Is It Over? Quo Vadis? Detroit Speaks
If only these walls could talk, what would they say?
Detroit; God didn't do this, we did. Quo Vadis inhabitants? If we keep going down the road we are on, we are likely to end up where we are headed.
There are places in this city that you can go and hear the city talking to you, whether it's the roof of a Downtown skyscraper, the once abandoned Dequindre Cut, or the pier on Belle Isle. Sometimes you can even hear her whisper to you while driving in on I-94 or I-75, especially at the moment the skyline first comes into view. You can hear the city talk to you while driving on any of the radials, streets where the ghosts of our collective pasts meet our present. You can even hear it in the towering lobby of the Guardian Building, or along the once grand lower Woodward Avenue shopping district, the streets we walk, the same streets our parents and grand parents walked.
This city is Detroit, a love it or hate it kind of town where no one cares much about who you are or what you are. Our young are filled with dreams, most of which get crushed before they are realized, as there are only a lucky few roses that grow from the concrete. For the rest of us, we end up with broken dreams, longing for the day we are able to move on to greener pastures, like half of our neighbors have already done.
That was the reality, but lately I've been wondering if it's ending? Optimism seems to be up, and work is still being done even during this depression. I'm seeing mothers pushing babies and folks walking dogs Downtown, something you didn't see just one or two years ago. Five years ago you would be hard pressed to find many people on the streets of Downtown at all. We also know that the CBD has added well over 1,000 new residents in the past five years, and Midtown, Woodbridge, New Center, and Corktown have also seen significant growth. It certainly seems like the greater downtown area within the Grand Boulevard Loop may no longer be contracting, or will not be very much longer. Do you guys think that the worst is behind us in that area?
It is looking more and more like the suburban city areas and inner suburbs are still a long way from bottoming out, and in some cases have just started their long decline and contraction. It seems like those places have reached their point of collapse, the twilight of the suburbs and outer city. Surely those areas will not be left intact after the depression is over, eh?
So, quo vadis Detroit? Is the collapse complete enough to rebuild here? Are we finally headed toward a real period of stabilization and renaissance in the inner city, or will it have to wait until the collapse and recovery of outer areas of the city and inner suburbs are nearing it's end?
Would we all be better off leaving for smaller towns to wait for calmer weather? Why or why not?
