Stuff I like by Benita
I'm awesome.
-
Detroit: The Case Against Economic Disaster Porn - The New Republic
This is from January, but it’s good.
Here’s an excerpt, but click the link to read the whole piece.
When I sat down to my keyboard recently to Google the city of Detroit, the fourth hit was a site titled “the fabulous ruins of Detroit.” The site—itself a bit of a relic, with a design seemingly untouched since the 1990s—showed up in the results above the airport, above the Red Wings or the Pistons, the newspapers, or any other sort of civic utility. Certainly above anything related to the car industry, for which the word Detroit was once practically a synonym. Pictures of ruins are now the city’s most eagerly received manufactured good.
We have begun to think of Detroit as a still-life. This became clear to me recently, when the latest set of “stunning” pictures of Detroit in ruins made the rounds, taken by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre for a book, The Ruins of Detroit. (More such pictures here and here.) They were much tweeted and blogged about (including by TNR’s own Jonathan Chait), as other such “ruin porn” photosets of blighted places have been, and were described variously as wonderful, as beautiful, as stunning, as shocking, as sad. They are all of those things, and so I suppose they are good art. But they are rotten photojournalism. (Click here to read TNR’s “The Detroit Project: A Plan for Solving America’s Greatest Disaster.”)
Pictures are naturally more memorable than a well written, evenhanded magazine story about the scope and tragedy of Detroit’s economic woes could ever be. But that’s precisely the problem. These indelible pictures present an un-nuanced and static vision of Detroit. They might serve to “raise awareness” of the Rust Belt’s blight, but raising awareness is only useful if it provokes a next step, a move toward trying to fix a problem. By presenting Detroit, and other hurting cities like it, as places beyond repair, they in fact quash any such instinct. Looked at as a piece of art, they’re arresting, compelling, haunting … but not galvanizing. Our brains mentally file these scenes next to Pompeii rather than a thriving metropolis like Chicago, say, or even Columbus.
-
World's Most Underrated Cities
Guess which city is at the top of this list…
Detroit
A new breed of urban homesteader is helping to revive Motor City. Abandoned factories and warehouses like the Russell Industrial Center have been turned into studios for artists and artisans, while gardens now flourish in formerly vacant lots. The exuberant Heidelberg Art Project turns urban blight into a symbol of hope. Detroit’s food scene, meanwhile, is taking off. Foran’s Grand Trunk micropub, the Eastern Market, Supino Pizzeria, and Slows BBQ are just some of the gastronomic must-dos. Don’t forget the city’s museums, including the Detroit Institute of Art, home to Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry” murals, and the delightful Motown Museum.
Don’t Miss: If you’re there on the weekend, swing by Café d’Mongo’s, an antiques-filled speakeasy with live jazz that’s open only Friday nights.
-
The Other Detroit - The Atlantic
I would love to take a house tour in Palmer Woods. Check out the slideshow with this story: “Touring Detroit’s Architectural Splendor.”
An excerpt:
When I first visited, in the fall of 2009, I was awestruck. I had seen well-heeled black neighborhoods before—the prosperous suburbs ringing Atlanta and Washington, D.C., Chatham in Chicago, Baldwin Hills in L.A. But the gates of Palmer Woods are a wormhole out of the angry city and into an opulent idyll. Sleepy curvilinear streets with names like “Strathcona Drive” and “Argyle Crescent” snake through the 188-acre hamlet and its sprawling, irregular lots. Across Seven Mile Road sits the venerable, members-only Detroit Golf Club, which remained all-white until 1986.
Even as Detroit groaned under the weight of crime, failing schools, and high taxes, Palmer Woods held steady. But the country’s financial straits, particularly the collapse of the real-estate bubble and the struggles of the Big Three automakers, were a direct assault on the region’s twin pillars: houses and cars. The neighborhood association considers approximately 15 out of its 292 homes to be in jeopardy. Problems that were once rare—crime, for instance—are cropping up, as Palmer Woods at last succumbs to the gravity of the city. As a result, those who were once excluded from the neighborhood’s vision of the American dream are now in the position of defending it.
Its homes were built after the fashion of European aristocrats—châteaus with large libraries and secret passages; cottages of ashlar masonry, brick, and stucco; servants’ quarters with separate stairwells. (Note: This is just the kind of house I would love to own one day.) The lords of Palmer Woods vacationed in Europe, golfed at the Detroit Golf Club, and, excepting the live-in help, excluded blacks: “Said lots shall not be sold or leased to or occupied by any person or persons other than of the Caucasian race,” read the Palmer Woods housing covenant, “but this shall not be interpreted to exclude occupancy by persons other than of the Caucasian race when such occupancy is incidental to their employment on the premises.”
When restrictive covenants were ruled unconstitutional in 1948, black families began moving in, infusing the customs of black America’s ancien régime into the ethos of old Detroit money. They pledged their children to Jack and Jill of America, joined the neighborhood association, and held potlucks and barbecues to raise money for local charities and black artists. Many had or went on to illustrious careers: Lamont Dozier was part of the popular Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland. Keith Ellison became the first Muslim congressman.
One afternoon, I visited Lorna Thomas in her English Tudor, a short walk from Seven Mile Road. Thomas’s great-great-great-uncle was the first African American in the Michigan state legislature. She proudly showed me the April 2, 1959, issue of Jet, with her on the cover clutching a test tube. “Lorna Lacen,” the caption read, using her maiden name, “Detroiter, 16, has A’s in prep subjects, takes special college courses.”
Now a dermatologist, Thomas went to Wellesley with Cokie Roberts and Nora Ephron. We sat at her kitchen bar for a spread of cranberry juice, coffee, and tea cakes. Then we took a 45-minute tour of her home. Her guest bathroom had a waterfall literally tumbling over the mirror, and an original Richard Yarde watercolor of Paul Robeson as Emperor Jones. “I did an interview for Crain’sDetroit Business about five years ago,” she told me. “The reporter came in and I said, ‘I want you to print something and I want you to print it just the way I say it: I live here because I chose to be in Detroit. I am not stuck. I could be anywhere I want.’”
Upper-middle-class survivalists such as Thomas consider residency in Palmer Woods a political act. As Elliott Hall, another resident I spoke with, put it, “Every advantage I received in my life came out of the city of Detroit.” Hall’s family had originally come up from Alabama and Arkansas to live in Black Bottom, the childhood home of Joe Louis and storied epicenter of black Detroit, lost to urban renewal in the 1950s and ’60s. His family migrated westward with the years, following the retreat of white Detroiters. Now Hall stays with his son on Palmer Woods’ Lucerne Drive. “I got my grade-school and law-school education in Detroit. I sat on every nonprofit board in the city. And there are a number of other folks who feel the same way. And they’re willing to deal with crime and everything that goes along with it. It’s not like we’re saying, ‘We’ve had enough, we’re out of here.’ … We always have to believe things are going to turn around in a city that we love so much.”
-
The Motor City Theatre Organ Society's Redford Theatre
The Redford Theatre, with its historic original 3 manual, 10 rank Barton Theatre Pipe Organ, has served as a Metro Detroit entertainment center since it opened on January 27, 1928.
They show old movies every weekend! And each regular movie showing is preceded by a 30-minute mini-concert beginning at 7:30.
I’m going to see “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” tonight. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Awesome.
-
-
Today Benita and I went to the Marche du Nain Rouge.
Here’s a little about the history of the event. I wrote “Robocop” on my red dwarf effigy paper.
Historical Basis
Le Nain Rouge (the Red Dwarf) is a malevolent spirit that has cursed generations of Detroiters. It often appears as an impish dwarf, with gnarled red features, glowing eyes, rotting teeth and matted fur. Le Nain’s appearance seems to foretell the misfortune of whoever sees it, or more generally the misfortune of the city as a whole.The first recorded sighting of Le Nain Rouge occurred when Detroit founder Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac took a stroll with his wife through the Royal Garden just outside Fort Pontchartrain’s walls. Le Nain crossed Cadillac’s path, shrieking at Cadillac as if to confront him. In response Cadillac took his cane to Le Nain and drove it off. As Le Nain retreated, it cursed Cadillac. There have been numerous sightings since.
After the incident, Cadillac’s luck soon took a turn for the worse. A political rival of Cadillac convinced the French Government to indict him on charges of illegal trafficking. This resulted in Cadillac’s removal from power and imprisonment. And even though his name was eventually cleared, Cadillac’s fortunes were never the same. He died in France still trying to establish his land claims in Detroit.
-
Census shocker: Detroit's population falls to 713,000 | The Detroit News
Not really a shocker, but still sad. Sixty years ago, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the U.S.
Detroit — Detroit’s population fell to 713,777 in 2010, its lowest level in a century, according to U.S. Census figures released today.
The loss of 238,270 residents since 2000 is a sobering statistical stamp on a decade’s worth of job losses, plant closings and foreclosures in a city that was home to 1.8 million residents in 1950. Detroit’s nearly 25 percent decline in population was the most by far among the top 20 cities, with only Chicago showing a population loss of 6.9 percent.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110322/METRO/103220399/Census-shocker—Detroit’s-population-falls-to-713-000#ixzz1HLxiTz5L -
He said city officials know of thousands of Detroiters who are incarcerated in other municipalities who will soon get out. Those people should be counted “when they get out and come back to Detroit,” he said.
Detroit council members seek census recount | The Detroit News
Seriously?! The census count is inaccurate because of the city’s convicts? Nice argument for a recount there, City Council President.
-
Detroit library could close most of its branches
Jesus. This is both a literal and PR nightmare for the city. Not only is this going to hurt the 713,777 or more people that still occupy the city limits by denying access to educational possibilities and technology, but forget about ATTRACTING people to move here.
“We’re world class! Paris of the Midwest! We have stadiums and nightlife! WE HAVE SLOWS!?!?! What more could you need?”
Well, it turns out people would like to educate their kids; people would like to have access to the Internet and books that could educate them and help them find work. I don’t know of any world class cities without a thriving library system. In my mind, it sets up a parameter of who COULD move to the city- if you’re poor, sure, you can afford to move to Detroit, but you would limit yourself in terms of services and access. So basically we’re hurting poor Detroiters and setting it up so people who can afford to live in and blindly ignore a lot of what’s going on because “Oh, who cares, it’s my own socioeconomic playland! IT’S SO CHEAP AND FUN.”
It’s not going to hurt the hipster and young professional class since they’ll of course have access by having the ability to drive downtown to pick up whatever NYT bestseller or purchase it for themselves; they probably have Internet at home. If you’re poor, forget about it—get on the bus and hope the main branch is open when you finish working if you need to check your email.
By cutting out access to technology and educational advancement via libraries it is only going to make the fact that there are two Detroits even worse. The Detroit where people can afford to shop in cute Midtown shops and the Detroit where people can only shop at the party store down their street. I have lived here some time now so I am usually pretty steeled about a lot, but sometimes it blows my mind in a whole new way how the city and region can continue to undercut itself and its people every damn step of the way.
Close the schools! Close the libraries! Because we all know what the most dangerous thing in America is.
I love Kim’s rants. LOVE them. (She’s right, of course.)
I like a lot of stuff, including but not limited to words, sarcasm, news, pop culture, bright colors, music, design, baking, books, Detroit, DIY.
