FOX News' Steven Crowder Goes On Detroit-Bashing Tour, Points Out Woman He Could Run Over Without Consequence

By Christy Strawser

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Steven Crowder, a blogger and Fox News contributor who was born in Detroit, took a trip back to Motown to prove the city's "hipster" supporters wrong.

Wanting to prove the city is a disaster, Crowder hit the streets with a video camera to provide an alternative viewpoint to the Detroit comeback story that's all over the national media.

In the video, he tools around the city with a pal highlighting Detroit's worst vistas, mocking residents and bashing revitalization efforts as inadequate. He asks his ride-along companion, "you're armed, right?"

At one point, he gestures at a woman crossing the street and says 7 out of 10 murders go unsolved in the city so he could "just run this dame over and they'd never find me."

At the crux is the video is a point he wants to prove about how far away the worst neighborhoods are from the city's thriving downtown, marking the distance several times from different directions. "Nothing's changed policy-wise about Detroit except for feelings," he claims. "People want to feel good about Detroit."

It is true that Detroit has garnered heaps of praise after emerging from the largest municipal bankruptcy in history last year. USA Today penned a piece this summer saying other cities, including Baltimore and Philadelphia, should follow the city's template for rebirth.

Alternatively, on Crowder's ride, he points out a dilapidated neighborhood less than a quarter-mile from downtown. "This is how everyone lives in Detroit," he says, focusing the camera on an abandoned house covered with graffiti on a dismal-looking street.

Crowder claims the murder rate has declined because there's "nobody left to kill." He goes on about unions in several parts of the video, tying them to the city's systemic decline over the last few decades. What he doesn't note is that since the state became right to work in 2014, only about 14.5 percent of Michigan workers are now union members.

Using a stereotypical effeminate gay voice, he blames "hipsters" for creating a false storyline about revitalization. "The hipsters move into about four blocks downtown," he says, adding there's been an "epidemic" since then of "hipster rape."

Crowder wraps up his video by mocking the Heidelberg project and all the people reacting positively to the city's influx of coffee shops, restaurants and bars, retail, and upscale grocery stores. The planned Nike store grabbed headlines, too.

Crowder's pique seems to stem from positive stories like this one from the spring, where New York native Philip Kafka started urging New Yorkers to pull up stakes and come to the Motor City. The message even appeared on the Brooklyn Bridge. Time Magazine, the New York Times, and other publications have promoted pieces that highlighted the city's emergence from bankruptcy with new businesses, hopeful residents and massive investment from people like billionaire Dan Gilbert. Gilbert is even trying to bring big Silicon Valley money to Motown.

Crowder's dire take on the city is in stark contrast to the words Anthony Bourdain, renowned chef, world traveler, and bestselling author, had about the city.

"You should come here for good reasons and you should come here to see what went wrong. It's a truly magnificent place," he said. "This is where everything good in America came from … just about: great rock and roll, rhythm and blues, Motown …"

So, who's right?