With September coming to a close, the other fellows and myself are busy balancing our first Challenge project. It’s focus-neighborhoods. The introduction of this focus had me thinking back on my recent neighborhood history, conversations surrounding neighborhoods, and my resulting reflections.

Recent History: Less than two months ago, I was wrapping up my year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Bridgeport, CT. I worked and lived in pockets of the city where residents were often from a low income households, recent immigrants, and people of color. Now, I work out of One Detroit Center downtown and live in the heart of Midtown, near Wayne State. These areas still retain diversity of backgrounds, but carry an increased amount of young professionals and university students with privileged upbringings.

Conversations: When I share details of my new work and home life with others, I’m frequently greeted with exclamations of how lucky I am to live and work in such ‘nice neighborhoods’ of Detroit. As I continue to share with them my goal of going carless and instead walking, biking, and busing when possible, their expressions change to concern and they question if I must go through any ‘bad neighborhoods’ to get from home to work, home to groceries, work to volunteering etc.

Reflections: Thinking on these reactions, I keep returning to a question a fellow Jesuit Volunteer challenged our greater JVC cohort on last year: What makes a neighborhood bad? Is there such a thing as a bad neighborhood? For despite the perceived and actual disadvantages in my block last year, my housemates, our neighbors, and our clients lived many beautiful moments. Labeling a neighborhood as ‘bad,’ discounts the beauty and joy existing in spite of the struggles a community has faced. I’ve realized my use of ‘bad’ in the past was a disguise for stating my personal discomfort in a neighborhood. ‘Bad neighborhood’ has become synonymous with unsafe, dangerous, and differing appearance from our own. In turn, use of ‘bad versus nice’ can perpetuate the misconceptions surrounding safety and joyful experiences in an area.

As a part of Challenge Detroit, we commit to Lead Detroit and be an ambassador of Detroit. For me, an important step towards these goals has been recognizing the power of my words. So here’s my latest intermittent Challenge Detroit goal: look past ‘nice’ and ‘bad’ as neighborhood descriptors and strive to use more specific, accurate language.

P.S.-It’d be so nice 😉 to have you join me on this challenge.