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Yeah, that's how it is in large sections of Detroit. I used to live in Ann Arbor and had to go to Detroit for various things. You quickly learn to plan your journey for safety.
What I remember most was how young black men would stand in the middle of the road to block white people's cars and make them go around in a not-so-passive aggressive display. Oh yes, the fires in the road. Saw that too. My brother-in-law's advice was "If you look really crazy, they won't fuck with you. So look crazy."
The Lebanese seem to own all the shops and gas stations. But then, coming from a war zone during their civil war, they were very familiar with weapons and security. Interestingly, they tend to own the businesses in west Africa as well: http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2011/05/lebanese_west_africa
And people wonder why houses in Detroit are so cheap, lol.
This is what deindustrialization looks like
Those videos are just trailers for the latest Fallout 4 DLC.
There are lots of empty houses and lots of homeless people in Detroit. How fucked up is our economic system that these two problems are not mutually exclusive?
Why don't the homeless claim the empty houses, fix them up with their own labor, and plant crops in all the empty fields surrounding these houses? Grow trees for firewood and timber. Grow your own food. Get a few solar panels and your cost of living is essentially $0 + your own labor.
In Baltimore the before pictures would be of factories and after pictures are an Amazon distribution center and a shopping center.
If you look really crazy, they won't fuck with you. So look crazy.
I remember getting that similar advice when driving through Compton as a young man. Wasn't as bad as Detroit though.
Thanks for sharing Patrick
"If you look really crazy, they won't fuck with you. So look crazy."
Patnetters can go anywhere in the world with no fear because they have perfected crazy.
Why don't the homeless claim the empty houses, fix them up with their own labor, and plant crops in all the empty fields surrounding these houses? Grow trees for firewood and timber. Grow your own food. Get a few solar panels and your cost of living is essentially $0 + your own labor.
@Dan8267 There is a reason: lack of security. Anything that anyone creates or improves will be stolen.
Then the best solution is for the city to dissolve and all the land to be reclaimed by nature. The solution is for the remaining population to die out or leave.
Why don't the homeless claim the empty houses, fix them up with their own labor, and plant crops in all the empty fields surrounding these houses? Grow trees for firewood and timber. Grow your own food. Get a few solar panels and your cost of living is essentially $0 + your own labor.
Because they are lazy.
Lived in New Brunswick, NJ. Not even close to Detroit bad. They used to steal my potted plants all the time (mostly herbs). Then I planted them in the ground and someone cut them with some scissors and made off with them.
Because they are lazy.
Because they are lazy.
Darn it, that's what I was going to say. Well, I was at least going to say "but that would be work".
Why don't the homeless claim the empty houses, fix them up with their own labor, and plant crops in all the empty fields surrounding these houses? Grow trees for firewood and timber. Grow your own food. Get a few solar panels and your cost of living is essentially $0 + your own labor.
Because they are lazy.
They are several cards short of a full deck, that's all. Homelessness is not caused by shortage of housing - it's a mental health issue.
Homelessness is not caused by shortage of housing - it's a mental health issue.
You can thank JFK for this turn of events when he signed his last piece of legislation on 10/31/63, the Community Mental Health Act in an effort to do penance for the lobotomy his father had performed on his mentally ill next younger sister Rosemary in 1941. It took the running of mental hospitals out of the hands of the states and turned it over to the federal government and we know how that always works out. It's ironic the word "Community" is in the name because community control has nothing to do with it. There were "snake pits" and "bedlams" for sure, but where were severely mentally ill people going to be better off, inside or outside of asylum, a place of protection by definition? There were supposed to be community centers for the mentally ill to reside in and receive treatment and medication, but that never happened except for a few poorly run halfway houses. The courts did their part in the 70's by ruling that a person can't be admitted for observation against their will. Over the next 50 years our cities filled up with the mentally ill homeless and today the police are by default their first encounter with authority. It's estimated that today over 10% of inmates are mentally ill when it was around 1% 50 years ago. The other ingredient that makes it even worse is the drug culture which came along in the late 60's and only exacerbates mental illness. Like the police have said over and over, they didn't sign up to be mental health experts, but apparently the desires of the larger public has placed that responsibility on them whether they wanted it or were prepared for it or not, for better or worse.
www.youtube.com/embed/-l0jycaLwXk
Uncensored version, with more Parts
www.youtube.com/embed/vMWHJDr8fxE
#detroit