{"id":19200,"date":"2017-01-31T11:20:42","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T11:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=19200"},"modified":"2017-01-31T11:20:42","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T11:20:42","slug":"represent-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/represent-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Represent Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I leave the city I take a part of it with\u00a0me. Whether it&#8217;s a Lions hat or my Challenge Detroit t-shirt, I have to represent in some way. This month I&#8217;ve traveled over 5,000 miles and naturally that brings opportunities to meet new people. Conversations may start differently, but somehow they always steer toward Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>Last week during my trip to Mexico, one conversation started as a discussion of the night life in the local city. A colleague asked another, &#8220;is it safe for Americans given recent\u00a0developments in the U.S. political world?&#8221; As a\u00a0first time traveler in Mexico, I understood\u00a0the\u00a0concern. But as a Detroiter, I instantly recalled the exasperation of\u00a0fielding questions of Detroit&#8217;s safety. Logically, that was the next topic.\u00a0My response is always the same. Be\u00a0aware of your surroundings,\u00a0don&#8217;t wander\u00a0the streets, and you&#8217;ll be just fine.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, it&#8217;s hard to give clear and accurate representation of the city. I have a tour guide perspective, a current resident perspective, and a historical perspective all rolled into one.\u00a0It&#8217;s a delicate balance. I try to remember\u00a0that whenever I leave the city and engage with outsiders, I instantly become a subject matter expert. And for this, I am especially aware that whatever I say will likely be taken as fact. It will influence the picture of the city painted in their minds until they arrive and experience it for themselves.<\/p>\n<p><em><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-17534\" src=\"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/blog-bio-photo-300x300.gif\" alt=\"Greg Hardy\" width=\"135\" height=\"135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/blog-bio-photo-300x300.gif 300w, https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/blog-bio-photo-150x150.gif 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 135px) 100vw, 135px\" \/>Greg is an engineer and social change agent\u00a0with a talent for taking things apart and putting them back together. Follow on Instagram\/Twitter @stemavenue<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I leave the city I take a part of it with\u00a0me. Whether it&#8217;s a Lions hat or my Challenge Detroit t-shirt, I have to represent in some way. This month I&#8217;ve traveled over 5,000 miles and naturally that brings opportunities to meet new people. Conversations may start differently, but somehow they always steer toward [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}