4/11/08

Eight Mile


I'm fascinated with Detroit all over again. Recent events have had me pretty jaded...he doesn't even deserve name recognition here.

And it gets kind of tiresome driving around all the bombed out buildings, especially when you travel to another city and see and feel what vibrancy is about. The disconcerting thing about Detroit is that it once was the center of the world in an economic and even cultural sense. You would think there were vast remnants of that era. A onetime visitor might see and feel the skeleton which conjures up archetypal ruins a la the fabulous ruins of detroit. What can seem strange though, the more you spend time is the ghosts have gone. The result is emptiness.

So now I'm commuting twice a day up and down 8 mile and ending up in Warren. A new side of town for me. I realize something about Detroit, not to be flippant or negative. It's the model of our country's economy. The system is falling, some call it a recession, whatever. The big boys and the big boxes are in trouble much like the auto industry began falling in the 70s and 80s. When the system fell, people left, and people who stayed became hungry. Detroit demonstrates this.

There is a new economy emerging, one I am hopeful and eager to see grow. It's in Detroit, you gotta know and you gotta look, and that's what is fascinating. As the economy rises the ghosts will come back.