Detroit's Forbidden Housing Projects Explained 

Money to build a project and money to maintain a project are two separate things.

Interesting history. The Detroit projects were predictive of what was to happen later in St. Louis and Chicago with their housing projects. Good idea at first, but doomed to fail due to poor management and crime. Thanks for posting.

"Commerical Park"? This is the one that stopped me in my tracks....

Thank you for this. I’m huge on Detroit History, but I learn something new all of the time. This is great.

11:05 it’s actually “Comerica Park”

Frederick Douglass was not alive in 1972. He died in 1895.

I remember visiting my grandma at the Brewsters on the 12th floor I can see Tigers Stadium with the lights on c When the e game was played.

I moved out of Detroit in 96. I missed multiple rises and falls, and it is completely unrecognizable to my memory now. It is quite surreal to see all these old structures gone. I went to wayne state and passed these buildings almost everyday.

I worked in the low rise section in the 80’s when they were being demolished. They seemed nice though the rooms were a bit small. The courtyards were beautiful though to be fair the trees were at their maximum growth by then.

11:06 it’s Comerica Park, as in Comerica Bank. Thank you for the breakdown ❤

Channels like yours and The Fat Electrician have reignited my interest in all aspects of history. Thanks for doing what my pyooblic edumucation failed to do decade and a half ago

I live in Detroit and grew up here the Brewsters are still here just smaller it’s town houses now .. still low income .. I have great memories with friends who grew up over there .. ❤

So many govt projects look good on paper, but then one issue always arises: maintenance. The govt provides the money to build it, but rarely funds its maintenance.

Then happened the introduction of crack cocaine.

detroit in the 1950s was an *amazing* city!...i grew up in lansing from early 1970s-mid-90s, and both detroit and flint's downfall was quite shocking (lansing;s also, but i was too close to see it clearly until i moved away). very glad to hear news that detroit is on the rise again in the 21st century.

I wondering would you like to look into an apartment high rise in Philadelphia called West Park Apts (46th and Market Street). This complex has rich history, also what it was before is ver interesting,US presidential candidates campaigned there,amenities were unmatched in the nation. I promise you won’t regret it- hope you get this

I always remember that reddish color of herman gardens on joy rd

There use to be a projects building near me. Some guy bought it and kick out all the folks who didn't have a job and was causing all the crime there. So after a month there was the older folks left who retired and the only way to get in their now is by having a job and a work history. The rent is the same as before, 200$ to 800$. But now its safer and cleaner.

i believe you made a mistake in your video @5:12 about Fredrick Douglas. you say he was a vice presidential candidate in 1972. don't you mean 1872?

These projects were intended to keep racial segregation in place in their cities. The high-rises were huge mistakes, basically 'warehousing' people not realizing that people don't like being warehoused. The decline and decentralization industry in cities, need for fewer works due to automation, shifts, the rise of Japanese imports, were also factor that vacated other housing from these projects.

Thank you for making such a fascinating channel, full of stories about places and things I've never heard about.

As always Professor Socash great information, I was born in Atlanta back in the 50's (I know its not Detroit) but as a young child around 5 years old I remember living in the Projects in Atlanta, they were brick remember they were 2 story apts also remember very poor run down area,ya even as a kid I knew what was poor, then in 1956 my family we made what I call our Grapes of Wrath move to Calif with a 500 lbs Grandma in the back seat of that 1946/47 Hudson, as always, be Safe and be at Peace...

Check out this project housing from when I was a kid. Foundation Park, Chesapeake VA . It has been demolished completely by now I am sure. I remember there was a bus that would ride through after school and during the summer. Like a ice cream truck , but you walked on and they had candy and other snacks as well as ice cream.

I waited for this for a long time

The reasons why these buildings became dilapidated slums. It was because the government didn't take care of the maintenance and the people living in them. It wasn't a win win for no one.

My cousin lives in the new Brewster's now and they're very decent and better place to live

They are making more future projects today. Forced subsidized housing apartments. But worse yet they aren’t even making them cheaply

Things probably would have remained okay for the original residents if they hadn't added the high rises.

You give one group of men a pile of bricks and you get a city. You give another group of men a city and you get a pile bricks. Detroit.

Growing up in Detroit in the 60,s Brewster-Douglass was high rise hoods! @11:07 it is Co-merica park.

I would love to see your take on Coop City in the Bronx… tons of interesting history, as a former tenant it would be cool to see your take on things.

I did some HVAC work there in the early 2000s ,, abandon houses, burt out houses, bullet proof glass at every establishment. Pure Michigan.

Love this! Need more Detroit history videos🙌

Comisky park where the Detroit Tigers played had lights later on in its existence. Iconic baseball stadium. I saw several World Series games there . Remember seeing The great home run hitter Kirk Gibson great power hitter, when he had healthy legs he could appsalutley fly around the base pads. Very fast and not in the Baseball Hall of Fame he be.

What has happened to the cost of housing since 1980s ?!

Talent like them will never be born again.

Thanks!

I wonder why there wasn't a plan to completely rehabilitate these towers into a modern form. Fully modernized, the Douglas Housing Project now would command top dollar for each single residence in 2024.

"The Pj's" modeled the set after these project structures

Government housing is never a good idea, no matter how well-intentioned.

Labarge thank You Great Video

Anacostia in Southeast Washington DC, which is where I grew up, and is where Frederick Douglass house is, my 6 grade graduation was in Frederick Douglas front yard lol

NYCHA in NYC is also notorious and SAD.

Can you do a video on the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond VA?

William Brewster was my 10th GGF 🙏 Shame how it ended 😔

The projects need to come back. The projects became politically incorrect because they were dumps, and hotbeds of crime, due to the mismanagement mentioned in this video (you have to be selective), as a result most have been shutdown and demolished. What the social do gooders did instead was decide to “de-centralize” the projects across the entire city via section 8, the result is blight and falling property values and crime spread out as opposed to being centralized in a contained area. Bringing back the projects would fix this.

Fun fact: Detroit population is very very similar to Boston

I don't know if I would call those skyscrapers iconic looking they just look like regular old brick buildings to me and I'm not crying me tears that they're gone no iconic measures have been lost here

Everything built should be assigned a service life schedule for modification and replacement. Housing should be integrated with economic resources.

My grandmothers home her whole life she didn't move until they tore the high rises down

BS: I am born and raised just outside of Detroit and I was in the army and ground pounded my ass around in an actual war zone. With that nugget of info... There is no way you are seeing me anywhere near this place unless it is a life or death reason and Im wearing body armor. and YES i have actually been to this housing block. and YES this soldier was shitting his pants we were driving past it.

I remember launching mortar fireworks from the roof down to the passing cars on the freeway one night with a pile of friends up there lol.

Dang didnt know they were built before the projects in Chicago

It's not Comercial Park it's Comerica Park.

VP candidate in 1972?

There also was a similar project just west of the Lodge Freeway, south of Forest Ave. These were much closer to the center of the 67 riots. Nobody does well in dense housing. This has been show in models with rats too.

and now we're in an era were we need housing again the likes of that again

My mother lived there

Now they're putting in all these new condos to LCA Comerica and Ford Field so the noise pollution doesn't make any sense

5:53 they kook really nice.

Pls do a video on forgotten history of Lansing Michigan

I think there was a gym with boxing rings real close to those housing projects. Joe Louis visited in the early years of it.

"Another Martini for Mother Cabrini." Lenny Bruce, memorialising the charitable nun.

Alvin “Blue” Lewis who fought Ali in Ireland is from there also 🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁

I might have thought those were the Jeffries Projects.

It's a damn shame whats happened to Detroit . From a population of just under 2 million which peaked in the 50's down to around 600,000 today .

Simple, this was a government housing property, those living there had no investment in it, and thus did not care.

The government didn’t take care of the maintenance….and the people living in these tax payer projects???? Do the people bear any responsibility of taking care of their dwellings ??? Is the government and the taxpayer responsible for the crime….too?

Let me guess, the automotive plants closed.

As a Detroiter, thank you for this video!❤

Pls do a video on frank llyod wright Milwaukee Wisconsin Munkwitz Duplexes

My good friend and his buddies got ripped off there right before going to Vietnam 1967 . Said it was a scary place .

Comerica Park, like the bank

12:40 Diana Ross is not a record producer as mentioned, but Smokey Robinson is!! It is hard to accept conclusions made by the makers of this content when it is obvious they know so little about the city of Detroit.

Shopping Malls are not staying open these days unfortunately it would create jobs and perhaps you could put a new apartment complex in low - income don't know never been to Detroit.

There are apartments and condos right next to many stadiums, why was noise an issue here?

New York City has so many housing projects than Detroit did, but they still do. Thanks to NYCHA.

It got people out of the slums but people dont appreciate anything free or take care of it.

Well done Pruitt Igoe was the same way 1950's-1972

We all know whh it turned to a crime and desolate place, look st the demographics there vs places thst thrived. Tupac said it best "i wont conceal the fact, the penetentiary is packed and its filled with......"

All of them are and so much more.

Haiti on the lake!

"Rust Belt". Does anyone remember those two words? Hard to make a qualification of "having a steady job" when there aren't any jobs.

Was this the location of Oprah's classic the "Women of Brewster Place"?

A Mkultra cointelpro groundzero(DPH in general)

I can see why Axel Foley joined the Detroit police department in 1983🚔

5:12 1972?

NYC got it somewhat right...

The projects wrecked the neighboring neighborhood Brush Park ...

Comerica Park

See what happens when you relax the rules?

Vaguely similar things happened to Amsterdam's Bijlmer area, which comprised of a lot of massive, super modern high rise apartment blocks, with all the car-centric things 1960s politics loved. At the beginning, the population was mixed and the apartments were very well received, because they had modern (for 1960s) ameneties like garbage disposal chutes, large windows to let sunlight in, and central heating (which was really a new concept in the late 50s, early 60s). They were moderately expensive for their time. However, at that point in time, Amsterdam was much smaller and the city centre was almost half an hour away, with a lot of 'no man's land' in between, so residents felt detached from their home town. There wasn't much in the Bijlmer at that point when it came to entertainment and leisure. So the big blocks never really reached capacity. People preferred living in a worn out 19th century apartment in the city, over living in a very modern apartment in an 'empty' area. With the independence of Surinam, many Surinamese people decided to move to the Netherlands. A lot of them were 'cooped up' in the empty apartments by the city government. Not having a whole lot of money, they couldn't pay the significant fees for maintenance, house keeping and such, and the big blocks started to physically decline. More 1st gen residents moved out, more apartments went empty, squatters and criminals moved in who also didn't pay the maintenance fees, and a getto was born. It wasn't until the 1990s and 2000ss, that the problem was solved by demolishing part of the high rise blocks and mixing the with single family homes, and building a lot of offices around the area so it became an attractive place to work for the office workers. The only way to do projects right, is to include all types of people in them. Concentrating one demographic is bound to fail eventually. Part of the blocks need to be affordable rent and part of them need to be sold to individual buyers.

i can only imagine the build quality was horrible to being with

Riff-Raff ruins everything. I think Frederick Douglass said that.

The great migration (of you know who) began the downfall of Detroit, like many other of our cities.

Monie Love. Not money

Forbidding, not forbidden!

313 gang 🤟🏾

Chicago, Cabrini Green. These were death traps..😢

When you have less of one thing and more of another thing your city goes to shit.