Apathy in Detroit – Break the Cycle

I love reading @becksdavis Detroit Moxie. Because I love Detroit. But I have to disagree. I lived in the city until I was 19. Then moved out to the burbs. They are not the city. The Dateline piece was about the city proper. I am in the city a lot. I was there earlier today. Not doing but teaching someone to do.

It’s great to roll up the sleeves and help out. But are people going to do that for decades. I think the change needs to be not from people traveling into the city to help out but from the inside out. The only thing we suburbanites can do is show up at the inner city businesses to spend our money and show our photos on our blogs.

If I drive into the city to have a cup of coffee with a friend. I step around the people begging for money. I walk past the abandoned homes. I avoid the stray dogs in the street. I get in my car and high tale it back home.

But do any of us stop to talk to the person begging for money? Do we knock on the doors of the neighbors of the abandoned buildings to find out if anything has been tried to remedy the situation? Do we call animal control and wait until they show up to get the stray we saw before it bites some poor unsuspecting child? No our kids are safe at home in areas where animal control actually shows up.

We drive in and drive out.

It’s nice to take on a project or two to help out but these projects like Gleaners, Habitat for Humanity are ongoing. They are not additional assistance, just the day to day upkeep in a big city.

So Mayor Bing has taken a drastic step. I find it horrible to ask people to move from their homes because a neighborhood will be closing. But for decades they lived next to squalor and it is clear that these occupants are ok with that. Or they would have done something about it. Instead you see them barricade their doors with bars and put fences around their yards.

They shore up to defend their own little spot of land even if it is decaying around them. Something has to be done. And it looks like a lot of people are going to be forced to help themselves really soon. Maybe not soon enough.

We talked at a tweetea about how college students graduate and leave the city. I have to say that that is a good thing, because at this time there is nothing here for them. They can come back later when they have something to contribute. Not stay here to try to make it. But they can come back and bring their born and raised Detroit success back home when they are older and know what to do with it.

Maybe I am harsh. But I am being realistic. As a 40 year old I would move back to the city. But would I want my son to live there straight out of school? No. Not if there was nothing to offer him. Education not only has to be got, it has to be used.

So then you see the 75% drop out rate… well what do they see for themselves here? Most of them don’t know any other place. I think kids should travel more. On school trips. I don’t think they do much of that at all and so that makes their would seem even smaller and bleaker.

Just my thoughts as a kid who grew up in it. I think it is nice to speak of fixing things up. Problem is people living in it don’t think they need to have things fixed. It’s an apathy thing. It’s nice to give a man a fish. But why not give him a pole and teach him how to fish for himself.

This morning I spent an hour and a half showing a grown man how to hammer a nail. It is frightening how much basic knowledge people lack in some areas. Before people go in droves to fix things you have to look hard at yourself. You have culture, education, opportunity or the ability to create opportunity for yourselves.

I speak to people in the city who don’t even know where the main library is. They don’t know things, like you can take free lessons to learn how to lay tile at building supply stores. They don’t know there are green tax credits for home improvements. They could not tell you what the Internet itself does for them.They don’t use it the way most of you reading this now do. They are living in another culture. A culture of poverty and decay and showing up to sweep the dust and cobwebs away does nothing.

We should teach the children better and when they leave we should pat them on the back and say “bon voyage” and wish them well.

And if you are reading this and you are one of those people who says I am a Detroiter. Where do you live? If you live in a burb then “YOU ARE NOT” in Detroit – the issue is not with the suburbs. The issue and the TV shows are talking about the city proper. Don’t list your business as a Detroit business and hand me a business card that says Bloomfield Hills. Don’t tell my you are a PR person from Detroit and give me your phone number that has a 734 area code. Don’t tell my you hosted a Detroit event and it was in Canton. Really…. must be nice to be a Detroiter and not have to live where the problems are.

I am from Detroit, I now live in the suburbs. I am not sugar coating it. I don’t live in the city anymore. The city services were not good enough. The safety of certain areas was not good enough. And the upkeep of the neighborhoods was not good enough. So I left. But I love to visit.

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