Challenge Detroit… What does that actually mean? Before and after becoming a participant in the Challenge Detroit program I was asked countless times to describe what the program was about. What is this challenge? Why is it in Detroit?
Detroit is a mecca, whether you choose to acknowledge the fact or not, a place of opportunity for the strong willed and determined. In front of us lies a city that is not a culture of consumption but a city with a culture of participation. I have watched my fellow recent graduates flock out of state once done receiving their higher education at one of the great colleges in Michigan, never did they consider Detroit as a place to launch their careers. My fellow Millennials took off for cities like Chicago or DC, and I thought I might be one of them as well.
My education taught me to see things differently though. As an architecture student I researched the city, it’s history, it’s current status, and it’s potential future for the multiple projects my professors had proposed for sites downtown. As an architect in training, you learn to look at things from a new perspective and to compile tons of information and research into a final product; we don’t just learn to design buildings, we learn to create solutions. After my second project in the city I saw things differently, I didn’t need to create a new building to propose a solution, and I didn’t need another project to see the potential in Detroit.
Now there is nothing wrong with the other great cities of our nation. Chicago and DC are wonderful and LA and New York are great, but these cities are well established; simply urban machines that continue to churn with or without you. We move to these cities for the love of the city culture that is already established, and thus merely move to drink to social-urban “Kool Aid” (so to speak).
There is no other city that wants you like Detroit, no other place where you are the generator of the urban life. Detroit is not a blank canvas; I have learned that over the years, there is an existing fabric, an existing culture of strength and determination, of resilience. But there are spaces to fill, holes in the canvas that beckon for the young entrepreneurs and caring at heart to come take their stake in the city and become a part of its fabric.
This is why I chose to stay in my hometown. Detroit is full of opportunities, it is not a city for the lethargic, it is one for the driven and self-motivated, those who are not only ready to work hard, but for those who are also willing to give back. Our city is full of people who care, who are interested in your story, in your ideas, and in your passions; and thus you must be willing to do the same for others.
So what is Challenge Detroit? It is more than just working a full time job Monday -Thursday, and it is more than the weekly community challenges and service every Friday. The challenge is to accept the hard work involved with making a difference, to acknowledge the history of the city, to consider all residents in plans for the future, and to work together to make a sustainable impact in the city that the 29 participants now call home.
That is the Challenge, and I am excited and privileged to accept!