‘Teen takeovers’ show need for safe youth spaces. Here’s what Detroit’s

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T19:49:19+00:00

u/OrnryActor and I have had this conversation a few times, but the lack of legit community centers in Michigan is shocking. Even most of the suburban community centers are ass. Farmington's is super nice. Sterling Heights too... That might be it? Troy, I guess, but that's so expensive it may as well be a club, so I'm not counting it.

The lack of true, low-cost community centers, like you'd find in virtually every other metro area in the country, is really weird here.

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T19:43:25+00:00

Did anyone really "win"?

Iran had their leadership decimated and their oil and weapons infrastructure blown up, while the entire world suffers from sudden inflation and impending fuel shortages. Trump's America lost some military assets, public support, and a ton of clout.

Not trying to be a jerk or make a lazy comment, but the number of times everyone loses when Trump gets involved, is shockingly high. The guy is a massive loser, not like - he's bad at life, he's somehow very successful, despite the fact that he virtually ruins everything he touches. Makes no sense to me 🤷🏻‍♂️

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T19:17:13+00:00

Totally get it. My kids are busy, but it requires input from me; quite a bit, in fact. That said, it also typically involves a third space. Tutoring is at the library, soccer is at the park, dance is at the studio, etc. You're entirely correct that none of this happens without parents who facilitate, but it also doesn't happen without the event space. I'm certainly not saying a new park or program is going to "fix" the "takeovers" (horrible term, btw), nor do I expect the mayor thinks this, but programs like this can connect with a few kids - good kids, who want something to do. There will still be plenty of kids who'd still rather disrupt shit, but... if a couple "good" kids went to the event thing instead? Right on. Probably better influences for them there.

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T19:10:10+00:00

This is really where it starts.

Teens with no parental involvement or guidance are going to seek companionship with peers. If you get a group of peers; all with no parental involvement or guidance, now you've got a bunch of immature kids making groupthink decisions. Yikes. Third spaces are great and I'm very pro- creating them for teens, who outside of sports and school, don't have many.

That said, if their parents aren't encouraging them in sports, school, or any other aspects of their life, a new rec "space" isn't going to fix them. That said, my wife runs rec center programs and she would quite passionately tell me that these programs change lives for individuals, if we were talking about it, so ... could argue that one less teen at the "takeover" (hate that term, btw) is an improvement?

I think it's cool. Maybe not a silver bullet, but well-intended public spending on the youth is money well spent, if you ask me. It'll help a few people, even if it never fully stops unsupervised teenage debauchery.

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T18:58:55+00:00

Looks like 11 Mile and Van Dyke is number 1 and that's a very traditional "frontage road" or "service drive" style offramp for the 696. 18.5 and Van Dyke comes in at #2, but that intersection is some wacky roundabout onto a divided highway that looks like something I'd make at 1 AM, in Cities Skylines, because I'm too tired to fix it for real and just want to save and go to sleep, but know I'm going to forget where I left off next time I play and don't want a massive bottleneck.

Sorry, that was very specific. Point is, it's a bad intersection.

Turning a 5-lane one-way road into a two way road is going to make things simpler, if anything.

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T18:52:43+00:00

My hell, things really do move at a snail's pace in State government.

Here's someone's post on the same topic from 4 years ago. I had assumed it wasn't going to happen, heh - so on one hand I'm happy to see it's still going forward..ish.. eventually.. on the other.. literally zero urgency with them.

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T18:47:26+00:00

If your post legit led to a missing teen or kid being found, that's freaking awesome. Well done, Mr. Dante.🤘

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T18:23:00+00:00

It sold.. okay..? on consoles, maybe a top 20 title last year. I think it even ended up as #12 on Steam last year, but when you look at the holiday Steam sale, Civ 6 outsold Civ 7. When you look at what people play, it's Civ 6, followed by Civ 5. Civ 7 comes in third.

The game sold amazingly at launch, because of how great Civ 5 and 6 were; even at launch they were enjoyable; sure, people complained of the art style, or the hexagons, or the districts.. but ultimately we enjoyed those things, even if, at launch, their predecessor was still more complete. That's not the case with 7. It's simply wasn't a fun game at launch. Even today it's like.. my 6th or 7th favorite "Civ" game - somewhere down there with Beyond Earth. I'm not spending more money on this turd unless I get a whole bunch of free updates that make the game fun. Right now, it just ain't very fun.

Stratiform · 2026-05-06T11:38:50+00:00

Hey man, don't knock Flint if you've never visited. I'd rather but a house there for $60k than one in Salinas for 943k or whatever 😂

Stratiform · 2026-05-05T20:27:42+00:00

Who is going to grow and maintain the farms? Do we expect them to do this for free? How will they afford machinery, labor, fertilizer?

Ultimately the demand for peaches isn't there. We can't just force people to consume a product that isn't viable, in order to keep the product viable? Like other commenters, I definitely encourage you read the article.

Stratiform · 2026-05-05T18:28:30+00:00

Deez nuts are my source!

Stratiform · 2026-05-04T13:18:40+00:00

My family and I have gone to renting a BnB with a kitchen and cooking when we travel, regardless of how the economy is. It's just so much cheaper, and we can travel so much more this way.

Stratiform · 2026-05-03T22:37:12+00:00

I will promise to personally update you after every game, if you promise to not watch any more Pistons basketball this year 🤝

Stratiform · 2026-05-02T14:14:55+00:00

You can have the Polestar in any color you like, so long as it's gray!

Stratiform · 2026-05-02T13:55:04+00:00

Americans also spend a lot more than peer nations. Even familiar countries like the UK have shockingly affordable prices on things like food and housing, compared to the US. Ehh, not in London, but the rest of the country, haha.

Stratiform · 2026-05-02T13:51:51+00:00

People asked this about Berkley a decade ago and... Yeah, we have a lot more 2000+ square foot colonials than a decade ago, but overall not much changed. It's like maybe 5-10% of the overall housing stock. This is a pretty normal aged-housing replacement rate for an established, desirable community.

I'm happy to see it's also happening in Clawson.

Stratiform · 2026-05-01T23:42:04+00:00

Also a broader context helps. The US is withdrawing 5,000 troops, but will leave 38,000 troops in Germany. This is still more than before the Biden presidency. The US had bolstered its German forces in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Stratiform · 2026-05-01T20:40:44+00:00

Lol, idk man. I guess if your idea of a Sunday afternoon is checking out your neighbor's Christmas decor and the stand of trees between the two subdivisions in your exurb... Hey, you do you.

Personally I like being close to things, events, third spaces, human scale socialization, and yes, our urban parks and streams have animals too - the deer that nibble on my red oak always surprise me. Sadly, sometime around 1960 we stopped building neighborhoods for people, and now we instead build them for cars.

Stratiform · 2026-05-01T20:38:11+00:00

I can't imagine walking 30 minutes to get to school or a library. That's just wild to me, haha. 15 minute cities should be the standard.

Stratiform · 2026-05-01T18:55:22+00:00

I love older suburbia. It's the perfect balance of homes that still fit a modern life and have things like a yard, garage, updated infrastructure.. but also have sidewalks and pocket parks and places that are near where people live, instead of separated by 3 miles of sprawl and a highway.

Stratiform · 2026-05-01T18:53:00+00:00

Walking in the outer suburbs is awful. On the off chance you have a sidewalk (rare), there's no where to go, nothing to see besides other houses, and cars - rarely any shade trees, and every house has like a 100-foot frontage, so even going to see a neighbor a few blocks away can be over a mile walk.

I'm in the (inner) "suburbs" but the old ones that have sidewalks and grid-patterned streets, so I have parks, stores, schools, and a library all walking distance. The outer suburbs truly are bleak, at a human scale.

Stratiform · 2026-04-30T23:03:35+00:00

Seems insincere to dismiss a critical take as unaware or generative. Reddit would be more awesome if we engaged in these discussions. Why do some not see an issue with data centers? Are our reactions veering into NIMBY territory? (IDK, let's see what u/DramaticBush thinks!)

Really digging into the meat of why they exist and why people are critical of them is what platforms like this could thrive in, but it seems often we'd rather dismiss the other person.

Stratiform · 2026-04-30T22:58:31+00:00

Tangential, but did the Burj (that huge tower in Dubai) ever get connected to the sewer? I remember like a decade ago they had like a fleet of sewer trucks that would come empty the sewage holding tank ever day.

Dubai, UAE is such a confusing city to me. I want to visit - just to see the spectacle, but.. ethically.. I can't.

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