Forgot to mention the Detroit's bankrupt MGM Casino.

a lot of these properties are from the 2006 tax arrears inventory.

what comes along after that?

buying now in a bid war is risky for any "investor".

this is a perfect opportunity for "habitat for humanity" type non-profits providing income challenged housing. a least the properties would be developed????

where are mike holmes and rick mercer, helping/talking to americans.............

what an interesting socio-political-economic phenomenon.

location, location, location !!!

I once went on a school trip in 1964 to motor city and puzzled over the gleaming cadillacs parked outside the tarpaper shacks in one neighborhood.

Detroit started the slide in July/67.It was painful to watch.

Detroit's greatest concern has to be what will step into the void.

How come nobody ever notices that?

Don't you get the sense that they're starting to?

hmmmm . . . is it just me or does anyone else smell Government Motors Bailout part 2 in the wind ?

puddin n pie, that would be (in theory) a great idea to buy up lots and build Habitat for Humanity homes except for the fact that the program is for those working stiffs that are just out of range for normal home ownership. With all the donated materials and volunteer help, a potential homeowner can get a place where they can develop equity and personal pride in ownership and continue to be a contributing member of society. If there isn't any work there then all we have is more welfare housing that will be trashed by the occupants and the only work is being a crack dealer.
I guess Detroit can always raze the land and plant trees for the eco-weenies to habituate. Gaia would be proud.

bluetech is right. Detroit's decline began with the riots. The auto industry was still going strong long after Detroit started its free fall.

We need to add more bureaucracy in order to enable expanded procedures that will enable smoother transition to a procedural based system enabling a significantly congruent form development that stakeholders will then infer greater realization of current processes to ensure a smoother function ability for continuing exposure to a system of values based in a facilitated enviroment.

Screw it! Fire them all!

JC at 7:31:
Careful what you write there, the big 'O' may need you to help with the teleprompter input.
Good bureaucratise.

bluetech.

I remember it well...as in remembering Lightfoot's "Black Day In July". I know CKLW blasted it across the St. Clair River into the Motor City but it was banned by Detroit stations....go figure. Too much reality I guess.

And yes...it was painful to watch.

They should raze these unsold homes,(no property taxes being collected anyways), rip out the infrastructure and create an urban forest. Could be written off as a carbon sink - make the greenies happy and save the polar bears. Cheers.

Garry...(Windsorite?)...that would be the Detroit River between Windsor and Detroit.
My Dad grew up in Detroit, and continued to work in Detroit (Chrysler) after they moved across the border. We heard many stories about the Roostertail, Detroit Yacht Club and Tiger stadium. For a time it was a successful city.
Very sad to watch the decline.

Jim in Calgary at October 26, 2009 7:51 PM

Good point about the telepromptereser, but let's face it. The One doesn't give a damn. He is The One. Nothing else is important. He merely needs to utter a baritone phrase and all the ills are cured; we all know that.

The Messiah is now The Missing. I recall an account of him as president of the Harvard Law Journal, or some-such. He did nothing but preen himself. Meantime, the foxes are in the treasury-house.

Tecumseh & Brock started the decline of Detroit.

Hey everybody !!!

This may not be all bad ....this could be the beginnings of the reality being predicted by the movies ...let me jog your memories !! LOL this is so awsome and very very awsomely ,comically acurate, and quit possible ...lol.

"In the dystopian near-future, Detroit, Michigan is on the verge of collapse due to financial ruin and unchecked crime. Megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) is brought in by the city to help solve its issues; OCP privatizes the police force and makes plans to raze "Old Detroit" to be replaced with the utopia of "Delta City". The OCP President (O'Herlihy) recognizes that the human law enforcement is insufficient to stop the crime spree and seeks other opportunities. Senior vice-president Dick Jones (Cox) offers a law enforcement droid, the ED-209, but when the demonstration kills one of the other senior executives, the Presidents turns to the "Robocop" program to create an augmented cyborg, led by junior executive Bob Morton (Ferrer); Jones becomes bitterly jealous of Morton's success"

Is that not amazingly acurate ..well less the robot cyborge ,and the delta city thing ...lol.

Right away i thought wow ,what is that called when the art's predict the future/reality.

Go robocop go !!!

Paul in calgary.

And also the O.C.P would obviously be renamed .OBAMA,CONSUMER,PRODUCT'S.
i also copy and pasted the above from wiki except the obama thing .
Lol

Paul in calgary

Its just a large ghosttown, the world is full of them, it happens.It's not evidence of a decline as a whole.

I remember it well. Detroit was once a beautiful city. Worked in a dept.store there in my teens.
Walked safely the two blocks to catch the tunnel bus home. Then came the riots of 67. Watched from my backyard as Detroit burned. Has been downhill ever since.

My childhood memories were the beautiful decorations at Christmas at Hudsons and that fantastic Santa Claus parade. Yep it was once a great city.

greyburr, Hull was no help either.

"Go robocop go !!!"

...or Eric Draven.

My theory is that Detroit had outlived it's purpose when the first successfull imports began to roll in from Japan, Germany etc.

In 1950, a fridge cost over $350.00. A new Ford 4 dr. sedan was about $1400 dollars. Today, you can still buy a fridge that will outperform a 1950 Fridgidaire for $350. A bar that would match the quality of a 1950 ford would (today) cost over $35,000. What happened?
In 1966, a 23" colour TV cost over $1200. Today the TV costs $250. Why didn't the auto indistry follow suit?

The Algonquians might want it!

Make a great casino...

..... Kwame Kilpatric ... he's easy to blame too!

Ed Teach ... Think Snake Bliskin ... ya I know New York isn't Detroit.....

bluetech,

I sit corrected (St. Clair River is further up stream). Strathroyite actually ('til 1963). Detroit is seared in my childhood memories. My first trip to a "big" city was to Detroit to see the Tigers play at Briggs Stadium. Changed to Tiger Stadium the next year. I always remembered Detroit because of proximity and that ball game and seemed to follow it in the news. As a Brockvillian, I watch the news as Detroit burned, in 1967 and that never left my memory. A real eye opener for a 17 yr old.

Joe citizen,

The automobile is freedom. The statists hate freedom, and know they can't take it away by direct legislation, and as long as there are 300 million plus guns in private hands, they can't take it by force.

Their current plan is to raise the cost of cars high enough, and make them so complicated, the average citizen can't afford one. That's why the price of cars has gone so high. Safety, the environment, UAW wages are all part of the plan.

Obama is just a small cog in the clockwork, doing his little piece of the process.

so what , who gives a rats buhoki.

the world is full of abandoned cities , this one just happened to rise and fall within one generation. a sign of the modern age. things go alot faster.

Joe Citizen - a friend of mine said the only way GM could stop losing so much money would be if they stopped making cars.

As many others have said, they are a health care provider that also happens to make automobiles on the side.

Heh....funny...a bunch of Morontarions talking about decline.They are so blind they cannot see.

I blame the failure of Detroit on the African American culture that fails everywhere just like African culture itself. The evidence can be found far and wide.

America made a big mistake electing and African American for president. You may have notice that since then, America is failing.

I grew up 4 miles north (suburbs) of Detroit and go there to visit friends occasionally. I read where approximately 40 square miles of property is up for tax sale. IMO, it was the unions that pushed industry out of the area and resisted change that ultimately displaced workers. It's a shame.

GM used to the most productive, lowest-cost car manufacturer in the world. It had the highest paid employees as well. Then came regulations and endless concessions to the unions. The employees were still the highest paid but productivity fell ... not exactly a sustainable course.

Toyota is mopping the floor with GM not because Americans can't compete, but because they have instituted the very conditions that prevent effective competition.

The UAW, like all of it's private sector union counterparts, has done to Detroit what they all do eventually everywhere, kill their jobs. The uncontained greed and inflexibility, corrupted by internal union politics and hubris, empowered by weak corporate rent-seekers is a toxic combination and has always been eventually destroyed within a competitive market.

The public sector and their unions, on the other hand, are immune from such discipline. That's why the average public sector "worker" in the US now makes double that of the average private sector worker. Would someone tell me again, with job security second to none, why we allow public sector unions?

Joe Citizen:

In 1950, a fridge cost over $350.00. A new Ford 4 dr. sedan was about $1400 dollars. Today, you can still buy a fridge that will outperform a 1950 Fridgidaire for $350. A bar that would match the quality of a 1950 ford would (today) cost over $35,000. What happened?

I'm so tired of this canard. How, exactly, does a new fridge "outperform" a 1950's one, except perhaps being a bit more energy efficient? So you have adjustable shelves, and an in-the-door ice and water dispenser. Big whoop.

Now, let's look at that 1950's car: hugely inefficient engine, bias ply tires, drum brakes, bench seats front and back, no A/C, AM radio only, manual windows, locks, and seats, big chrome bumpers that didn't actually protect you, but cost hundreds to replace after the most minor of accidents, no ABS, no power steering or brakes, no crumple zones, no seatbelts, no airbags, no intermittent wipers, no daytime running lights, no emission controls, no sunroof, inefficient styling (i.e. drag), and lots of noise.

2009? Very efficient engines producing as much HP while using half the gasoline, radial tires with blowout protection, disc brakes, bucket seats (4 in most minivans), climate control with separate zones for drivers and passengers, AM/FM/satellite radio with CD changers and iPod jacks combined with multiple speaker sound systems, power seats, locks, windows, and hood/trunk releases, low impact bumpers that work, ABS, power steering and brakes, cage construction, crumple zones, and collapsing steering wheels, 3 point seatbelts, front and side airbags, intermittent wipers on both windshield and headlights, daytime running lights, emission controls, sunroof, aerodynamic styling, and so quiet you can easily hold a conversation at 120 km/h. Yup, absolutely no difference.

And let's not forget that the automobile is subject to the harshest possible consumer treatment and expectations. People don't care if it's -40 or +110; they expect their cars to start, first time, every time. Most people ignore routine maintenance schedules, many going 15,000 miles between oil changes instead of 3,000. I have friends in the electronics industry; they consider "mil-spec" a walk in the park compared to getting something certified by a car company.

I wouldn't trade a used 2004 car for a 1970's one that was brand new (not possible, of course, but if..). Cars today are so much better, and the proof is easy to see - look at the average age of cars on the road today, compared to 50 years ago. It's about 4 times as long. Find another dead horse to flog, will you?

Detroit failed because on the market you can't forever pay people more than their Discounted Marginal Value Product. Which is what the unions insisted on and the short-term expediency oriented management went along with.

re air bags, crumple zones, seat belts, emissions reduction . . . all that and a trainload more is courtesy one Ralph Nader.

are we gonna blame Ralph for the decline and demise of GM, or put blame squarely in the lap of the fast buck artists running the outfit?