It's hard to overstate just how bad Detroit's reputation has gotten. At a party last night, I met someone from France who moved to the US last year. As usual, after saying I was from Detroit, I fell into playing the role of damage control for Detroit's image, attempting to balance the reality of Detroit with the media interpretation. He had never been to Detroit or Michigan, but he said that he imagined Detroit to be the worst place to possibly go in America. In fact, he framed it like this: "if someone had asked me where is the worst place in America that they could buy me a plane ticket to, I would think 'Detroit'".

He's a nice guy and was by no means trying to be intentionally malicious towards Detroit. He was just giving his honest opinion about the city based on the images he had been fed. Based on those images, he really did not have much of a desire or curiosity about Detroit. But by the end of our conversation he had put Detroit on his list of places to visit.

Even though I haven't lived in Detroit or Michigan for a few years [[I do visit often), I constantly find myself in the position of playing Detroit's ambassador. [[It's a part time job for which I don't get paid!) The French guy was not alone in his perception, neither among foreigners or Americans. But I'm only one person and I sometimes get exhausted trying to counter unfair portrayals of the city and region. [[To the point where I sometimes avoid mentioning I'm from there just so I don't have to have that inevitable conversation.)

Detroit [[and Michigan) must be proactive about repairing the city's image if they ever plan to break out of the spiral of economic stagnation/decline. It's just not enough for us loyal Detroit expats to play amateur PR spokespersons. There are not nearly enough of us to make a measurable change, and we get drowned out every time there is an unfavorable segment about "struggling Detroit" on the news... or even worse, a one hour special on NBC that likens the situation in Detroit to that of places like Haiti. So that said, what's the best way to fix the perception of Detroit as a failed city?