>more about how the 'urban space' became what it is because of
>white flight and those same politics are taking place now.

Detroit proper and it's many suburbs' past was shaped by white flight leading up to the 80's. Detroit, at one point in time, was a predominately white city with a few Black and jewish enclaves. As the Big 3 expanded their operations Black folks from all over the country moved to Detroit in search of those good plant jobs. As Black folks moved in, whites began to move outward to the suburbs leaving blacks and jews, and eventually even the jews left. Eventually what happened was...


>Like Flipnile is saying above even as the cities are currently
>being rebuilt things are happening to purposely lock out the
>natives.

... ^^^ this.

In the late 80's, the white big money hustla's started buying up parts of downtown and renovating it. Buildings and neighborhoods near the Detroit river were bought and razed to make way for expensive high-rise apartments, condos, and lofts. Historic buildings that could be saved were renovated, beginning with the Fox Theater. Others were demolished, like the old Hudson's department store. Because the apartments and condos were so expensive only people with money moved into them, and the demographics of the area changed significantly. Those who moved in still had to deal with low income and poverty stricken areas only a few blocks away from their shiny new apartments, so the police presence in those areas was beefed up.

Fast forward a decade. If you were a person that grew up in the 80's near the Fox Theater, over by Cass Tech or whatever, and you landed in the same area in 2003 or so, you wouldn't believe you were even in Detroit. New luxury apartments, brownstone-style row houses full of affluent white folks, the two stadiums directly across the street from the Fox Theater, the State Theater now rebranded as The Fillmore next door to the Fox, and, in fact, that entire area downtown is pretty much unrecognizable to a person that hadn't been there since as late as the 90's.




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"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.