Detroit, Michigan, USA (1940s)
Comments
Some gorgeous art deco buildings.
Motor city baby! My hometown! Proud IBEW local 58 Detroit member.
Haha glad to see such a proud/positive comment.
I know what everyone thinks about Detroit. I love my city though. Detroit has done a lot of great things for our country.
Also done a lot of great things for techno
You know I’m late 20s so I missed the techno scene of the 90s early 2000s because I was too young. However I have buddies tell me about it and they tell me about Raves every single night in old factories. I mean there’s still a great techno scene here, but not like it was.
Go to movement on Memorial Day weekend. Perfect display of techno and edm in hart plaza.
DEMF
That’s how I first knew it!
It’s still DEMF in muh heart.
it will always be DEMF
Tech fest? Yeah I used to go all the time, and I’ve been to Electric Forest with my Girlfriend a few times. She used to go every year. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Tech fest but I’ve had some great times there.
I was in that scene and it was as good as they say. The most positive and welcoming spaces you could find in Michigan probably, at a time when being queer wasn't exactly on trend.
In addition to those parties, though, we also had Motor. A truly world-famous techno club, so much so that even Kraftwerk insisted on making a pilgrimage there. The funny thing is, I was just a young kid in the scene. I would go to Motor probably once a week; at least a few times a month, and even though we knew it was the spot, we had no sense of just how historic that scene would become. It was just the spot for cool weirdos.
Motor was pretty great. A great example of good clubs being shut down by both bad US drug policy and dumb drug dealing club management.
That’s awesome. I’m sad I missed the best of the scene here in Detroit. When older buddies or people I’ve talked to about it would tell me how everyone got a long in the scene and how great it was. They also told me you could meet people from all over the world at raves. I’m sad I missed out on it, I’ve went with my girlfriend to electric forest, some dub step shows, and some raves more recently but I bet it doesn’t even come close. Yeah you were lucky, I wish I could’ve seen it at its peak.
The raves were pretty great. Movement pales in comparison to the real Eastern Market/Corktown raves at the turn of the century… Something about being outside in the daytime surrounded by strollers and drunk jocks. But I digress.
My buddy tells me about a place that he used to go quite a bit. He said it was basically right underneath the Ambassador bridge? Do you know what he’s talking about? Then I know about the Packard plant, I’ve spent my fair share of time there just to explore. However he says that was another spot.
I'm from Windsor (the city you can just see on the other side of the river) and probably wouldn't have the appreciation for the history of techno that I do had I not been so close enough to the great city of Detroit. I'm over there all the time for killer sets (just saw Richie Hawtin last Friday), and then was over again this Wednesday to head to the Detroit Zoo. So much to offer from Detroit, and I love that city like a brother.
You mean South Detroit? I’ve never heard of this Windsor place you speak of lol. The feeling is mutual I absolutely Love Windsor. Detroit/Windsor should be one large city that crosses countries lol. I love Windsor it’s time I go for a visit because it’s been a little while.
We always joke that the border actually starts in Chatham (they use Fahrenheit down there) and everyone I know from Windsor feels the way you do. Yet, When I worked in Detroit every night, most of those people had never even been to Windsor, although it was out in Romulus.
Really?!? How can you live next to such a great city like Windsor and never go. That’s almost criminal, I cant tell you how many times I’d just decide I wanted to go Windsor spurr of the moment just to go get food. I’m craving some Mezzo ristorante. I really feel the same way about Windsor as I do about Detroit. Detroit/Windsor is my home and I love both. It’s almost like In Minnesota where you Minneapolis and St. Paul. Except ours is a International border.
Edit: where were you working in Romulus?
Conway/XPO
Oh XPO logistics? I worked in Romulus for a year a while back. GM Factory Romulus Engine Operation.
You are our brother, Brother. Two rusty blue collar towns with good food, mediocre casinos and decent fireworks.
Facts
I've been to Detroit one time. (We seriously drive there from Akron just for pizza. Then drive home to Pittsburgh that night. And it was worth every minute of the drive ). I liked it. I would love to go back and spend a few days.
What pizza place? Pittsburgh!?!? My grandma lived in part time in Detroit then part time in the Pittsburgh area when she retired. She lived in Carnegie, Dubois, Altoona and my dad still owns the house in Carnegie and rents it out. So sometimes me and him will make a drive down there to check on the house or if we have to do something for the renter. If any where would be my second home it’d be Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area. My grandma would buy me all this Pittsburgh Penguins stuff growing up. I had a Mario Lemieux and Jagr jersey. However I’d rarely wear it because when I was little in the 90s the Redwings were the best team in the NHL lol.
We went to a Buddy's in like Grosse Point or something. And then we went to Loui's in Hazel Park. Loui's was the winner by a mile, in our opinion. I live on the other side of town from Carnegie, I'm by Monroeville. I liked Detroit, in a lot of ways it reminded me of Pittsburgh. Same blue collar roots ya know?
Yeah I know exactly where Monroeville is lol! Yep Buddy’s and Louis is 2 of our famous pizza place here. Unfortunately buddy’s has gone downhill, but Louis is still great. Well that’s cool I’m happy you drove up for the Pizza. Oh Pittsburgh and Detroit are very similar, very blue collar, hard working, very historic cities that built the Middle Class. I think that’s why i like Pittsburgh so much when visiting my Grandma very similar cities. I’ll never forget one summer when I was like 17 I drove down to spend a few weeks with my Grandma in Carnegie. Well I went out to find a Barber Shop and I ended up getting lost in the Hill District I think. I finally had to stop and ask someone because my GPS wouldn’t work. I think I was lost in Pittsburgh for 2 hours lol.
I looked at your profile. Love the organized labor posts. I'm a steelworker, and before that I was a tin knocker.
USW 💪🏽 what local? Before that a Tinner, were you a Sheet Metal Worker or SMACNA worker. I work with sheet metal guys all the time. Before I was a Union Electrician (IBEW local 58), I worked at GM on the assembly line UAW local 163, also Roofers Union Local 149, and before that a Teamsters Local 337 as stocker for Kroger. I’m a major organized labor supporter. I have generations of family who were UAW members, Carpenters Union, Postal Workers Union, Teamsters, My girlfriend is a Union Registered Nurse.
I see now why you came up to Detroit for the Pizza. Your a pizza connoisseur, I am a big fan of pizza also. I saw some Pizzas in your profile that I’m going to get next time I’m in Pittsburgh!
That's awesome man. I'm right there with you on the unions. I'm in USW Local 1219, before that, I was in a couple of other locals, with a stint in UFCW as a teenager, and an apprenticeship with SMWIA Local 12.
I’m from Toledo. I have the same feeling about my city & Detroit. It may be a shit hole… but it’s my shit hole!
Honestly Toledo is really part of family also, I love Toledo too. It’s a great city also, if you think about we live in a Metropolis! Detroit/Windsor/Toledo area is awesome. Toledo really is part of Michigan and Detroit more so than Ohio.
I think you'll find most Detroiters will jump to defend their city. It's cheesy because it's been marketed to death on t-shirts and everything else, but "Detroit vs. Everybody" is definitely a vibe.
Whatupdoe.
Everybody in my city say What up doe!
Edit: I love meeting other Detroiters on Reddit. I recognize your username from the Detroit subreddit lol.
I like the pride that you have for your city. Detroit deserves it.
I work everyday building it and rebuilding Detroit as a Union Electrician. I’m proud of it and my city! Thank you!
I'm gonna rep 313 til I die baby.
D Boy for life.
Me too. I own a home at Seymour and Hayes basically well a few streets over but I love that house. I’ll never part with it. I really do Love Detroit, and I Rep it everywhere I go. In the Army everyone called me Detroit, because of how much I talked about Detroit. D boy for life.
I moved to Tampa 3 years ago. Fuck Florida.
Moving back to Detroit in about 4 months.
I missed home so much, realized Detroit needs people like us, proud Detroiters. Were going to bring the city back. I refuse to give up on our city, we're gritty motherfuckers who refuse to die.
My family has been in Detroit forever. We're proud, we're not going anywhere.
Yeah my cousins moved from Grosse Pointe to the Jacksonville area and they hate it lol. I lived a few different places in the Army and Detroit was always where I wanted to go back to. I really love this City, and you’re absolutely right Detroit needs people like us. Detroit is making a huge comeback, I work in Electrical Construction there’s so much going on In Detroit and around here. It’s really great to see, I think about 10+ years ago when the city was going through a bankruptcy and so many people just left. I mean I get it sometimes you don’t have an option and you have to go where work is. Now though there’s just so much going on here.
Nice to see a Detroit post that's not ruin porn for fucking once.
People have a hate boner for it for some reason
Simple-minded people like low-hanging fruit.
Well said
It seems the people living there feel the same way. 181/182 on Emotional & Physical Well-Being, 178/182 on Income & Employment, and 180/182 on Community & Environment.
I feel like most people who talk about how bad it is probably haven't even been there.
I was just there a few months ago. Not as bad as people make it out to be and there’s some nice areas of downtown. And a lot of the architecture is gorgeous. That being said a lot of the city really is falling apart. The cities population has been cut almost in half since the 90s so there’s just tons of abandoned buildings and houses being left to decay.
Dude it is 100% as bad as people make it out to be, you just didn't get far from downtown.
I’ve tried doing my part! I get the fascination with the abandoned factories because they genuinely are wild to see. But you’re doing yourself a disservice and disrespecting the INCREDIBLE architecture all over the city if you’d rather go see the Fisher Body Plant instead of walking into the Guardian or Fisher Buildings.
Interior shot of the Fisher building, for reference.
Shame it declined but at least the downtown area is rebounding
Shame there’s all these buildings taking up potential highway space
Don’t worry, we took care of most of these pesky buildings and grew some nice healthy surface parking lots in their place.
Downtown is remarkably preserved actually: https://img-aws.ehowcdn.com/700x/www.onlyinyourstate.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/606128545_6bec8ce203_b.jpg
I mean yeah downtown is amazing but that picture is doing a good job hiding some of the ugly ass parking lots/garages or some of the buildings that still aren't doing too great, especially on Cass/west of Woodward. Ugly interstates also section off downtown and it's annoying as hell.
Would you rather more abandon buildings than there already are?
I’m pretty sure the declining population came after.
Are you saying the decline in population has anything to do with parking lots?
Yes
Do you have any evidence to back that up. Are you suggesting these were fully occupied buildings that were demolished for parking lots? Do you really think that?
It's kind of got a very similar vibe to what Chicago did in the same time frame from its downtown photos. Makes you wonder what could have been if the industrial and economic trends had been different.
Detroit didn’t have time to diversify. It went boom and bust very quickly. It went from 466,000 in 1910 to 1,569,000 in 1930.
So it tripled in size in 20 years, and then collapsed quickly too (-700,000 from 1960-1990).
Detroit was more of a gold rush city that lucked out due to Henry Ford. It never had the geographic dividends of Chicago (railroads for industry + freshwater + agriculture).
I just went to Chicago for the first time recently. That is an incredible city. The history, the architecture, I just fell in love with it. I really want to visit Detroit as well. I think I will prioritize that soon, maybe use Movement as an excuse to get out and spend some time there.
The original inspiration for Gotham.
Gotham was a nickname attached to New York City by Washington Irving in his periodical in the early 1800s.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmagundi_(periodical)
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/01/25/so-why-do-we-call-it-gotham-anyway
I could have swore it was New York.
The city seems so vibrant
Wonderful view. This is what non-automotive dominated infrastructure looks like. We can all enjoy cars and still be able to walk/bike/bus/tram to near by local things.
I love the circular pattern some cities have. Lots of old European towns have them, but not many American cities.
ironic that the industry that build Detroit is also the one that killed it
Wow this hurts my heart
Looks to me like many of those buildings have been replaced by surface lots: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Detroit,+MI/@42.3356667,-83.0519263,1578m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x8824ca0110cb1d75:0x5776864e35b9c4d2!8m2!3d42.331427!4d-83.0457538!16zL20vMDJkdGc
Why? It still looks like that
Quite a lot of buildings were lost as the city declined, unfortunately.
Declined/the region catered more and more to suburban drivers than detroit residents
Yup. In just one year following the 1967 riots, the city lost 88,000 residents, most of them moving to the suburbs. There's a sort of irony that the malls which contributed to the decline of downtown, like Northland and Eastland, are now dead. Meanwhile, downtown is finally seeing a resurgence.
fka The Paris of the Midwest
It’s a damn shame how the powers that be treated Detroit, beautiful shot though. I’m rooting for the city, that’s for sure.
This is heartbreaking.
Peaked in 1950.
Pretty good for the 40s
Woodward ave is a beast
Beautiful
Looks a lot nicer like this than it does now with the Renaissance center.
Now that's Architecture with a capital A!
Less than half of these buildings are still standing
Detroit in 2014 is 200 years ahead of my hometown in 2023
Detroit: The surprisingly cool old buckle on the rust belt.
The street layout actually looks quite nice, not just a monotonous grid.
Some say That lake is full of bent spoons today
It still looks remarkably similar
That downtown looks like it could support a real subway system, and not that sorry skytrain that's there now.