>> It's funny that both of you think this is a non-list topic. I think it's >> bang on topic for the list personally and would love to hear more about >> this side of things. > > >Better than some of the topics we've had recently, ahem. > >> robin...
>If we enter this topic, I take my best working keyboard, the one with >multimedia >options/accessories and little space at bottom to support our tired hands along a big coffee .. ;-) >No seriously, it's interesting to discuss about what Detroit peoples are doing >in and around Detroit to reach a better way of life, at least to change the >most bad things related to the city. I'm really happy to hear that people are taking note in the positive things that are happening, and I def agree Robin, this topic is more interesting than some of the "I know more about this topic than you..." posts people sometimes get carried away with, Ahem. I prefer topics like this, ones that will transfer new knowledge about the city whilst pairing it with historical references. >Happy with it or not, the city has put a lot of efforts to renovate Dowtown, >ok, >I already hear a lot of peoples coming to say yeah but they destructed the old >Motown Building and few other historic ones, they invest only in Downtown, the >SuperBall is the only reason, etc... True This actually isnt completely true, even though it may seem so. The mayor has a rather interesting vision about the developments of the city. He's trying to change the entire status quo, the industry, the way people survive and make money, and most importantly, the way people view the city and its history. Its a massive movement he is pushing forward. Yes, he's put a lot of effort into the downtown area at the moment, the reason being, is that for years and years, the business people of downtown would drive their cars into the parking garages, park, walk in the overhead enclosed walkways into their pristine offices, work their 9-5, and then walk back to their cars via the overhead walkways, and then drive back to the suburbs, where they would spend the money they made in Detroit, on goods and restaurants in the suburbs. The mayor wants to change this, so at the 300th anniversary of Detroit, they launched the new park, Campus Martius, which is located up the street a bit from Hart Plaza. The entire purpose of this park is to be the catalyst for the renovations of the city. 7 days a week, 365 days a year, the park implements events that are designed to encourage people to form a community. Music, Movies, Art, Performances, Dancing, everything you could imagine. All of the programming done, as well, encorporates businesses from the outlying areas, trying to show people that lots of things happen in the city, even outside of the downtown area. In addition, the park is available for rentals, weddings, techno fest parties, and fashion shows. The first two years was a very slow time for this park, not a lot of people attended the events, unless it was a special occassion. But through this patience and programming, the park last summer went from having 1-3 bookings per month, to having more than 6-9per week. And as expected, the city is expanding this change outwards. They are redoing the walkways, building additional parks, and encouraging developments by working with the local restaurants and shops, even the very small ones, in order to get people, outsiders of the city, to know and understand how great a place it is to visit. As for the Super Bowl being the only reason, thats not true, many of these renovations had begun prior to the Super Bowl craze. Its just that the Super Bowl kicked into high gear and pushed Detroiter's to finish their renovations as quickly as possible. No wonder, because the city and its citizens made an absolute fortune during that time. Plus it was a chance to show people that Detroiter's really know how to put on great entertainment, and not just via record sales, but via massive arts events with performance art, and anything imaginable really. >but in same time this have a dynamic >and positive action on the Detoit 'view from visitors' who mostly don't care of >the old motown building, who don't come to Detroit since years because it's >still the murder capital in their mind. And there is some who care about the >SuperBall, some of them being truely techno fans or simply who would love to >know more about the city and don't do it just because of the bad reputation. >Detroit was in the top ten of murder city in USA past years and today it's not >anymore the first one... Last I heard, these numbers of murders are on the rise again. Our favourite president Bush implemented a fabulous new law regarding the schools and most of the music programmes across the country have been removed in favour of pushing the sciences and maths. Historically, Detroit had some of the strongest school music programmes in the country, and this removal has caused a lot of uneasy rest amongst the students and youth, which has led again to more gangs and more murders. Luckily the mayor sees this as the problem it is and is working to try to change the system back through after school programs and summer programs and youth centers. Thank God people like Bush dont run Detroit. The city would persih. Thank God we have Kwame in charge. He may have his faults, but in the large picture of it, the media is awful for telling the bad side of who he is, and not discussing the vastly good side of him. >After years at top, it's something appreciable to see >that Detroit is becoming maybe more 'cool'. Even if it's still very hard, I >agree. there is still cops found dead in the back of supermarkets ... >On a more precise point, about peoples living there, there is teams and >associations of peoples who act right and move things like organising groups >who goes during sunday morning to Cass Corridor ( well know area regarding >drugs, guns, homeless peoples, it's history ...) and try to clean up as they >can >the area, sure it's not revolutionnary but they do it and it's already >something >better than staying behind tv, there is mountain Bike clubs, there is >photography clubs and meetings, there are walking tours with art in shop windows along the length of gratiot, there are DJs, such as Mike Huckaby working for free in the local youth centers teaching the kids about music, there are artists, such as Tyree Guyton of the famous Hidleberg project, who is still actively working in the communities to bridge the gap bewtween rich and poor, and white and black, there are women like Njia Kai, who have created youth centres in churches that have such progressive methods of working with the children, they make movies with them and record music with them, but throughout the process, they tell the children that they need to study in English in order to write the scripts, they need to focus on their maths so they know how to add up the electrical voltages necessary when rigging lights so the kids dont blow the fuses. This program was so effective that the teachers in these deprived areas were so shocked by the students imrpovements, they searched Njia out to find out what she was doing to make the kids want to learn. Njia is the head of programming for Campus Martius Park b the way, she also has a part in running almost every music festival in the city, last summer alone, she was also artist liaison for Jazz Fest (60 acts), bookings and development for Fest of Arts, production manager for Concert of Colors (3 day festival concert), plus a bunch of others well. Njia is my hero, although, to be fair, there are a lot of Detroiter's I could call my hero, but Njia is still tops in my book. I met her whilst working the Movement: DEMF in 2003, she's ace. >the fall down of the industry is definitely >responsible of the decay, the lot of homeless peoples and criminal things we >know, of course, no job = no money, no money = another way to eat each day. But >in these sad things, a lot of artists and peoples found a benefit or something >to use at their motor to growth and expand ... Tyree Guyton is a great example of this, he used the trash people were dumping in his neighborhood to make art, and he rounded up the kids in the neighborhood as well to teach them how to appreciate beauty from garbage and decay. >I think if UR today is strong, it's because they suffered of this environement, >they found a way to extract the good things from the bad ones and today, they >make a living out of it. It's all positive. >I read/hear a lot of peoples saying it's stupid to create lofts in Downtown or >in another area because there is no one to rent them at this price... Ok, but >with the effort to renovate Detroit done by a lot, each one at his level, why >not count on future moves to Detroit of business owners, even if they creates >jobs for only 2/3 peoples, its again already something. >And it's again a benefit for atists since in place of making music out of the >decay, hardlife, they could work with business owners for their multimedia >promo campaigns, with tv's, radio's, all sound design related jobs for the >business side as well as producing for the art side... Very right there... you know I foudn it amazing that over the past 4-5 years, Detroit went from having 2/3 of its downtown highrises and building being boarded up, to now, most of them are open. And the best part is many of these new businesses going into the offices are arts related in one way or another, film companies, design firms, technology, a few of the DJs/producers I know are also buying run-down buildings and turning them into a building like UR, recording studios, apartments, rental hotels for visiting DJs and tourists, and record stores. Its funny to see, because most Detroiter's have this thing called the "Detroit pace" which is typically a bit slower and more relaxed than other cities, definitely much slower than New York or LA, but their happy, and this slow pace of them renovating the buildings they are working on, allows them to put money into the building when they have it, they dont stress that the building doesnt look perfect, or that they dont have enough money at the moment, because they know if they keep working at it, then it will likely be finished when Detroit has managed to renovate itself enough it attracts visitors. >Of course, there is tons of other problems and toubles much more important but >from my position, as I can hear and see from peoples I know, I 'm optimist >regarding the future of this city. There is little actions there and there, an >envy from a lot to live in a better environement, it's relatively fresh, I mean >ten or twenty years ago, this positive thinking was out of question if we >relate >to all what we hear about Detroit from medias, artists themselves, various >travellers experiences... >Open to the discusion ! >Dimitri I think the levels of hope amongst the citizens about the growth of the city is starting to spread. Its a tough thing though to change a status quo of a city. Changing its entire economy from being primarily a car manufacturing industry, to being an entertainment capital of the world, is definitely going to be a massive effort, but I think there are enough citizens in Detroit, and hopefully enough outside of Detroit, who are helping this change along, and trying to push the hope back into the hearts and minds of the youth and Detroit's citizens. The only thing about this push though, is that there are a lot of people who would prefer to push back, the darker side of Detroit may diminish once this new status quo takes effect, and many people prefer these dark elements. The abandoned warehouses, the derelict houses, all of which have encouraged the art to develop, so with these being renovated, its going to be a delicate balancing act the city will have to do in order to maintain its roots of cultural inspirations whilst creating sources of income for the artists of this culture. Now I must really get back to work, spent the past hour writing this, lol feel like I've just written a seriously large chapter of a book. Jodie -- Dimitri Pike http://wildtek.free.fr <http://wildtek.free.fr/> http://www.myspace.com/wildtek
