It was only twenty years ago that I sat on a grassy bank, looking at the city of Detroit, on my first date with my husband. It was awesome. You don’t even have to be in one of the cool vibey establishments to feel its coolness. The vibe is everywhere if you’re open to it. At that time my exposure to Detroit was minimal. I grew up an hour north and only made it there for special occasions like the circus, museums, the zoo. As a teenager, with a car and license, I gravitated south toward Detroit for dinners, concerts, and dance clubs. Looking up at it from the Flint area, Detroit was so big and awesome. There have always been areas to avoid, rougher neighborhoods and abandoned buildings, just like any big city. But I would have never dreamed that Detroit would have the reputation that it has now. That it would be looked upon by the nation as a wasteland, too far gone to ever recover.
Although there was a period where I spent a lot of time in and around Detroit, working and playing, I have lost touch with it in the last decade. But having become a parent of two school aged special needs kids in that period, I have really lost touch with a lot of things. And people. Myself even. In the last couple of years I have been slowly waking up from the autopilot daze I went into to deal with the complications and behaviors of my kids as they worked through pain, worked out their demons, and began to heal. When the coast was clear and I started looking outside of my bubble I realized a lot of things had changed. And now that I have room to care about more things than making it through another day, I find there is a lot for which to be concerned, troubled, and even a little angry.
Over the years I forgot about the specialness of Detroit and it had again become the far away big city of my childhood. The place I now had to go to get wine cheap at Trader Joes, eat at Bahama Breeze or find an Energy speaker seller. It seems like a different lifetime when I worked downtown across from the ball park or visited exhibits on my days off. Coming out of the bubble, though, it is THAT lifetime that I miss. The hustle and bustle, the culture, the art, the every day experiences that you can’t get anywhere else. But on the news they say THAT Detroit doesn’t exist anymore. They paint dark pictures of abandoned buildings, violence, and people suffering in the street.
I was sad about this for about a minute, then I realized, there’s still an awful lot of shit going on down there for a dead city. I went to a Tiger game and it felt anything but dead or scary. A friend just returned from a big music festival and gushed about how awesome Detroit still is. I’m still a mom and a housewife so researching the situation personally is not really a possibility right now but luckily, other people have done the work for me and put it online. You know what I learned from watching all the REAL Detroit news – somebody forgot to tell the people of Detroit that their city is dead. There are artists, painters, musicians, designers, all types of creative people taking over the city, the abandoned buildings and streets and doing things with them. They’re gardening and creating, working together, and building their city back up from the inside. Without the help of the city or programs to which people in other towns have access.
And it occurred to me. I’m a little bit like Detroit, so is my family. We don’t fit into a category. We’re hodge podge. The rules haven’t applied to us and we’ve had to deal with things that other families have not. Things that other people did not understand or about which they weren’t even aware. I heard it said about Detroit that something in its favor is that the residents are on their own, they have to do everything for themselves, and they’re doing out of necessity, survival – nothing has been handed to them. Because of that, because they have to work so hard and because up is the only direction they have to go – they will succeed in a big way. As more and more young people and entrepreneurs realize the potential for growth and blank slate to create something totally new and exciting, we will see Detroit’s comeback build momentum. One day when people aren’t looking, Detroit is just going to be BACK. It is too special not to be. There is too much energy, creativity, and diversity for it to fail as long as outsiders don’t eff with it.
When you look past the misleading photos shown on the news and into the heart of Detroit, it is not at all depressing like some would have you believe. It is inspirational and motivational. I have learned a lot about myself doing a little research on Detroit, and I have a renewed spirit from seeing what people are accomplishing there. And I’m reminded that there is nothing stopping me from kicking it up a notch or two. We don’t have to settle for having survived. We have lots to still achieve beyond this moment. It’s okay that we took a little breather after everything settled, but it’s time to get back to work. (and fun and living.) 
