Cadillac Has Gone Downhill...
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8/14/2008
I grew up in Cadillac. It used to be a decent, if uncultured, place to live. The public schools were safe, you could actually leave your cars unlocked, and homes were affordable. Children could really play outside without being abducted or learning about sex and drugs from their peers.
These days, home prices are bordering on rediculous, violent crime is escalating, and anything not chained down or protected with an alarm system is likely to disappear. Recently, my family and I lived in the city of Cadillac for almost two years. Anything left outside was stolen, my car (with an alarm system) was vandalized, and our charming neighbor boy, age 8, took an ax to our front porch and our mailbox. His mother was constantly waking our children by knocking on our door at midnight to ask for a ride to the liquor store. Welcome to Cadillac!
Unfortunately, it does not seem to matter which part of the city you call home; the situation is similar. We have family who live in the city's most expensive area (highest home values, highest taxes). The street is replete with potholes, it is not plowed very much in the winter, and their vehicles have been egged with some regularity.
There are three distinct groups of people in Cadillac; one group is comprised of redneck locals who collect disability, spend all their money at the topless bar or the night club, and go home to the trailer park. The other major group is comprised of executives and retirees who came to the area for the "quaint atmosphere," go to work and/or to the country club, and return to their posh homes on the lakes. The third, most insidious, group is comprised of SUV-driving tourists who cannot seem to find M-115, assume pedestrians have the right of way, and remark on how gloriously cheap everything is as they break out their credit cards. There is a fourth group: those poor souls who are stuck in the middle, who go to work, go to church, mow their lawns, and try to be decent citizens. Unfortunately, they are being slowly weeded out by the other groups, and they are learning to live with the chaos or to leave the area.
Perhaps Cadillac could be a great place to live again. Unfortunately, the middle class is disappearing. Unemployment is currently 10 percent.
Bp | Mc Bain, MI