Dear Detroit,
I know it doesn't matter in the overall scheme of the worlds rotation but another bank owned house on my block has begun the "kick in the door and strip it bare of all metal" process. This one next door to me. Again, the other side this time.
I refuse to give up my paid for home to the thieves and punks who are imported by squatters and low rent sons of bitches who have swarmed NE Detroit for a couple of years now. But I also feel trapped in not being able to leave my house unattended for more than an hour. Knowing that Detroit Police Department is so small they can only react to a situation already finished, and that reaction, my experience tells me, in the past 30 years has never been less than 4 hours; if at all. Report your losses over the phone, report threats over the phone, report every god damn thing over the phone. The printed report will be ready in 5 business days.
I am tired of not knowing what I am hanging on to, a debt free life? What good is that, if you always have to be on post guarding the wire? I have never been afraid of this city, and refuse to be intimidated by them whose only job is robbery to get money for dope. Two nights ago a pizza delivery driver brought 3 pies to the house now being stripped, they took the pies from him and slammed the door. I hope that driver only had to pay a wholesale price to make up for his boss' loss. I doubt anyone on this street will ever get delivery from a small business again.
I read of all the great and tremendous development along the southern end of the Woodward Corridor, the rehabbing and gentrification, the removal of the poor and homeless who no longer have a place closest to the service organizations that filled their needs. A much safer play area for the sports fans and Hart Plaza festival goers nearing completion. The bedroom neighborhoods that were built to support industries that no longer have a presence here, don't receive much in the form of city services. When the Chief f Police said he was all for an armed citizenry, he was talking to the neighborhoods that don't have a police presence. We are tasked for knowing when and when it is not legal to defend your self and family. You can kill 'em in your house but not in your drive way stealing your car.
Tomorrow, the last Friday in May, will be 1 year since the LSG open mic closed and the last time I left the house for an evening doing what I once loved, being with friends and people. I have changed in a year, have become harder, less patient with ignorant behavior, including my own.
But I will in no wise quit this place. I worked to own it, I pay taxes to stay on it, and if the rest of Detroit outside of midtown wants to eat itself all I can say is do NOT puke on my side of the wire. I am certain it won't be pretty if I have to clean a mess I had no hand in making.
My Detroit loving heart though beating, is broken.
mark
I know it doesn't matter in the overall scheme of the worlds rotation but another bank owned house on my block has begun the "kick in the door and strip it bare of all metal" process. This one next door to me. Again, the other side this time.
I refuse to give up my paid for home to the thieves and punks who are imported by squatters and low rent sons of bitches who have swarmed NE Detroit for a couple of years now. But I also feel trapped in not being able to leave my house unattended for more than an hour. Knowing that Detroit Police Department is so small they can only react to a situation already finished, and that reaction, my experience tells me, in the past 30 years has never been less than 4 hours; if at all. Report your losses over the phone, report threats over the phone, report every god damn thing over the phone. The printed report will be ready in 5 business days.
I am tired of not knowing what I am hanging on to, a debt free life? What good is that, if you always have to be on post guarding the wire? I have never been afraid of this city, and refuse to be intimidated by them whose only job is robbery to get money for dope. Two nights ago a pizza delivery driver brought 3 pies to the house now being stripped, they took the pies from him and slammed the door. I hope that driver only had to pay a wholesale price to make up for his boss' loss. I doubt anyone on this street will ever get delivery from a small business again.
I read of all the great and tremendous development along the southern end of the Woodward Corridor, the rehabbing and gentrification, the removal of the poor and homeless who no longer have a place closest to the service organizations that filled their needs. A much safer play area for the sports fans and Hart Plaza festival goers nearing completion. The bedroom neighborhoods that were built to support industries that no longer have a presence here, don't receive much in the form of city services. When the Chief f Police said he was all for an armed citizenry, he was talking to the neighborhoods that don't have a police presence. We are tasked for knowing when and when it is not legal to defend your self and family. You can kill 'em in your house but not in your drive way stealing your car.
Tomorrow, the last Friday in May, will be 1 year since the LSG open mic closed and the last time I left the house for an evening doing what I once loved, being with friends and people. I have changed in a year, have become harder, less patient with ignorant behavior, including my own.
But I will in no wise quit this place. I worked to own it, I pay taxes to stay on it, and if the rest of Detroit outside of midtown wants to eat itself all I can say is do NOT puke on my side of the wire. I am certain it won't be pretty if I have to clean a mess I had no hand in making.
My Detroit loving heart though beating, is broken.
mark
ugh what a lament for a place gone to ...what...
ReplyDeleteshoot them in the front, not the back...first rule to remember...
its a primitive place the outskirts return too in these situ
stay safe man
I see an opportunity here: house sitter for those temporarily absent . . .
ReplyDeleteVery sad, man
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine.
ReplyDeleteMy heart breaks for you.
How sad Mark ~ I don't know what else to say ~
ReplyDeletemy heart too breaks for you. what a raw deal without solution. that's all i can say now. but i will be back to read this again, mark.
ReplyDeleteoh, and sometimes i think new england would be better
love
kj
it's a catch 22 Mark. So sad. So fucking sad. Today I watched the Indycars run at Belle Isle. A beautiful park. The outside world has no idea what's happening there. Wish there was something, anything, I could do to help.
ReplyDeleteYikes.
ReplyDeleteSorry.
I was asked recently if I enjoyed white water rafting.
White water rafting?
If I needed the shit scared out of me, I'd live in Detroit. :-(
The invitation still stands for you to come down here. But I hear you and know that you want to stay in the city that you still love, even though it is broken.
ReplyDeleteMark, I don't know how, but you've got to get out of there. I hate that you are a prisoner in your own home. xo
ReplyDelete