Detroit, MI

This is Detroit. It is a decrepit, gloomy, abandoned city built on unrealized American dreams. The Motor city, once a symbol of the might of American manufacturing and power, is now a crumbling relic. With the sharp decline of the automotive industry and poor governing, the city experienced extreme white flight, joblessness, and population decrease. From 2001 to 2010 the city lost 25% of its population, the largest decline of any large U.S. city ever. And that's just people with the financial means escaping, leaving the city even poorer. Unemployment in 2010 was 19%, a 1/3 of the population is below the federal poverty line, although the suburbs are some of the most affluent in the country. Detroit Public schools are 327 million dollars in debt.

What can you do with a dying city? A collapse ?

A story to sum it up: When we were driving from downtown Detroit( the nice part with Tiger Stadium and Hard Rock Cafe Detroit) to where we were staying, we stopped by a CVS for some stuff. The CVS had an armed security guard. I should've been tipped off by that to leave quickly. But I was hungry. So i left the van full of people I was with and a girl I was with buying milk in CVS, and ran across the street to get food at Happy's Pizza. I ordered through bullet proof glass and waited. and waited. Meanwhile a cracked out lady came. She had no shoes, and half a Newport, and was looking for a lighter. She then came in and started fondling this gay kid who was sitting in Happy's, she asked him "How you doing?"

While all this was going on, I saw our van cruise in to the parking lot. Which I though was a bad sign. I went out and learned that someone was trying to rob from the CVS and cops were coming so they left. And there was also a drug deal going on behind Happy's. And on the drive back we saw prostitutes. And the corn beef sandwich I got from Happy's was awful.

But, Detroit is the only major city where you see Canada by looking to the South, not North. That has to count for something.

Where the Tigers play.

A rare sight in parts of Detroit. Sometimes they just can't afford enough cops.

Another funny thing about Detroit was that most people didn't use cross walks. They would just walk across these huge streets. Streets with up to 4 lanes on either side built for all the vanished cars of America's motor city.

Detroit hates hipsters.