Detroit: Then, Now, The Future

[pete-rock]

I wrote an article about Detroit a few years ago that never got published. In it, I said that Detroit is our nation's whipping boy. America needs Detroit to be dysfunctional. America needs Detroit to bear the burden of negative perceptions. If it wasn't going to be Detroit, it would've been some other city. I argued this for three reasons:

The image of Detroit serves as a constant reminder to cities of what not to become. City leaders around the nation can always refer to Detroit as the quintessential urban dystopia, invoking images of crime and crumbling infrastructure. By doing this they can garner support for (or more likely, against) a local project, because if this project does or doesn’t happen, you know what could happen to our fair city? We could become like Detroit!

The image of Detroit allows the rest of the nation’s cities to avoid facing their own issues – urban and suburban. As long as Detroit’s negative image remains prominent in people’s minds, they can forget about trying to improve what may be just as bad in their own communities. I

The image of Detroit allows the rest of the nation to maintain a smug arrogance and sense of superiority. This is what I perceive as happening with the media attention Detroit gets now. The whole "how did this happen in America" sentiment.
The fact is it's happening all across America, even in your city.

Can Detroit EVER get a break?

[Dan]

Originally posted by boilerplater

Wow...lots of really great buildings in Brush Park. Nice to see that many have been restored. You never see those on the "ruin pron" sites.

Somewhat off-topic: when I was in Cairo, Illinois last year, I started to think of myself as a "blight tourist". I wondered if that was something good or bad, and thought "could blight tourism be something that could keep Cairo hanging on in the future?"

I've heard of Europeans -- Germans, especially -- who visit Detroit just to take in the urban blight. There's several urbex sites by Torontonians with extensive photo tours of Buffalo's Central Terminal, many with a condescending "that's why we're better than them" attitude. They don't know the history of what brought on the blight; they only know it's there, and point to it and their memories of the fire-obsessed Buffalo newscasts of the past as a sign that they're somehow superior.

[DetroitPlanner]

Originally posted by boilerplater

Wow...lots of really great buildings in Brush Park. Nice to see that many have been restored. You never see those on the "ruin pron" sites.

Of course you don't you also don't see the great riverfront, campus martius, the beautiful art deco skyscrapers that are actually used, the actual neighborhoods where there are sane people of all color or ethnic background maintaining their homes, yet all you hear is how racially divided it is. The biggest issue I have with the TIME articles is they generally show all of the white folks doing good, yet you hardly see the many black folks working just as hard (I suppose being black in Detroit is not newsworthy). They also seem to only find the black bums, and there are a heck of a lot of white ones here too.

You hear that Detroit does not have a chain grocery store. Big deal. We have lots of supermarkets that are independently owned and doing quite well. They may not be parts of chains, but they are served by a cooperative such as Spartan or Foodland (Kroger). We also have Eastern Market where tens of thousands shop daily and purchase goods from Farmers, Butchers, Cheese Shops, Fish Stores, Wine Stores....

Not trying to see Detroit through rose colored glasses here, I know there are very serious problems here. Its just that too much focus is put on what Detroit don't have instead of what it does have.

Pete is so right we're the whipping-boy.