Detroit: Fight or Flight

[Honky Tonk]

I "bother" because I thought this was a public forum and I do care about Detroit.

I, for one, appreciate your honest posts and insites into the realities of actually living in Detroit. Too many times people post idealistic "feel good", stories bordering on the edge of fiction, about living here. Not everyone is privy to life in a golden, gated tower. Some of us @ ground level have to deal with the harsher realities. This is an open forum, and you have as much right as the next person to post your viewpoints.

[michimoby]

I, for one, appreciate your honest posts and insites into the realities of actually living in Detroit. Too many times people post idealistic "feel good", stories bordering on the edge of fiction, about living here. Not everyone is privy to life in a golden, gated tower. Some of us @ ground level have to deal with the harsher realities. This is an open forum, and you have as much right as the next person to post your viewpoints.

I think this sums up why I continue to peruse these forums even though I left the city a few months ago. For one, I think this is an incredible platform for dialogue to occur in a safe, non-judgmental environment; there's not many other places in Detroit where that can occur.

But I think there's a very solid contingent of newcomers to Detroit that have this naievete about the city and its challenges. I should know; I was one of those folks that overlooked the gross inefficiencies in the city and got defensive whenever they were brought up. But by addressing the challenges the city faces - first by making them known, and then constructively discussing them - is something that a some new residents [[esp. those in their 20s) don't understand or don't have an interest in doing.

The more I can contribute to, and learn from, this discussion, sort of as a post-mortem of my time in Detroit, the more I can help others become reasoned advocates for the city.

[antongast]

For one, I think this is an incredible platform for dialogue to occur in a safe, non-judgmental environment; there's not many other places in Detroit where that can occur.

But by addressing the challenges the city faces - first by making them known, and then constructively discussing them - is something that a some new residents [[esp. those in their 20s) don't understand or don't have an interest in doing.

I see you've managed to cast off the shackles of excessive self-awareness, anyway.