Dangerous!

We here in Michigan are the lucky winners of the honor bestowed upon us. Detroit beat out St. Louis to become.... "The Nation's Most Dangerous City". I could have told you that. The main things that come to mind when I think about Detroit are corruption (the current mayor), dereliction, dying, and depressing.

Here's an exerpt from www.abcnews.com

"with at least 75,000 people based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said. Last year's crime leader, St. Louis, fell to No. 2. Another Michigan city, Flint, ranked third.

Detroit was pegged the nation's murder capital in the 1980s and has lost nearly 1 million people since 1950, according to the Census Bureau."

Although people not from the Metro Area consider us to be living in Detroit, we actually live quite a long distance from the actual city - around 30 miles. We also don't go into the city very often. It's a hassle. The traffic, the parking, the beggars, the risk of violent crime. Seriously, that is a reason. You don't feel that safe down there unless you are in a very small, highly policed area of Cobo Hall, Joe Louis Area, Tiger Stadium (the new one) and Greektown.

You visit places like Chicago, or Toronto, or London and people live there. They walk around, they shop there. Those cities are vibrant and alive for the most part. There really are no large stores in the city, few pharmacies, and even fewer supermarkets. That stinks for people in the city that have to go elsewhere to shop. Many of them don't have decent transportation. In Detroit there are so many abandoned and vacant buildings you are unsure which is an actual operating building until you are there at night and the lights aren't on. When most Americans hear about Detroit they think about race riots, Devil's Night fires, housing projects, and shootings. I grew up reading the Detroit newspapers and we never ever even considered going to the city for anything. Ever.

I was there three times last year, which is more than usual. Our usual annual pilgrimage is to the Auto Show at Cobo Hall. The organizers have talked about moving it out, but I shudder to think of what would happen. Since I also live in the same county as the city, I was called for jury duty, which I went downtown for. We also went downtown for a Red Wings Game. Thus, I'm done for the year!

I also used to live in Flint when I did my clinicals which to be completely honest, I feel is much, much worse than Detroit. Detroit at least has a good pockets and people do live there. There are open business and the city has history and some attractions. Flint's entire North End should be bulldozed. It is full of rubbish piles, burnt out houses, decrepit houses, and uban blight and decay. It is just all so depressing.