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John Makely / msnbc.com
An empty lot in Detroit's Palmer Woods neighborhood where Mitt Romney's boyhood home once stood.
Mike O'Brien of NBCpolitics.com writes:
DETROIT -- All that's left of Mitt Romney's boyhood home is an empty lot, his family's old house in Detroit's Palmer Woods neighborhood having been bulldozed two years ago in May.
The Romney family home fell victim to a familiar predator in the city of Detroit: abandonment and blight. The city ordered the demolition of the home, at 1860 Balmoral Drive, in 2010 as part of an initiative to address blight throughout the city.
Romney has made frequent mention of his roots in southeast Michigan during his campaigning before Tuesday's primary in the state. He elaborated on the fate of his boyhood home, in which the family lived until 1953 according to the Boston Globe, at a stop Thursday evening in Milford:
"I was born in Detroit, Harper Hospital, our home was right around six-mile and Woodward, a place called Palmer Park. And uh, we had a home there. It’s been bulldozed now because it turned, I guess, into an eyesore or a place where drugs were being used so they had to tear it down. It was a lovely home."
Ricardo Thomas/ The Detroit News via AP
This May 15, 2010 photo shows the onetime home of Michigan's Romney family in the Palmer Park section of Detroit. A demolition crew in Detroit torn down on Tuesday June 8, 2010 the 5,500-square-foot house that was lived in by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney when he was a child. The dilapidated, two-story home torn down Tuesday in the Palmer Woods area was one of 3,000 set for demolition this year under Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's plans to improve neighborhoods by getting rid of dangerous structures and eyesores.
It's a different portrait of the property painted in an Associated Press story about the demolition:
Unlike thousands of other vacant houses in the city, the structure at 1860 Balmoral in Detroit's exclusive Palmer Woods area wasn't open to trespass, neighbors said as it crashed and crumbled to the ground.
There didn't appear to be any vandalism and it certainly didn't become a haven to drug dealers like many others across the city, 58-year-old Tyrone Stewart said.
Mike O'Brien / msnbc.com
Boarded up storefronts on Woodward Ave. near Palmer Park in Detroit.
The Palmer Woods neighborhood is hardly a portrait of poverty or disrepair; most of the homes in the community are well maintained and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, even in a depressed housing market. A golf course and the University of Detroit Jesuit high school, an all boys' Catholic prep school, are nearby. A more familiar sight of abandoned and crumbling storefronts stand across Woodward Avenue at 7 Mile, opposite the east end of Palmer Woods.
Len and Barb Marshick of Belleville, Mich. said at a Friday night rally for Rick Santorum, Romney's main opponent in the Michigan primary, that they drove by the Balmoral Drive property during its demolition. They bemoaned the destruction of the link between the would-be president and the community that raised him.
"Romney hasn’t lived here for so long, I just don’t think the average person thinks he’s a Michigan guy," Barb said.
Story: Romney begins closing arguements in Michigan
Paul Sancya / AP
The former home of one of Michigan's most prominent political families lies in debris after being demolished in Detroit Tuesday, June 8, 2010. Crews demolished, as part of Detroit's plan to tear down neighborhood eyesores and dangerous houses, the 5,500-square-foot, two-story structure where George Romney raised his family for a time before being elected governor. Former Massachusetts governor and one-time Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was raised in the home in the once prestigious Palmer Woods area.
Leave a Comment:
They were going to do a story about obamas boyhood home being demolished,but even pmsnbc realized they couldn't make a big deal about a grass hut being torn down.
Well, I hope your grandma's house doesn't get bulldozed, because then you'd have to find another basement to dwell in. :-)
And not a peep out of you when a couple of previous posters suggested it was too bad Romney wasn't in the house when it was bulldozed?
You obamabots are pitiful.
Yeah, I doubt you'd find a basement that's nearly as comfy! :-)
That.Now that is some funny @!$%#.Skip all the politics,or Opposite of pc
Well, it wasn't a political comment to begin with. Not one with any merit, anyway...
So, Romney's boyhood home has succumbed to the urban decay we've seen too much of in Michigan. Ironic, no?
Awesome houses,crappy city.
Well good. Now if we can get the trash out of the White House that neighborhood will be clean again too.
Yeah, better to demolish it than to let someone buy it. Someone needy might have ended up with it and of course no Romney would allow that.
Actually the Romney's proabably didn't want any minorities living in that house and would rather have seen it torn down than let just anybody without lots of money living there. Mitt Romney was born in Michigan but that's about all, he has a house in New Hampshire, one in Massachusetts and of course one in California, now why does he not have a house in Michigan if he feels so attached to that state?
I heard he was born in a log cabin... that he built all by himself.
As a native Detroiter born in an impoverished neighborhood just south of Palmer Woods we were in awe of the homes in Palmer Woods when we scurried through the neighborhood on the way to the public Palmer Park area on Woodward and 7 Mile Rd during the 40's . We could not believe there were people with that much money. And they were not the top of the elitist list !Grosse Point along East Jefferson and the Detroit River was off-limits to all but the wealthiest of the wealthy that ran the auto industry and the bought politicians who worked for them.Thoughwe were poor Detroit was a good place, and safe place to live in ...then !
What you wish for others is likely to happen to you.
Is this freaking newsworthy? Who gives a rat's ass where that lunatic grew up?
I'm surprised GOP (Grand 'Ol Putos) didn't insert a picture of a log cabin being demolished in front of Mt. Rushmore with a cherry tree chopped down next to it. It would make their top candidate seem more human. But then three or four Cadillacs parked next to a log cabin might spoil the photo op.
If the story was about Romney's parents being unable to find work at the time and a heartless bank foreclosing on their home, Americans could relate today. But it has no relevancy if they left there almost 60 years ago to a string of mansions since then. Once again a GOP attempt at placing their boy amongst "the people" has failed miserably. They just don't get it. It's as if their campaign slogan is: "If (the commoners) don't have bread, then let them eat cake." Once upon a time, heads rolled (literally) when the rich elite thought like that. We may see it again at the voting booths this November.
My wife and I are struggling to keep our jobs, a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, and food on the table. If it wasn't for insurance through our workplace, we could never afford health care. Gasoline and home heating bills are taking a big chunk of our paychecks every day. We have no kids, but our friends' sons and daughters are being murdered in far away lands by people who hate us and who will never understand our freedom and democracy. In our small hometown (pop. 8000) we see homeless people wandering our streets and parks with no hope in sight, panhandling for nickels and dimes to buy food or a bottle of booze to ease the pain. Drug and alcohol abuse has swept our town. School dropout rates are skyrocketing. Old folks are dying penniless and alone. This is America 2012. Our elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, just don't get it. If one of Mitt Romney's mansions has been demolished somewhere, guess who cares? No one.
Dear Mike O'Brien of NBCpolitics.com, My two cousins and I were raised by our grandma and aunt in a four-room adobe house with no indoor plumbing and a wood burning stove for heat. My grandma hand-stitched heavy quilts for us to crawl under in harsh winters. Our meals were mostly beans and tortillas. We didn't have a car or TV until the mid 60s. At school I worked in the cafeteria because the meals were free. We were never in trouble with the law. Guns, liquor and drugs were not permitted in the house. We walked to church every Sunday. We never knew we were poor because Grandma and Auntie filled our lives with love every day. The little house still stands because of it. We believe many Americans have grown up this way and are doing fine, too. Please, remember us if you write another story about a Mitt Romney mansion being torn down. To us, the little adobe house is more precious than a thousand mansions. Rich politicians don't understand that.