An Entitled Letter From Detroit's Suburbs [[Over a Knock Off Hooters Restaurant)

[313WX]

*My thoughts on this topic will be in the next post.*

For context, back in April 2022, a writer for the Metro Times recently published an article about Twin Peaks [[a national chain similar to Hooters) opening a new location in Auburn Hills.

https://www.metrotimes.com/food-drin...hills-29723954


She apparently took issue with this quote from CEO of Twin Peaks about this new location below:

"We’re excited to bring our unmatched sports fan experience to more of the Greater Detroit area,” said Twin Peaks CEO Joe Hummel. “With wall-to-wall TVs, the loyal Motor City fanbase won’t miss a moment of the Lions, Pistons, Tigers or Red Wings, plus every primetime game, event and fight. Also, we offer a best-in-class food and beverage selection that takes the gameday experience to another level. We’re looking forward to opening the lodge and joining the Auburn Hills community.”

In response, the writer passive-aggressively inserted an editorialized comment into the article that implied suburbanites in the Greater Detroit area aren't actually "Motor City Fans" because they don't live in Detroit proper.

He must mean the “Motor City fanbase” that lives in Auburn Hills [[not actually the Motor City, aka Detroit). Got it.

Aa stupid as that was, some individual [[or a group of individuals) claiming to be with some obscure organization called the "Detroit Suburban League" submitted a response to the Metro Times going into a deranged rant about the writer's comment that was filled with racist dog whistles and outrage bait, which was published by the editor in chief this past Thursday [[9/1):

https://www.metrotimes.com/news/an-entitled-letter-from-detroits-suburbs-30971253

We recently read your piece regarding the upcoming Twin Peaks restaurant in Auburn Hills, part of the greater Detroit area and truly a part of the Motor City, and we were concerned by the sentiment and attitude that you conveyed in your article.

Firstly, residents of Auburn Hills and other Detroit suburban communities are, in fact, residents of the Motor City, and have not only earned this title through birth, but through being the people who financially support the city of Detroit through the taxes they pay, on their income, that they get from the jobs that they have. The city of Detroit is supported by the hard-earned tax dollars of the suburban residents who actually work for the money they have.


Without suburban tax dollars, the city of Detroit would implode in a conflagration of debt, crime, and welfare checks. We pay for the city of Detroit and you will respect us. You can’t run an economy on sit-ins, marches, and rioting. An economy needs producers to function, and the Detroit producers, for the most part, live in greater-Detroit, aka the suburbs.


Second, we do not appreciate you being such a divisive voice in our community that is in need of healing. You seem to be following the footsteps of dividers like Coleman A. Young and Orville Hubbard, spreading hatred and ignorance, further driving Detroiters apart when we should exist as one loving community that supports one another. We should raise one another up, not tear one another down.


Third, Detroit is not just “the hood.” Saying Detroit is only the hood is like saying Rochester Hills is just the one trailer park within its city limits. Moreover, what you call “the hood” was once a thriving multi-ethnic community that only began to decline after the racial pogroms committed in the Detroit Uprising in 1968. Most suburbanites are descended from Americans who left the city limits after these pogroms and an increase in violent crime. Therefore, they are, in fact, real Detroiters, and maybe someday, they will reclaim the city like the Jewish community reclaimed Israel.


You seem to forget that you write for the “metro” times, not the “inside the city limits of the municipality of Detroit” times, and it really shows.


We hope you choose to abandon ignorance and embrace knowledge and community. Please educate yourself in inter-cultural dialogue, cultural sensitivity, and community harmony.


You’re welcome,

[313WX]

So here is my comment:

Twin Peaks is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the country and is based in Dallas, TX. Dallas anchors the fastest growing metro area in the country [[both in terms of job growth and population growth) that has grown from the 11th largest metro in 1970 to the 4th largest in 2022, has one of the most diverse economies in the country [[only Chicago has a more diverse economy, barely) and sits in a state that is the 2nd largest and has consistently been the fastest growing in the country for the past decade.

I say all that to make the point that Mr. Hummel literally couldn't care less about about this city vs. suburban squabble in the Greater Detroit area that the original author and whomever submitted the response letter have internalized. Just the mere fact that the Metro Times thought it was prudent to publish the original author's editorialized comments and the response letter is frankly a poor reflection on SE Michigan as a whole as it suggests there's an captive audience who entertains this crap.

Focusing on the squabble itself, last I checked, the urban core that anchors SE Michigan [[Detroit) has been exponentially declining in stature relative to the rest of the country, having gone from a top 5 city in 1970 to a city that doesn't even crack the top 25 list if you believe the latest Census estimates. Same goes for the suburbs that surround the urban core, as the metro area has gone from a top 5 region in 1980 to a region that will all but certainly fall out of the top 15 ranking come the 2030 census. SE Michigan is also still heavily reliant on a single industry that has been on a terminal decline for the past several decades in terms of economic output and job growth due to its failure to diversify its economy, a decline that may even accelerate in the coming years per the latest reports on the transition to EVs.

Source:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/04/ev-m...rts-trade.html

And this is not even to speak on the other fundamental issues that plague SE Michigan such as the brain drain of highly skilled/educated residents for more lucrative job opportunities in other cities/states plus the crumbling infrastructure that continues to go unaddressed such as the fledgling power grid that cripples the region whenever there's a wind storm or the non-functioning drainage system that cripples the region whenever there's a rain storm.

In short, these people [[the original author and whomever submitted the response letter), if they represent a sizable share of residents in SE Michigan, need to get over themselves. The reality is from an economic and demographic standpoint, you're all on the same ship and are sinking fast. Instead of taking cheap shots at each other, you need to be finding ways to come together and make the region as a whole more attractive to outsiders before the place you call home reaches the point of oblivion. Meanwhile, the rest of us in the country are moving forward with or without the Greater Detroit area.

[Jimaz]

So here is my comment:...

Well said.

[slick]

Twin Peaks [[a national chain similar to Hooters) opening a new location in Auburn Hills.


There is a Twin Peaks on Stevenson and 14 mile. Or was?

Maybe twin peaks likes the East side better. more divisiveness east vs West. [[that's sarcasm)

[401don]

This one should generate a 10,000 word essay from you know who.

[canuck]

This one should generate a 10,000 word essay from you know who.

Lol, yes. Count on His Eminence to give a meaning for said Twin Peaks; a mix of topologic, demographic and whipped cream.

[Richard]

Based on the last couple of posts it seems like the whining flows across the river.

Well said 3W,much bigger fish to fry.

Couple of points,there was a misspelled word there in the response that nobody caught and complained about and also in the response,racial divide started in Detroit long before the 1960s.

It seems like some strive to keep it alive.

[canuck]

We didn’t name names, but you managed to sniff yourself out. Good job.

[mjb3]

I prefer Hooters to Twin Peaks... best buffalo chicken swch

[DeLemur]

Agreed, 313WX. Our regional problems have f#%ed us for so many decades and continues today.

[EGrant]

Everyone has to be outraged about something these days.

[K-slice]

The sooner integration happens the sooner this kind of thinking disappears. Detroiters who see Detroit as a "black city" and suburbanites who see their cities as "white cities" are two sides of the same problematic coin.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I prefer Hooters to Twin Peaks... best buffalo chicken swch

I can’t fathom patronizing either of them.