A Shot of Reality

Brian Emeott sent me this article in the Washington Post about Detroit's problems. I read it after I returned from a particularly sad Detroit visit this past Sunday. I was going to the DIA to see a movie that was playing as part of the Detroit Documentary Film Festival, but I took a different route than I normally do, driving through a residential area just north of the Midtown area. It was what I was expecting...abandoned homes, trash, caved in roofs. The outside wall of a building that stood along the road I was driving on had completely collapsed from the strong winds on Sunday. Concrete and bricks covered the street. It was sad to see people outside, kids riding their bikes, realizing that people have to live here.

After the movie, I went to the Hiedelberg Project which is an open environment art exhibit in Detroit. The artist took thrown away items he found in his neighborhood and used them to cover abandoned houses and cars, fences, trees, etc. on his street, just outside of downtown. The project is pretty cool, but it's really weird. The street is completely run down and it's strange to see all these colors and weird props across the street from a house with no windows or roof. Overall it just made me really sad, partly the aim of the project, I think.

Anyway, after reading the Washington Post article and visiting some of the run down neighborhoods on Sunday, my Monday morning was ruined. You read and hear about the neglect and sometimes you even see it, but it is easy to forget how bad everything is. The article, as Brian pointed out, "tells it like it is in many ways, and it's not a pretty picture to see Detroit without the lens of our undying optimism and hope." And it only takes a short drive outside of downtown to see the ugly reality. For every one step foward Detroit takes, there are hundreds of other steps it must take before real progress.