"I spent 4 years at UM and never set foot in Detroit"

[Detroitnerd]

Well, I think there are some practical considerations here on why Ann Arbor students might not visit Detroit, what with Detroit's lousy transit and the way Ann Arbor is this bubble with everything you'd need.

But there's something else at play too that's much less innocent. Many Ann Arbor residents and business owners hate to be associated in any way with Detroit. And I mean hate it. They are not at all interested in being lumped in with Detroit in any way.

Which is weird, because, as a west-sider, I'd go to Ann Arbor pretty often, if for no other reason than the cool records stores like Wazoo, Schoolkids', etc. Although the kids did strike me as soft and what little grit Ann Arbor had left over from the hippie days was being shined away.

Oh, and Ypsi is the new Ann Arbor. I can't be the only one who feels that Ann Arbor is a victim of its own success.

[wolverine]

Ann Arbor really was a bubble and there was little reason to venture outside of it. Alot of out of state students came in not knowing much about Detroit. They were definitely curious, but not comfortable enough to go there on their own without someone who knew all about it. I rarely heard other student say "I'd never go to Detroit, I heard it's awful." Rather, the lack of knowledge of the best places to go or someone to show them around.

Since I've moved to Chicago, Milwaukee gets the same treatment. New out of state residents aren't all that familiar with it despite that it's a short drive or train ride away. They don't realize how great it is and how much there is to do until someone takes them there and shows them around.

I wonder if U of M could offer an event or program that gives students a tour of Detroit visiting places like the DIA, Eastern Market, Campus Martius, SW Detroit, etc.

I know not a single one of my friends from out of state that was disappointed when I first took them to Detroit. Since then, nearly all have returned on their own for a visit.

Well, I think there are some practical considerations here on why Ann Arbor students might not visit Detroit, what with Detroit's lousy transit and the way Ann Arbor is this bubble with everything you'd need.

But there's something else at play too that's much less innocent. Many Ann Arbor residents and business owners hate to be associated in any way with Detroit. And I mean hate it. They are not at all interested in being lumped in with Detroit in any way.

Which is weird, because, as a west-sider, I'd go to Ann Arbor pretty often, if for no other reason than the cool records stores like Wazoo, Schoolkids', etc. Although the kids did strike me as soft and what little grit Ann Arbor had left over from the hippie days was being shined away.

Oh, and Ypsi is the new Ann Arbor. I can't be the only one who feels that Ann Arbor is a victim of its own success.

[canuck]

Ann Arbor really was a bubble and there was little reason to venture outside of it. Alot of out of state students came in not knowing much about Detroit. They were definitely curious, but not comfortable enough to go there on their own without someone who knew all about it. I rarely heard other student say "I'd never go to Detroit, I heard it's awful." Rather, the lack of knowledge of the best places to go or someone to show them around.

Since I've moved to Chicago, Milwaukee gets the same treatment. New out of state residents aren't all that familiar with it despite that it's a short drive or train ride away. They don't realize how great it is and how much there is to do until someone takes them there and shows them around.

I wonder if U of M could offer an event or program that gives students a tour of Detroit visiting places like the DIA, Eastern Market, Campus Martius, SW Detroit, etc.

I know not a single one of my friends from out of state that was disappointed when I first took them to Detroit. Since then, nearly all have returned on their own for a visit.

I find it sad and disconcerting that there is such an emotional disconnect between Detroit and the towns surrounding it. But there seems to be a correspondence between the lack of transit and the likelihood that transit options being so poor, suburbanites have slowly let the downtown demagnetize.
But the lure of the city still is more impressive on some levels than anything the naysayers can dish out.

Chicago can attract and revitalize itself because it maintains a high level of transit and will continue to do so.

[Meddle]

I wonder if U of M could offer an event or program that gives students a tour of Detroit visiting places like the DIA, Eastern Market, Campus Martius, SW Detroit, etc.

Who supplies the body armor?

[MrMister]

Who supplies the body armor?

Oh come on.
I frequently find myself in parts of Detroit that make my hairs stand up a little [[I'll admit, there are some dangerous people, but for the most part they are only a danger to other dangerous people [if you're not a crack dealer, your house is probably not going to be the target of a drive by])

But people who have no ability to discern the difference between Detroit's Cultural Center, and a neighborhood like, say, brightmoor, really get me ticked off.

The DIA, Eastern Market, Campus Martius, Southwest, are not only part of Detroits cultural center, but an extremely important part of the entire State's cultural assets.

Suburban Jacka**es spewing comments like "who supplies the body armor" hurt the city of Detroit more than the criminals in my opinion. Detroit may have some problems, but it is still a major city, with the cultural jewels that only a major city can have.
Detroit may have a crime problem, but its biggest problem is an one of image.

U of M has a higher crime rate than Wayne State.
WSU at least has the excuse of being inside of a crime filled city.
In three years U of M has had 6 times as many rapes, 10 times as many assaults, almost twice as many burglaries, and almost 10 times as many arsons. WSU has 31000 students, and U of M has 41000, so you do have to correct for that. But either way, at least statistically, U of M looks a lot scarier than WSU.
Instead of cultural visits, maybe there needs to be a scared straight program where U of M troublemakers spend time with real Detroit gangsters.

Sorry for ranting, this was supposed to be a quick response.

Heres where I got the stats
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...es-ranked.html

[xequar]

Who supplies the body armor?

Oh good grief! If Detroit were really that dangerous, I'd be dead seven times over by now. I bike through the city several times per week. I used to ride through Brightmoor every day on my way to work, and I've been riding to the Lower East Side from Lathrup Village several times per week this summer. I've been in almost every corner of this city on a bicycle, and the worst I've encountered was one guy that called me a cracker from his front porch.

Coincidentally, I'm also a grad student at the University of Michigan. My own observations suggest that the vast majority of students do not have cars. But even beyond that, there are a lot of people from out of state [[U of M only accepts something like 60 percent of its students from within Michigan, and every time the state tries to cut education funding the university responds by lowering that number to bring in the mega-bucks that out-of-state students are charged for tuition), and a large number of them have no clue that there is interesting stuff in Detroit. Hell, my partner is from Chicago, and he had no idea about Detroit at all, to the point where he was surprised that it wasn't a complete post-apocalyptic hellhole.

Detroit has a perception issue [[amongst other issues). Out-of-state students and students from sheltered suburbs and students from places further afield in Michigan don't strike me as likely demographics to brave a trip to Detroit just for the hell of it.