when i moved to detroit in july of last year, i settled into the lofts at rivertown, directly across the street from the uniroyal site and one block west of the bridge to belle isle. really close to west village which is rapidly developing, but really far away from work, yoga, coffee shops, restaurants, friends, and any other entertainment. travel by car is unavoidable. my apartment building is an island surrounded by junkyards and swaths of vacant land. it feels remote, isolated. if i go home after work, i seldom venture out again.

there is a back story, but the pertinent point is that this weekend, i am moving to midtown. to the block between cass and second ave. i will be surrounded by cafes, retail, bars, yoga studios, and college kids. i’ll be able to walk or bike to work.

the cliché of living in midtown has not escaped me. it’s safe, it’s populated, it’s quote unquote hip. it’s the easy place to live in detroit because it has the amenities that urbanites seek. if i wanted easy, i’d be in minneapolis – great public transit and close to my family. if i wanted bustle i’d be in chicago – the third most populous city in the united states. if i wanted to fit in, i’d be in san francisco – where everyone is a liberal pseudo-vegan like me.

but i’m in detroit. where i’m a minority. where everyday i am challenged to think about situations i have never imagined or experienced. i won’t list the statistics for unemployment, violent crime, population or homelessness because they don’t need perpetuation and everyone knows it’s no cakewalk to live here. there are many whose circumstances prevent them from moving out of the city, even if they’re desperate to. and maybe it’s as if i’m spitting in their faces when i say i choose to live here. before i could at least contradict someone when they assumed i lived in midtown with all the other young white kids. but not anymore.

i can only appease my conscience by asserting a fundamental truth about myself: i have to live in a city. i was raised in the quintessential suburb and fully reject that lifestyle, that type of development for its blandness and homogeneity.  living in a city gets me public transportation, clusters of activity, and concentrations of people and culture. but in detroit, that city atmosphere, for now, is only available in midtown. (downtown, the central business district with skyscrapers and suits, operates exclusively on a 9-5 monday through friday basis.) i wish i could say otherwise, but at this time in my life, i only see myself in detroit if i have access to the forms and functions typical of cities. and as many members of my generation increasingly feel this way about urban life, it is imperative for detroit to aspire and work, not to become a boston or a los angeles, but to provide residents with robust public transit; safe, well-lit streets; respectable schools; and density in order to move into the 21st century and grow and sustain a healthy, happy urban population.