2024 Stash & Grab Virtual Pub

[Mabel Figworthy]

Also a nice quiet corner to sit with a comforting hot drink?

[Serinde]

Also very welcome.

[fccs]

After this crazy election, I think I need the dishes to break, followed by a hot drink in a quiet corner.

[Serinde]

Feel free!

[richardandtracy]

Certainly an unexpected result, the polls were quite off. Maybe the pollsters need a drink too - I suspect they're going through a crisis of credibility at the moment having failed to predict the size of Trump's win for a second time.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

And please can we remember that, here as among the electorate, opinions are likely divided - some will lament the result, and some will cheer it. Here we are all fellow-stitchers amicably sharing the Stash & Grab!

[richardandtracy]

Yep, I agree, just commenting on peripheral issues. Very keen on not mentioning the pro's & con's of the actual events. Just want to sit down and have a nice mug of tea.

And a flapjack.
Definitely a flapjack.
Don't know why, but it feels just right this evening.
A nice & soft one, not over baked, all sticky and slightly chewy.

Regards,

Richard

[richardandtracy]

Has anyone looked at buying houses in Detroit recently?

Since the US housing crash in 2007(?) I've been irregularly looking for houses in Detroit. As you do.
In 2007 there were tens if not hundreds of properties for $1 each. I've just recently had a look in the same areas and got the shock of my life. There are still house size plots for $1,000 each, but the cheapest run-down houses once available for $1 are now in the $3,500 to $4,500 bracket. However, what has got me is the streets these houses are in. Where once the houses lined the streets, no more than a few feet apart, now there are 3 houses per block, or less in places. Going onto Google Street view looking at different times down some of these streets, you can actually see houses disappear from the images. They were family homes, someone's pride & joy, and now they're gone.

As someone who's parents' owned a house 400 years old, thinking of a young house, like one from the 1920's, being demolished along with hundreds of others nearby, it's remarkably sobering to think of.
One example:
Then
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3646959 ... FQAw%3D%3D
Now
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3647004 ... FQAw%3D%3D

It's shaken me a bit, must admit.

Regards,

Richard

[Steam.Jo]

Looks like they have less potholes in the roads than we have...

[Mabel Figworthy]

Definitely flapjacks, Richard. And oliebollen. It's that time of year for us Dutch

Those houses, or rather their fate is shocking indeed. Are they simply demolished because no-one wants them? And why were they for sale for $1 in the first place? Is it a Location Location Location thing?

[richardandtracy]

As far as I can tell people moved out of Detroit because there was no work and they couldn't afford to live without work. Once they left, any mortgages were foreclosed, or the owners handed keys back. In the US when the house is returned to the lender, that's the end of the debt even if it exceeds the property value. That's unlike in the UK where the debt value has to be paid off even if it exceeds the property value it's secured against.
Then with so many empty properties, house values collapsed and empty ones started to deteriorate fast, causing further decline in values until $1 houses were common. For those who did have jobs, they could probably afford to buy next door for a few dollars, demolish it, and have a bigger garden with neighbours further away. Then the 'Detroit Land Bank' seems to own a lot of properties and plots, presumably to try to manage derelict land, improve it and sell on when possible.

Very, very strange to see a city suburb be partly eviscerated by people leaving and houses be demolished.

Regards,

Richard

[richardandtracy]

Looks like they have less potholes in the roads than we have...

Err, I have to agree with you. And in this bit of North Kent, even after a street has been declared 'pothole free' it has more than these. In our Borough holes at asphalt joints under 6" across don't count as needing repairs. Tell that to a motorcyclist or cyclist...

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Mabel, Detroit is an interesting example of the extreme of what happened after the Great Recession of 2008. Many occupants had their houses foreclosed because they could no longer pay the mortgage. What always struck me is that these areas were solid working-class neighbourhoods. But the other thing to remember is that Detroit expanded far past the city's ability to look after its outer flanks. For a brief time, which must have seemed like ages, many houses were taken over by drug gangs, squatters and others. Nature also took her toll: Detroit winters are harsh and summers unforgiving. But... other people (damn hippies!) moved in, too, and started cultivating the yards. For all I know, they are still there. $3.5k for a house, even in a terrible state of repair, is a bargain. It's the land you want, and these are all on reasonable city lots.

What's interesting about this area (Poletown), is that it's actually not far at all from the city centre and the Detroit River. There has seemingly been a lot of empty land for decades.

I'ts not unusual during crises to find marginal land, for example, which had been brought into cultivation due to population pressures, was later abandoned because the people moved on (in one way or another!) and the village (or town) shrank to a more reasonable size. Black Death springs to mind. This is what happened to Detroit. It was a salutary lesson!

[Serinde]

Whew! I'm here having a morning tea. Birthday season is now officially behind me (3 in 11 days; bad planning, clearly), and I can get on with thinking seriously about Christmas!

[Mabel Figworthy]

A friend at church has the same problem (or joy) - her birthday and her two children's (now 14 and 16) are all within one week. Stressful but I hope still enjoyable as well? Anyway, time for a belated birthdays party!

[Serinde]

My lovely DH gave me the Inspirations Handpicked 3rd volume for my birthday.

[Mabel Figworthy]

That will give you a lot of pleasure over the holidays and beyond!

[Serinde]

Certainly will! All I need is lots more time and good eyesight.

[richardandtracy]

Too true. All too true.

Gives something to aim for, though. Do enjoy it, though.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Good light helps too! (My daylight stitching is being very much curtailed at the moment, and I can only assume that up north it's even more so.)