On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:11 PM, Robert Eickmann <[email protected]> wrote: > And to address Anders thought that you can build a community in > detroit if you buy enough of the land.... it won't work. To actually > form a community and not just have a bunch of young people without > children (because the second you even suggest to a mother about > putting their young child into the Detroit public school system, they > will rip you to pieces). I could tell you some serious horror stories > about Michigan schools...
Rob is generally right, but as someone who has lived in inner-city Cleveland for a few years, I'd like to offer a slightly less "doom and gloom" perspective. The history of the neighborhood that I lived in (Tremont) went something like this: 1) Infrastructure of inner-city Cleveland crumbled, land values plummeted 2) Artist types looking for cheap housing started moving into the area (1980's) 3) Art galleries began to open in the area, followed by restaurants (late 80's / early 90's) 4) Tremont is labeled "the next hip neighborhood", and more urban professionals start moving in and raising house values (though the neighborhood still struggled with crime, poverty, poor schools, etc.) (1990's) What Anders is talking about is basically gentrification, and it does happen, though it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, and (to come back to Rob's point), a *strong* community. Not just a bunch of idealistic 20-something's moving into a neighborhood (which will meet resistance no matter how pure their motives). -- Justin Martenstein [email protected] http://www.twitter.com/jmartenstein http://www.meetatthepig.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Website: http://saturdayhouse.org/ Post: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
