I’ve been putting off writing this post because I’m not ready for this year to be over and somehow finishing this blog is acknowledging that my time, not only in this program but also in Detroit, has come to an end.  Due to an amazing career opportunity my husband has been offered, we are off to Cleveland.  A year ago, I would never have guessed how hard this move for me would be.

My prior post reflected on how this program has change me so I thought I’d finish on how this program has impacted Detroit.  I’m fortunate to have a 5 minute walk to work through the neighborhood of Brush Park. Up until a few weeks ago, I used to pass 1 or 2 people per week along the way. Now the vacant fields of wild flowers have been mowed down and replaced with construction trailers as work begins on Dan Gilbert’s $70M development project and HGTV remodels the historic Ransom Gills House.  The view from my living room window also changes daily (see photos below.) When I moved in the view was of an abandoned garage and a couple other buildings.  A few weeks later, the buildings were knocked down and the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Red Wings Arena took place. A couple of weeks ago, the Park Avenue Hotel was imploded.

As I finance and economics major, this development should make me elated but instead it gives me a pit in my stomach.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s extremely important for Detroit’s revitalization to have this type of growth, but it’s also criterial that we don’t allow it to blind us to the reality that native Detroiters are not being included.  Here are just a few staggering statistics:

• According to the most recent estimates by the National Institute for Literacy, approximately 47% of Detroit adults were functionally illiterate.
• Roughly half of the city’s population lives west of Woodward Avenue – more than 335,000 people – there are only 30,500 jobs which equate to less than 1 job for every 10 people.
• Compare that to Midtown and Downtown where there are 64,000 jobs and about 18,000 residents and Detroiters only hold about 27% of those jobs.
• According COTS, on any given night there are 16,000 homeless in Detroit and 1/3 are children.
• Only 22% of jobs can be reached by public transportation in 90 minutes or less and 60,000 Detroit households do not have access to automobiles.

Writing those statistics, I realized how valuable the work we did on Fridays really was. Our worked with RecoveryPark helped address issues regarding barriers to employment.  Last month, our work with Vehicles for Change came to fruition when they launched their Detroit branch helping address transportation challenges.  During our Education Blitz, we partnered with six organization who are all working to prepare Detroit’s students for a successful future. And our work with The Health Disparities Coalition Team led to the development of health disparity curriculum for medical residents.

So now it’s time to pass the torch to the Year 4 Fellows.  I look forward to seeing all of the hard work you will do in collaboration with the amazing people in the city that I was fortunate enough to call home for the last 12 month.

Challenge Detroit Year 3 Fellows