#891. The Demise of the Pontiac Silverdome

Black people love sports. Years of watching sports have helped people from across the United States develop favorable images of Black people, through vast consumption of sports, which is explained with the process of "Mainstreaming":

"A corollary of cultivation theory, the concept of “mainstreaming” implies that heavy television viewing contributes to an erosion of differences in people's perspectives that stem from other factors and influences.

It is based on the argument that television serves as the primary common storyteller for an otherwise heterogeneous population. As the source of the most broadly shared images and messages in history, television represents the mainstream of the common symbolic environment into which children are born and in which we all live out our lives."

We have documented the amount of time people spend watching the National Football League (NFL), college football and other professional sports, and with this repeated viewing of 13 percent of the population dominating the airwaves on Saturday and Sunday, the concept of 'mainstreaming' has created a false dichotomy of the world.

Fall Saturday's and Sunday's both serve as Holy Days in America and the worshiping of the new Gods from Olympus occurs. The only sacrifice made in 21st America comes from the pocketbooks of taxpayers, for they must fit the bill for erecting these massive structures that will play host to the religious gatherings, as the book Field of Schemes outlines:

"Field of Schemes is a play-by-play account of how the drive for new sports stadiums and arenas drains $2 billion a year from public treasuries for the sake of private profit. While the millionaires who own sports franchises have seen the value of their assets soar under this scheme, taxpayers, urban residents, and sports fans have all come out losers, forced to pay both higher taxes and higher ticket prices for seats that, thanks to the layers of luxury seating that typify new stadiums, usually offer a worse view of the action."

A fantastic blog detailing this pervasive technique that rivals Scientology in its excesses can be found here, as the authors of the book work prodigiously to document continued abuses of stadium erection at the tax payer expense.

It is in these Holy sites that occupy hundreds of acres in every major city that Black people have temporarily utilized the power of 'mainstreaming' to garner a hypnotic effect over the entire country, for their exploits are fodder for ESPN junkies and account for countless hours of wasted productivity from these citizens.

Perhaps this is why the sudden demise of the Silverdome is such a shocking blow to the continued 'mainstreaming' of a new social order:

"The town of Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, sold the 80,300-seat Silverdome on Monday, along with 127 acres of nearby land. The massive stadium complex, which once hosted the Detroit Lions, the Detroit Pistons, and the Michigan Panthers, cost more than $55 million to build in 1975.
Its selling price in 2009? $583,000.

Of course, Detroit's decay extends beyond its residential areas. As upsetting as it is to see once-beloved Victorian homes and beautiful apartment buildings sinking into disrepair, the loss of industrial space is even more significant. The hulking ruins of auto buildings like Fisher Body 21, the Packard Plant and the Piquette Plant (where Ford's (F) Model T was first built) seem to suggest not only a local loss of population but a larger loss of purpose."

Yes, the Detroit Silverdome was sold for a mere $583,000, less than 1 percent of what it was built for in 1975:

"It cost more than $55 million to build the Silverdome football stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. Yesterday, it sold for the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

The former home of the U.S. National Football League’s Detroit Lions sold at auction for $583,000, or about $7.25 per seat, as the debt-ridden city of Pontiac sought to raise cash.

The area’s unemployment rate is 35 percent and emergency financial manager Fred Leeb was hired in March as Pontiac faced a $6.5 million deficit on a $100 million general fund budget, plus $103 million in bond debt, Leeb said."

Let's take a quick look at the census of Pontiac, Michigan's population:

"As of the census of 2000, there were 66,337 people, 24,234 households, and 15,267 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,318.2 per square mile (1,281.3/km²). There were 26,336 housing units at an average density of 1,317.3/sq mi (508.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 39.09% White, 47.92% African American, 0.58% Native American, 2.40% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 6.47% from other races, and 3.50% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.76% of the population."

SBPDL has friends with houses worth 4 or 5 times the amount of what the Pontiac Silverdome went for, and is shocked that the stadium even fetched $500,000.

In a town where raccoons are now seen as a delicacy, Detroit can be proud to know the stadium that once hosted the Lions is now worth less than a studio apartment in Manhattan.

The Silverdome played host to Superbowl's, Wrestlemania's, major concerts and even an episode of Home Improvement in the 1990s. Now, the ghost of these events haunt the empty building and the 20 acres the massive structure sits upon.

Detroit has seen better days. The fall of the Pontiac Silverdome has a distinct correlation with the collapse of that city and what it portends for the rest of America, as Pre-Obama America is eradicated throughout the land:

"By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit's treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services. The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers' union to reject a philanthropist's offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans, unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit, the unemployment rate is 28.9%. That's worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.

That's because the story of Detroit is not simply one of a great city's collapse. It's also about the erosion of the industries that helped build the country we know today. The ultimate fate of Detroit will reveal much about the character of America in the 21st century. If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can't find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?"

Black people see the writing on the wall in Detroit. A city that is run by Black people (indeed, Detroit is one of the Blackest big cities in America) is in complete and utter chaos. Some people have envisioned razing Detroit and turning it into farmland.

And through it all, the Pontiac Silverdome will stand as a sorry example of social engineering run afoul and worse, what happens when government attempts at creating a sports utopia backfire:

"The Silverdome opened in 1975 and cost taxpayers $55.7 million to build and $1.5 million a year to maintain, Leeb said. By contrast, the New York Giants and the New York Jets will play next year in a new stadium estimated to cost $1.6 billion."

This could happen in your town. In fact, chances are, it will.

Stuff Black People Don't Like must include the demise of the Pontiac Silverdome, for the less than $600,000 sale of a building that would cost $220,000,000 million to build today is just a perfect example of what happens when you live in a Black world.

Not even Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant could save Detroit now.

#171. Wasting Raccoon's in Detroit

Black people love Detroit. Comprising nearly 92 percent of the inhabitants of the 11th most populated city in the United States, Black people can take umbrage at any other city in America trying to classify themselves as the ultimate Black - or Chocolate city.

Detroit has a very colorful city council to represent the citizenry - even though many of those elected to protect the public interests are themselves currently under indictment for fraud, bribery and misuse of public funds - as they try and fight off massive job loss, rising crime rates ( most dangerous city in America), failing schools (Forty Schools closing) and the potential bulldozing of large sections of the city (another topic for Stuff Black People Don't Like, for another time).

CNN reports that you can buy a house for $100 down in Detroit:

"Dragging down the average are homes that are long abandoned or foreclosed on that are selling for pennies on the dollar. Detroit already had the lowest market value houses in Michigan before the latest rounds of job losses at GM and other huge employers, market analysts say."

Suffice it to say, Detroit is a thriving Black metropolis, a beacon and a veritable citadel for Black people's crowning achievement in America and an example of what Black people can bring to other major cities throughout the nation.

Black people love Detroit, for it is their city and the epitome of change and hope that all cities can look forward to undergoing during the Kafkaesque transformation of America.

Detroit no longer has a major grocery chain and:

"No national grocery chain operates a store here. A lack of outlets that sell fresh produce and meat has led the United Food and Commercial Workers union and a community group to think about building a grocery store of its own."

This void has left the fine citizens of Detroit with the major problem of how to acquire food. Thankfully, raccoon is filling that vacuum.

What Black people do not like though, is wasting good raccoon in the catacombs of the decaying, crumbling city that is Detroit. Raccoon is considered a delicacy in Detroit, a rare treat that is vital to nourishing Black people and enabling them to continue the cities meteoric rise to the top of the Green Revolution in America. White people might like LEED certification; Black people just like nature baby.


And in nature, anytime a raccoon passes away, the true urban hunter Glemie Dean Beasley - a 69-year-old retired truck driver - swoops in to cook it.


Travels with Charlie, reports:

"While economic times are tough across Michigan as its people slog through a difficult and protracted deindustrialization, Beasley remains upbeat.

Where one man sees a vacant lot, Beasley sees a buffet.

"Starvation is cheap," he says as he prepares an afternoon lunch of barbecue coon and red pop at his west side home."

The Raccoon raconteur continues:

"Coon or rabbit. God put them there to eat," Beasley said....Hunting is prohibited within Detroit city limits and Beasley insists he does not do so. Still, he says that life in the city has gone so retrograde that he could easily feed himself with the wildlife in his backyard, which abuts an old cement factory."

"This city is going back to the wild," he says. "That's bad for people but that's good for me. I can catch wild rabbit and pheasant and coon in my backyard.

The saga of Detroit is encapsulated in the saga of Beasley. Knowing over 100 ways to cook Raccoon, Beasley is a thriving entrepreneur who sells his wares to the cities inhabitants. The city might not resemble the optimistic future imagined in the film Robocop, but Black people don't like wasting raccoon in any environment.

Stuff Black People Don't Like does not include Detroit, which is the ultimate Black people's city, but it does including wasting Raccoon there, for any meal that can be found is a fine one indeed.