Detroit’s Black Population Drops
an article in the News reported that Detroit’s Black population has dropped by 10%… we’ve all heard about White Flight, but now it appears that the people who are leaving the city are leaving it because of it’s poor city services and basic lack of safety… now, i know that “they” say a good number of people fled Detroit because of racism (and i don’t necessarily contest that), but it’s plain to see that regardless of race or social status, people want to get their money’s worth and they want to be safe… they want good schools, city services that work and they don’t want to be used to the fact that crime will inevitably happen on their own street…
i remember when i first decided to move to the D, i was talking with a Black co-worker who lives in the city and she was like, “are you sure you wanna move down here?”… she basically told me that she has been waiting years to get out of the city and when she saves up enough money she will… i guess that kinda surprised me, but maybe it shouldn’t have… perhaps in the past there has been a loyalty to the city by it’s inhabitants, but that seems to be changing to some extent (as the article eludes to)…
i’ve voiced my thoughts before regarding whether or not i’ll stay in the city… don’t get me wrong, i love the city but i’m not about to ignore safety concerns nor can i afford to or am i willing to continue to give up hundreds of dollars a month for services i could easily find and not have to worry about elsewhere (and pay less for them)… on top of that, if i did stay, i’d have to fork over more cash for a bigger (and more over priced) place… i was talking with a fellow city resident once and he was bad-mouthing some of his old neighbors for leaving the city once they had kids… but i can’t fault anyone for wanting the best for their family… and truth is truth, Detroit isn’t exactly the best place to raise a family… which is why i think the decrease we see in the D’s population today (as a whole) is more indicative of people who aren’t willing to settle for the setbacks of the city itself, than it is of the racial tensions of it’s inhabitants…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t the population of the entire city dropped by 7%? In a city that is already ~80% African American, a 10% decrease accounts mostly for the overall population decrease and the displacement by other minority populations (such as Chaldeans on the North side and Arabs in the Southwest).
Living in Detroit is no easy task and I can’t imagine trying to raise a family in a city with woefully inadequate public schools, a high (but fairly level) crime rate, high taxes, laregly inadequate public services (try calling 911), and a political situation that is a disaster.
For about 90% of the city, things are going to get a lot worse before they start to get better. The other 10% (Downtown + midtown + certain neighborhoods) are starting to buck the trend and hopefully one day, may help subsidize the rebuilding of the rest of the city. Really, this will only happen once the *white and the black* middle class comes back.
Maybe next time we (re)build Detroit, we can do it the right way and not make the same mistakes that we’ve made the past 100 years. However, this isn’t going to happen anytime soon, unfortunately.
it is that little 10% that keeps us hoping and for what it’s worth, i really love that 10%… everything’s a gamble right now with the city…