Posted on 06/19/2015 2:15:44 AM PDT by Cronos
DETROIT may be one of the only cities in the rich world where it is possible for someone on a fairly modest income to buy a street. At the edges of Boston-Edison, a historic district of gorgeous old houses built as one of the city’s first wealthy suburbs, so low has the cost of housing fallen that fairly grand houses can be acquired simply for the cost of back property taxes.
..Chief among the costs that are higher in Detroit is transport. One of the reasons people who live in Manhattan don’t mind paying so much for housing is that they don’t need a car to get to work. But in Detroit living without a car is all but impossible. The city is so big and spread out that getting to work on foot or even on a bike would be miserable even when the weather is good . Buses are infrequent and take odd routes
What applies to cars also applies to other things people in most cities take for granted. In the whole of the city there are just 38 grocery stores, almost all of them independently owned. As Lisa Johanan, a local activist, puts it, “Detroit is a food desert”. Most people rely on “party shops”—liquor stores which also sell crisps, popcorn, frozen pizzas and the like—or else petrol stations to get food, often paying with food stamps. This is partly because, as George Orwell wrote in The Road To Wigan Pier, “When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'.” But it is also because the sheer rate of theft in the city makes it difficult for any traditional grocer to survive.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Michigan had no-fault auto insurance when I lived there. If that’s still the case that could largely explain the high transport cost. No fault is absurdly expensive. Pennsylvania dropped in in the 70’s after a brief experiment.
What on earth does "one of the only" mean?
Meijer is good stuff. I wish I could hav brought them to TX with me.
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