Hey, it's winter time........ IRAQI HOCKEY PLAYER The Detroit Red Wings foreign scout flies to Baghdad to watch a young Iraqi play hockey in the new American sponsored league and is suitably impressed and arranges for him to come over to the US . Red Wings manager, Ken Holland, signs him to a one year contract and the kid joins the team for the pre-season. Two weeks later the Wings are down 4-0 to the Blackhawks with only 10 minutes left. Mike Babcock gives the young Iraqi the nod and he goes in. The kid is a sensation - scores 5 goals in 10 minutes and wins the game for Wings! The fans are delighted, the players and coaches are delighted and the media love the new star. When the player comes off the ice he phones his mom to tell her about his first day of NHL hockey. "Hello mom, guess what?" he says in an Iraqi accent. "I played for 10 minutes today, we were 4-0 down, but I scored 5 goals and we won. Everybody loves me, the fans, the media, they all love me." "Wonderful," says his mom, "Let me tell you about my day. Your father got shot in the street and robbed, your sister and I were ambushed, raped and beaten and your brother has joined a gang of looters, and all while you were having such great time." The young Iraqi is very upset. "What can I say mom, but I'm so sorry." "Sorry? You're Sorry?" says his mom, "It's your fault we moved to Detroit in the first place!"
Wow, I've been to Detroit several times, but never saw ANY of that! Whats with all the damn boats? Amazes me how a city will let a small percentage of the population do that much damageou: Even animals in a cage will go to the oppostie corner to take a dump, not in the food bowlou: ou: ou:
Tom: The only reason there seems to be so many boats is because scrap metal has been up in price and all the stolen cars are gone. Not much value in recycled fiberglass. It really is that bad in most areas and spreading out. They're even tearing down transformers to get the copper out of them.
Don't most major cities have downtrodden areas like Detroit does?I spend a lot of time in Detroit and it's painfully obvious that the city has major issues (the scumbag Mayor Kwame for starters.)But bashing it on a public forum especially when one is from the region just perpetuates stereotypes about Detroit and Southeastern Michigan as a whole..........
Yes, other cities do have the same problems in small localized areas, but also have predominantly nicer and safer places to live and raise a family. Detroit doesn't. Even the neighboring suburbs have now been drained and it's spreading even further all the time as the crime extends outward to "greener" pastures. You should live in this state,this isn't bashing, this is only a small glimpse of what social engineering has done to a once proud and successful city. Those of us that recall what it was (and not that long ago) particularly find it bad. Softening and downplaying that only perpetuates the cancer. Kwame isn't the only problem here, he's just the latest in a long line of the same thing that's been going on here for nearly 50 years. Sustaining the theories and practices only takes it deeper and spreads the base of those who have to support it. First it was Detroit, then Wayne County, then they passed laws to finance both of them by Oakland and Macomb, and Lansing has been the golden goose for years on this. The Lady Guv is in Washington D.C. right now trying to get more federal money to put through that failed system. She's been there for 7 years and still doesn't see the light that this isn't a federal problem. It's a one state recession now. Only now that there isn't enough to go around and sustain the welfare, and also fund the lifestyles of the supporters of this with tax dollars from the rest of the state. It's a deepening mess that's probably beyond helping. Good people have tried and been destroyed in the process. The only difference between New Orleans and Detroit is Detroit is above sea level and didn't get flooded out. If people could sell their homes there would be a mass exodus of retirees and firees like you've never seen or heard of. Hard to sell when there are no buyers. Other cities and states have faced the same problems, but have somehow found a way to pull out of it. Not going to happen here. No base to build on and the golden goose has run dry.
Tom, I was thinkin' the same thing about the boats ???? uzzled: Dave's right, real estate is at an all-time low right now. My house alone has de-preciated by $70,000 in the last 5 years. That's a big hit in the nuts. Everywhere you go there are FOR SALE signs up -- with no sales happening. They've also resorted to stealing man-hole covers and sewer grates for scrap money. :idea2: I remember going to neighborhoods like that back in the '80s answering ads for Mopar parts for sale. We went to some real dicey parts of town. We were young then -- didn't know any better. You see those stand-alone garages along the street in the video .... that's where we got some of our best parts. I betcha there is still some decent stuff that hasn't seen the light-of-day in 20+ years. I wouldn't go down there now though ... I'll leave it for them to find and scrap. :grin: Oh yea --- I like how the person doing the video can afford a digital camera, but doesn't have a lick of interior trim in the car .......
I used to go to the January swap meet at the Michigan State Fairgrounds which is right near the corner of 8 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. One year we needed to turn around and went down some of the side streets near the fairgrounds. Looked like cross between a slum area and a war zone. Over the years going to that swap we saw stolen and stripped cars burning along 8 Mile and still running and wrecked cars jammed between phone poles and abandoned. Even though I used to buy lots of rare and unusual stuff at that meet I quit going there after a vendor friend from Fort Wayne had his truck and trailer rig stolen out of the "secured" parking lot. uzzled:
You want to see some fun parts of the city, I drive threw Del Ray everyday going to and from work. In the city the cops don't stop at red lights, they don't even go to Del Ray.
My wife's mother grew up in DelRay. It used to be really nice, but very scary now. She and her sisters, all in their 90's, were still going down to that beautiful big church there for mass not that long ago. Talk about easy prey, 5 blue bubbleheads in a Cadillac. Amazing they never had a problem. Guess that church is either gone now or soon will be. Was beautiful inside. People that only visit Detroit, typically go from the airport to downtown. Our illustrious Lady Guv spent about 3 years' transportation budgets for the state buying up property redoing every expressway along the way (I-94) and cleaning up the surrounding areas you can see. Oh yeah, and two of the most F'ed up bridges over Telegraph road designed by someone from U of M and painted (what else?) blue, and incorporates giant football shapes in the superstructure. This was in preparation for the Super Bowl a few years back. Don't get off the beaten path by even a block, though. Kinda like John's story of the State fairgrounds area at Woodward and 8 mile. John: Nobody goes to that show anymore. It's a joke for the Chinese tool vendors. Too bad, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff that passed through that. We first heard about my 66 442 there one year when a guy just walked up and asked if anyone was interested in that car. We were selling a lot of Olds parts there along with about 4 coolers, a hibachi, and piles of parts we already bought from others.
let's take a ride in the 50's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQxrhiraoUg you tell me what happened.:blast: i grew up there. my family got chased out like everyone else.:af: oh, that's right. i forgot;ou: the freeways ruined it.o No:
Oh yea, I forgot .... wheel weights are another thing that are getting scarfed up in misc. parking lots throughout SE Michigan right now to help *pad* the scrappers. :dollar:
I grew up in Farmington and graduated from Wayne State Univ in 81. I moved to Houston because the Detroit job market was so tight (rust belt era). My freinds tell me it's worse now. In the 50's, Detroit had a population of nearly 2 million people and the highest per capita income in the country. The automobile was king. Now there's about 850,000 people and a once great city is in ruins. Check the link out below. It's a tour of the ruins. Pretty sad. http://detroityes.com/industry/index.html
