Detroit, da -- its neighborhoods, nyet

I'd like to move back to my hometown, Detroit, but there are no neighborhoods left. And what has replaced them scares me to death.

In one weekend in Detroit (June 20-21), 27 people were shot. Three died.

That seems like an overwhelming amount. Then five more people were shot at a block party June 28.

According to the Detroit Police Department, there have been 139 homicides and 475 non-fatal shootings in the city so far this year. The local, and now and then the national, television reporters dip into this every night.

I timed it the other night on Channel 4, WDIV, the local NBC affiliate. It took two anchors the first 14 minutes of the newscast just to list the shootings that had transpired since they were last on the air the night before.

Citizens who were present at the shootings are not cooperating with the police investigation thus far.

And still fresh in my mind is the story of Steven Utash, even though it happened last year. Utash, 54 at the time, was a tree trimmer working for the city of Detroit. He was driving his pickup down a street in the Morang and Balfour area when an 11-year-old boy jumped out in front of him.

Utash stopped and got out of the pickup to see if he’d hit the boy.

Immediately, according to CBS, Utash was jumped by 10-12 men and beaten to smithereens. It took him four months to recover from the shellacking he got.

Tell me again why I want to move back.

Making a destination-oriented beeline for downtown Detroit is what most of my friends and I do. We’re in love with the idea of a big city, so we go to the only one available to us, like moths circling a flame.

Much has been done to attract us. Nice restaurants and a few stores have popped up in downtown proper. There are some areas of Detroit that seem to have been dubbed neutral zones, such as Comerica Park, Campus Martius, the DIA and the area surrounding it, The Fox Theatre area, the River Walk, Eastern Market and Midtown.

And Corktown. Can’t forget that.

That’s about it.

Have you driven the rest of Detroit’s neighborhoods recently? I have.

Houses are boarded up. Lots of houses, just off Woodward, midway between McNichols and Jefferson. Those that aren’t boarded up have grates over most of the windows and doors. Graffiti is everywhere. Garbage is everywhere.

No one is anywhere. I didn’t see a soul on my tour.

A friend of mine was telling me that about a month ago he drove through our old neighborhood, which is bordered by McNichols on the south, Curtis on the north, Evergreen on the west and I guess I’d have to say the Southfield Freeway on the east, though that’s a bit of a stretch.

He said our old homes were in ruins.

So, Mayor Duggan, Detroit’s neighborhoods are not quite yet a selling point for the city. Until things change, we’ll support the city from a distance. That’s the best we can do.