Requiem for Detroit

[KarthVader]

I missed this gem but I'm glad it is on YouTube. For anyone that has lived, currently lives in or curious about the City of Champions, this is worth a viewing.

http://www.americanbackroom.com/2010/05/bbc-documentary-requiem-for-detroit/

 

[82R100]

No deep new insights. Nothing I haven't seen before. It was interesting seeing a couple of people in the flesh whom I'd only read about before (Tyree Guyton, Lowell Boileau). A lot of cherry picking with not much of the recent past, aside from the scourge of crack cocaine.

I think they worked a little too hard with the dramatic "projecting apocalyptic images/messages on the side of a building" meme though. Oh, and how come everyone drives convertibles now?

- Chris

 

[garyg]

No deep new insights. Nothing I haven't seen before. It was interesting seeing a couple of people in the flesh whom I'd only read about before (Tyree Guyton, Lowell Boileau). A lot of cherry picking with not much of the recent past, aside from the scourge of crack cocaine.

I think they worked a little too hard with the dramatic "projecting apocalyptic images/messages on the side of a building" meme though. Oh, and how come everyone drives convertibles now?

- Chris

+1
Surely, it was a disturbing set of videos, but not remotely an original or new perspective. Nor is it a great art to film a trainwreck and a couple witnesses, although a couple of the interviews were insightful.

Why did the BBC need to send camera operators (reporters is too dignified) all this way to mimic the same theme that has been shown before, and before, and before that?

 

[KarthVader]

I'm youngish (24) and I never really realized the gravity of the events that led to Detroit's rise and eventual "fall". I still have faith in the city and would love to see it come back to its former glory.

I do agree that it was heavy handed in the negatives.

 

[toucanlamp]

Well, if its a British production team in the US you know that the angle of the documentary is going to be "Woah look how F'd up the United States is!!!" Because, of course not everyone, but many, many Europeans just eat that up.

Like the ones where they send this whiny reporter and find the most extreme racist, right wing, gun toting nutcase to spend a week with and they probably show it as this being your average American lol.

I find it very interesting though. I'm Canadian and I remember once being in Windsor with my dad and we went to Detroit one evening to a baseball game and I was really blown away by the sight of so much decayed infrastructure and just broken down abandoned buildings and whatnot. Because, and I don't know what exactly the specific difference is, that doesn't really exist in Canada. You might see the odd really old abandoned building in a big city's downtown, or something in the country, but certainly never whole neighbourhoods of houses that look ready to be condemned. A poor high crime Canadian neighbourhood is just lots of cheap high rise apartments.

It was quite cool though in an eerie sort of way travelling through places almost like a ghost town.

It's not just Detroit though, I remember driving through Tampa, Florida and seeing the same kind of thing.

I think that would be super cool to go and just walk around that huge abandoned Packard Plant, probably terribly dangerous though, I'd think it would be a big hideout for drug addicts and criminals.

 

[82R100]

Well, if its a British production team in the US you know that the angle of the documentary is going to be "Woah look how F'd up the United States is!!!" Because, of course not everyone, but many, many Europeans just eat that up.

Detroit has been a big draw the last couple of years for the international journalists because it really is F'd up, as you put it. I was surprised that they didn't spend more footage on Michigan Central Terminal. That's an obligatory visit along with the Packard complex. With respect to Detroit's recent attraction for the journalists, I guess they figure with all the bad car industry news that it'll suddenly be really bad. The ironic thing is that Detroit's decline has been far, far longer in the making than you'd guess by looking at the industry. It's not as if the city was full of factory workers three years ago. They always refer to the industry as "Detroit" but this really isn't where most of the cars get put together anymore.

The big deal now is simply that the cities in this area are going broke in the same way that those around the country are lately, but with much worse fundamentals to begin with. Thanks to a few philanthropists and businesspeople there are still attractions and bright spots to visit in the city. Remarkably enough, the film industry's been spending a bit of time and money locally. But a lot needs to be done and it's not clear where the will and leadership (and money) will come from to get things done.

- Chris

 

[garyg]

I figure the BBS hacks just wanted to get to the US so as to make a side trip to Disneyworld. Or defect, or on a mission from the gentry to show their slum dwellers that things could be worse ..

Yes, we are screwed up, but hardly need some camera operators from that shining example of civilization to take some videos of it ..

 

[Sal]

Well, if its a British production team in the US you know that the angle of the documentary is going to be "Woah look how F'd up the United States is!!!" Because, of course not everyone, but many, many Europeans just eat that up.

I have lived outside the US in 4 different countries, I found it absolutely amazing at how there is an incredible bias against the US in all forms of media. Every news piece or article about the US seemed to have been done by Michael Moore.

 

[shave_apprentice]

I'mw ith ya Sal. I've lived and worked in a few other countries and the bias is crazy. I don't remember anyone that had low feelings for the U.S. that actually came and spent time here. I think some other countries can be interesting and beautiful, but nothing comes close to home. We may have some run down areas, but we have more beautiful places than any other country. That's an amazing fact given out population. The higher a places population, the harder it can be to keep things looking nice and in working condition.

 

[colacowboy]

That's an interesting series. For the most part it is all true. I think things are changing for the better, but the population is low as well as the tax base. the current leaders are doing a good job in making the hard decisions that have been ignored for so long. Give it another 20 years.

 

[toucanlamp]

I think it's just that for people from just about any other developed country, the vast disparity in wealth within very small areas is extremely foreign.

I've travelled around the US to places in California, New York, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, and the way you can go from being in a very nice upper middle class neighbourhood and drive 2 minutes down the road and enter a run down poverty stricken area where the houses look like they're about to fall down is something you aren't used to.

That's the thing that struck me most, I remember when I was 14 or 15 when we went to Orlando and one day we drove to Tampa Bay and I remember seeing this big neighbourhood off the highway where just about every single house seemed to be boarded up, broken heaps of cars sitting on empty overgrown lots, and then 5 minutes later you're amongst super expensive luxury condos.

It's a very complicated issue, but yeah that it is a great source of pride for lots of people to gloat about how messed up this or that is in the US.

But it goes both ways too, you could probably write down an almost endless list of American media personalities who make their living bashing the rest of the world.

You find people everywhere who get their kicks in life out of being up on their high horse and looking down on something or someone else.

 

[Seraphim]

I figure the BBS hacks just wanted to get to the US so as to make a side trip to Disneyworld. Or defect, or on a mission from the gentry to show their slum dwellers that things could be worse ..

Yes, we are screwed up, but hardly need some camera operators from that shining example of civilization to take some videos of it ..

Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud....we have a slip in aisle 3....




I assume you meant the BBC....?

 

[Seraphim]

It may be that the foreigners are looking down their noses at the US in general, but perhaps not.

You have to admit, the fact that there is a major metropolitan city in the US, that was a bustling hub in the not too distant past, that has that much abondoned infrastructure to be in itself rather bizzarre.

Perhaps they aren't saying "look at how messed up the US is", but simply "look how messed up Detroit is". Which I don't think anyone can argue with.

Sure, lots of negativity in that video... How would you spin it to show all that desolation in an uplifting, positive light?

 

[garyg]

Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud....we have a slip in aisle 3....




I assume you meant the BBC....?

Must have been the B&B Spell checker ..

 

[shave_apprentice]

Alas, the fate of a city built on Unions...

 

[82R100]

Sure, lots of negativity in that video... How would you spin it to show all that desolation in an uplifting, positive light?

Simple. Include a few minutes with the current mayor.

- Chris

 

[spinyeel]

The messages of hope near the end were inspirational. Kudo's to those people.

 

[Seraphim]

Motto: "Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus"
(Latin for, "We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes")


Prophetic, or what?