There were two big reasons I wanted to work in Detroit this summer.<\/p>\n
First, I was attracted to the pride that people had in Detroit. \u00a0There is so much history in Detroit that makes each neighborhood unique. \u00a0I don’t consider myself to have a hometown. \u00a0I say I am from Iowa, but I only lived there for 5 years. \u00a0When people are from Detroit, they let you know it- being from Detroit is an important part of their identity. \u00a0I don’t share that identity, but I wanted to understand it and know what it felt like to be in a community that deeply cares for their city. \u00a0Even though I am an outsider in Southwest, the community makes me feel valued and welcomed. \u00a0My contract to work at SDBA is being extended for an undetermined period of time. \u00a0I\u00a0want to work more in the city in the future, but I am having an internal struggle about whether or not that is best for the city. \u00a0The combination of having moved several times growing up and my personality that desires new experiences makes me want to never stay in one place for long. \u00a0It’s definitely a weird quirk of mine. \u00a0I won’t buy books because I don’t want to have to lug them around when I move. \u00a0I will only own enough stuff so that it all fits in my car. \u00a0So does someone like me belong in Detroit? \u00a0I’m not sure. \u00a0I feel like my work at SDBA has had a positive impact, but how do I measure that exactly? \u00a0These are topics that I regularly analyze and talk about.<\/p>\n
Second, I thought that because there was so much need for work in the city, that even I could have an impact as an intern. \u00a0In my first blog post, I mostly wrote about\u00a0development of the Vernor Crossing market, public plaza, and retail space that I thought I would be working on. After only 3 weeks in, the focus of my work was changed to be about completely different projects and I am glad that switch happened. \u00a0The Vernor Crossing Project is truly remarkable, but I preferred my work on other projects because they had a closer end-goal and more tangible accomplishments.<\/p>\n
The work that people do at my organization is astounding. \u00a0SDBA practically does the city’s job and then some. \u00a0But projects take YEARS to complete, and visible results may take even longer. \u00a0The results may not even BE what the community wanted or what the planners had in mind because we cannot predict the future. \u00a0The nature of the work in this field has made me analyze my desire to be an urban planner. \u00a0Fortunately, I have several coworkers to discuss my internal struggles with and they offer me helpful and inspiring advice.<\/p>\n
I feel as though I have learned more this summer than I did during an entire semester at school. \u00a0I think I could drop out right now and continue working and learning on the job at SDBA, but societal expectations will keep me in school to earn a degree. \u00a0This job will definitely impact the choices I make when I go back to school. \u00a0I have decided that I need to learn how to graphic design and code because those skills will be beneficial to any field.<\/p>\n
Also in my first blog post, I talked about how I wanted to see as much of the city as I can. \u00a0I would estimate that I biked about 12 miles a day, and in that time I got to see what people never think of when they imagine Detroit. \u00a0It pisses me off when people lump all of Detroit together, when it is incredibly diverse and unique, and the assets and challenges of each neighborhood are the same way. \u00a0Because of this, I am presenting some of my favorites places during our final ceremony. \u00a0I feel bad because I\u00a0didn’t<\/em> go everywhere in the city, but I am glad that I at least got to experience several.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There were two big reasons I wanted to work in Detroit this summer. First, I was attracted to the pride that people had in Detroit. \u00a0There is so much history in Detroit that makes each neighborhood unique. \u00a0I don’t consider myself to have a hometown. \u00a0I say I am from Iowa, but I only lived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1669,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dcbrp-2015"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15843,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11522\/revisions\/15843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}