Documenting the Turnaround/Europe

Detroit continues as a news item in both the American and European photo/news market.

In the States, some say, "enough already," about the many stories - positive and not - emanating from this city.  Some continue to worry - not without reason - that this almost caricature of decay over the decades could also happen to them.

Photos have been made, some haunting and emotional, most significantly by Andrew Moore in  his lush, poetic and startling project, exposition and book: DETROIT DISASSEMBLED.

In Europe, the Steidl book of photographs by the Marchand/Meffre team, taken at the same time as Andrew's, is also significant in guaging the interest in this decline of the American industrial power.

At November's LensCulture/FotoFest/Paris reviews I just attended, I found still an increasing amount of interest in what is happening to this city, a now fabled one perhaps more in the moral sense of Aesop, yet with hope expressed for the future.  I will return there this coming year of 2013 to continue my DETROIT: DEFINITION and I cannot wait to see the change after a year's absence.

In the interim, the Detroit Free Press, chronicles again hope for the turnaround that innovative spirit, youth and a government that is trying hard, seems to be successfully promoting:

http://www.freep.com/article/20121125/BUSINESS06/311250293/Is-Detroit-s-turnaround-turning-a-corner-Development-spreads-to-new-neighborhoods?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

It is not just Detroit

We have all known this, but perhaps choose to forget that Detroit is just an example of what has been happening for decades around the US. 

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/08/we-buy-houses-decline-and-opportunity-pittsburghs-east-suburbs/3013/


Detroit serves however as an example of people and business - those in and out of the city - who are working, often successfully, for its regrowth.  Here is one great example from Model D, always a terrific resource on what is happening in Detroit:

http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/detroitfellowslove712.aspx

Forgotten City

About Windsor, Canada from Atlantic Cities:

LIFE INSIDE THE BROKEN CITY  http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/06/how-mend-broken-city/2324/

Visited on a VERY cold spring Sunday last year, primarily to meet some East Coast friends at a casino and photograph the Windsor Chinatown, Windsor appeared in this short visit as a lovely quiet town.

Yet the vacancy and sense of abandonment was even then visible.  

EXPAT Organizations & "The Whole Story"

An expat - although from something I never really knew as I was one year old when I left - I've been following some of the expat sites that are encouraging ex-Detroiters to return and, most significantly, invest in the City.

A very active one:  DETROIT NATION - http://www.detroitnation.org/ - formed by Rachel Jacobs, part of a group of New York-based expats (formerly called 635 Mile, for the distance from Detroit) who have now developed an active program with folowers and chapters throughout the nation.

Among their programs, a job posting for work in Detroit.  Also very active on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DetroitNation

A new one just discovered: BORN AND RAISED IN DETROIT (BARD)  http://bornandraiseddetroit.org/

Probably more for there seems to be now more than nostalgic interest in those who are from Detroit about the state of the City.  OTH, it would be good if they all got together into just one powerful organization and with the power of many could not only contribute financially but with the power of numbers support and make effective change.



'CAN WE TELL THE WHOLE STORY?"
again, always reading the comments as well, this article by the General Manager of Detroit's NPR station, WDET is worth a look:   http://wdet.org/shows/wdetraw/episode/can-we-tell-the-whole-detroit-story/?hq_e=el&hq_m=1671315&hq_l=1&hq_v=e6609d3a02 



LAST - another magazine/blog.   Always learning more about the city from many different perspectives;  THE HOUR/DETROIT   http://www.hourdetroit.com/

About Detroit: More Videos and Such

Two more videos from Richard Florida on Detroit from Atlantic Cities:

Now the Fourth:
The Businesses That Will Lead Detroit  http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/06/businesses-will-lead-detroit/2176/

Focusing on "cheap, affordable space and innovation.  "If you want to rebuild a neighborhood, you're a lot better off starting with stuff people eat and drink. Movie theaters, fine, baseball stadiums great. But where people really want to go is to find places to eat and drink." -- Richard Florida

and the Fifth:  The Future of Detroit 

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/06/future-detroit/2237/ 

Who is Detroit attracting? the new urbanite, diverse, open to innovation.

BUT THEN the comments - I always read them, continually wanting to hear the voice of Detroit - linked me to this terrific video, great music and truly full of those voices:

Alex Gallegos' DETROIT BIKE CITY  http://vimeo.com/25805461


In Detroit last spring I visited the Earthworks Urban Farm on the Eastside, run by the Capuchin Soup Kitchen/Capuchin Freres  http://www.cskdetroit.org/EWG/ and was invited to return on that Wednesday for their weekly bike repair clinic.   A place to be: for recreation, for living lives amid and connecting to others, for skills, for both youth and others, and for the dire reason that among the problems Detroit has faced that doesn't help those there to rise: the lack of public transportation that prevents those able to find a job to get to one.

 Shane Bernardo (r), Outreach Coordinator of the The Capuchin Soup Kitchen -Earthworks Urban Farm

 

UPDATE 18 June 2012

From Model D:  http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/detroitbuscompany612.aspx?utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=The+Detroit+Bus+Company%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s+new+old+idea&utm_content={Email_Address}&utm_campaign=Building+the+city+of+tomorrow

The Detroit Bus Company, started as a private venture by Andy Didorosi, and trying to balance the needs of those in need of transportation with an economic structure that focusus on the tour industry while also aiming to connect jobs and the suburbs to the Detroit economic plan.   "For every seat purchaed on a regular route, tour or private rental, we'll provide another Detroiter in need a free ride to work.". 

DETROIT RISING

 Courtesy of Atlantic Cities

A series of short videos/conversations, about Detroit, posted by The Atlantic Cities and Senior Editor Richard Florida.   http://www.theatlanticcities.com/special-report/detroit-rising/

Three installments so far.    An overview yet valuable as well for the comments which should be read, giving a diverse set of perceptions about the City.

1. INTRODUCTION/ THE STATE OF DETROIT  

 Courtesy of Atlantic Cities

From this installment: "
We’ve all read the story of Detroit’s downfall by now. Once a booming hub for automotive manufacturing and a center for technological innovation, the veritable Silicon Valley of its day, the city has witnessed devastating economic changes. Between 2000 and 2010, the city's population fell by 25 percent, the largest drop of any city with a population over 100,000. Even New Orleans, despite Hurricane Katrina, didn’t see a population plunge as dramatic. At the height of the recent economic crisis, Detroit’s unemployment rate was 18.2 percent.
But the other story of Detroit, the bigger one – is of its rebirth, its rising. Given the austerity of these times, this is less a story of top-down government efforts, and much more a story of the organic efforts of the entrepreneurs and artists, designers and musicians who have chosen to live in Detroit and be the stewards of its resurgence."  http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/05/how-detroit-rising/1997/

2. DETROIT'S CREATIVE POTENTIAL

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/05/detroits-creative-potential/2068/

  

Courtesy of Atlantic Cities

 3. THE FACES BEHIND DETROIT'S REBIRTH/Who's Making A Difference

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/05/detriot-rising-iii/2111/

 Courtesy of Atlantic Cities

Reading Others, Thinking about Cities

There is no doubt that one part of the raison d'etre for this blog represents for me a place where I can wander around my photographic subject, test out ideas, reserve notes electronically for me, as well as the reader. 

Do I market the blog?  Not as much as I would like but then, there is always the question of what is a blog for?  I know that my Sara Jane Boyers Aloud Blog is very much an outlet for me to ruminate over what it is I do as a photographer, as a writer.

This DETROIT: DEFINITION Blogspot and the FINDING CHINATOWN Blogspot as well are more about specific projects.   I can refer some of you to them to better explain the work.  I use them myself as I edit, formulate my direction, note information and test out ideas.  For me, a repository.  For the reader, a peek into my process.

Thus for DETROIT: DEFINITION, today's subject is cities, the past, and the future.  Two articles posted this week, one specifically about Detroit, the other about cities in general are ones to hold with material to contemplate.

The first:   "Jim's" Sweet Juniper blog article The Fauxtopias of Detroit's Suburbs   http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2012/04/fauxtopias-of-detroits-suburbs.html

The blogger writes thoughtfully and poetically about the history and social meanings of its collection: from Henry Ford's Greenfield historic park to the suburban ones encircling Detroit.  Within this: a revealing perspective of the locale and history of Detroit's Michigan Theatre, a extant (an ironic word) example of Joni Mitchell's  Big Yellow Taxi: "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot..." 

The second:  Salon's Will that Starbucks last?  Gentrification has remade some cities and left others behind. Alan Ehrenhalt tells us what changes to expect next    http://www.salon.com/2012/04/26/will_that_starbucks_last/?source=newsletter




THE PRESENT: Today's News: Honing in on Detroit:

1. In the midst of  above, today the Detroit Free Press reports on a new arts project designed to re-introduce/re-invigorate metro Detroit: Detroit's first ContemporaryArt Festival to be held this Fall.  Thinking I might be  there.

Contemporary art festival will illuminate Detroit.  
From the article:  "A century ago Detroit had its own Electric Park, a lit-up amusement park at the foot of the Belle Isle Bridge.   The adventuresome spirit of that long-ago place of wonder returns to Detroit on a grand scale Oct. 5-6 with the inaugural Dlectricity, an ambitious contemporary art festival that promises to light up Midtown with some 30 works of site-specific installations of light, video projections and sound created by a mix of international, regional and local artists."

http://www.freep.com/article/20120427/ENT05/204270313/Contemporary-art-festival-will-illuminate-Detroit?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s   

2. From Karen Dybis, terrific Detroit writer: 

This spring’s April showers bring … development in Detroit? It seems that way

http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2012/04/27/april-showers-bring-development-in-detroit-it-certainly-seems-that-way/