NY Times - Last Stop on the L Train: Detroit

[bust]

Yeah that makes sense. It is possible that Detroit could become one of those types of communities on a small scale but the pure mass of people and the money in NY make an art scene like Brooklyn possible and without those elements something that Detroit will most likely never become in our lifetimes.

I guess I look at this from a more optimistic perspective. And I'm by no means so enamored by Brooklyn, or its art scene any more. And I know it very well.

It's both a blessing and a curse so much money shoots around NY these days. It makes landlords exceedingly greedy, and negligent. It destroys communities as fast as it creates them, and lately, it's not just killing old ones, it's killing new ones before they fully take root.

It's still a great place to sell your work, but the demographics of the people who produce it there more and more have one thing in common: they're rich. That has profound effects on the idiom.

I propose Detroit has an opportunity, and indeed a necessity, to proceed at a much more manageable and organic pace, with an opportunity for a great deal more input from the pre-existing community, and in a way it won't so quickly lose its soul. I'm optimistic the people moving to Detroit are drawn in large part by its history, and that's another reason why compared to Kansas or Montana, it appeals.