Santa?

[Delhommey]

A Detroit Christmas Story

DETROIT -- This city has not always been a gentle place, but a series of events over the past few, frigid days causes one to wonder how cold the collective heart has grown.

It starts with a phone call made by a man who said his friend found a dead body in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building on the city's west side.

He's encased in ice, except his legs, which are sticking out like Popsicle sticks," the caller phoned to tell this reporter.

"Why didn't your friend call the police?"

"He was trespassing and didn't want to get in trouble," the caller replied. As it happens, the caller's friend is an urban explorer who gets thrills rummaging through and photographing the ruins of Detroit. It turns out that this explorer last week was playing hockey with a group of other explorers on the frozen waters that had collected in the basement of the building. None of the men called the police, the explorer said. They, in fact, continued their hockey game.

...

There are at least 19,000 homeless people in Detroit, by some estimates. Put another way, more than 1 in 50 people here are homeless.

The human problem is so bad, and the beds so few, that some shelters in the city provide only a chair. The chair is yours as long as you sit in it. Once you leave, the chair is reassigned.

Thousands of down-on-their-luck adults do nothing more with their day than clutch onto a chair. This passes for normal in some quarters of the city.

"I hate that musical chair game," Ruben said. He said he'd rather live next to a corpse.

http://detnews.com/article/20090129/METRO08/901290400/Life-goes-on-around-body-found-frozen-in-vacant-Detroit-warehouse

[Mr. Scot]

The world would be a better place if it weren't for the people

[Squirrel]

Well it is kind of cold up here.

[Mr. Scot]

Well it is kind of cold up here.

That's not the weather. It's your heart.

[Squirrel]

That's not the weather. It's your heart.

No its the weather hasnt been above freezing since the first of the month. Yeah it sucks that people are like that but people are trying to survive.

Biggest problem is they need to figure out how to shrink Detroit to profitability. Without leaving people out in the cold of basic service. There are neighborhoods up here that are vacant. The city is trying to clean some of it up but they are broke. They even was bulldozing vacant buildings and charging the deed holders awhile back but they dont have the money to go after them. People are either jsut abandoning house or landlords are letting them run down as the land will be more valuable once things turn around.

[Falcons1stPanthers2nd]

Shortest period of a rise and fall of a city i've ever seen. Once producing 1/6th i think of the entire WORLDS GDP and the greatest manufacturing city in the world now reduced to slums.

[Hotsauce]

About a year ago, there was a huddler who was talking about buying a house in Detroit for like $1000...

Who was that, and more importantly, did you pull the trigger on that deal???

[Carolina Husker]

None of this compares to the Darko Milicic pick.

[Jangler]

and GM builds a plant in Mexico...

[The Saltman]

so does eminem's mom still live in a trailer on 8mile?

[Darth Urious]

[thefuzz]

About a year ago, there was a huddler who was talking about buying a house in Detroit for like $1000...

Who was that, and more importantly, did you pull the trigger on that deal???

Charlettonian or something like that.

The unions absolutely ruined that city.

[Delhommey]

Yes. When the Unions made the executive decision to make crappy yet expensive cars for decades only then to focus on luxury SUV's during times of economic crisis and high gas prices, it really killed the place.

[Darth Urious]

Yes. When the Unions made the executive decision to make crappy yet expensive cars for decades only then to focus on luxury SUV's during times of economic crisis and high gas prices, it really killed the place.

this...

plus, their people in general (every day citizens) suck too...