How dirty is Detroit?
Last year, the city privatized garbage collection, in part to keep residents from dumping trash on the city’s many empty lots, and the air quality’s good.
So how come a real estate agent is calling it “Dirty Detroit”?
To lure residents 280 miles away, to Indianapolis, of course! The ad, which appeared on a Facebook page that has since gone offline, told readers, “Your family doesn’t have to put up with the decay, high taxes, widespread poverty, lack of opportunity, and misery in Detroit anymore.”
It continued: “Everyone has the right to live the American Dream and Middle Class lifestyle. Indy is proud to be the most affordable city in America and the best place to be successful. There are thousands of jobs open right now across Indy for easy employment and a better life :)”
But instead of rallying readers to Indy’s cause, it angered them. One wrote, “This isn’t the way to build a strong Midwest region, it doesn’t help the Indy message, and it doesn’t accurately represent Detroit or any of the huge strides the city is making.”
It surprised us, too. Of course the city is still facing enormous hurdles, with a lack of jobs and infrastructure, a still-shrinking population, and ubiquitous vacant lots. But there are also plenty of efforts to improve it and a stream of new blood—people priced out of exorbitantly expensive cities such as New York.
So how do the cities stack up? The average home price in Indianapolis, a city of 837,120, is $119,000, and the median household income is $56,072. But it’s no crime-free paradise. Based on our research, Indianapolis is well above the national average for crime incidents.
In Detroit, a city of 769,003, the average home price is $20,000(!) and the median household income is $39,116. However, there’s no getting around the fact that crime is a major issue here, and violent incidents far exceed the number in Indianapolis.
Maybe the question for home seekers isn’t which one is a dirtier place to live. Maybe the question for Detroiters is: Do you want to be part of cleaning it up?
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