Kyle Week 3 – Observations from Detroit

Hello everyone,

These last three weeks feel both like a long and short amount of time. It feels like I’ve been living in my apartment for a very long time now. I think I’ve successfully adjusted to it. I have a lot of work to do on my project in the next 6 weeks and am worried about being able to finish it all. I feel that I’ve already learned and observed so much from my experiences working and living in Detroit.

Observations from my time with Nortown CDC and living in Detroit

Based on my time with Nortown CDC I’ve found that corruption and political games are still rampant in Detroit. At the public hearing I went to the city council members lied to our faces about the availability of documents. My organization has been trying to get a hosting agreement document for US Ecology but keep running into roadblocks from the council and are now considering filing a freedom of information act request to get the information.

As usual, money appears to be running our system. We’re trying to stop US Ecology from expanding and dumping toxic waste in our water system but the money is on their side and seems to be more important than what the people want. Health takes a back seat to the money. The people in power do not face the same struggle as those on the streets and it seems they don’t care as long as things are going the way they want and things are benefiting them.

This mirrors our Juneteenth event at the Play House. Our freedoms are being threatened or don’t really exist. It’s sad and frustrating. I want to help people but it can be discouraging to see the deck stacked against what I want to do and what people need. I think we need big changes to our political systems to fix this. Money wins elections and the businesses have the money. Corporations and business has more control than the people because of their influence on our political system.

It’s affected me and I’m painfully aware that I live a more privileged life. What must it be like to be a long time resident in this city. It’s wrong and I want it to stop. I don’t like seeing people struggling, I want to help them. I wish this was everyone’s view but I know it’s not.

I’m a Public Health student. My training is in learning how to help groups of people at a time. When I look at Detroit and it’s residents health needs it becomes apparent that these needs are being overlooked. There are so many needs that it’s hard to know where to start.

At the Juneteenth event we were asked to write what we plan to do to help Detroit.

Photo from Juneteenth

I wrote “Breaking Barriers to Better Mental Health”. This reflects my person interest in mental health. This has stemmed from my depression and anxiety and the experiences and suffering that comes along with it. These experiences have shaped me in many ways. I know what it’s like and want to help others with their mental health problems. Our nation has a problem with mental health. In general we ignore it and shame the people that have it and this needs to change. This is costing lives and lowering quality of life and I want to work to change that.

We are largely a nation of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. It’s a societal problem. In my sociology classes we call this the myth of the individual. That we shouldn’t need help and that if we’re struggling we just need to work harder. But in truth, people need help.

At the end of the Juneteenth event we had a ceremony were we were asked to think of all the people that helped shape us and get us here. Imagine now that those people didn’t exist or didn’t help you. We need others to help and shape us. It’s a huge and necessary part of the human experience.

I want to be that person that helps people through their struggles and out the other side. I think I’m not alone in that, especially in this program.

A tale of two cities

It’s much easier to ignore the struggle of others than to be aware of and challenge them.I think since starting to live and work in Detroit I’ve noticed that Detroit is very much a mix of two cities. There are the longtime residents and the people working to help them and the gentrifiers and people in power who live in a their own bubble.

Similar to the observations from “How to Kill a City” I think a lot of the gentrifiers and well off people in the city are unaware of what is happening. Personally I can’t help but feel guilty at times for living on Wayne States campus and hanging around midtown. I met a guy at a grocery store who upon overhearing a conversation I was having about my studio apartment got agitated and angry with what has happened to his life as a result of the gentrification. He can’t afford to live in the neighborhood he has lived in for decades anymore. He was rightfully upset about it. This is his life and his neighborhood and now its forcing him out. He is older and probably doesn’t want to have to restart. For him this move would require finding a different job and home.

It’s easy to live in the gentrificated bubble and ignore the surrounding areas but Detroit is more than Midtown.

Map Photo

Detroit is 149.9 square miles, with a population of 672,795 (as of 2016). Midtown has a population of 14,550 (2010 census). The city is much more than what the media portrays it to be. We need to be funding and helping more than just the midtown area. We need to help the longtime residents outside of it instead of just displacing them.

Takeaways

I think one of my biggest observations of this city are with the people I’ve met and worked with. There are a lot of good people here, doing what they can to help. My boss at Nortown works for an incredibly small amount of money doing a huge amount of work to help her community and she doesn’t view that as special. That’s incredible to me.

There is a lot of work to be done in this city but there are also a lot of good people who care and are fighting to help. I hope to help with this fight too. Hope is important and this program is showing me that you can have hope in people.