Transplant #9 - Elmer B (round two)
Living away from Detroit, it’s amazing how many people I run into who have never been set foot in Michigan who declare themselves experts on the city. Like Ruthann’s experience, I often find myself talking with people who haven’t got clue #1 about what Detroit is really like.
I respect opinions like those of Jason, because he lived there. I also agree with much of what he wrote. My perspective is not quite the same as his because I’m really a child of the suburbs. Growing up Downriver was quite a bit different than what he experienced.
To me, one of the perennial problems in the Detroit area was the divide between the city and the suburbs. In my youth, this was exacerbated by Coleman Young’s constant bickering with the other leaders in the tri-county area. After I joined the Army and moved away, every time I would come home to visit it seemed that the politics were always the same no matter who was in office. I subscribed to the Sunday Detroit News for a long time and read about it quite often, too. As the old saying goes, “divide and conquer.”
The crime on the streets was bad, as was the crime in government. One bad group after another led Detroit, not for the betterment of the city and her people but for the betterment of their wallets and purses. It’s a crying shame how much the city could have prospered under real leadership instead of the greedy pseudo leadership of some who served in city government.
Yes, it all looks rather hopeless when viewed completely from the outside. But there is hope now. Things seem to be poised for Detroit to rise from the ashes of her past and move forward into a new era of prosperity. My last visit to Detroit was this past January. Watching the news, one could look and on the surface say that there is just more of the same. But underneath, just under the surface, I caught just an inkling of things changing for the better.
First is the city government. To be sure there are huge problems facing the city. But, instead of the usual finger-pointing and blame shifting I caught a sense of the desire to cooperate and work together to find solutions. And this from, of all places, the Manoogian Mansion.
There was some controversy over waste water treatment. Nothing new there. One of the suburban cities sued the Detroit City government over the way things are handled. Nothing new there, either. Mayor Bing holds a press conference and says, let’s work together and sort this thing out. Whoa. There’s a new attitude. A glimmer of hope on a cold, dreary, January day. With the downfall of Kwame Kilpatrick, a leader with a new attitude comes to the fore. My hope is this leadership trend Mayor Bing seems to have started keeps going. The city needs leaders who have the city’s, and not their own, best interest at heart.
Mayor Bing takes a lot of heat for not doing enough. I wonder if he’s not simply overwhelmed with too many problems and not enough resources. I can imagine he goes to the office on some mornings wondering, “Why did I do this to myself?” Yet, he carries on.
One of the goals of our January trip was to go downtown to see the Red Wings play at the Joe. My brother suggested parking at the Greektown Casino and taking the People Mover to the arena. A genius idea which saved me $10 in parking and gave me the opportunity to ride the People Mover for the first time. The city seemed brighter than I remembered it, cleaner too. Maybe I was overlooking or looking past something, but even with all the lingering problems, things at least looked nicer than they had in the past.
After the game, I got turned around and ended up driving in circles around the Downtown area trying to get home after the game. (Yeah, it had been a long time. Dallas and Austin are a lot easier to get around for me these days.) The city looked, well, good to me. Again, it wasn’t dirty and rough like I remembered it. There were a lot of empty business spaces for rent, but they were clean and looked ready to go.
A couple days later we went back to Greektown and stopped in for lunch at one of the great restaurants there. Again, even on a dreary, cold and snowy day the city seemed cleaner and more alive. I thought I was just being nostalgic, but even after a few months time and pondering on it a little I still have that impression.
To be sure, the area has its problems. But I still sense hope when I read the daily news summaries on the web.
When I saw the Chrysler Superbowl ad I got all misty. There was that hope again. “That’s right,” I thought as I watched it the first time, “You can’t keep Detroit down.” We’re coming back, baby! There’s a revival of sorts happening in Motown. People outside the city are seeing it, too.
There was a lot of piling on over that ad. I work in web marketing, so I saw a lot of buzz about how the spot was a waste of time and money because it didn’t “sell” the product. I feel they missed the point. It wasn’t about selling something. It was about spreading an idea. It was about telling the story of a city on the brink but that is poised to come back. Kudos to Chrysler and to Eminem for doing that spot. I may not live there now, but it’s still my home town. That’s MY town.
Scott Monty, Social Media Director at Ford and a transplant to Detroit, tweeted about a movie project called “Lemonade: Detroit.” It’s about people who are committed to seeing through the hard times. They look beyond the blight, beyond the vacant lots, beyond the problems and see potential. It’s a great project, check it out at http://www.lemonadedetroit.com . Please consider supporting it.
This is what I was feeling in January. This is what Chrysler was trying to convey in their Superbowl commercial. These are the people of the phoenix. These are the people of the Detroit that won’t die. These are the people who are going to lead the revival of Detroit into what it was always meant to be. Mayor Bing can’t do it all. The state and federal governments can help, but they can’t be the saviors of Detroit. It’s those people who look at the city as it is, take stock in what they have, and start as if painting on a fresh canvas who will make the revival happen. One man in the preview I saw of “Lemonade: Detroit” put it well, “Things will change one person at a time, one block at a time.”
I applaud them and wish them well.
vaporwave
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
gracieabrams
gamechangershow
