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• Ellen says:

  February 5, 2010 at 1:15 pm

  RE: Detroit: A Mocked City

  I stumbled upon a paper version in the School of Anthropology this afternoon and couldn’t help reading based on the subject at hand. In the past couple of years I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in Detroit. The general spirit of the city is similar to that of a deflated balloon. People have little hope and many people remain living in falling apart houses simply because they have nowhere else to go. That being said, there are still a lot of great places there, like Oslo for sushi, Old Shillelagh, and of course all of the theaters and sports centers that abound. On a warm Saturday morning you can walk through the Eastern Market and get some of the cheapest, most delicious foods, and pass by a number of stands selling every piece of Obama memorabilia you can imagine. That brings me to the issue of politics. Go to Detroit right around the time of a big election and you will meet dozens of people all with strong opinions on who should win. Then ask them if they plan on voting. The overwhelming answer you will receive is no. Take a look at the statistics for the November 2, 2009 election for mayor, city council, city clerk, school board and charter commission and you’ll see there was only a 22% turnout for voters. 22 percent! Therefore, I don’t think it is as you said an “us against the world” mentality the people of Detroit have, it’s more like a loss of faith in the system that was supposed to maintain their city. And rightfully so.

  I believe that Detroit will be reborn, though not as we have seen it in the past. I hope I am right.

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