I travel a lot, usually two cities a week, and get to see many places. Last week’s trip to Detroit for the United Way’s Staff Leadership Conference affected me more than most (photos here).
The epicenter of America’s economic crisis has to be Detroit. A city already beleaguered by long-standing auto industry woes and economic plight, the recession has hit the city hard, driving it into depression. Real estate prices in the region are at astonishing low rates.
Nothing emphasized the hard times more than a trip to the restroom at the convention center (I always have to go frequently before I speak. Yeah, I know: TMI.). On my way out, two gentlemen walked in and physically blocked my exit, demanding a donation from me. I politely declined while knifing my body between the men and through the door. No harm, no foul, but I did get a security guard to escort the gentlemen out.
Several reports of missing laptops coincided my experience. Chalk it all up to signs of the times in Detroit, where things are pretty desperate right now. Crime is but a by-product.
Such times bring a natural exodus. Yet, many of this city’s citizens refuse to give up. They love their hometown and are committed to sticking it out. And that’s what makes this situation so heart-rending, and yet full of hope.
Bottoms and Faith
It wasn’t all scary bathroom trips. There was the genuine kindness most Detroit citizens emote. They are good people who want you to feel welcome, and that is clear. When I discussed such problems, they were quick to defend their hometown, too. Detroit’s a good place, they said universally.
I met with GM’s Social Media Wonk Christopher Barger for coffee. Barger is a transplant who has only lived in Detroit for two years, but like other residents adamantly defends the city.
Barger told me of the city’s commitment to work through this, to change its business focus, to evolve and grow through the time. He cited the incredible family first and stick-togetherness that’s almost universal throughout Detroit. And the city’s hope that a new focus on green, from the Volt and other auto initiatives to attracting general ecologically friendly industries could turn the tide. Perhaps even more tenacious was an attitude that this will take years, and that people were ready for the long haul.
Unlike New Orleans, another city that’s suffered great duress recently, there is no natural disaster to blame for Detroit’s situation. When New Orleans suffered the horrible knock out blow that Katrina delivered, associations and sports leagues rallied to host events there and infuse travel dollars. United Way did Detroit a service by being there, and talking with my friends in the organization it was a natural choice. It would be great if the U.S. events industry in general would also rally around Detroit.
Because of the nature of this situation, America seems to have abandoned Detroit. That’s too bad, because I admire the city’s people.
Detroit reminds me of my youthful days in a severely depressed Philadelphia during the 80s, where I spent my weekends in Center City. I remember watching on TV as Mayor Wilson Goode bombed MOVE’s headquarters and burned down two city blocks. That was Philly’s bottom. That city was in hell then. I was personally mugged in the midst of a crowded street, and had my car broken into twice. Other family members suffered worse crimes. You never felt safe, and were always watching your back in the city.
Yet Philadelphians – like Detroit’s citizens – were committed to their culture and kept trying to move the yardstick forward. Twenty years later, it’s a pretty cool city that for the most part I recognize, but only in the way you recognize an adult who was once a child from your past. Same, but different.
I know it’s bad right now, Detroit, but I love your heart. Keep the faith, things can and probably will get better.
Thank you for sharing your experience. As you stated, Detroiters are passionate about rebuilding their city and their image.
Great post, Geoff. But one additional detail: Michigan (especially due to Detroit) had been in a “one-state recession” for years before the rest of the country faced this current recession.
If there is one thing our town is good at, it’s keeping our head up when times get really tough. I’m glad you have our back, Geoff.
Brandon
@bchesnutt
Geoff,thanks for the Detroit write up.
I moved back to Michigan last October after a 10 year absence. Everyone I talked to asks, “Why in the world did you move back?” I answer simply – Michigan is my home. My family grew up in Detroit and I can tell you there are some amazing people in this city and the state of Michigan.
I agree with Chris H., Michigan as a whole was hurting before the recession hit. Even in my home town in stereotypical suburbia, there are empty buildings. The resiliency and perseverance here is absolute and will overcome. And I believe, for those of us involved in the digital landscape, its our responsibility to do what we can to help bring the people, businesses, and organizations here in Detroit and Michigan back to the forefront.
Geoff,
I’m a little upset that you were in Detroit and didn’t call me, but I’m sure I’ll just throw things at you again when I see you next. :-)
This post comes at a weird time for me. I was born and (mostly) raised in Detroit (we moved to the suburbs when I was about 10 years old when she remarried). However, I’ve always spent a great deal of time living and working in the city. In fact I spent the last 5 years living in a neighborhood on Detroit’s west side. This makes me unique – I am a statistical anomaly for this reason. Detroit’s problems are much deeper than industry and recession, but date back to racial tensions that the city never fully recovered from. It’s not uncommon for someone living in suburban Detroit to admit never going into the city. If you ask when the last time they went to Detroit was, it’s typical to hear people throw out numbers like 10-20 years ago. There is no other metropolitan area in the world where people avoid the city center the way they do in Detroit.
8 Mile Rd. isn’t just the street where a movie about a famous rapper was filmed, it remains the nation’s starkest racial divide: on side of 8 Mile Rd. is 80 percent white and the other is 80 percent black.
The increased exodus out of the city may be changing the distribution somewhat, but the message this sends to businesses is loud and clear — we don’t get along — we have tension and drama. What business really wants to set up shop in an area with that kind of drama? This tension has halted innovation and even maintenance of even some of the simplest things from public transportation to replacing street lights. The legislature for the state at large has always been against programs that would benefit Detroit specifically, and the city government always acts as if any input from the state is an attempt at takeover. The ridiculous part is that without Detroit, Michigan doesn’t really add up to much in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Chris H. is right to point out the fact that Michigan has been in a one-state recession for years. Detroit’s problems date back way before the recent trouble in the auto industry and I’m afraid the major difference between Philadelphia in the 80s and Detroit in the 00s is that people actually continued living in Philadelphia. Much of what constitutes a “ghetto” in Detroit isn’t really a ghetto at all by definition since people actually *live* in ghettos — often in crowded conditions.
What you find in Detroit instead is blight– something that resembles a post-apocalyptic world out of a horror film — 28 Days Later comes to mind. The other thing you find is wide open space — lots of it. Many in this area are trying to support urban green space since, they argue, the city will never be full to capacity ever again. Farms, it seems, are a better fit than industry. Go figure.
In your post, you point out that the nation seems to have abandoned Detroit. To that I ask, why wouldn’t they? The sad truth is that for all the nice rhetoric in front of outsiders, Detroiters hate Detroit like no other. Statistics exist that indicate people who live in regional Detroit often have a worse opinion of the city than people who live in other regions. In the minds of most people who live in the metro area, Detroit and the rest of Michigan are separate places — when they speak of Michigan, they do not mean Detroit and vice versa.
Anyway, I said earlier that the post comes at a weird time for me. That’s true because I’m leaving. I left before, but I’m afraid that this time it’s for good. I’ve lived and supported this city for years and as silly as it sounds, I’m so afraid that if I’m not here to love it, nobody will. I also feel guilty for having a career that seems to be launching while almost everyone else I know struggles in a state of unemployment or underemployment. It just doesn’t seem fair.
Sorry to be so long-winded, but I guess I needed to unload a bit. I hope you don’t mind that I did this here.
I’m an outsider. I admit it. But coming from New Orleans, Detroit doesn’t look so bad.
I know that Detroiters want to, and do, leave in droves. And one can’t blame them. But I believe that there exists an aesthetic about Detroit that it may take outsiders to appreciate.
I moved to Michigan to go to grad school in Ann Arbor in 2005. I took a job in Detroit after graduation and have been making the commute from Ann Arbor, getting to know Detroit, and now making a move to become a Detroiter. Because I love what I have discovered about Detroit, despite all the gloom and sadness and shock from others about my move.
So while some people may leave, believe it or not, others are coming. While some people see abandonment and decay, others see opportunity. (As evidenced from a lot of recent press attention on the $500 dollar houses, urban agriculture, etc.)
True, coming from New Orleans I’m used to living in red-headed step-children of cities. One might say I actually thrive on it. But I want to be clear: it’s not so much hope for a bright future that compels me – I don’t buy into the “one day it will all turn around” promise. Stats show Michigan, and the Midwest in general, is shrinking. That’s not going to change.
No it’s not some promise of a Phoenix from the ashes, but rather the fortitude and resiliency of the people and culture that remain. It’s more like the patient vines that grow on a crumbling house than some mythical firebird.
People may leave, but people remain. And some people may even show up with suitcase in hand. Some people can appreciate that there is some inexplicable beauty that persists even after everyone seems to have forgotten and given up.
If Detroit “turns around” – well then, bonus.
Thanks for this Geoff. Perhaps I have guilt for having left Detroit in 1996, but I remain one of her strongest defenders. As Shannon mentioned, the city is not without its problems, as is the state…however the suburbs and metro area comprise part of the recovery the city needs to see.
I’ll be back in July and there for the entire month. I’m anxious to see not just my family and friends, but also how the city and state are doing.
One great thing I love about Detroiter is their resilience to adversity . Detroit has gone through a lot of tough times in the last 30 year, but Detroiters have always found away to try to lift there city up from the debris. Like you mentioned in your blog post Detroiters have tremendous pride in their city, I guess that’s why I love Detroit.
Bobby
@rmercader
Thank you for your post about Detroit; the positive and negative.
Michigan’s economic downslide began a long time ago. Growing up in suburban Detroit and realizing upon high school graduation that the majority of the economy was dependent upon the auto industry. Work for one of the Big 3, join the Union… and be set for life!?
I left when I was 21 and returned to Northern Michigan twenty years later. There’s no sugar coating the situation here in Michigan — IT IS BAD / VERY BAD.
People have lost their jobs. Small manufacturers are closing. Families are losing their homes. Loss of tax revenue that fuels our schools, fixes the roads and much more is beginning to have an impact.
How do we fix it? I just don’t know.
However, I support my local businesses because these are my neighbors, their children attend the same schools with my kids, the lady who cuts my hair, the college student serving up coffee, the family that owns the coffee shop…
As someone who has recently stepped into the world of small business ownership, I am amazed at the massive amount of talent that Detroit and the metro area has to offer. And what’s an even bigger bonus, they welcome you with open arms. They want to collaborate and share ideas and they want you to succeed as well. I’m not sure you get that from other cities.
None of us want pity… that’s for sure. But if people are looking for a down to earth atmosphere that is just ripe with opportunity… maybe Detroit is the place for them.
The rebirth has already begun.
Detroit’s biggest liability may be, as Shannon points out, a sharply polarized population…but the people are also Detroit’s biggest assets.
When visitors from elsewhere come to visit Detroit, they almost always talk about how warmly they’re treated by Detroiters. I read and heard it time and time again when the Super Bowl was here.
We visited Newport, RI last year and toured one of that city’s historic houses of worship. I stopped to buy a couple of postcards at the gift shop there, and when the clerk discovered we were from the Detroit area, she told us about her husband’s recent visit to Detroit. He’s visited on business and was so impressed with it that he wanted to bring his wife back for a little vacation–a visit she seemed excited about making with him.
I’ve heard the same thing from some folks that Shannon has…they haven’t visited the central city for 10-20 years. I always tell them they don’t know what they’re missing.
I find myself blogging a lot about Detroit because there really are a lot of interesting things to do and see in the city. We’ll just keep on keeping on, I guess :)
Geoff – thank you for the very heartfelt and balanced write-up. As a new Detroiter/Michigander, I’d like to reply to one of the things Shannon said — that “Detroiters hate Detroit like no other.” I honestly don’t think that’s true.
Do we roll our eyes (or smack our fists into our hands) at the bumbling city council and its example after example of how not to lead? Absolutely. Are we mortified when our mayor makes a mockery of the law and turns into a drawn out embarrassment for our city? Yep. But do we “hate” Detroit? I have never seen that.
It’s true, many 40 year old suburbanites have lived their entire lives without ever having been in the city itself. And there’s no shortage of ignorance floating around the burbs about what Detroit is or is not, what could happen to you if you go there, etc. But while many despise the city’s leadership, I have never spoken to anyone here who’s actually been in the city who “hates” the city. It’s like I always tell my seven year old about broccoli: how do you know you hate it if you haven’t tried it?
Yes, there are sections of Detroit that look like a post-apocalyptic movie set. There’s also a world class art museum, a fantastic Science Center, one of the nicest baseball parks I’ve ever been to (and I’ve seen games in 12 parks now), a great restaurant scene, and a Riverfront that is as much fun in the summer as anyplace in the midwest. It all depends on what one chooses to see most clearly, I guess.
You asked, “why wouldn’t the nation abandon Detroit” since we are so polarized and can’t get along. I guess my response is that if the world took that attitude, America would be screwed… we are quite a polarized nation on so many axes (axises?): racial, socio-economic, and the ever-cliched Blue State vs. Red State – just to name a few. If the attitude toward polarized places was to dismiss or abandon them, our whole country could be a candidate for the next ice floe. Thankfully, I think both the world and Americans are forgiving enough to look past divisions enough to see the good hearts that lie beneath.
Despite the many challenges — many of them admittedly self-inflicted — both our nation and this city are strong enough and good-hearted enough to rise above them. I believe that our city will be back. I believe that we will get tired of demagogues and spotlight hounds, and demand real leadership — and that our city will provide those leaders. I believe that our city and state will diversify their economies and can be not just a recovered economy but a leading growth engine. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. I believe that suburban residents will eventually realize and come to terms with the fact that our fate is inextricably linked to that of our center city, and that dismissing Detroit in order to try and go it alone is short-sighted and self-defeating. I believe that Detroit’s best days are truly yet to come.
Call me naive. Or maybe I just haven’t lived here long enough to be worn down by it all. But my family and I have chosen to make our home here, and we’re intending to be here for the long haul. We’ve fallen in love with what this city was, what it is, and most of all what it can be. I don’t think we’re alone.
I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to read an article about someone visiting Detroit and doesn’t see it as a chance to slag on the city and make oneself feel superior.
Thanks for talking about the real Detroit, and for empathizing rather than kicking us while we’re down like so many others are wont to do.
And Shannon, I respectfully disagree. Detroiters don’t hate Detroit, we hate what has happened to it and how others view it. I think those from the Metro Detroit region are some of the most fiercely loyal to their city that you’ll find anywhere. It amazes me how many people who’ve come up here and could live anywhere in the world still choose to spend most of their time in the D (see Aretha, Eminem, Kid Rock, etc).
Viva Detroit!
Wow. I just read all the comments above, most of which are from people I know in real life, and I don’t find myself in disagreement with any of it.
Matt Dibble & I aren’t originally from Detroit (we went to high school together) but instead Flint, a smaller city about an hour up I-75 with very similar problems and unique problems of its own. Eh, you may have heard of it. ;)
Flint and its problems are a whole ‘nother Oprah for a whole ‘nother time, but I know from a personal experience that I actually feel more “at home” in the Detroit area, and am honored when my friends consider me an “honorary Detroiter.” Though I don’t live in MetroD right now I have before (and may soon again), and IMHO, to feel much more welcome there than I do in my own “hometown” speaks volumes for its people.
Yes, Detroiters are some proud folks, but yes, there is tension, however there is something intangible that does tie us all together, and it’s not just when the Red Wings (or Tigers or Pistons or … uh, nevermind about that other team) are winning. . . though that helps. :)
For all its good, for all its bad, I love Detroit. I can’t add much else here except thank you for writing such an honest and heartfelt post.
Thanks for sharing and for saying this, “There was the genuine kindness most Detroit citizens emote. They are good people who want you to feel welcome, and that is clear.”
I’m happy to hear that you were treated well. I sincerely, hope you return.