ModelD's Showdown in Motown: Vince v. Phil

[Gannon]

[[my blatant off-the-cuff commentary will be in italics throughout, hopefully)

Tonight at Cliff Bells, ModelD Media presented, or should I say instigated, a public version of dialogue which apparently has been happening for some time between Vince Keenan and Phil Cooley regarding the potential for successful progress throughout the city. Enough of the shakers and movers in town have heard them 'go at it', and agreed they needed microphones with an amp that goes to eleven.

Ya know, so more people could hear them.

[[Banks of harsh spotlights, too!)

In the spirit of Field of Dreams, they built this discussion...and indeed the crowd came. Enough to fill Cliff Bells seemingly to capacity, although I was unable to find the required Fire Department signage which is supposed to publicly announce how many bodies the Marshall believes should legally fit into a space. Got confirmation from the wonderful registering folk that they had somewhere between 175 and 200 people...which matched my rough estimate, counted from down in the front row.

Phil is the co-owner of the increasingly famous and uber-profitable Slow's restaurant, and Vince founded and heads a non-profit media watchdog and public information activist group called Publius. I've crossed paths with Phil, mostly socially, and met Vince during the first weekend of public participation for the revision of the City Charter. Both are solid and honest fellows. Passionate and funny, to boot.

The discussion was sold as...well, let's let the ModelD announcement tell it:

From art and entrepreneurship to community development, creative grassroots projects are multiplying in Detroit -- often outside of traditional modes of municipal function. The national media has taken notice, elevating profiles of emerging leaders and shifting the dialogue from the "Tragedy of Detroit" to opportunity and innovation here. But is this creative energy sustainable in a city with larger systemic challenges? What is the responsibility of "doers" who have built influence in elevating the next generation of Phil Cooleys and Torya Blanchards? How can we create a Detroit that works for all?

Join us for a conversation with media darling Phillip Cooley and media watchdog Vince Keenan, two residents of Corktown with different takes on the rising influence of new voices in the city and how they're changing the narrative and landscape.

Phil opened with the observation that we enjoy a much lower 'barrier to entry' for new businesses than most major metropolitan areas [[if not the lowest), so there is a greater potential for opportunity. Surely this is the case, especially now that the previous bozo-in-charge and his minions are not adding 20-30% to the top-line of any project large enough to warrant City Council or DEGC/DDA approval, and we're at least not hearing the question posed of how many people involved 'look like' those on City Council.

But he didn't exactly go into detail on the costs of continuing business in this town, which involves little things like taxes and insurance. Nobody called out the weird 'personal property' tax on items of decor inside the business, annually forcing businesspeople to account for the value of stuff hanging on their walls. Matter of fact, until Vince finally made an offhand remark about it, the outrageous cost of insurance was a topic very obviously ignored or danced around.

Vince added that the abundance of love is an asset, those who come here and those who stay love this town. He very poignantly added one of the key quotes of the evening, "They bred out of me any expectation of return for my love." I never thought of Detroit as a huge unrequited-lovefest one-way orgy, but damned if I didn't find myself agreeing with him forcefully.

He added that Detroit is the greatest laboratory for experimental thinking on monumental problems plaguing humankind..."if you can solve it here, you can solve it anywhere". I cannot dredge up any argument against that, either.


So far, so good. But it was early!


Phil brought up the concept of what he called the 'triple bottom line' of social, environmental, and then the more commonly considered economic. This really got my attention, since I've been trying to wrap my noggin around a concept which I've been stewing and brewing for many years...adapting the best of corporate capitalism while eliminating the worst into what I've called Socio-Capitalism...of which many seem to jump to incorrect conclusions, since it contains a form of the economic boogeyman term "Socialism".

Phil's "triple bottom-line" avoids such semantic stumbling stones.

There was some discussion about how 'rational' it was to open a business in the city, and darling Claire of The Bureau of Urban Living was held forth as the potential irrational one. We needed a convenient example, and she WAS sitting demurely on stage right. They pondered if it was 'sound business' to do anything in the city, or better to just make the jump to Ferndale. It was noted that since BEING in the city was one of the reasons, if not THE foundational motivation, she had to even put forth this gargantuan effort in Midtown...there could BE no statistical analysis comparison between the city and anywhere.

Vince countered that since small businesses all pay exorbitant taxes, they might at some point require the city step up and actually deliver services to them, instead of merely milking them because they cannot afford the political donations and lawyers of the largest businesspeople in town [[that seem to allow the likes of Illitch and Maroun to escape enforcement of basic laws and general ethics). He made honest mention that ALL in the room were concerned about whether their cars would be in place at the end of the meetup...and made allusions to issues around the Corktown area of Michigan Avenue near 14th street. I flinched, remembering MY break-in and theft of a toolbox and an irreplaceable audio room-measurement device, two blocks away from Cliff Bells last year. I'd bet if he asked for a show of hands who was a relatively recent victim of crime in the city, he'd have felt the BREEZE from the hands rushing up.

Oddly, Phil countered that he doesn't want Detroit to devolve into a "police state", and if I hadn't had a decent grip on my chair...I would've been looking up from the floor after a bounce or two. But his idea of 'occupying the city', even to the point of filling not-yet-utilized investment property with low-rent artist space in order to have warm bodies in the joints [[instead of leaving them empty and probable fodder for scrappers and worse), is at least approachable, considerable. Until, of course, one figures in the increasingly-bold but random home invasion, burglaries, and assaults...then it seems the fodder goes from mere property to relatively-innocent-to-the-city carbon-based lifeforms. [[Hipsters ARE carbon-based, still, right?! The ones I know seem more cheap beer and expensive weed based sleep deprivation experiments-in-progress, but I digress.)

Phil called it a 'necessary experiment', and I DO agree...but with reservation. He amplified it by saying, "Let's get everyone in the city to think like us." Later on, he admitted his pollyannish and somewhat naive attitude, but nobody can argue that it hasn't worked for him so far in life. I'm solidly on the side of pollyannas worldwide, so...if we're keeping score...I'd give this one a plus one.

There was some discussion of polling the city population about the impediments of starting businesses...but I stopped at wondering IF most of the city knew the definition of the term 'impediment'.


Sprinkled throughout were spacklings of the R word...which I thought broad-based a bit...especially when Phil said outright that the closings of the city's Starbucks was racist. They got on that topic while jokingly challenging the Time magazine staff writer who would drive from Indian Village to Grosse Pointe to get his coffee every day.

I'm more than sure he is totally off on this, and NOT because he was using the word [[and concept) I want removed from our lexicon as we shape our new reality. Starbucks closed stores nationwide based upon revenue when their previous CEO returned to the helm.

At that point, since race was brought up...I decided to take a gander about the roomful of people. From my vantage point I could only see three non-white individuals...afterward I saw three more. OUT OF TWO HUNDRED OR SO PEOPLE! [[in an 85% majority black city governed almost completely by non-whites)

Yeah, then I got my usual alarm from being in a group largely assembled of people who look like me, which I've been reminded makes me shallow. And racist, I guess. Is there an internal racism and an external one?!

Phil then went on to say something that made me wonder if he TRULY believes the Kwhyme administration was a short-lived fluke in city politics. I'm sure I zoned out for a moment in shock, because my notes continued with the quote of the night, delivered by Vince.

"This is the place you want to be when the world ends--because you might not NOTICE!"

There was some talk of how we could get more done, and if there were a deadline. All agreed that since the Knight Foundation were throwing money our way in an effort at improving things, we'd better get on it and show some progress...because if the only results were political and/or institutional logjamming, these very needed funds would vaporize.