount card as a student, the ROTC when I was in high school actually brought their guns to school one day a week for practice.
Hard to believe that Detroit at one time was the biggest “middle class” city in the US - bigger than NY, Chicago, LA, Philadelphia, etc. The middle class simply got laid off/left. This is what remains. You don’t hear “hollowed out” in business speak much anymore, but Detroit is basically a “hollowed out” city.
“hate to inform you all but the biggest role in Detroit’s downhill slide was forced busing and no one except me ever mentions it”
That “Socialist/Marxist/Demorat Program” did damage throughout the country. And now we get to see the “final solution” in places like Detroit, Washington DC, you pick the city. People with the economic ability to move away from this crap did as fast as they could as you pointed out. The idea that you could force people of different ethnic and more importantly economic circumstances to “integrate” in this fashion was a loony idea from the get-go. It dragged everyone down to the lowest common denominator. The bums won, but it looks like they got the booby prize.
I can still remember going to visit my grandma in the city... riding the busses to the stores, walking to the corner for ice cream ( that was so long ago that baskin robbins only had 1 flavor :)).....
So sad to see the deterioration....
I guess we can give a big thank you to soulman young...
“hate to inform you all but the biggest role in Detroits downhill slide was forced busing and no one except me ever mentions it...”
Forced busing happened in other cities and the down hill slide was no where near as precipitous. So, it may have contributed, but I don’t think it was the biggest factor. Just a factor.
The state and city should declare a tax free industrial zone in some of the run down area. Give a specific time line so that manufacturers know when the tax free status ends. See if it encourages some return of manufacturing.