"Imagining Detroit"

It’s obvious to anyone who knows me well that I love Michigan and I couldn't be happier to be back living there. It took living elsewhere for 4 years to make me appreciate all that Michigan has to offer. When I told my coworkers in D.C. that I was moving back to Michigan and I was excited about it, almost all of them gave me skeptical looks. Even now, my NYC coworkers are amazed that I’m buying a house in Ann Arbor because they find it hard to believe that Joe and I would want to stay there after he finishes law school. Unless they’ve been to Michigan, their impression is of a place with a failing automobile-dependent economy, faced with massive layoffs and rising unemployment and a blighted city of Detroit. I understand where they are coming from because those stories are primarily what the media has chosen to cover over the last few years. In some ways I agree that Michigan is a tough place to be right now. The economy isn’t strong, almost everybody knows several people who have lost their jobs, and it’s difficult to be overly optimistic when local governments are facing bankruptcy. What they don’t know is how beautiful Michigan is and how friendly and resilient the people are. They’ve never seen the vineyards surrounding Traverse City or of the myriad of lighthouses and sand dunes lining the Great Lakes. They don’t know how friendly the people are and in a moderate climate like D.C., they can’t understand how refreshing it is to see green grass and spring flowers after a seemingly never-ending, freezing winter. Whether you see the good or the bad in Michigan, what’s hard to miss is the potential that exists. Detroit is by no means beautiful like other parts of Michigan are. The first word that comes to my mind when driving into Detroit city limits is “devastated”. However, Detroit is ripe with potential for anyone who has imagination and ingenuity and is willing to put in some hard work. This is why I always get excited when I see a positive piece about Michigan and especially Detroit in the news. Yesterday, the New York Times had an opinion piece called "Imagining Detroit" by one of my favorite food authors, Mark Bittman, about Detroit. Bittman talks about how food is central to Detroit’s recovery and can be a piece upon which everyone can unite. In the piece, he doesn’t sugarcoat how Detroit appears, saying, “Imagine blocks that once boasted 30 houses, now with three; imagine hundreds of such blocks. Imagine green space created by the city’s heartbreaking but intelligent policy of removing burnt-out or fallen-down houses”. He points out though that food is an area in which Detroit can take advantage of its vast amounts of empty space and create a unity between residents. I love the example he cites of a woman and her church group who started a fruit and vegetable store in a neighborhood that has 23 liquor stores and only one grocery store. At the end of the piece Bittman includes a quote from a bakery owner that seems utopian considering Detroit’s current state, but also seems entirely possible given the strides that are currently being taken when it comes to urban farming and the local food movement; “’Imagine a city, rebuilt block by block, with a gorgeous riverfront, world class museums and fantastic local food. Everyone who wants one has a quarter-acre garden, and every kid lives within bike distance of a farm’”.