While long-term resident’s fears of gentrification grow, tensions continue to bloom. In recent years, we have seen massive amounts of construction in Detroit’s downtown and midtown areas. The newest addition to the downtown Detroit area being the Little Caesar’s Arena; right down the street from Cass Technical High School . So, what does this mean for those of us who have lived here for years? As parts of Detroit are transforming, more people are moving in and housing prices are increasing. However, our employment and economy are not growing at the same rate. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Detroit’s unemployment rate is 8.4% as of April of 2017, only down .9% from 2016. Meanwhile the median house value is priced at $45,600 and has gone up by 26.7% in the last year, according to Zillow, an online real estate database company. These are factors that begin displacement – long time citizens can no longer afford the increase in housing prices and are forced to move out. At the same time, many neighborhoods in the city of Detroit aren’t getting the same improvements as Downtown. These neighborhoods face extremely harsh conditions and face obvious unequal treatment compared to others.
In December of 2011, M-1 Rail announced plans for a streetcar that connected the People Mover to The Amtrak station in New Center. On July 28, 2014 construction officially began on the M-1 rail -and in March of 2016 it was renamed the QLine by Quicken Loans. In total, the QLine cost almost $150 million. While new transportation is always beneficial, many residents feel the money would have been better suited to improve our bus system. Many riders complain about efficiency, bus routes, the pollution caused by these outdated buses, and even cleanliness, with many buses having insects such as roaches and even bed bugs on board.
Many low income, minority areas are still in poverty with no sign of improvement. Some residential blocks only contain a few occupied houses, with the majority being abandoned and stripped of its valuable assets. Weeds and grass on vacant lots grow with little to no upkeep from the city. These areas aren’t just unattractive, but they are also a breeding ground for criminal activity. Vacant buildings attract large amounts of crime; including arson, kidnapping, murder and rape.
Among the abandoned buildings all over the city, many of them are burned down. However, because these incidents occur mostly in impoverished, low income areas, the city has little concern and often leave debris and no justice is brought about. Overgrown lots and empty houses also pose a huge risk to kidnappings. Kidnappers can easily hide in the tall grasses of a vacant lot, or an empty house, making it extremely easy for them to pick out their next target. With an alarming growth in human trafficking right here in the city, and little effort being put into finding missing persons, this strikes fear in those who must walk to and from their destinations each day. These neighborhoods are also prone to homicide. There have been incidents where bodies have been dumped and found in empty buildings with no leads on where to look for the guilty party.
With these things happening right in our city, it’s extremely disheartening to see no improvement on these matters while downtown and middle class areas receive major upgrades. There is an apparent difference in how areas with differing socioeconomic status are treated in our city. Many people are standing up for the residents of Detroit, but their cries are left unheard.
