A Perfect Pair: Detroit and Millennials

Like most of the class, I was rather unimpressed after watching Detropia this Wednesday.  With everything that’s going on in Detroit – both good and bad – I thought Detropia’s representation of the city lacked nuance and depth.  Instead of delving into the issues and offering solutions, it seemed to present the facts (but not all of them) and left me, as a viewer, feeling uninformed and honestly a bit discouraged about the city’s future.

Because we didn’t have a lot of time to discuss the movie, I thought that the class blog would be the perfect forum to do so (or to talk about Detroit in a way that might be more representative of its issues).  I think Detroit is really interesting and applicable to this course for a couple of reasons. 

A Detroit School: Then and Now (check out this album
 for more haunting before and after pictures)

Firstly, when we talk about policy solutions to issues in class, we are often faced with the difficulty of finding a policy solution that can apply to everyone/every city (especially inner city areas).  Detroit is a good example of one place in which I’d venture to say that most of our solutions in class simply wouldn’t work.  With such systemic problems, not to mention a lack of access to resources and funding, we can’t apply many policies to Michigan as a whole that would work the same way in Detroit.  That being said, I think it requires more creativity in order to come up with workable solutions.  In Detropia, Mayor Bing even talks about making a rather drastic change by consolidating the city, forcing people in Detroit’s less populated areas to relocate to the heart of the city.  What do you think of the solutions put forth in the movie? Where do you think reform on Detroit needs to begin and why?  Are there any solutions you have heard of that resonate with you?

Another reason I think Detroit is really interesting is because it is one place in particular in which youth are called upon to make change. Detropia documents a couple who moved to the city to engage in street art.  Governor Snyder has many times encouraged young professionals to move to Detroit.  Dan Gilbert (the founder and chairman of the company Quicken Loans) is working on bringing youth to Detroit over the next few years (and is trying to draw lots of other businesses to the city, too – his plan is pretty inspiring!). Young entrepreneurs and youth-driven projects are seen as critical steps in helping the city to flourish.  After reading the articles by Liu and Thompson about millennial attitudes, I can’t help but think that reenergizing Detroit is a task made for our generation.  Our supposed optimism, creative energy, and lack of emphasis on material goods might make us the perfect candidates to revitalize to the city.

From "How A Young Community of Entrepreneurs
 is Rebuilding Detroit"

Although many articles stress millennials’ helplessness to achieve a “better” life than their parents, I am still optimistic that we will.  Financially? Materialistically? Maybe not.  Nonetheless, I think that Detropia did miss some important points; I think that millennials will play a crucial role in breathing new life into Detroit, which will have huge implications for the state of Michigan as a whole.  It is questionable that we will have the material luxuries of previous generations, but I think there’s a lot of power in garnering our millennial-ness and creating tremendous social change.