On the ground in Detroit

Posted by Minni

Today the newest issue of Time magazine with Detroit on the cover was sold out in all the area Borders books and Barns and Noble stores. Apparently it's a good report, I'm not sure though. I want to read it and critically review its content. I really would like to see what they, ["they" meaning skilled, experienced, educated and assumedly intelligent journalists] put together on this city. But all in all is Detroit really as bad as it would seem to the outside eye? Once one adjusts to life in the 'hood things can be quite relaxing, and a sense of contentment and simple enjoyment sets in. The Sunday afternoon barbeque, the smell of smoke, the music from the neighbor's radio, the bump of the cars bass, the call of the pheasant, bees buzzing in the trees. I mean, this is my east-side reality were things are a bit more country. But Detroit's Deroit. Sometimes I find it liberating where people are just ... in the moment whatever that moment is. Whether you're serving at the spot or struggling to pay for classes at Wayne state or both, it's a unique experience and everyone's perception of the same reality shifts by person. Let's all share our perspectives. I do want to read the time report before I make any assumptions.

But because with all these reports coming in from national media; from stranger reporters who have descended upon this "industrial wasteland" it's starting to become a caricature of itself. Meaning the formula for this kinds of thing can be nailed and celebrated with a simple drinking game.

I'm not sure what's going on. I've only lived in the city proper for two years. I definitely think that the city may look different to a foreign eye. And I think that vantage point needs to be developed. But seriously, I feel that the mainstream information flow, for the most part, is so conventionally wacked. Here we have the majority of reports and analysis of the political and socio-economic situations coming from people who have not been assimilated into the unique culture of Detroit. A lot of these problems are based in a cultural, racial, class based subtext. They're problems that are not new but are magnified by economic recessions. But the magnification turns it into a spectacle, a grand exhibit. Then there's the added consideration that white people inherently have an incredible need conquer. If they talk about the old train station and urban farming and urban blight and such then it's ... pretty predictable.