All Forum Posts by: Joshua Woolls

 Be careful. That doesn't jive with some people's worldview. Everyone knows Detroit is only filled with criminals and corrupt politicians. 

Find me one place where I said that everything is peachy? Find one place that I encouraged anyone to invest in Detroit?

Reread the article that you linked to. It says nothing about the mayor, the chief or anyone "allowing" people to carry. It is not their place to allow(or disallow) any such behavior. There are already(and have been for a while) laws in place that tell how/where/when concealed carry is legal in the state of Michigan. Also, the article is not a commentary about the state of crime in Detroit, it is a commentary about concealed carry in general and how the police Chief feels it is a crime deterrent. 

You say that you want the city to get better, but you discourage people from investing there. I hate to tell you this, but having people care about the city enough to invest there is the only way that the city is going to get better. Thankfully, this is already happening, so I do not need to encourage others to do it. One thing I do agree with you about though is that there are a lot of problems and I would hope that anyone that does decide to take the leap should be very, very careful and should do their due diligence. 

As for hearing the bad things about the city on the news every day, I hate to tell you this, but you live in the suburbs of Detroit and you watch the local news. When you live in the burbs of any other major city, you see the same thing but for that city. Clevelanders see what a ******** Cleveland is. New Yorkers see what a ******** New York is. Yes, Detroit is worse than most and it makes the national stage quite a bit more, but that does not mean that other cities are without issues.

For a little more insight, with a little less "spin" check out this article on what the police cheif actually said and the context that it was said in:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/03/james-cra...

It's almost as if Mr Gutfield from Fox News had a bias and chose to spin a story in a way that proved his points. Now, I know that the Huffington post has a left leaning bias, but take the time to read both articles and you will have a more complete understanding of what was being said. The police chief's remarks were never intended to be a commentary on the state of the city, they are a commentary on concealed carry and why/how it reduces crime.

And although I brought up downtown as an example of where things are picking up, I am not trying to say that is the only area of the city that is not a warzone.

Indian Village, Palmer Woods, Boston Edison are all amazing neighborhoods.

John Berry, Sherwood Forest, University District and Rosedale Gardens are pretty damn decent.

East English Village, West Village, Corktown and Mexican town are respectable places.

Yes, there are more Brightmoors and Burbanks than good areas, but that does not mean the entire city is lost and that we should just wall it up and hope that Detroiters don't move into our suburban neighborhoods.

No arguments there. And I'm not mad. I don't think there is one place on these forums where i have said that there are not significant problems in the city.

Nancy's comment was misleading and frankly it was a bit ridiculous to act as if the police chiff said that Detroiters should carry guns because the city is so bad that they need to protect themselves. Actually, the police chief said that people should(lawfully) carry guns because(he believes) it is a deterrent to crime. He believes that one of the reasons that Portland, Maine is safe is because of the high rates of concealed carry.

Hey, if miss Nancy has had bad experiences in the city, by all means share them. But let's be adults and use facts. Let's not selectively quote a news story and spin it in a way back up our worldview.

Actually Nancy, you don't see me knocking down the doors to move there because you don't know me. We(my family and I) are literally looking to buy in the city at this very moment. And guess what, we aren't the only ones. I know that comes as a shock to you, but it is true.

I have no doubt that you are not lying about your experiences as a landlord in the city. And I agree, I wouldn't encourage many people to venture there. Especially people that do not know the areas, but I would be willing to bet that since you and your husband left the city, that there are areas that have changed quite a bit. There are entire neighborhoods that have been leveled. There are once solid areas that have turned into warzones. There are areas that have rebounded and had property values quadruple. Taking the police chiefs out of context remark and making it sound like the city is the wild west where people should not venture without a gun is silly. I assure you, I am in the city 3-4 times a weak(Not just downtown/midtown) and I do not carry a gun and have never felt the need to. There are absolutely areas that I do not travel through. 

The reason I have a problem with your post is not because you are trying to educate people. It is because you are trying to scare people. And please understand that things change with time. I am sure that the areas of the city that you were in were different when you started and when you left. Well, that degradation and rebuilding go both ways. Six years(especially the most recent six years) are a long time. Things have changed and will continue to do so.

Just sayin'

Joshua Woolls

Actually Nancy, you don't see me knocking down the doors to move there because you don't know me. We(my family and I) are literally looking to buy in the city at this very moment. And guess what, we aren't the only ones. I know that comes as a shock to you, but it is true.

I have no doubt that you are not lying about your experiences as a landlord in the city. And I agree, I wouldn't encourage many people to venture there. Especially people that do not know the areas, but I would be willing to bet that since you and your husband left the city, that there are areas that have changed quite a bit. There are entire neighborhoods that have been leveled. There are once solid areas that have turned into warzones. There are areas that have rebounded and had property values quadruple. Taking the police chiefs out of context remark and making it sound like the city is the wild west where people should not venture without a gun is silly. I assure you, I am in the city 3-4 times a weak(Not just downtown/midtown) and I do not carry a gun and have never felt the need to. There are absolutely areas that I do not travel through. 

The reason I have a problem with your post is not because you are trying to educate people. It is because you are trying to scare people. And please understand that things change with time. I am sure that the areas of the city that you were in were different when you started and when you left. Well, that degradation and rebuilding go both ways. Six years(especially the most recent six years) are a long time. Things have changed and will continue to do so.

Nancy and her husband quit landlording in the city six years ago. Six long years ago and they spent the worst thirty years of the cities history riding the big wave down. I can understand why they are bitter. But using outdated experiences backed up with news taken out of context doesn't do anyone any good.

I have no doubt that the things that Nancy is talking about have happened. These things have happened in areas of most major cities in America(albeit not as severely as Detroit). I am not even trying to encourage people to invest in the cities as landlords. Especially not outsiders that do not know the city. There are reasons why there are $500 houses in the city and I can tell you it is not because the want landlords to scoop them up and make 5000% returns. They are $500 because literally nobody wants them.

The problem with Nancy's statement is that it is a blanket statement for a large city that just does not hold true for the entire city. It is also irrelevant as to investing in the city. 

I am not throwing out blanket defenses of the city and it irritates me when I see people throw out blanket condemnation of the city.

I think it was a backhanded way to try to slander the city. Everyone knows that Detroit has high crime rates and there are issues in the city. 

The fact of the matter is though that the police Chief is from Maine and he attributes the relative safety of Portland Maine(hardly a war zone) to the fact that so many people had concealed carry permits. Nancy felt the need to pull a misleading headline out of the article and sensationalize it. It's almost as if she has a preconceived notion of what the city is like and she had an agenda and wanted everyone to agree with her.

Something that I did not understand about Detroit until I moved to this area is that there is a serious City Vs. Suburb divide. I am certain that it can be traced back to the race riots, but unlike the rest of the country, the Detroit metro never moved on. Now, we have a couple of generations of people that have fled the city and never go back unless it is to attend a sporting event or a concert. They literally sit in their homes in the burbs and spew rhetoric of hate and fear. Some of this hate and fear is justified and some is not. 

The fact of the matter is that Detroit does have issues. But much like every city in America, there are some areas that have more issues than others. There are more "bad" areas. Less "good" areas, and the good areas in Detroit are not as good as the "good" areas in other cities. You would never know this speaking to many of the people in the burbs though.

Times, they are a changing though. There are already areas of the city that have started the rapid ascent. There are areas that have stabilized. And there are even areas that are already "back". That being said, there are areas that are bad, and will never be better until they are wiped off the map and rebuilt.

In the last year and a half, Dan Gilbert has moved 17,000 Jobs downtown and he has incentives in place for workers to live in the city. The Illitch's(Little Ceasers, RedWings, Olympia entertainment) have moved 11,000(more) jobs downtown. Mars Advertising moved their headquarters dowtown. Ally financial just announced their move to downtown... That's 35,000(ish) white collar jobs moving into the city in a little over a year.

Nancy's post is designed to create fear. What good does that do anyone? It's unproductive at best. If we want to look at the city realistically, we could spend all day talking about the bad(and good things) that are going on, and we could have constructive conversations about how to fix some of the city's(many) problems.