Time cover story: The Death and Possible Life of a Great City

Daniel Okrent, a 61-year-old major league journalist and "a Detroit native [northwest side] who recently went home to find out what went wrong," tells Time readers what he found. His cover report for the Oct. 5 print issue went online today.

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Old friends and new acquaintances, people who confront the city's agony every day, told me, "I hope this isn't going to be another article about how terrible things are in Detroit."

It is — and it isn't.

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Either way, lots of red meat to chew on here -- including harsh comments about CAY and John Dingell.

Link again.

Very good piece. It is worth reading.

I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality and breadth of writing thus far from the various publications. I expect to see even better work as they get the initial standard stories out of the way and gain more familiarity with the city.

Fantastic article. We need the national attention. In my opinion, Detroit can't bring herself back on her own. To me, it's doubtful that the region or even the State can pull off what's needed. We need Federal help. I'm not talking about throwing money at the problem. More like huge Federal tax incentives for manufacturing companies to set up shop here.

Back in the day, Detroit saved the worlds ass with it's manufacturing might. I think it's time to call in our marker.
I'm wondering what the group thinks about alternate energy production. Solar panels, wind turbines, etc. We have the infrastructure, the brain power, the employment base to make something happen. We also have the space. Imagine the Packard site with a state of the art production facility. Jobs would go along way to curing a lot of the ills we face.

Thoughts?

PCE, you are right, but there is work to be done here. This is our chance. This is the chance that the world is going to have to see Detroit. Along with that, they're going to see or not see exactly why we should be relevent and why we should get the federal help that you refer to. If, at the end of the year, the key takeaways are corrupt politicians, terrible local governments, unsolved crimes, too many crimes, and too little education, then we're going to lose.

Because if that happens, nobody is going to care. People will have spent a year trying to care but they will realize that it's a waste.

Instead, I hope that you can see positive stories. I want to see stories of people who fight back against crime, not by vigilante justice, but through more teaching and humane methods. I want to see stories like the series on Fletcher Field that gets zero attention, but is a demonstration of a community trying something, anything to get their neighborhood back. A year from now, wouldn't it be nice to see stories like that, as well as:
--The success of the mayor in turning around a key issue. Which one, doesn't matter. Any of them.
--The first year outcome of the Cobo regional deal and how that can help expand regionalism
--Crimes solved because people turned the criminals in
--Students lives turned around because they stayed in school.

Detroit and Michigan have felt ignored for a long time. It's front and center right here and now. What are we going to do with it?

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Originally Posted by PCE

I think it's time to call in our marker.

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As far as the rest of the nation is concerned Detroit already got more than its share with the $$ that went to GM and Chrysler.

Very well stated sirrealone.

We need to get our own act together before we ask the other 49 states to subsidize our foolishness.

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Originally Posted by lilpup

As far as the rest of the nation is concerned Detroit already got more than its share with the $$ that went to GM and Chrysler.

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I'm not sure if I agree with you or not. In my little corner of the world, there was a huge backlash for the auto bailouts. Until the local GM dealership got its pink slip. At that point attitudes seemed to change.
Like I say, my little corner of the world. I can't comment regarding the national perspective.
I'm hoping these Time articles will help to change negative opinions about Detroit.

There is a lot of ammo for the nation to use against us. Couple that with southern politicians who undermine any attempt to rise and we end up with a lot of gum on the face.

I admit, it is not going to be easy to "180" the perceptions and attitudes inside and outside of Detroit. Right now, it's our only choice. Sierralone created a very simple and accurate list of where to start:

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--The success of the mayor in turning around a key issue. Which one, doesn't matter. Any of them.
--The first year outcome of the Cobo regional deal and how that can help expand regionalism
--Crimes solved because people turned the criminals in
--Students lives turned around because they stayed in school.

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I just can't see where this would ever start. Call me pessemistic, or show me something of substance that points towards anything getting done on that list. Here's to another shot at it.

To clarify, I don't think that they have to solve everything or even one thing on the list, but just show steps in the right direction. We have to show the country that we care about ourselves before we can expect the country to care about us.

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Originally Posted by lilpup

As far as the rest of the nation is concerned Detroit already got more than its share with the $$ that went to GM and Chrysler.

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I have to disagree with you. Corporations, not the city of Detroit got bailout money. Socialism at work. I think I know where PCE is going with this. Detroit needs to be treated as if a disaster like Loma Prieta or Katrina has hit the city. Detroit needs a bailout but throwing money on the problem is not going solve the problems that is plaguing the city.

One beauty of Time's full-team treatment can be seen already on their Detroit Blog, where Darrell Dawsey this afternoon comments on the cover story "from a slightly different angle."

He's a generation younger than Okrent, a different race and grew up on the other side of Woodward. [[Yes, yes -- I may have put the most important difference last.)

Here's a sample of how a writer who "came of age on the eastside of Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s" sees the Coleman legacy:

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I won't argue that voters left him in office too long, but I'm loath to agree with the contention that he "cared more about retribution than resurrection." . . . I remember well the resentment and outright race hatred directed at Young, the city's then-nascent black political leadership and its growing black and brown population. Although much of the real power and money in Detroit remained in the hands of white pols and business leaders -- and still does today -- white residents felt that Young's win meant they'd somehow lost ground.

. . . As Young himself was later quoted as saying, "White people find it extremely hard to live in an environment they don't control." What seemed to whites like defiance and dismissal from Young was usually interpreted by black folks as, "Well, with or without you, we've got to go on." . . . But when so many people and businesses fled, taking a hunk of tax base with them, my parents' generation found themselves holding the bag and being forced to soldier on anyway.

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Blog link again.

I found the article disappointing. It carries the same tired litany of ills with which we on this forum are so familiar. Nothing new is offered either in details, context or assessment. In the end the writer, like most who come to ‘stare into the abyss’ as I call it, ends up like so many others have, gravely shaking his head and offering no insight.

Some of the usual simplistic gloss-overs are there too-- the 67 riot gets profiled as the impetus for a flight pattern that was fifteen years in motion with hundreds of thousands having already moved since population peak. No mention is made of its acceleration by tax advantages, public financed expressways that destroyed houses, businesses and chopped up neighborhoods in Detroit while easing movement to tax subsidized new factories, houses and plain old space and country air.

Then the ghost of Coleman Young gets resurrected, reamed and all but called racist while L. Brooks who did as much to stoke that divide gets a half paragraph of marshmallows tossed at him. None of the many other antagonists of that circular firing squad are called to task.

Similarly the Devil's Night ghost is brought forth while the triumph of Angel's Night of which the author was either ignorant or chose to ignore is not mentioned. Every year tens of thousands of volunteer angels unite, patrol their neighborhoods and make that formerly infamous night one of the safest and most arson free nights of the year.

The UAW gets more blame than the auto companies and John Dingell is far more the blame than the [not mentioned] giveaway trade treaties did far more to destroy American auto industry in particular and manufacturing in general.

I felt this article could have been completely comfortable in the Wall Street Journal of Fox news.

Sorry, but if you are doing the D with that much emphasis, I expect more.

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Originally Posted by R8RBOB

I have to disagree with you. Corporations, not the city of Detroit got bailout money. Socialism at work. I think I know where PCE is going with this. Detroit needs to be treated as if a disaster like Loma Prieta or Katrina has hit the city. Detroit needs a bailout but throwing money on the problem is not going solve the problems that is plaguing the city.

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You differentiate between the auto companies and the city. Most people nationally do not understand that the City of Detroit's issues are largely separate from the automakers' struggles.

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Originally Posted by Lowell

I felt this article could have been completely comfortable in the Wall Street Journal of Fox news.

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And this is what scares me the most about this project. There have been times I thought this entire project might be little more than a right wing bashing of what has been noted as the most Democratic city in the US. The regurgitated CNNMoney articles are particularly ugly.

Okrent, on the other hand, trots out many of the same things the far left does, too, re: Dingell and and the autos.

So far the pieces from Gray, which seem the most even-handed, and the SI stories are the ones I like the most.

I think he was a bit harsh on Dingell and Young. These guys are/were politicians trying to keep the ship afloat. As much bad as I've heard about Young, it was typically from old white people who were mostly scared that they were somehow losing power or control. I've said this before and I will say it again, under Young neighborhoods were in much better shape, grass got cut in the parks, garbage got picked up, police came when needed, houses did not become as blighted as they are now, the books were balanced, and there were recreation centers. We have had a lot worse mayors than Young.

I doubt Dingell was this guy's rep ever. I have lived in W Detroit near Dearborn for nearly my entire life [[40 plus years). Dingell was never my Rep. Wow a rep that repesented the business interests of his constituency. What a shock.

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Originally Posted by Lowell

I found the article disappointing. It carries the same tired litany of ills with which we on this forum are so familiar. Nothing new is offered either in details, context or assessment. In the end the writer, like most who come to ‘stare into the abyss’ as I call it, ends up like so many others have, gravely shaking his head and offering no insight.

Similarly the Devil's Night ghost is brought forth while the triumph of Angel's Night of which the author was either ignorant or chose to ignore. Every year tens of thousands of volunteer angels unite, patrol their neighborhoods and make that formerly infamous night one of the safest and most arson free nights of the year.

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Maybe it's different from where you sit, but down here, actually in the city, I don't see much to "celebrate" that we have to have citizen patrols so the city doesn't burn down.

Yeah, rah, rah, people volunteer. The sense of community is so strong and all that other bullshit.

Wouldn't it be more meaningful if we could treat those nights just like any other? Seems like every mayor learns the hard way about ignoring it, though. Archer got his ass burned his first Halloween, and so did Kwame. I haven't heard much about the issue from Bing yet, so better get your marshmallows ready.

As the builder and landlord of this open-door forum, Lowell clearly welcomes respectful, informed dialogue . . . so this feels only a little like turning up my nose at the host's latest serving.

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. . . gravely shaking his head and offering no insight.

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No quibble on the tone of grave dismay, but his insight about making Detroit the focus of an renewable energy stimulus package brightens the gloom at least a bit:

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In Detroit's past, you can find an idea for its future — and the nation's.

. . . [The interstate highway system is] an adaptable model. The fuel-cell technology that dazzled me at the GM Tech Center is less about autos than it is about energy. . . . What's to stop us now from turning Detroit — its highly trained engineering talent, its skilled and unskilled workforce desperate for employment, its underutilized production facilities — into the Arsenal of the Renewable Energy Future?

If we did, Detroit could go back to building something America needs. As a nation, we could prove that we can still make things. And while we're at it, we could regenerate not just a city but our sense of who we are.

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And while I'm at it, I encourage Lowell, lilpup and others to read Darrell Dawsey's blog counterpoint to the cover story.

What doesn't scare me about this project is that it embraces diverse voices -- though only Okrent's piece reaches print readers, true. Anyhow, check out how Darrell makes the same point as Our Founder about "the usual simplistic gloss-overs":

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Detroit's troubles may have been accelerated by the '67 riots and increased white flight in the wake of Coleman A. Young's rise to the mayoralty, but that's hardly when the deeper-rooted structural problems began. Our tax base and population began dwindling in the late 1950s, early '60s, when our city was facing many of the same troubles it confronts today.

. . . Although the riots jumped off in the late 60s, it seems the table for the explosion -- and Young's subsequent ascent -- had been set at least a decade before.

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Hope that eases your fear somewhat, lilpup.

Lastly, I agree that "the triumph of Angel's Night" deserved not to be overlooked or ignored.

I have to agree with Lowell, especially about Dawsey. This "different angle" is no different than someone submitting the umpteenth photo of a car wreck from a slightly different perspective. It's the same old car accident, regardless of where one stands to offer their supposedly different view.

The riots, Coleman Young, the UAW, etc., blah blah. This is somehow enlightening and illuminating? It's a simplistic glossover of the same old shit everyone here already knows about ad nauseum. Except now the caricature is on display for the country. Those themes may be underlying things here, but they caricature us and gloss over the nuances to be found here.

And frankly, I prefer the original detroit blog, you know, the one that had the name before the national media parachuted in and basically showed its contempt for local writers by just stealing the already established name. At least that site writes about things in the city I didn't know about instead of the tired and rather well covered auto industry/Coleman Young/racism/suburbs vs. city/unemployment angles.

Dawsey may be a good writer, but is he really telling us anything we didn't hear already?

I enjoyed both articles. Spot on if you ask me. Both expressed view points that are hardly ever talked about.

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Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

I doubt Dingell was this guy's rep ever. I have lived in W Detroit near Dearborn for nearly my entire life [[40 plus years). Dingell was never my Rep. Wow a rep that repesented the business interests of his constituency. What a shock.

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I was curious about that too, but weren't the congressional district lines redrawn in the 1980s or 1990s? That's when Detroit was split into just two districts, which are currently covered by Conyers and Kilpatrick...

I thought the first article was every bit as cliche as the Detroit residents feared it would be. I did like the counter blog entry. It's a point of view that doesn't get much mainstream exposure.

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Originally Posted by iheartthed

weren't the congressional district lines redrawn in the 1980s or 1990s? That's when Detroit was split into just two districts ...

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Let's good to the bookshelves . . .

. . . to dust off volumes of The Congressional Yearbook from Congressional Quarterly Books.

Regret I no longer have easy access, tho' it's easy to visualize decades' worth filling rows in The Caitlin Library in the oak-paneled lair of DetNews editorial writers on the third floor.

DPL main library likely has comprehensive set . . . or we can trust his claim.

The newsweekly's printed cover has different head than online version atop this thread.

The Tragedy of Detroit
How a great city fell and how it can rise again

Also, national media blogger Rachel Sklar [[Mediaite) noted early this afternoon:

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"Detroit: The Death and Possible Life of a Great City" is right now both the Most Read and Most Emailed story on Time.com.

So maybe the story of Detroit will end up being . . . a profitable one? One that generates not only the good karma of covering an important American story, but the necessary clicks to justify funding it? These are of course the daily battles in media toda — if we’re gonna cover it, how are we gonna pay for it? . . . The reality is stark: Investing the time and money to cover this story means somewhere, somehow, that money has to be made back. And clearly, that money hasn’t been coming from Detroit bureaus over the past few years, since so many of them have been closed one by one — including Time’s.

. . . But at the end of the day this is what journalism is supposed to be about at its best: Shining a light, and helping to make things better.

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Originally Posted by Lowell

Some of the usual simplistic gloss-overs are there too-- the 67 riot gets profiled as the impetus for a flight pattern that was fifteen years in motion with hundreds of thousands having already moved since population peak. No mention is made of its acceleration by tax advantages, public financed expressways that destroyed houses, businesses and chopped up neighborhoods in Detroit while easing movement to tax subsidized new factories, houses and plain old space and country air.

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I agree with your comments but I think it's important to realize that the vast majority of America doesn't understand Detroit like most of the members of this forum do. I was clueless to a lot of issues in Detroit and I lived there for 40 some years. Lets teach the folks at Time. Explain the ramifications to the city when Packard closed its doors. The tax policies that encouraged flight from the city. I have learned a tremendous amount of information from this forum and this website. Others can to.
Time is living in Detroit for a year. It seems like an opportunity to me.

Respectfully submitted for your comments

How is this an opportunity?

People, listen to how this project is portrayed elsewhere. Watch the editor of Time on Morning Joe on MSNBC, or articles in dailies across the country. They are in Detroit for one thing - to show us as the biggest fuck ups in the country.You know how people here talk about backwoods hillbillies in Kentucky or idiots shooting each other in some third world country? That's the tone the national media takes on about us. We are the "other" to be studied, like animals in a zoo.

Nearly every explanation of why Time came here for a year says it's to show the rest of the country where it could be headed if it did all the stupid shit we here have done over the years. They're not here saying look at the solutions Detroit found, because Detroit hasn't found any. They are here to show us as the epitome of bad thinking, whether as a bunch of racists on either side, or shortsighted sprawlers who didn't have the sense to keep the city together and not create unsustainable exurbs, or yahoos who didn't have the sense to branch out from a single industry economy.

Why would anyone be excited about outsiders coming in to point to us as examples of all the wrong things?

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Originally Posted by Lonyo exit

How is this an opportunity?

People, listen to how this project is portrayed elsewhere. Watch the editor of Time on Morning Joe on MSNBC, or articles in dailies across the country. They are in Detroit for one thing - to show us as the biggest fuck ups in the country.You know how people here talk about backwoods hillbillies in Kentucky or idiots shooting each other in some third world country? That's the tone the national media takes on about us. We are the "other" to be studied, like animals in a zoo.

Nearly every explanation of why Time came here for a year says it's to show the rest of the country where it could be headed if it did all the stupid shit we here have done over the years. They're not here saying look at the solutions Detroit found, because Detroit hasn't found any. They are here to show us as the epitome of bad thinking, whether as a bunch of racists on either side, or shortsighted sprawlers who didn't have the sense to keep the city together and not create unsustainable exurbs, or yahoos who didn't have the sense to branch out from a single industry economy.

Why would anyone be excited about outsiders coming in to point to us as examples of all the wrong things?

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How is this an opportunity? It was somebody in the media that uncovered the text messages and brought down Kwame. Maybe Time can pick up where they left off and uncover the full scope of the rot in this city/county/metro/state.

The DPS real estate dealings gives them the perfect opening. An organization like Time has the money to spend on the project and more importantly it's an outside group, so they aren't beholden to any local interests.

The "solution" was rather simplistic. If the government gives us a whole lot of money we will invent renewable energy. Heck, government could give that chunk of change to anyone. California would be even more appreciative. Workers follow the money, so it does not matter where they currently live.

I guess he just needed a pretty bow there at the end.

The real story would be: What is Detroit doing to help itself?

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Originally Posted by Lonyo exit

How is this an opportunity?

People, listen to how this project is portrayed elsewhere. Watch the editor of Time on Morning Joe on MSNBC, or articles in dailies across the country. They are in Detroit for one thing - to show us as the biggest fuck ups in the country.You know how people here talk about backwoods hillbillies in Kentucky or idiots shooting each other in some third world country? That's the tone the national media takes on about us. We are the "other" to be studied, like animals in a zoo.

Nearly every explanation of why Time came here for a year says it's to show the rest of the country where it could be headed if it did all the stupid shit we here have done over the years. They're not here saying look at the solutions Detroit found, because Detroit hasn't found any. They are here to show us as the epitome of bad thinking, whether as a bunch of racists on either side, or shortsighted sprawlers who didn't have the sense to keep the city together and not create unsustainable exurbs, or yahoos who didn't have the sense to branch out from a single industry economy.

Why would anyone be excited about outsiders coming in to point to us as examples of all the wrong things?

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I disagree with you Lonyo. Why would Time drop such a big chunk of change in Detroit just to show the nation that we are idiots? They could do that very easily whithout the investment that they've made.
Maybe I'm wrong.
I pray to God that I'm not.

Wow, Lonyo - - way to go beyond seeing the glass as half-empty by smashing it and saying: "See, nothing there."

We clearly read different explanations of why Time came here for a year, or saw what we read through different lenses. I missed the one[[s) that indicated "they are here to show us as the epitome of bad thinking" and you evidently overlooked -- or disbelieved -- these:

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We believe that Detroit right now is a great American story.

No city has had more influence on the country's economic and social evolution. . . . The city's rise and fall — and struggle to rise again — are a window into the challenges facing all of modern America. From urban planning to the crisis of manufacturing, from the lingering role of race and class in our society to the struggle for better health care and education, it's all happening at its most extreme in the Motor City.

As a story, Detroit has been misunderstood, underreported, stereotyped, avoided and exploited for decades. To get it right, we decided to become stakeholders.

. . . The hope is that through all these efforts, a narrative arc about Detroit will emerge over the next year that can somehow make a difference. While we do not intend to be cheerleaders or apologists, we do have a point of view: we want Detroit to recover and find its way into the future.

. . . Most of all, Detroiters are proud of their city. They fight to open charter schools. To jail criminals and bring back the rule of law. To band together and renew their neighborhoods. To open restaurants, stores and clinics. To make great music and try to beat the Yankees.
-- John Huey, Time, Inc. editor-in-chief

Our goal here on The Detroit Blog isn't to rehash clichéd stories about the region's problems. Some of that's unavoidable. But we're more interested in exploring key questions, like: What will it take for Detroit, and the region, to rebound? And who's developing the ideas that are best positioned to make that turnaround succeed?
-- Steven Gray, Time reporter

We rail against the portraits of us – as a city too poor, too drained, too far along in decline to ever bounce back – partially because many of us fear them to be true. . . . I'll do my best to add it all in, and that includes ingredients – voices, people, places from every quarter of this town – that don't always abound in the admixtures major media serves up.
-- Darrell Dawsey, freelance Time blogger

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Originally Posted by Lonyo exit

Why would anyone be excited about outsiders coming in to point to us as examples of all the wrong things?

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Why would anyone read posts by Lonyo, except to see examples of reflexive closed-mindedness?

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How is this an opportunity? It was somebody in the media that uncovered the text messages and brought down Kwame. Maybe Time can pick up where they left off and uncover the full scope of the rot in this city/county/metro/state.

The DPS real estate dealings gives them the perfect opening. An organization like Time has the money to spend on the project and more importantly it's an outside group, so they aren't beholden to any local interests.

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First, it was someone in the Kilpatrick administration that gave the text message to a LOCAL reporter. Second, Time is quite clear that it is not here to dig into corruption of city government, which is best done with people who have cultivated connections, such as the local media. National media generally don't dive into a city's corruption, especially when their ticket to leave town has already been stamped with a date a year from now.

What they plan to do is spelled out on Time's Assignment Detroit web page:

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That's because the story of Detroit is not simply one of a great city's collapse. It's also about the erosion of the industries that helped build the country we know today. The ultimate fate of Detroit will reveal much about the character of America in the 21st century. If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can't find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?

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Again, it's quite clear we are being studied as the example of how bad things can be if you really fuck up. We are being shown as such to the rest of the country.

Though it's subtle and subconscious, note the language in the last sentence - Detroit is "it" but the rest of the country is "our" as in "we." Detroit is the Other. This is the premise of the coverage and what will drive it.

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Originally Posted by Lonyo exit

Again, it's quite clear we are being studied as the example of how bad things can be if you really fuck up. We are being shown as such to the rest of the country.

Though it's subtle and subconscious, note the language in the last sentence - Detroit is "it" but the rest of the country is "our" as in "we." Detroit is the Other. This is the premise of the coverage and what will drive it.

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Maybe because it's true, and because we should be held as an example to the rest of America.

Despite Reality Check's manic-linking head in the sand approach to media coverage of the city, The New York Times a few days ago quoted Time officials stating explicitly why they are here:

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Mr. Ghosh described Detroit as a “cautionary tale for urban planners, for social workers, for the rest of us. Everything that is happening elsewhere because of the economy started here a long time ago. It’s like a petri dish of all the things that have gone wrong.”

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“We’re not here to fill some gap in coverage,” Mr. Tetzeli said. “The Free Press and The Detroit News have done some great work under difficult circumstances, including winning a Pulitzer this year,” he said, sitting at Slows, a barbecue restaurant. “We are here because we think Detroit stories, about recovery and the failure to recover, have resonance nationally because of the recession.”

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Maybe because it's true, and because we should be held as an example to the rest of America.

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That's what people do on shows like Jerry Springer - they get held up as fuck ups for other people to stare at and point to as less than themselves. You may find that appealing, but I don't.

Any thoughts of a contingent of DYes folks sitting down with some Time people? From my perspective, there are some very intelligent, educated people here who may help shed some light about Detroit

Dan Okrent - Cass Tech '65, UofM '69

[QUOTE=Lowell;72291]I found the article disappointing. It carries the same tired litany of ills with which we on this forum are so familiar. Nothing new is offered either in details, context or assessment. In the end the writer, like most who come to ‘stare into the abyss’ as I call it, ends up like so many others have, gravely shaking his head and offering no insight.

I agree, pure and unadulterated crap! There wasn't one thing in that article that hasn't been written a hundred times before. What a waste! It's too bad they had someone who grew up here, who has all the same explanations on what has happened to Detroit, and the weak idea on what might save it, write that article. Scratch a little deeper to find the real opportunities currently in Detroit and stop that same nostalgic crap about how great it was and how you have it all figured out on why everything went wrong.

How cool it must be to have read-between-the-lines superpowers such as Lonyo's. Gotta be some extreme Lasik at work there.

How else to explain the ability to see beneath the surface of "we do have a point of view: we want Detroit to recover and find its way into the future" and recognize that's code for being "held up as fuck-ups for other people to stare at and point to as less than themselves"?
. . . Now ^ that's ^ some kinda special X-ray power, friends.

But wait, there's more.

You and I, with eyes obscured by sand or bleary from too much Jerry Springer, miss the sinister subtext hidden behind this:
"We're more interested in exploring key questions, like: What will it take for Detroit, and the region, to rebound? And who's developing the ideas that are best positioned to make that turnaround succeed?"

But laser-orbed Lonyo isn't fooled, nuh-uh. His trusty vision slices through the smokescreen like a light saber, exposing The True Message:
"They're not here saying look at the solutions Detroit found, because Detroit hasn't found any. They are here to show us as the epitome of bad thinking."

You may find that appealing, Lonyo, but I don't.

I didn't mean to come off too shrill in my disappointments and I want to be clear that I welcome Time's magnifying glass. Hey, if nothing else they will pump some dollars into our ailing economy! But come on, this is Detroit and they have to expect to catch some flak.

A problem in any discussion of Detroit is the muddling of Detroit and Detroit -- the old heartland City of Detroit and the international metropolis of Detroit. Viewed from space it is just one big undifferentiated grid. But for many in our greater community there seems to be a need to psychologically wall themselves off from the challenges of the City of Detroit, as if it were on the other side of the country. They are like chipmunks frolicking in the lush foliage high in the tree, unconcerned that the tree is hollow and rotting at its base and its fall will also be theirs.

Other parts of the country don't make that differentiation. Warren, Waterford and Wyandotte are all Detroit to them and whatever mud that is splashed from the City of Detroit lands on all of us in their eyes. Detroit to them also means automobile manufacturing and it is that plight and near demise that is at the source of much of the current media focus. It is like the outbreak of a once contained disease and now they think they might catch it. Some of them are, particularly print journalists. I would hope our Time travelers would latch onto the issue and damage created by those divisions.

The way out for Detroit [all Detroit] is most difficult - by coming together in metropolitan union and sharing the costs and burdens that disproportionately fall on the impoverished older cities. This can be done by making living in Detroit as appealing as living in any other metropolitan community. It means leveling insurance rates and taxes and taking on a concerted attack on crime and its evil twin poverty.

The Katrina / New Orleans analogy is incorrect. Afghanistan is a closer analogy. Terrorists must be suppressed and infrastructure, schools, and public safety must be rebuilt under a unified government. Sadly this could be done with just a fraction of the money and commitment that has been given to either Iraq or Afghanistan.

My grandfather, who has been gone for almost 30 years now, used to say to me:

The best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago. The next best time is today, so what are you going to do.......

Food for thought.

I'll be quite honest, I can see that the both of you RealityCheck and Lonyo Exit, need to take a break. I'm amazed that the both of you haven't been banned yet, but that's a subjective call.

Good observations, Lowell and PCE. Thought-provoking and well-expressed.

"Our Time travelers" is especially savory, as is this elegance:

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". . . like chipmunks frolicking in the lush foliage high in the tree, unconcerned that the tree is hollow and rotting at its base and its fall will also be theirs.

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And of course, grandparents' wisdom is always to be cherished. Thanks for those nourishing words for your grandfather, PCE.

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'll be quite honest, I can see that the both of you RealityCheck and Lonyo Exit, need to take a break. I'm amazed that the both of you haven't been banned yet, but that's a subjective call.

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Banned for what? We're not using obscenity or libeling anyone. It's called a disagreement, powderpuff. Such arguments are the meat of forums like these.

Reality Check, you have completely turned me around. Now I realize that:

1.) Time's journalists will uncover things unfound in decades of journalism here
2.) We will be held up as a model for the rest of the country
3.) You are not at all a deranged oddball
4.) Your habit of bolding is contagious

To those of you complaining,give me a break. Tine will spend a year in Detroit and report their findings accordingly.That some of you disagree is just your opinion.

I think it is good that Time recognizes Detroit is an iconic and historically very important city. Now many others in the country will read about Detroit and hopefully learn something.

The idea that money is going to somehow solve Detroit's problems is callow.That will only anger people. Lots of money has found its way to Detroit. Unfortunately it was squandered and very little good came of it.

I welcome this exposure of the city.

Thank you for the kind words Realitycheck. I realize that Detroit has serious issues and problems to overcome. Damned serious. I'm certainly not trying to blow sunshine up anybodies fanny here.
I've come to realize how special Detroit is. Not just for the architecture, or the history, or the recreational opportunities or the coneys at Lafayette. The very special, and in my opinion, the unique thing is the people. The work ethic, intelligence,and certainly the caring and compassionate nature of it's people are found nowhere else. At least not in my travels.
Where else can you sit next to a total stranger at a bar, start talking baseball, and in 5 minutes you have a new best friend.

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Originally Posted by Lonyo exit

Banned for what? We're not using obscenity or libeling anyone. It's called a disagreement, powderpuff. Such arguments are the meat of forums like these.

Reality Check, you have completely turned me around. Now I realize that:

1.) Time's journalists will uncover things unfound in decades of journalism here
2.) We will be held up as a model for the rest of the country
3.) You are not at all a deranged oddball
4.) Your habit of bolding is contagious

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Crosspost to "Why I seldom come around here"... Sheesh. Powderpuff indeed.

I'll be curious to see how long they keep this up. I imagine what we've seen this week is the Big Intro, and then the coverage by the Time Inc. properties will level out. Is there enough interest nationally? Will they have something Detroit every week inside their mags? Or will this peter out? After the big splash this week, and buying the house, I doubt they'll lose interest, but will their readers get tired of it? You can rubberneck only for so long, and then all the stories start to sound the same ... even the positive turnaround pieces. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it was fashionable to do Cleveland turnaround pieces.

And we should all keep in mind that these stories are meant for everyone else not us. We're the animals in the cages, Time is the zookeeper and the rest of America is the peering crowd ...

Good post last night [[10:49), Lonyo. Starts my day with a smile -- a sincerely earned one.

I agree that exchanging viewpoints -- even [[especially?) with playful snark -- is healthy, cathartic and possibly of value [[... entertainment value, at least). No harm, no foul, no bruises and certainly nothing ban-worthy.

Feeling a bit less deranged today, though no less of an oddball.

Do let us know if italics and parenthetical asides are contagious as well. CDC reportedly is working on a vaccine for this Style Flu I came down with, also called B1I1 [[Bold One, Italic One).

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Originally Posted by Lonyo exit

First, it was someone in the Kilpatrick administration that gave the text message to a LOCAL reporter. Second, Time is quite clear that it is not here to dig into corruption of city government, which is best done with people who have cultivated connections, such as the local media. National media generally don't dive into a city's corruption, especially when their ticket to leave town has already been stamped with a date a year from now.

What they plan to do is spelled out on Time's Assignment Detroit web page:

Again, it's quite clear we are being studied as the example of how bad things can be if you really fuck up. We are being shown as such to the rest of the country.

Though it's subtle and subconscious, note the language in the last sentence - Detroit is "it" but the rest of the country is "our" as in "we." Detroit is the Other. This is the premise of the coverage and what will drive it.

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Regardless of what they "plan" to write about, if a compelling network of political machinery is exposed while they're here, they'll take the bait. Public corruption is one of the bits that got us where we are today, and Detroit certainly isn't the only place with crooked politicians.

Perhaps Time could frame it as "What happens when public corruption isn't dealt with."

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Originally Posted by PCE

Let's teach the folks at Time. I have learned a tremendous amount of information from this forum and this website. Others can too.

Time is living in Detroit for a year. It seems like an opportunity to me.

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I liked that suggestion yesterday afternoon . . . and do even more now that I've seen a comment posted this morning at the think Detroit blog in response to a Thursday afternoon post:

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DanO said...I'm the author of the cover story in this week's Time -- and I can handle the criticism! More importantly, I'd like to get in touch with the author of this blog, which I'm sure will be a valuable resource to my colleagues and me as our Detroit reporting rolls out over the next 12 months.

Cooper, Could you post your email address so we might communicate directly?

Thanks,
Dan Okrent

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Encouraging openness, that.
And a possible opportunity for Lowell or perhaps a small group of DY'ers to engage too, as PCE sensibly suggests.

The Time editor-at-large, who lives in or near New York City, understandably didn't post contact info . . though he's on Facebook and LinkedIn as Daniel Okrent.

To be clear: I'm not volunteering to assemble a DY delegation . . . just floating this info for consideration by Lowell and/or anyone else interested. Clearly this forum's members also have knowledge, resources and viewpoints that could "be a valuable resource to my colleagues and me as our Detroit reporting rolls out over the next 12 months."

No links, no unwisecracks, no bolding . . . just portions of two comments today on Dawsey's blog. Neither is from me.

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Detroit's labor legacy and history are much more complicated. Someone over there at Time should look up an important man named General Baker who is still active today.

I'll end with a suggestion that everyone who stays at the Time House in Detroit be advised to read Thomas Sugrue's "Origins of the Urban Crisis" for the much longer story touched upon here in this blog post. Another book on Detroit's political and labor scene in the early 1970s by Heather Thompson, "Whose Detroit: Politics, Labor and Race in a Modern American City" should also be required.

Glad Time is in my city; and I look forward to helping their writers understand the more nuanced and complicated history of this great city. I'm sure many others around here will join in too.
-- Reegman

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I'm thrilled that Time has committed itself to covering the city in depth, but I think that pledge comes with a responsibility to do the story right. Too many media outlets have swooped in and out, only to repeat the same misconceptions [[i.e., the riot caused white flight, when in fact it began fifteen years before) and shake their head at the city's decline.

So I'm heartened to see you [Dawsey] approach the city's history with respect and care.
-- thinkDetroit [[blogger Cooper)

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Good stuff Realitycheck. Thanks for sharing.

Grey and Okrent interviewed on NPR

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/09/25/07

Returning just to wrap up the week with a portion of another voice on this topic. [[If you've seen enough look-backs at the 1950s/1960s, bail now.)

Dawsey's cover article 'counterpoint,' posted Sept. 24 on his Time blog, drew 13 comments by Sat. eve. The latest one from 'yellowandred' is poignant and optimistic. Excerpt:

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I'm a lifelong Detroiter,dating back to 1941. I have seen the city change in many ways -- some good and some not so. Growing up on the westside of Detroit, where many black professionals were educated and moved on to great careers, forms the foundation of my present day thoughts about about this city of ours.

. . . While it is true that the city experienced significant population declines in the late 1950s due to industrial shrinkage, those declines paled in the face of what happened as a result of open housing and the elections of Black representatives. The clarion call of "The Last One Out Of Detroit, Please Turn Out The Lights" further galvanized the exodus from the city by feeding our historic racial divisions, as well as a quest for new and obstensibly better surroundings in the suburbs.

. . . Incidentially, I too could have headed north across Eight Mile years ago, but for my hope that the region would embace a more comprehensive spirit of compassion and cooperation. I am still here and hopeful.

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Question about the Time cover photo for The Tragedy of Detroit piece...

Where was the photo taken? or is it a composite? Some of the buildings look very familiar but I can't pick out a single location from it.

Here's a link to the Time cover image: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16...091005,00.html

By just looking at the photo, it looks like the old Packard Plant.

But don't quote me on that.

Thanks, Tig3rzhark. I think you might be right. Like I said, it's a familiar site, but in looking at the photo again, it would be a view of the Packard Plant that I've not explored.

I believe it's a shot looking north from the walkway over Bellevue.
Bird's eye view

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Originally Posted by RealityCheck

Daniel Okrent, a 61-year-old major league journalist and "a Detroit native [northwest side] who recently went home to find out what went wrong," tells Time readers what he found.

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At the outset, Okrent admits his purpose [[see underlined portion of quote) is fundamentally not an exercise in flattery.

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Originally Posted by RealityCheck

Wow, Lonyo - - way to go beyond seeing the glass as half-empty by smashing it and saying: "See, nothing there."

We clearly read different explanations of why Time came here for a year, or saw what we read through different lenses.

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Unmistakably, Time is in the unromantic business of making money first. Also, as pointed out in your post # 31, John Huey, Steven Gray, and even Darrell Dawsey have goals [[obviously). Huey appropriately has a somewhat "above the fray" posture from his perch. Gray looks for next steps forward [["rebound"). Gray also reports which current participants are staged to be most efficacious to that defined end. Relatively less embedded in traditional media, Dawsey can "break" some rules.

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Originally Posted by Lonyo exit

How is this an opportunity?

People, listen to how this project is portrayed elsewhere. Watch the editor of Time on Morning Joe on MSNBC, or articles in dailies across the country. They are in Detroit for one thing - to show us as the biggest fuck ups in the country.You know how people here talk about backwoods hillbillies in Kentucky or idiots shooting each other in some third world country? That's the tone the national media takes on about us. We are the "other" to be studied, like animals in a zoo.

Nearly every explanation of why Time came here for a year says it's to show the rest of the country where it could be headed if it did all the stupid shit we here have done over the years. They're not here saying look at the solutions Detroit found, because Detroit hasn't found any. They are here to show us as the epitome of bad thinking, whether as a bunch of racists on either side, or shortsighted sprawlers who didn't have the sense to keep the city together and not create unsustainable exurbs, or yahoos who didn't have the sense to branch out from a single industry economy.

Why would anyone be excited about outsiders coming in to point to us as examples of all the wrong things?

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Insightful Lonyo exit. I like your tough love angle.

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Originally Posted by PCE

... Lets teach the folks at Time. Explain ... I have learned a tremendous amount of information from this forum and this website. Others can to. Time is living in Detroit for a year. It seems like an opportunity to me.

Respectfully submitted for your comments

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Be careful not to create news [["Lets teach the folks at Time"). Explain reality, yes. However, let "news" follow reality, not vice versa. So yes, maybe an opportunity. However, the media is not a solution in and of itself.

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Originally Posted by RickBeall

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The real story would be: What is Detroit doing to help itself?

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Exactly!

As the Time reporter who is living in Detroit says this first article is just the overall picture, and it seems to cover the reason for Detroit's decline well. Perhaps in future articles Time will mention the problem of third world competition which threatens all our cities and working people.

I agree that Detroit needs to consolidate the residential parts and allow alternative uses for the open land. I don't like the idea of pursueing the hydrogen car. It takes a lot of energy to produce hydrogen and I'd prefer to see that energy put into compressing air for air cars.

If you're going to point to the Cobo regional deal, you'll have to bring up all the stupidity from the City Council that preceded it and nearly did in Cobo in the name of local control. In recent years, Detroit's government has looked like "Idiocracy" here and now.

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Originally Posted by PCE

I agree with your comments but I think it's important to realize that the vast majority of America doesn't understand Detroit like most of the members of this forum do. I was clueless to a lot of issues in Detroit and I lived there for 40 some years. Lets teach the folks at Time. Explain the ramifications to the city when Packard closed its doors. The tax policies that encouraged flight from the city. I have learned a tremendous amount of information from this forum and this website. Others can to.
Time is living in Detroit for a year. It seems like an opportunity to me.

Respectfully submitted for your comments

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Rochelle Riley shares similar sentiments with you PCE.

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http://freep.com/article/20091011/CO...te=fullarticle

Let's tell Time who's saving Detroit

By ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Oct. 11, 2009

When I asked the question, I knew I would get mail.

But I had no idea just how much mail.

It has been pouring in since I wrote that Time magazine, as part of its inaugural package on Detroit's past and future, had featured a photograph of eight people that Time called The Committee to Save Detroit.

My simple question was this: Why were there no black men in the photograph?

• PREVIOUS COLUMN: Why no black men among Time's saviors of Detroit? --> http://freep.com/article/20091007/COL10/91007082/

I wasn't asking the question because I thought a token black man was necessary, but because half of Detroit's population comprises black men who are either largely responsible for -- or working to solve many of the city's problems. Knowing this, how could any committee seen as vital to helping Mayor Dave Bing save Motown, be void of black men?

Well, many, many people wondered the same. Included in many of the more than 1,000 e-mails sent in response to the question are the names of people you felt should have been in the picture. The list is too long to print. But in an upcoming column, based on your responses, I'll present the Committee that Detroiters Believe Will Save Detroit.

In anticipation, let me make clear: Time couldn’t take the picture at Ford Field. Everybody couldn't be in it. Everybody won't be on the upcoming list, either.
But after analyzing the names and going through the digital version of my own Rolodex, a clear pattern emerged about people who were conspicuous by their absence from the Time photo.

For instance, the photo included no spiritual leaders – not one minister. In a city that has as many churches as Detroit, is that possible?

The photo included no young people. The average age of those in the photo was 54 years, seven months. So where was Detroit’s next generation?

The photo included no white women. Was the late Maryann Mahaffey really the only representative of that group fighting to save the city?

And the photo included only one elected official: L. Brooks Patterson, the effective but divisive executive of neighboring Oakland County.

Some respondents were livid that Patterson was included, saying that he "hates Detroit" or would shut the city down if he could. But here's the thing, and it's about time that we started dealing with it: Detroit can no longer try to be an island, separate and apart from its suburbs and the rest of the state. Look at Patterson's inclusion as a symbol. Detroit will not survive without becoming an integral part of a region that must work together to survive. So whether it’s Patterson or someone else -- such as a representative from the fast-growing Macomb County -- Detroit has got to get over the "ours" and "theirs," insider-outsider thing.

Oh, there were naysayers among the respondents, a few dozen, to whom I wrote replies that began: "Hi. I've been expecting you ... " Their notes were based on the misguided belief that I felt that no white people should have been in the picture. Not what I wrote. Not what I believe. Or they sent the e-mail they keep for any time I begin a conversation about race, as if every discussion about what divides us most in Detroit is a negative event.

Folks, we're going to have the conversation, whether we do it ourselves in our own kitchen or on a national stage set by Time Inc.

The point of the photograph was that it represented those leading us to a New Detroit. The point of my question was: Can that future happen without any black men rising and taking a stand with Mayor Bing?

So keeping everything in perspective and all caveats in mind, please keep the names coming! Be thoughtful. Be respectful. And be truthful. If your Uncle Henry is doing great things on your street, I want to hear about him, possibly write about him. Detroit won't survive with him and others like him. But what I’m asking is who you see as a city leader, one of those standing at the front of the room, the front of the march, the front of the church, the front of the storm.

You’ve got until 9 a.m. sharp Wednesday morning to let me know!

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