A peculiar feeling

Posted by Minni

The future of Detroit. Four words. So much uncertainty. SO much. Not even the pundits of pundits with the most esteemed reputations for predicting and analyzing economic and political outcomes can conceptualize the future of this city.

Yet, across the nation there is an uncanny curiosity about Detroit. It's sometimes comparable to the rubbernecking seen on the highway after an accident mangles a car or a body or two. But there's an undercurrent that also separates it from rounchy vuerism: In cities all over the country people feel tied to Detroit' fate. The industrial pillar has fallen, now a city crusted over in rust and vines. We all know this by now. And yet the nations eye gleans Detroit, wary, nervously and frequently. Are other U.S. cities sealed into Detroit's fate? After all, it's the epicenter of this economic earthquake, they felt it first and felt it the hardest.

Here's what often gets overlooked now that internationally, economic foundations are shaking: What's happening NOW has been a LONG time coming. A storm in the gulf that turned to a hurricane and has been headed this way for the past 50 years. It's hitting everywhere now. But Detroit got the brunt of it. But the question remains: during, and in the aftermath, how will each citizen respond? How should they respond and to whom goes the power?

Detroit's already lost a big chunk of it's population and a healthy serving of hope along with it leaving only apathetic citizens, glued to a daily grind with gray, foggy eyes and thick skin and little to no imagination. No optimism or trust either, especially of elected officials. Only about a quarter of residents actually vote, the rest, the ones who feel as if they no longer hold stock in the city, on other words no longer have a slice in the pie of Detroit, don't vote and yet those are the ones whose voices need to be heard. Defeatism at its best. Lost. Gave up. Zoned out and stumbling along basking in the mindless glory of routine. This is how they can be herded like cattle, miseducated and taken advantage of. It's an age old story. This urban blight that's now getting so much attention didn't happen overnight or even over decade. It happened over a series of decades more than a half century to be sure.

so here I sit: looking out of the window of my little house in the the hood on the East side of the city. It's so quiet because there's no one around. It's on of those houses in an area where no one lived, all burnt out exoskeletons of houses and debris. A wasteland by definiion. Except for one thing: A farm. Yes, I know, I'm sick of hearing about urban farming and how it could "save Detroit" or be the "future of post industrial junkyard" yeah yeah yeah. For some reason I don't think so. Pundits acn guess and many are pointing out the 3,000 some urban farms that have spouted up from people turning back to the land and cultivating some of the large swaths of city-turned-prairie. I get a little sad when I hear that. Why? Because here's a great IDEA that will not be executed in a way that will benefit the people or the city in the long run. It will turn into a get rich quick scheme by deep pocketed investors and they will swarm in like flies and eat way at the carcass of the city leaving the white bones on top of the soil and onto the next. What I'm trying to articulate throught my rage, is this: that the urban farm push from the city will come and it will be industrial and not from the roots and ideas of the founders of these urban farms but from people with dollar signs in their eyes. And Detroit, buckled down to its knees has will have a fight left in it but there are so many fights to be fought this battle will get lost and the weakened city will get cheated, bound and left helpless as it was before, a puppet democracy run by the state.