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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