http://news.streetroots.org/2018/04/27/detroits-canary-mine-portland-says-water-equality-activist
I’m always happening upon familiar faces from UMich in the city. This time, it was my dear saintly chum, Luke Liu. I was overjoyed to see him, and I demanded we go get pizza at the Woodward mainstay, Sgt. Pepperoni’s, to celebrate. As we caught up on our way, Luke asks me the question we are all always inevitably asked: “What’s your favorite part of the city?”
The answer changes every time first and foremost because I discover more and more of the city’s nuance each day. This nuance usually comes in the form of new and even subtler contradictions: seemingly impossible circumstances that have somehow manifested in Detroit. This article is certainly chock full of them.
What is so special — indeed, so horrible, about the impoverished in Detroit? What convinced lawmakers in the city to give Detroiters no more than 30 days to get their water bill payed off before they plugged the pipes? Most cities in this country will allow at least two or three bill cycles to pass before they even threaten to shut the water off. Many cities allow their citizens to accumulate as much debt as they must and never end up pulling the proverbial plug. I’m not one to propagate alarmist messages and ideations, but the “blue line of shame” reminds me very much of the marks that cartels and other gangs put on the streets in front of the those peoples’ homes who they intend to murder. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to get overdue notices in the mail and then walk outside and find your home marked ominously and wordlessly. Christ, it’s the homeowner’s equivalent of a break-up text.
These are the things I consider when I answer questions like the one that Luke Liu asked me. I still think about that Juneteenth event; beautiful and moving, but harrowing and disheartening as well. It was a manifestation of tumult and unsustainability. A night like that has to come to an end, just like the state of Detroit’s poverty and its outdated and seemingly nonsensical “solutions.” That night has become a concrete emotional and intellectual representation of what Detroit is for me.
However, that night did not have to end because it was too ugly or unpleasant. Like Detroit, it was unequivocally spectacular and uplifting. Detroit, as it is, is beautiful. However, the variety of beauty occupies a spectrum with Zone 8 on one end and Campus Martius on the other.
My most recent Uber driver spoke about how much he liked the city. He was very excited about all the changes and the tall buildings, referring frequently to the separate, “crappy,” and antiquated Detroit. That sort of thinking is dangerous because, although Woodward is shiny and new, it is merely the aftermath of a metaphorical bulldozer running rampant down the middle of the city. I’m gonna use a heavy-handed analogy so humor me: it is a piece of art arbitrarily deemed to be lesser and painted over: a recycled canvas, and the original painting forgotten. However, it makes no more sense to paint over the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel than it does to “revitalize” Detroit this way. Yes, it may be old, dusty, and chipped in some places, but it also holds a heritage and culture that is iconic in even the contemporary world artscape. It’s also certainly a great deal more than a painting; every brushstroke has a place and just as much right to be there as any other splotch of paint or pastel.
That’s what I told Luke Liu when he asked, or something like that.
Hi Charlie,
I really like your post. It was very well narrated and captivating to read. I think you’re right about the city and the perception of it. As someone who has lived near the city but never spent a lot of time exploring it until the program it’s completely different from what I’d been told and was expecting. There are incredible nuances to everything and my perception changes every day like yours does. I think my favorite thing is the people who are fighting for themselves, the longtime residents. They see the change and the reality of it. They know it’s going to negatively affect them and they fight the change. Not everyone can but the ones I’ve met that do are so devoted. I’m glad I’m getting to see that.
Best,
Kyle
Heyoo Charlie,
First of all, I really respect how you seem to have an appropriate story for every week so far. Your writing is captivating, and the effort you put in is the effort you put in is
So, I’m pretty glad today is Sunday, because that probably means nobody else is going to read that I accidentally hit post before I finished my thoughts–and before I decided whether or not I would comment how impressed I am by the effort you put into everything you do.
But my fingers made the decision for me, and so I’ll say that I’m inspired me to pour more of myself into my blogs every week because of the thoughtfulness you put into yours.
Your message left me thinking a lot about pride in Detroit.
I’m not sure if your Uber driver was a native Detroiter, but your post made me think about how it would feel to believe that Woodward was the only beautiful part of your hometown. What it would do to hear from every media outlet that your city was mistreated, ugly, and forgotten–except for the areas and streets you had little reason to go to.
But then I started thinking of the Detroiters I know, and how their pride comes not from how many times the trash man comes per month, or when the last time their streets were paved–but instead from the community they have built, and the difficulties they have traversed. I started thinking of the resiliency of the residents I have met, and the strength and beauty that comes from a city of people that have learned how to take care of themselves and make the most of all their resources.
I think there’s something really special about the pride in Detroit, and so thanks for sending me down the rabbit hole where that’s all I thought about for a couple of hours.
Nina