plainoldme wrote:I grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, lilly white suburb of Detroit, and I called it a slum. It does look better now than it did in the 1950s and 60s but it wasn't the sort of place in which I really wanted to live, with one exception: I always had the hope of getting out of there. Now, it seems like there are no better worlds.
I grew up on the SouthSide of Chicago, at a time, when my neighborhood was all White. Slowly, the neighborhood became integrated with Blacks, slowly the real estate values began to fall, and slowly the neighborhood went from 100% White to 100% Black.
And while the neighborhood had been solid middle class when 100% White, after it reached the 100% Black level, the neighborhood became congested with Black gangs, rapes, murders, & robberies increased, the middle class disappeared and the number of welfare receipents ( often a single mother with several kids ) increased.
What had been beautiful, solid middle class homes had become, over the span of about 10 years a depressing 100% Black slum.
The whole affair, even now, seems unreal to me.
Once my family left, we never returned and for that I'm very glad.
