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Brightmoor was a great family neighborhood in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s. Us Baby Boomers played outside, rode our bikes safely all over the place. St. Christine Church on Fenkell was a nice parish with a small grade school, not a soup kitchen. We got our first Polio vaccines at Hubert School on Lamphere. The vaccine was given on a sugar cube. On our street there were families of various nationalities: Canadian, Scottish, Italian, Polish, Irish, English, people from the Southern States. Lamphere, DaCosta, Dolphin, Chatham streets are ghosts of what they used to be. Only memories remain of a wonderful childhood.
As a skinny white kid in the late 60's we used to come down from Southfield to grandma's and ride our bikes around there. 9-10 years old. Nobody bothered us at all.
It's so fascinatingly sad seeing these empty neighborhoods, thinking about all of the houses that once stood there and was where many people lived only to rapidly start to empty out and become abandoned and burnt and the land turning back to nature It's so eerie and desolate and I can't imagine what it must be like for some of the people on these blocks slowly watching neighbors and houses disappear
Brightmoor neighborhood was mine when I was 1 year old. Soon after my family moved. Actually, the block we lived on is currently not the absolutely worse. Whoever is now living in our house appears to be taking good care of it.
This is sad. So many once-beautiful neighborhoods like this in Detroit that were modest but charming. I love the variety of architecture. But, as you point out, it's blighted now.
I was born and raised right here in the area of brightmoor and I amazingly am still living here at 66 years old day after tomorrow in the same house I was born into and raised in. It’s been a challenge all my life living here but it is still home sweet home
Im from Brightmoor. Fenkell ave and Lamphere St. We left that place back in 2004 because of how bad it was. I went to Hubert Elementary and then Murphy Middle School right around the corner. Lot of good memories from that area
I lived & grew up in Brightmoor back in the 70’s until I was nine, in my grandparent’s home right in the corner of DaCosta & Eaton, roughly a half a block’s walk to my first elementary school… Hubert Elementary. Even back then, I was only one of three kids in the entire school that was white. But at that time it was still a relatively safe place to live in terms of overall crime. Fast forward less than ten years after my family had left the neighborhood after my grandfather’s passing, and the neighborhood by that time had earned its new nickname of “Little Vietnam” from all the gang wars, dogfighting, prostitution and street level drug thugs that had moved into many of the homes. It was around this time that a lot of the arsons started taking out a home here and then a home there one by one in order to purge the unwanted dealers and whore houses that had taken hold. My grandparents lived and raised three children in that neighborhood dating back to when they bought their house new sometime back in the early 1940’s. Up til the day my grandmother moved out, their home stood literally as a shining gem on the block, albeit in the end with metal locking bars on all the windows as well as both front and side doors leading in, along with a 24 hour surveillance alarm system. Two years after selling it outright for a grand total of $13,000, it too had been burned to the ground. It’s been one of the longest lasting heartbreaks of my lifetime, still lingering in me at 51 years old today
I live across the river in Windsor. I think Detroit is capable of making a comeback. I see the construction cranes 🏗 all over the place in downtown Detroit. From what I have heard,downtown Detroit is way better than it used to be. Ford just transformed the long vacant and decaying Michigan Central Railway station in Corktown and I can imagine that the area around there is only going to grow and redevelop in time. It’s going to require decades but it’s not impossible.
The city needs to reinvent its industrial base, which was the core to its prosperity in the past. But do that, a number of drastic changes need to be made. First, the school system no longer prepares a workforce. And if new industries are interested in coming to Detroit, there has to be a population prepared for the new jobs. But when new industries come to a city, particularly high tech jobs, the companies bring in their own trained workforce because the city at present does not have it. Once upon a time, the Detroit Public School System worked in tandem with industry to train high school graduates for the various job opportunities that were available. But as modern technology has entered, a lot of jobs have been replaced by technology. So there has to be a redefining of the workforce and the jobs that are in demand. Working for McDonald's is NOT the path to stability.
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned the Irving Theater. I grew up in West Redford Township, Inkster Rd., one block South of Five Mile, so we often watched movies at the Irving.
Detroit is 143 square miles in area. They should shrink the city limits to about half of that and leave the rest as urban prairie. People who live on the outskirts of Detroit should be moved closer to the urban core downtown for better access to services. There's no reason for Detroit to occupy all that land anymore.
@markminter6312 People who live on the outskirts of Detroit "SHOUD BE" moved closer. What's this "SHOUD BE" crap. Do you mean forced to? You must of voted for Biden.
They should contract Detroit to a small city, (so they can give services), then the outer ring would Detroit Heights which would be rural. Ps: Love the music 🌝
Seeing all these non-existent and abandoned houses makes it hard for me to believe Detroit was ever a bustling city with a thriving automotive industry. This is exactly what happens when crime comes to a head, taking over entire neighbourhoods, and also what happens when jobs start to leave a metro area. I think if they do a turn-around (which seems easier said than done), and make the city a little nicer and cleaner by way of investment in infrastructure and gaining jobs in other segments, these neighbourhoods could be full of life like it was in its glory days.
Yup. There has to be a demand for people to want to live in the city in order for it to turn around. It'll be tough for Detroit to accomplish when there are a hundred or so suburban communities that are better places to live in currently... but it can be done if the city does things the right way for a multi-decade stretch.
I went to Gompers ,Harding and Redford and while it has always been a tough neighborhood throughout my life , it sure has gone to hell. This neighborhood will never come back to life.
@kathyjenkins4067 I hope you are doing well .All of our schools are gone now, and most of the homes and shops, it is sad, the way drugs and violence destroyed it. Thanks for the text. Over the years, I have only heard from one other ,you may remember him Ricky Chavez.
This wasnt allowed, it was forced. The movie "10", if it can be located, was very specific with "who, what, and why". Some major entities were affected by Covid. This next year may see an aversion to negative bias, and those hood theatres and museums may be active again
I grew up on Stout, south of Grand River (60's/70's), went to the old Burt School as a kid. My dad used to threaten to take us to Brightmoor if we weren't good. But ironically, where we were was close to it.
I have been in daugh U.P. for about 30 years now. Have lots of good memories of Uncle Sam's dance bar, School craft road watching the houses in your area being cleared and the building of the huge Jefferies( 696) ditches, taking Grand River through N. Redford was a pleasant ride and the only way to get to 96 before 696 went in, Farrell's Ice Cream, the Federal's Department Store Mall on Grand River, the super cool architecture of the women's Y.W.C.A. and the Redford Motel. (friends used to call it, "The Red Hot Redford Motel). I saw Joann Jett play for a free concert when she was trying to promote her new band, The Runaways ( she must have been about 14 or 15) play at E.J. Korvettes mall. Later it was Burlington Coat, then I think a Vic Tannys, but some kind of gym with Peir One Imports in the parking lot. My non public school friends went to Bishop Borgess Catholic school, now some kind of Evangelist mega church. My family is all passed on and I have no reason to go back. The memories of Redford warm my heart when I think about one of my X girl friends who lived near Hidden Lane and 5 mile in the mid 1980s. Not to mention Bates Burgers but of course that was Livonia. I grew up in Dearborn Heights
Well, I used to live in Brightmoor. My sister owned a house there. I wish you would’ve said what streets you were on as you were driving through. The one thing I did recognize was checkers drugstore on 5 mile I worked there surprised to see it still standing. By the way I live there in the 60s early 70s.
I used to walk to Sobells Checker Drugs and get an ice cream or pop, sit on the curb outside and watch cars for an hour. My mom was a soda jerk there in the 40's. I think I heard my dad say he set pins at the bowling alley on the second floor.
I had a girlfriend that lived on Burgress Street in back of the Forbidden Wheels club house. Her house and her neighbor's homes were actually Sears kit houses built on slabs.
@alfredindy8058 I Worked with a few of the forbidden Wheelers at GM. I never had an issue with these guy's. In 1978 I saw a dude ride right through a store plate glass window and his arm was severed at the shoulder all the boys did was hold him down (he was running in circles with blood pumping out of his shoulder) and push his arm back into his shoulder until EMS arrived.
@@kevin-bp8jn Funny! I ran into and talked to a Scorpion this week up north. We talked for a half an hour about Detroit. Their clubhouse is still on Fenkell, but they have thirteen other clubs in MI, and out of state.
That club was no bs. I remember an “incident” in the club house in the late 70s. Rumor was the cops found brain matter in the ceiling that wasn’t related to said “incident “. Those guys were a real bike club and scary.
Way back in the last century, i went North to pretend to be a student at NMU while my sister matriculated locally & got her first "pad" in Brightmoor . Many post-psychedelic & semi-inebriated days and nights lost wandering around good ol' Brightmoor ... that i can barely remember anyway . Two thumbs up 👍👍
Have lots of good memories of mind blowing experiences when I lived on the corner of Lamphere and DeCosta while attending college in the 1980s. I often tell my friends about how all the guns going off on New Years Eve sounded like a fire works display.
In the late 70's I lived in Brighton on the corner of Patton & Eaton. The day I got laid off from GM (Hydro-Matic out in Ypsi.) I packed up and got the Hell out of Dodge and moved back to the mountains of North Georgia. From what I've heard, that block is now all empty lots. I've wondered why they don't plow it up and turn it into gardens for the locals to grow their own vegetables on ?
@@dgrGR61 Hi neighbor! Thanks 4 checking in. I have been in daugh U.P. for about 30 years now. Have lots of good memories of Uncle Sam's dance bar, School craft road watching the houses in your area being cleared and the building of the huge Jefferies( 696) ditches, taking Grand River through N. Redford was a pleasant ride and the only way to get to 96 before 696 went in, Farrell's Ice Cream, the Federal's Department Store Mall on Grand River, the super cool architecture of the women's Y.W.C.A. and the Redford Motel. (friends used to call it, "The Red Hot Redford Motel). I saw Joann Jett play for a free concert when she was trying to promote her new band, The Runaways ( she must have been about 14 or 15) play at E.J. Korvettes mall. Later it was Burlington Coat, then I think a Vic Tannys, but some kind of gym with Peir One Imports in the parking lot. My non public school friends went to Bishop Borgess Catholic school, now some kind of Evangelist mega church. My family is all passed on and I have no reason to go back. The memories of Redford warm my heart when I think about one of my X girl friends who lived near Hidden Lane and 5 mile in the mid 1980s. Not to mention Bates Burgers but of course that was Livonia. I grew up in Dearborn Heights.
One of the advantages of being in Michigan. We have green landscapes without even trying. Some years we have enough regular rainfall from spring through autumn that we don't even need to use sprinklers for individual lawns.
Plenty of grass where I live and the din from lawnmowers, weedy-whackers, and leaf-blowers every summer is enough to make me dread summer! Maybe Arizona is the place for me.
Hamtramck born myself (Carpenter & Maine). My dad said bye-bye after the 12th street riot (1967). I never enter this city, which is quite rare without my Glock. Back in it's heyday it was called "The Paris of the Midwest". The decline started when it got darker. (If you get my drift).🦍🦍🦍
For a few summers in the mid 1960s we used to ride our bikes from Dearborn Heights to Warren and Pierson, then up Pierson to the Rouge Golf course at 6 am so we could take the free Golf Lessons offered by the Detroit Free Press for kids in summer.
Brightmoor returning to nature, worse things have happened. I did have some pleasurable things happen there, and many friends that came from there. The best Rock music bars nearby, in the seventies and eighties, and hoards of dancing girls growing up there. The air has to be pretty nice there, with all the vegetation returning. Lived three miles north, on Westbrook, from '74-'88, and 5 miles east during High School, '66-'69.
Hi neighbor! Thanks 4 checking in. I have been in daugh U.P. for about 30 years now. Have lots of good memories of Uncle Sam's dance bar, School craft road watching the houses in your area being cleared and the building of the huge Jefferies( 696) ditches. I saw Joann Jett give a free promo concert at E.J. Korvettes mall to promote her new band, The Runaways. She was probably about 15 or 16.
I grew up in Rosedale Park in the fifties and sixties. Our family were regulars at Scottie Simpson's which has the best fish and chips you will find in the state. One of the last meals my dad wanted to have before he moved into his retirement home was at Scottie Simpson's. The place attracts everyone from gangbanger's grandma's to big company CEO's.
What happens to the underground utilities with all the abandoned home sites, for example the sewer mains under the streets, they need "flow" to keep them clean and flowing. Breaks over --- back to work.
I know it spelled fenkell but everyone I know says it with an “I” sound like Finkell. This like the road lasher to me it’s one word in the suburbs they say it more like La-sher.. more or less it just sounded weird the why you said the street name, ok I’ll get off my weird rant. By the way love your videos
Your videos are good; ur information is even better and also like others, that music got that beat. Tys. If The Auto Companies don’t outsource to diff Countries; maybe things would be diff. all over.
In west Los Angeles there’s a stretch of Slauson Ave thats real nice. From the end on the Marina Freeway to La Cienaga BLVD. Go a mile east of La Cienaga, and you’re now in the low rent district!!
So we visited the area and wow I felt soooo bad on how it looked in this area . The homes had holes in the roofs of the houses and the trees took over the area and it just looks very bad.
Some parts of that area you’d think would just be bought out by the town and destroyed clear cut and auctioned to a auto parts company for land for a new factory in Detroit
I remember a bunch of older people around Warrendale that had C.B. radios formed the C.B. patrol and would be a thorn in our saddle back in the 80s..........SMH......LOL
It’s in every US city, not just Detroit. Looks good to me for a developer to go in right now. It’s on the City’s plan. No burned down houses and rubble, just green space. I live in Windsor and am 70 years old and I know Detroit. That’s nothing Bro. Detroit is looking better now than it has in 30 years for sure! I am telling you.
I believe so too. The suburbs to the north have been thriving this whole time that Detroit has been declining. Ann Arbor to the west is thriving. Key things that need to happen would be a continued progress on seeing lower crime rates, and possibly a tax reform as Detroit has some of the highest taxes in the nation.
We lived at Auburn and Lyndon. From 57' ~ 84' Was an awesome place to grow up! I spent every waking moment at Stoepel playing baseball. Went to Vetal, and then Borgess. many friends went to Redford, and we all had drivers ed at Cooley High because they had an actual driving course! Worked at Cregar's with my buddies. I delivered the Brightmoor Journal in 75' then The Detroit News in 76-77' all over Rosedale. Goofed around at Bowlcraft lanes, and have great memories of Gala Day at Stoepel. It was pretty darn safe until 83' or so, then turned to shit because while the homes were still maintained, the new occupants decided to flat out destroy every last one. Steal the siding, then the plumbing, and burn the rest down. Cause what good is a house that does not have a roof! Zero investment in time and pure laziness killed that neighborhood. No more decent Grocery stores, abandoned schools, and blight! Every single one of those street had hard working middle class families that took care of their homes, and I had many friends all over Brightmoor, and Rosedale park, and North Rosedale. It's hard to watch Poverty Porn, for all kinds of American cities and neighborhoods. Until Investments are made in Schools and food deserts, Infrastructure. Hopefully it's getting better as all the idiots are now gone, and the people who are there can rebuild without being robbed. However, I'm glad Sonny's is still there!
@@AnthonyTucker-sl4zj Hey Man! That was a great neighborhood! It's a shame as the School is now abandoned, and without a decent school people stay away. I had lots of black and white friends back in the day. Can't remember ever having any issues across the isles so to speak. It was the cheap housing mixed with drugs that really took it's toll on Brightmoor. Wouldn't change anything about growing up there. I rented my first house on Piedmont across Schoolcraft. One day I woke up and the house across the street was blazing. I said that's it! I'm leaving. Truly sucked! The house I grew up in is still there, and It looks good. Other than the School, it really needs a new Grocery store on Schoolcraft between Southfield and Evergreen, then things will change and make it more attractive. But the City per usual and private investment never want to build up. Love my Detroit! Be well my friend!
I was playing in the.middle.of a shooting/ murder scene in the Bon Ton bar parking lot right at corner of Schoolcraft/Braile...screaming, crying, police and ambulance sirens....8 year old Kevy-Boy wants to know whats up cause he is curious. We left in 1980. We made it out before crack really took off, but our family home burnt down supposedly by crackheads in 1983. Miss my hood....hot summer days in 1970s Bri-mo
Google mapped and street viewed the house fam and I lived in 32 years ago( I was 12) at Bentler and Bennett, and, yep, demolished, along with the house next to it. 13 years ago, street imagery showed it boarded up and abandoned, and as of 5 years ago, gone, like it never even existed. I mean, I didn't have the fondest of memories there, but I was curious as to whether or not it was still standing. NOPE. The entire street looks like it's on the verge of demolition. How sad. Derelict houses get demolished, but no one wants to develop the land (i.e. build a new home) because, quite frankly, it's Detroit 🫤
I was just thinking nature reclamation ain't the worst thing that could happen. Better than abandoned homes and concrete. I wonder if urban farming could be a thing there.
If you look at the thumbnail picture of Detroit in the background, you can see downtown to the right and the New Center (including the Fisher Building) to the left-center. The original plans for the Fisher called for twin 420 towers flanking a center tower of over 800' tall.(Detroit's answer to the Empire State Building) That plan never came to pass as the Great Depression had other ideas. The plan was to make the area along Woodward from New Center to Downtown emulate a mini-Manhattan, or at least something like Downtown-Uptown Houston.
😢And Livernois isn't pronounced"liver-noise,"but because of its' French origin it's pronounced:"Li-vwah-nah". Learned this in my handy"Detroit Almanac"I bought at"Pure Detroit in 2001. Also from prior knowledge of French words,I'm aware that Saint Jean isn't pronounced like:"gene",but:"JOHN"!! 😮
Ok, don't over dramtize Brightmoor. This was a neighborhood of worker cottages from WWII that were tiny and meant to house single people working in the military-industrial complex. I've been there... literally one room shacks. People didn't want to live there. Then crime and the crappy construction caught up to the homes. It'd be nice to in-fill this area with well-constructed homes. The infrastructure is still there.
...I wonder if there's a slim chance the fact that an international criminal organization has their headquarters in Brightmoor might be connected to the drug related crimes in this neighborhood?
@@swilkobarfingtoniii1642 No way, that’s like saying the US military has a gang problem or that every 1%’r MC except one formed out of Vietnam war veterans (sarcasm)
White Flight combined with improperly maintained rental property. Plus Warren based scrappers and dumpers made it impossible for locals to rehab and occupy.
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Brightmoor was a great family neighborhood in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s. Us Baby Boomers played outside, rode our
bikes safely all over the place. St. Christine Church on Fenkell was a nice parish with a small grade school, not a soup
kitchen. We got our first Polio vaccines at Hubert School on Lamphere. The vaccine was given on a sugar cube.
On our street there were families of various nationalities: Canadian, Scottish, Italian, Polish, Irish, English,
people from the Southern States. Lamphere, DaCosta, Dolphin, Chatham streets are ghosts of what they used to be.
Only memories remain of a wonderful childhood.
Brightmoor is listed in the Detroit Appalachian neighborhoods page, along with Briggs North and the Cass Corridor.
We attended Brightmoor Tabernacle Church. But we could see the trend/future and moved the church to Southfield and then to Novi.
As a skinny white kid in the late 60's we used to come down from Southfield to grandma's and ride our bikes around there. 9-10 years old. Nobody bothered us at all.
It was nice until those dark storm clouds moved in. If you get my drift. 🦍🦍🦍
My family all grew up in Detroit. I tried to find all of their houses on Google Maps but none of them still exist. Was pretty sad about that.
Surprisingly, a building where my Grandma once lived when she was older is still standing. Not sure where exactly she grew up yet.
My house I grew up in as a kid is an empty trash filled lot. Detoilet!
My Tudor Childhood home was sadly also burned to the ground
It's so fascinatingly sad seeing these empty neighborhoods, thinking about all of the houses that once stood there and was where many people lived only to rapidly start to empty out and become abandoned and burnt and the land turning back to nature
It's so eerie and desolate and I can't imagine what it must be like for some of the people on these blocks slowly watching neighbors and houses disappear
Brightmoor neighborhood was mine when I was 1 year old. Soon after my family moved. Actually, the block we lived on is currently not the absolutely worse.
Whoever is now living in our house appears to be taking good care of it.
This is sad. So many once-beautiful neighborhoods like this in Detroit that were modest but charming. I love the variety of architecture. But, as you point out, it's blighted now.
I was born and raised right here in the area of brightmoor and I amazingly am still living here at 66 years old day after tomorrow in the same house I was born into and raised in. It’s been a challenge all my life living here but it is still home sweet home
Wow. You’ve probably seen a lot of changes in your city and neighborhood throughout that time!
Like an urban forrest. Quite nice to see it all return to nature.
Im from Brightmoor. Fenkell ave and Lamphere St. We left that place back in 2004 because of how bad it was. I went to Hubert Elementary and then Murphy Middle School right around the corner. Lot of good memories from that area
I lived & grew up in Brightmoor back in the 70’s until I was nine, in my grandparent’s home right in the corner of DaCosta & Eaton, roughly a half a block’s walk to my first elementary school… Hubert Elementary. Even back then, I was only one of three kids in the entire school that was white. But at that time it was still a relatively safe place to live in terms of overall crime.
Fast forward less than ten years after my family had left the neighborhood after my grandfather’s passing, and the neighborhood by that time had earned its new nickname of “Little Vietnam” from all the gang wars, dogfighting, prostitution and street level drug thugs that had moved into many of the homes. It was around this time that a lot of the arsons started taking out a home here and then a home there one by one in order to purge the unwanted dealers and whore houses that had taken hold.
My grandparents lived and raised three children in that neighborhood dating back to when they bought their house new sometime back in the early 1940’s. Up til the day my grandmother moved out, their home stood literally as a shining gem on the block, albeit in the end with metal locking bars on all the windows as well as both front and side doors leading in, along with a 24 hour surveillance alarm system. Two years after selling it outright for a grand total of $13,000, it too had been burned to the ground. It’s been one of the longest lasting heartbreaks of my lifetime, still lingering in me at 51 years old today
Wow! 😞 Just treasure the good memories 💜
That's called Blackerfication.
I live across the river in Windsor. I think Detroit is capable of making a comeback. I see the construction cranes 🏗 all over the place in downtown Detroit. From what I have heard,downtown Detroit is way better than it used to be. Ford just transformed the long vacant and decaying Michigan Central Railway station in Corktown and I can imagine that the area around there is only going to grow and redevelop in time. It’s going to require decades but it’s not impossible.
That’s how I see it. Hopefully leadership remains at least decent for the long term future.
The city needs to reinvent its industrial base, which was the core to its prosperity in the past. But do that, a number of drastic changes need to be made. First, the school system no longer prepares a workforce. And if new industries are interested in coming to Detroit, there has to be a population prepared for the new jobs. But when new industries come to a city, particularly high tech jobs, the companies bring in their own trained workforce because the city at present does not have it. Once upon a time, the Detroit Public School System worked in tandem with industry to train high school graduates for the various job opportunities that were available. But as modern technology has entered, a lot of jobs have been replaced by technology. So there has to be a redefining of the workforce and the jobs that are in demand. Working for McDonald's is NOT the path to stability.
Detroit Camera Crusaders has a great channel where he fights Illegal dumping in his Brightmoor Neighborhood.
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned the Irving Theater. I grew up in West Redford Township, Inkster Rd., one block South of Five Mile, so we often watched movies at the Irving.
I used to go to the Irving on Saturdays for the cartoons and a movie. 1963 and 4, lived at Patton and Fenkel. Safe place then.
Detroit is 143 square miles in area. They should shrink the city limits to about half of that and leave the rest as urban prairie. People who live on the outskirts of Detroit should be moved closer to the urban core downtown for better access to services. There's no reason for Detroit to occupy all that land anymore.
@markminter6312 People who live on the outskirts of Detroit "SHOUD BE" moved closer. What's this "SHOUD BE" crap. Do you mean forced to? You must of voted for Biden.
This was mostly my Scout Car area DPD 16 pct 16-9 from 1972 Till 1979
They should contract Detroit to a small city, (so they can give services), then the outer ring would Detroit Heights which would be rural. Ps: Love the music 🌝
Who knows what this place will look like or be like in 100 years. It'll be different though.
Or Detroit Fields or Detroit Woods Township.
I grew up on Kentucky and Intervale area from 1951 till 1966. I was 19 yrs old and moved to Allen Park with my parents.
Seeing all these non-existent and abandoned houses makes it hard for me to believe Detroit was ever a bustling city with a thriving automotive industry. This is exactly what happens when crime comes to a head, taking over entire neighbourhoods, and also what happens when jobs start to leave a metro area.
I think if they do a turn-around (which seems easier said than done), and make the city a little nicer and cleaner by way of investment in infrastructure and gaining jobs in other segments, these neighbourhoods could be full of life like it was in its glory days.
Yup. There has to be a demand for people to want to live in the city in order for it to turn around. It'll be tough for Detroit to accomplish when there are a hundred or so suburban communities that are better places to live in currently... but it can be done if the city does things the right way for a multi-decade stretch.
I went to Gompers ,Harding and Redford and while it has always been a tough neighborhood throughout my life , it sure has gone to hell. This neighborhood will never come back to life.
Went to Burt School 60's and Redford in the 70s lived on Burt until mid. 80's . Looks a lot different. Still have a lot of fond memories.
Hey Bill ! I when to Burt school with you back in the day❤
@kathyjenkins4067 I hope you are doing well .All of our schools are gone now, and most of the homes and shops, it is sad, the way drugs and violence destroyed it. Thanks for the text. Over the years, I have only heard from one other ,you may remember him Ricky Chavez.
I grew up in Detroit was born there and it is shame that they let it get this bad I don't think Detroit will ever come back😢
This wasnt allowed, it was forced. The movie "10", if it can be located, was very specific with "who, what, and why". Some major entities were affected by Covid. This next year may see an aversion to negative bias, and those hood theatres and museums may be active again
It’s well on its way to coming back my friend! You must not have been there since you moved out!
I grew up on Stout, south of Grand River (60's/70's), went to the old Burt School as a kid. My dad used to threaten to take us to Brightmoor if we weren't good. But ironically, where we were was close to it.
I have been in daugh U.P. for about 30 years now. Have lots of good memories of Uncle Sam's dance bar, School craft road watching the houses in your area being cleared and the building of the huge Jefferies( 696) ditches, taking Grand River through N. Redford was a pleasant ride and the only way to get to 96 before 696 went in, Farrell's Ice Cream, the Federal's Department Store Mall on Grand River, the super cool architecture of the women's Y.W.C.A. and the Redford Motel. (friends used to call it, "The Red Hot Redford Motel). I saw Joann Jett play for a free concert when she was trying to promote her new band, The Runaways ( she must have been about 14 or 15) play at E.J. Korvettes mall. Later it was Burlington Coat, then I think a Vic Tannys, but some kind of gym with Peir One Imports in the parking lot. My non public school friends went to Bishop Borgess Catholic school, now some kind of Evangelist mega church. My family is all passed on and I have no reason to go back. The memories of Redford warm my heart when I think about one of my X girl friends who lived near Hidden Lane and 5 mile in the mid 1980s. Not to mention Bates Burgers but of course that was Livonia. I grew up in Dearborn Heights
at least its very green there. 🌳🌿
😅 they’ve ruined a once nice city
Yes, but it's black every where else.😊
@@ConnieMontfort-s9l what ...
Well, I used to live in Brightmoor. My sister owned a house there. I wish you would’ve said what streets you were on as you were driving through. The one thing I did recognize was checkers drugstore on 5 mile I worked there surprised to see it still standing. By the way I live there in the 60s early 70s.
I used to walk to Sobells Checker Drugs and get an ice cream or pop, sit on the curb outside and watch cars for an hour. My mom was a soda jerk there in the 40's. I think I heard my dad say he set pins at the bowling alley on the second floor.
I had a girlfriend that lived on Burgress Street in back of the Forbidden Wheels club house. Her house and her neighbor's homes were actually Sears kit houses built on slabs.
@alfredindy8058 I Worked with a few of the forbidden Wheelers at GM. I never had an issue with these guy's. In 1978 I saw a dude ride right through a store plate glass window and his arm was severed at the shoulder all the boys did was hold him down (he was running in circles with blood pumping out of his shoulder) and push his arm back into his shoulder until EMS arrived.
@@kevin-bp8jn Funny! I ran into and talked to a Scorpion this week up north. We talked for a half an hour about Detroit. Their clubhouse is still on Fenkell, but they have thirteen other clubs in MI, and out of state.
That club was no bs. I remember an “incident” in the club house in the late 70s. Rumor was the cops found brain matter in the ceiling that wasn’t related to said “incident “. Those guys were a real bike club and scary.
12-12-23 Anch. AK .... The map identifying Mi. 5 / Fenkell , Puritan , Telegraph, & Evergreen makes your post BETTER then others on Detroit. 👍👍👍
Way back in the last century, i went North to pretend to be a student at NMU while my sister matriculated locally & got her first "pad" in Brightmoor . Many post-psychedelic & semi-inebriated days and nights lost wandering around good ol' Brightmoor ... that i can barely remember anyway .
Two thumbs up 👍👍
Have lots of good memories of mind blowing experiences when I lived on the corner of Lamphere and DeCosta while attending college in the 1980s. I often tell my friends about how all the guns going off on New Years Eve sounded like a fire works display.
That area of Detroit has some rolling topography. I always thought the city was completely pancake-flat. Interesting.
In the late 70's I lived in Brighton on the corner of Patton & Eaton. The day I got laid off from GM (Hydro-Matic out in Ypsi.) I packed up and got the Hell out of Dodge and moved back to the mountains of North Georgia. From what I've heard, that block is now all empty lots. I've wondered why they don't plow it up and turn it into gardens for the locals to grow their own vegetables on ?
Thanks for the info on this section of Detroit. Looks like you can have only 1 or 2 occupied homes on some of these blocks. Imagine that.
I used to live there in Brightmore just across the river. It is a pretty place.
I used to live across Telegraph Road in Redford Township.
@@dgrGR61 Hi neighbor! Thanks 4 checking in. I have been in daugh U.P. for about 30 years now. Have lots of good memories of Uncle Sam's dance bar, School craft road watching the houses in your area being cleared and the building of the huge Jefferies( 696) ditches, taking Grand River through N. Redford was a pleasant ride and the only way to get to 96 before 696 went in, Farrell's Ice Cream, the Federal's Department Store Mall on Grand River, the super cool architecture of the women's Y.W.C.A. and the Redford Motel. (friends used to call it, "The Red Hot Redford Motel). I saw Joann Jett play for a free concert when she was trying to promote her new band, The Runaways ( she must have been about 14 or 15) play at E.J. Korvettes mall. Later it was Burlington Coat, then I think a Vic Tannys, but some kind of gym with Peir One Imports in the parking lot. My non public school friends went to Bishop Borgess Catholic school, now some kind of Evangelist mega church. My family is all passed on and I have no reason to go back. The memories of Redford warm my heart when I think about one of my X girl friends who lived near Hidden Lane and 5 mile in the mid 1980s. Not to mention Bates Burgers but of course that was Livonia. I grew up in Dearborn Heights.
I lived across the street from the abandoned school, Hubert, in the opening of your video.
This was lawn porn for me, living in Arizona and missing grass so much. Lawns don’t exist here. As usual, thanks for the interesting ride!
One of the advantages of being in Michigan. We have green landscapes without even trying. Some years we have enough regular rainfall from spring through autumn that we don't even need to use sprinklers for individual lawns.
Plenty of grass where I live and the din from lawnmowers, weedy-whackers, and leaf-blowers every summer is enough to make me dread summer! Maybe Arizona is the place for me.
Hamtramck born myself (Carpenter & Maine). My dad said bye-bye after the 12th street riot (1967). I never enter this city, which is quite rare without my Glock. Back in it's heyday it was called "The Paris of the Midwest". The decline started when it got darker. (If you get my drift).🦍🦍🦍
Had some friends that lived on Pierson at Fenkell. One of them actually worked at Paulie's hardware. Wasn't so bad in the early 80s
For a few summers in the mid 1960s we used to ride our bikes from Dearborn Heights to Warren and Pierson, then up Pierson to the Rouge Golf course at 6 am so we could take the free Golf Lessons offered by the Detroit Free Press for kids in summer.
Which city has more work to do? St.Louis, Detroit, or Cleveland?
Once again great music selection. I know not everyone loves your choices for the music but I'm definitely not one of them.
Anonymous users of the internet will complain about anything.
I lived at 14251 Kentfield mid 60s house no longer there. So sad and depressing
Brightmoor returning to nature, worse things have happened. I did have some pleasurable things happen there, and many friends that came from there. The best Rock music bars nearby, in the seventies and eighties, and hoards of dancing girls growing up there. The air has to be pretty nice there, with all the vegetation returning. Lived three miles north, on Westbrook, from '74-'88, and 5 miles east during High School, '66-'69.
Hi neighbor! Thanks 4 checking in. I have been in daugh U.P. for about 30 years now. Have lots of good memories of Uncle Sam's dance bar, School craft road watching the houses in your area being cleared and the building of the huge Jefferies( 696) ditches. I saw Joann Jett give a free promo concert at E.J. Korvettes mall to promote her new band, The Runaways. She was probably about 15 or 16.
As Sonny and Cher once said......"and the beat goes on!"
I grew up in Rosedale Park in the fifties and sixties. Our family were regulars at Scottie Simpson's which has the best fish and chips you will find in the state. One of the last meals my dad wanted to have before he moved into his retirement home was at Scottie Simpson's. The place attracts everyone from gangbanger's grandma's to big company CEO's.
Thanks for the video, but As a Brightmoor native, youre about 70% correct.
I used to frequent Brightmoor back in '78-80. It really wrenches my gut to see that there are no houses on those streets anymore. So sad.
That's not even brightmoor that he's in he's in. He's literally circling through Rouge Park
What happens to the underground utilities with all the abandoned home sites, for example the sewer mains under the streets, they need "flow" to keep them clean and flowing. Breaks over --- back to work.
Not sure. They're probably outdated and need replaced anyway.
@@ChrisHarden Maybe replace all the politicians also... lol
White flight...they seen the writing on the wall !
So many memories in that park in the 80's!
"Fink-ul," Chris. And "Lasher" if you need that one, too.
"LAH-sir"is the correct pronunciation. 😊
6:04 Scotty Simpson’s is good.
I know it spelled fenkell but everyone I know says it with an “I” sound like Finkell. This like the road lasher to me it’s one word in the suburbs they say it more like La-sher.. more or less it just sounded weird the why you said the street name, ok I’ll get off my weird rant. By the way love your videos
Schoenherr as shaner
Your videos are good; ur information is even better and also like others, that music got that beat. Tys. If The Auto Companies don’t outsource to diff Countries; maybe things would be diff. all over.
In west Los Angeles there’s a stretch of Slauson Ave thats real nice. From the end on the Marina Freeway to La Cienaga BLVD. Go a mile east of La Cienaga, and you’re now in the low rent district!!
So we visited the area and wow I felt soooo bad on how it looked in this area . The homes had holes in the roofs of the houses and the trees took over the area and it just looks very bad.
Some parts of that area you’d think would just be bought out by the town and destroyed clear cut and auctioned to a auto parts company for land for a new factory in Detroit
I remember a bunch of older people around Warrendale that had C.B. radios formed the C.B. patrol and would be a thorn in our saddle back in the 80s..........SMH......LOL
My hubby lived on West Parkway Street and Keeler Street off 5 mile road east of telegraph road
1981-1985 then he moved out
It’s in every US city, not just Detroit. Looks good to me for a developer to go in right now. It’s on the City’s plan. No burned down houses and rubble, just green space. I live in Windsor and am 70 years old and I know Detroit. That’s nothing Bro. Detroit is looking better now than it has in 30 years for sure! I am telling you.
16:19 looks like there's someone hung themselves from a tree in an orange jumpsuit. That's kind of freaky even if it isn't anything bad it looks it.
That was my first thought when seeing it.
I believe Detroit could come back. Maybe Healthcare or Tech? !
I believe so too. The suburbs to the north have been thriving this whole time that Detroit has been declining. Ann Arbor to the west is thriving. Key things that need to happen would be a continued progress on seeing lower crime rates, and possibly a tax reform as Detroit has some of the highest taxes in the nation.
We lived at Auburn and Lyndon. From 57' ~ 84' Was an awesome place to grow up! I spent every waking moment at Stoepel playing baseball. Went to Vetal, and then Borgess. many friends went to Redford, and we all had drivers ed at Cooley High because they had an actual driving course! Worked at Cregar's with my buddies. I delivered the Brightmoor Journal in 75' then The Detroit News in 76-77' all over Rosedale. Goofed around at Bowlcraft lanes, and have great memories of Gala Day at Stoepel. It was pretty darn safe until 83' or so, then turned to shit because while the homes were still maintained, the new occupants decided to flat out destroy every last one. Steal the siding, then the plumbing, and burn the rest down. Cause what good is a house that does not have a roof! Zero investment in time and pure laziness killed that neighborhood. No more decent Grocery stores, abandoned schools, and blight! Every single one of those street had hard working middle class families that took care of their homes, and I had many friends all over Brightmoor, and Rosedale park, and North Rosedale. It's hard to watch Poverty Porn, for all kinds of American cities and neighborhoods. Until Investments are made in Schools and food deserts, Infrastructure. Hopefully it's getting better as all the idiots are now gone, and the people who are there can rebuild without being robbed. However, I'm glad Sonny's is still there!
HomenetAV;I attended Vetal as well in 1984,when I lived on Piedmont at Eaton. 😮
@@AnthonyTucker-sl4zj Hey Man! That was a great neighborhood! It's a shame as the School is now abandoned, and without a decent school people stay away. I had lots of black and white friends back in the day. Can't remember ever having any issues across the isles so to speak. It was the cheap housing mixed with drugs that really took it's toll on Brightmoor. Wouldn't change anything about growing up there. I rented my first house on Piedmont across Schoolcraft. One day I woke up and the house across the street was blazing. I said that's it! I'm leaving. Truly sucked! The house I grew up in is still there, and It looks good. Other than the School, it really needs a new Grocery store on Schoolcraft between Southfield and Evergreen, then things will change and make it more attractive. But the City per usual and private investment never want to build up. Love my Detroit! Be well my friend!
I thought you were driveing thru a twilightzone episode for a li'l minit
He's right about Brightmo' being the Eastside on the Westside
I was playing in the.middle.of a shooting/ murder scene in the Bon Ton bar parking lot right at corner of Schoolcraft/Braile...screaming, crying, police and ambulance sirens....8 year old Kevy-Boy wants to know whats up cause he is curious. We left in 1980. We made it out before crack really took off, but our family home burnt down supposedly by crackheads in 1983. Miss my hood....hot summer days in 1970s Bri-mo
Google mapped and street viewed the house fam and I lived in 32 years ago( I was 12) at Bentler and Bennett, and, yep, demolished, along with the house next to it. 13 years ago, street imagery showed it boarded up and abandoned, and as of 5 years ago, gone, like it never even existed. I mean, I didn't have the fondest of memories there, but I was curious as to whether or not it was still standing. NOPE. The entire street looks like it's on the verge of demolition. How sad. Derelict houses get demolished, but no one wants to develop the land (i.e. build a new home) because, quite frankly, it's Detroit 🫤
Looks very nice and green like a wild life sanctuary. Why no rewild it? Plant more trees, hedges, add some fishing lakes, some hunting areas.
I like it when you show all of it GOOD and the BAD !!
Surprised no one shot at you or you weren’t car jacked
Yeah, considering how hypocritical the You-Know-Who Crowd can be. 🙄😠
Blightmoor... niiiiice!!! Love your vids
Land is great !!! Nothing wrong with nature.
That's exactly what I said !!!
I was just thinking nature reclamation ain't the worst thing that could happen. Better than abandoned homes and concrete. I wonder if urban farming could be a thing there.
Chris, do any of your videos cover Hickory st. My buddy used to live there.
I stayed close to Brightmoor back in the day.
That's my old neighborhood 😢
Dang i came to brigtmor from rosedale been here 5 years and alot of those buildings have been bought and changed 😭
If you look at the thumbnail picture of Detroit in the background, you can see downtown to the right and the New Center (including the Fisher Building) to the left-center. The original plans for the Fisher called for twin 420 towers flanking a center tower of over 800' tall.(Detroit's answer to the Empire State Building) That plan never came to pass as the Great Depression had other ideas. The plan was to make the area along Woodward from New Center to Downtown emulate a mini-Manhattan, or at least something like Downtown-Uptown Houston.
One would think that as the houses disappeared one by one, that the trees would be taking over.
Back in the 80s and 90s I told everyone to buy american to stop this from happening!!!
There probably aren't even any birds or squirrels in that city anymore.
The street they filmed Barbarian in? Do you know if that exist or just a set?
Aside from government corruption, the loss of the city's tax base is largely the cause of the demise of the city.
😢And Livernois isn't pronounced"liver-noise,"but because of its' French origin it's pronounced:"Li-vwah-nah". Learned this in my handy"Detroit Almanac"I bought at"Pure Detroit in 2001. Also from prior knowledge of French words,I'm aware that Saint Jean isn't pronounced like:"gene",but:"JOHN"!! 😮
I hate when these people who didnt grow up in any of these Detroit neighborhoods but want to educate people about something they know nothing about.
Yeah you are right and can see my post on what happening.
BEST FISH N CHIPS THO
Wyoming Fish N Chips was the best on Wyoming north of Schoolcraft!!!
The movie Barbarian brought me here.
SAME
Ok, don't over dramtize Brightmoor. This was a neighborhood of worker cottages from WWII that were tiny and meant to house single people working in the military-industrial complex. I've been there... literally one room shacks. People didn't want to live there. Then crime and the crappy construction caught up to the homes. It'd be nice to in-fill this area with well-constructed homes. The infrastructure is still there.
Is this the BBC's David Attenborough you are referring to?
Brightmoor does not border Rosedale Park. Grandmont Rosedale is closer to Brightmoor.
No matter how bad that neighborhood gets, it's always worth a trip to Scotty Simpson's for some proper fish and chips.
Lmao 😂 I grew up in Brightmoor and warrendale there’s nothing left
My husband bought a house off Kessler, but sold in last year!🤢
What the heck would it be like to live around here currently? Must be weird
You should do outer drive from the beginning all the way to Redford township.
Did
@@ChrisHarden you did?? Imma have to go back through your playlist
@@rockae85Yup just search Outer Drive Detroit and it should show up
Pls Film Warren Ave
On the East side
Tudor style homes
right behind murphy middle school""" i went to 1986 -89'' then redford high'''''
I thought it was a animated cartoon at first lol
i know where im buying my next home
Wouldn't be cool if the city could rezone these empty suburbs as agriculture and freeze property taxes or something
Why haven't you driven around Wyoming and Intervale area?
Whats the point of this video?
its "Angels Night". Archer
9:16 Detroit clubhouse for the Outlaws M.C. Also that organizations National Headquarters. Looks legit... Ask for a taco. They'll get a laugh.
...I wonder if there's a slim chance the fact that an international criminal organization has their headquarters in Brightmoor might be connected to the drug related crimes in this neighborhood?
@@swilkobarfingtoniii1642 No way, that’s like saying the US military has a gang problem or that every 1%’r MC except one formed out of Vietnam war veterans (sarcasm)
Rip Taco 1% er. ADIOS.
Wonder who ruined this area 🤔 ??
A city built around a single industry, corporate greed, and lots of racism. 😔
☻☻☻☻☻☻☻
Racism and corruption, a lack of equality.
Your mother ruined it.
Now tell her to go make me a coffee.
White Flight combined with improperly maintained rental property. Plus Warren based scrappers and dumpers made it impossible for locals to rehab and occupy.