This past week was an interesting one for me. It was filled with a lot of conversation about Detroit’s past, present and future. I attended a few panel discussion events as well as some small-scale community conversations:
- The Eight Mile Boulevard Association 15th Annual Leadership Luncheon
- Culture Lab Detroit
- Grits and Grassroots: Two Detroits? Gentrification. Hosted by the Michigan Citizen
- Detroit Dialogues. A conversation series started by alumni Challenge Detroit fellow, Cornetta Lane
- Some very in-depth one on one side conversations with local artists and business owners
In all these conversations there were a few common themes of race, equality, class and age. In a lot of my side conversations many puzzling questions arose. Though I had very little insight as to how to “correctly” answer these puzzling questions, I did have one answer that seems to explain a lot of the puzzlement: Detroit is a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
In my conversations I asked people to talk about their thoughts on Detroit and revitalization. I’ve heard so many contrasting, contradictory, complex opinions.
DETROIT IS:
- the 7.2 square miles of greater downtown
- angry old people and happy young peopleHome
- home to the hardest working people on earth
- a bunch of abandoned buildings and poverty
- 80% black people and 20% other people
- a haven for culture, art and experiences
- an awkward teenager looking to find its identity
- Black bottom, Hudson’s and nostalgia
- A place to go for sports
- A place that needs saving
- A place that is perfectly fine the way it is
- Being gentrified
- An easy place to succeed
- Corrupt
- Big enough for all of us
- Trendy
- Been cool
- Worth fighting for
- Is a new haven for hipsters
- Is more than just black and white people
- A big responsibility
- Unique
- A big opportunity
- A integral part of this region and state
- Being taken advantage of
- Can handle gentrification differently than any other city on earth
- A place that forgets its elders and history
- Filled with racial tension
- On the rest of the world’s radar
- in desperate need of better transit
- Neglecting it’s youth
- Empowering it’s youth
- Complex
- Beautiful
- Dangerous
- Evolving
- Welcoming
- Cold
- Different
Whose thoughts and opinions do you agree with? Which ones do you disagree with?