DETROIT – An effort to drum up some real estate business has sparked the ire of some Detroiters aimed at the City of Indianapolis.
It seems a Facebook page associated with a realtor in Indianapolis calls Detroit "Dirty Detroit" and claims that people should move to Indy.
The realtor associated with the Facebook account told Local 4's Jason Colthorp that he didn't write that post, but he knows who did.
The post goes on to say that families don't have to put up with the decay, high taxes, widespread poverty, lack of opportunity and miser in Detroit anymore. The page was publicly linked to realtor Drew Doran, who says it's his relative in college who runs the account.
Doran claims he was completely blindsided by the negative post and told his relative to take it down. He said the page is simply there to attract real estate opportunities and he was hoping for some leads.
"That's no way to get people to move to your city," said Robert Thomas, of Detroit. "That's a good way to get people to move up out your city."
"We've got a beautiful city right here," said Daniel Vario. "A lot of young people are looking to move here to live."
"Why do you have to be negative about something?" asked Brad Exner. "Talk about something positive about your city rather than something negative about some other place."
Some German tourists visiting Detroit were baffled, as well.
"Come on, what is he talking about?" one said. "It's beautiful here!"
Jason messaged the young man behind the post late Tuesday night and the man said he stands by the post. He only took it down because he was getting harassed. He says Detroiters should worry more about cleaning up the city than some internet meme.
The page also has negative posts about Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco and other cities. The man who runs the page didn't answer whether Indy has some of the same problems as the other cities.