... and so Meddle is going to post it here.

It's kind of funny to watch, though. I believe I correctly understand the point. The point is that Detroit has more crime than its suburbs, more violent crime, and more extreme examples of crime. And so Meddle intends to make his point ... over and over again ... and over again ...

I brought in Frank Rizzo to discuss how such crimes make him feel the other day. I think Frank is a good example of a person to talk to about crime in Detroit because he loves talking about crime in Detroit. You could argue that if there weren't crime in Detroit, his split-level pad in Center Line wouldn't look so good. So he loves talking about how shiz is totally fuzzed up in Detroit.

And that's what they love showing on the TV news, right? If it bleeds, it leads. We're all used to this, right? When you watch the news, you're going to see three or four grisly crimes, police tape, interviews with bewildered neighbors, etc. This all reinforces that narrative, that Detroit is an awful place where awful things happen.

And, finally, of course, this is all largely true. The most disinvested neighborhoods, where there are few opportunities, let alone jobs, are caught in a vicious cycle of violence, poverty and general dysfunction. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure that out, right?

So why this relentless drumbeat of violent news on this forum? That's kind of curious, isn't it? It's not enough that the average suburban resident loves to talk about urban crime, it's not enough that every evening newscast begins with urban crime, it's not enough that even city boosters acknowledge urban crime is a problem ... we have to have several posts on this forum about urban crime every month.

So why is that? Why, as pockets of the city see investment and repopulation, and as that comes up for discussion here, must somebody post the utterly obvious again and again and again?

I think it's a kind of insecurity. I've seen it crop up in a few different contexts, usually where somebody is talking about how all these exciting things are happening in, say, Corktown or midtown or downtown or Woodbridge, and, invariably, a voice pipes up declaring that this is the exception, that Detroit is still fucked, that crime and schools are still serious problems, that Detroit has a long way to go before it is livable.

It's funny, man. Like, what other region would declare, over and over again, "You can't expect our central city to REALLY come back! Our central city is a HELLHOLE, and you're a FOOL if you think it will ever be better." But that's what we have, right? And, funnier still, even as parts of the city come back, the cries become more shrill and insistent, "But it's a HELL of CRIME and VIOLENCE! See? You SEE?" It's not bad enough that the region's urban center is full of problems, they have to play press agent for them.

Yeah, I think some people, frankly, are starting to crack. Their lifelong self-fulfilling prophecies are simply not coming true anymore. So they feel the need to skew the conversation their way by posting about crimes. It's funny, but kind of sad too. This is probably the last generation of chest-beating suburban triumphalists, and that's gotta be hard to let go of.

So, there's my analysis. Discuss.