Posted on 04/09/2013 1:59:31 PM PDT by robowombat
The Dead Zone: Detroit Becomes Urban Wasteland
By Chuck Holton CBN News Reporter Tuesday, April 09, 2013
DETROIT -- Welcome to Detroit, or what some call "The Dead Zone." It's an area of near-complete destruction many miles across, with no schools or hospitals and few public services.
Crime is the only growth industry, with murder being an everyday occurrence.
"No police, citizens are leaving because crime is very high," the Detroit Police Department's Sgt. John Bennett said. "Those who can leave, are able to leave, they are leaving. Course there are some who cannot leave."
Urban Wasteland
While there is plenty of disagreement on the cause, there's no question on the result. Many urban areas are becoming virtual wastelands.
In Detroit, the official unemployment rate is more than twice the national average, and some city officials say the true rate of joblessness is over 50 percent.
It's a vicious circle. The lack of jobs means loss of tax revenue. In Motor City, that has led to deep cuts in city services, including fire and police.
"We've lost in the police department a thousand officers that haven't been replaced in the last five to six years," said Sgt. Bennet, who has been a city cop for 16 years.
Those officers who remain say they can't protect the city, which now has the highest rate of violent crime in America.
"How do you keep a city safe that has no tax base, and the population is running out the back door, the front door, and the side door?" Bennett asked. "What do you do? How do you stem that tide? What do you do to stop the bleeding?"
Approximately a hundred yards inside the Detroit city limits are over a dozen homes that are either abandoned or burned out. Officials say there are over 45,000 homes in such condition, but the root cause may have less to do with the economic downturn and more to do with government corruption.
More government assistance hasn't helped. Several Detroit companies received bailout funds totaling nearly $100 billion, yet Detroit still has the highest rates of poverty and welfare dependency in the nation."
"I don't know how much longer I'm going to stay honestly. I don't know how much longer I can hang on," Bennett told CBN News.
"Up to this point it's been my commitment, my love of the city, my love of the community, this is my home," he said. "But as one of my co-workers said when she left, 'I love the city, but it didn't love me back.'"
Detroit Rescue Mission
Where the government has failed, private charities are stepping in. One of the largest, Detroit Rescue Mission, provides meals and shelter for thousands of homeless every day.
"The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries started as a soup kitchen," Rachael Williams, director of Volunteer Services at Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, told CBN News.
"Now we have progressed to being not only an emergency shelter, but also transitional housing, permanent housing, a treatment center for those suffering from drug and substance abuse and other mental health issues, as well as we have different programs that help to rebuild the city," she said.
Such programs are making a difference for people like Dwayne Tab, who now serves as the facilities supervisor at one of the mission's campuses.
"Ten years ago I came to the Detroit Rescue Mission. I was homeless. I was lost. I was drug addicted," Tab recalled.
"I went in the 90-day treatment, completed treatment, went into transitional housing, which is a two-year program," he continued. "I went to school. I got an associate's degree, continued and got a bachelor's degree, and I continued and got my masters. So I know the Detroit Rescue Mission saves lives!"
In so doing, the Detroit Rescue Mission is serving up more than food and shelter but something else they believe actually has the power to turn the tide in America's inner cities.
"Not only do we provide life skills to these individuals," Williams said. "But we also provide the Word of God, which is the crux of our mission."
Don't do that.
There is no intellectually or logically coherent disagreement about the cause.
Pretty much anywhere. I had a business trip to a suburb a couple years ago, and spent two full days driving around taking pictures. All around the Motown museum is what you're looking for, also around the old airport, the old bus depot, the old train station... pretty much any direction you go is absolutely a wasteland.
My photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23441454@N03/
Detroit is Bosnia without the city being walled up.
This is the result of liberals building their utopia the last 50 years there. Of course people are going to leave when the leaders ignore logic and sound governing. What the hell else can they do? They don’t have a duty to stay there when politicians continually over decades tell them “F you, shut up, and give us more of your money and take it”. the ones that wise up and can leave, leave.
That's exactly how I felt about leaving my home state of California.
There exists here an opportunity of astounding proportion and significance.
Many cities in the east had major areas of blight. When no one was looking, partnerships of lawyers, (mostly white, but a few minorities, mostly Korean) bought all the properties at ridiculous prices and without fan fare, rebuilt.
Private security and tax deals with the state made these set aside zones. Stores, nice houses, apartment complexes.
But no blight.
A wasteland is a perfect opportunity for a strong bunch of intelligent business people to move in and reclaim the land from the jungle.
With a little money and willful force, the “blight” can be moved to other places. Its done by converting the destruction into places that the blight can’t afford.
Great location for “The Walking Dead II: The Dead North ” version.
Detroilet.
Thanks for the pics...tragic.
Although, as I was looking at your pics, I was thinking about the fixtures (staircases, wainscoting, etc.) that’s there for the taking.
LOOK !!
Great location for “The Walking Dead II: The Dead North ” version.
read later
You have to go back almost two generations to realize it's happening and accelerated supersonically?
More than 30 years ago.
Why is this 'news?'
The article was published today.
What a stupid statement!
No police department anywhere can protect their city. Both the courts and the police departments have reminded us for decades.
All that they do is pretend to be looking for perpetrators and deliver them to the revolving door---
--- and collect the bodies of the victims after the fact and deliver them to the coroner.
What's the panic about?
It's been the new 'reality' for 40 years...
Les Gold seems to have a thriving business there.
I rode my motorbike on the back roads from Toledo to the Ambassador Bridge. It was like being in the world’s biggest ghost town.
Could you post some examples of these recused areas?
That’s been going in in my Toronto neighbourhood (Old Cabbagetown & Garden District) since the 1970s, and it has been accelerating over the past few years. The best thing going on right now is the government-run slums are being torn down; the city did a deal with some developers to redo it all.
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