{"id":120,"date":"2014-04-28T12:23:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T12:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/brandikeeler\/?p=120"},"modified":"2014-04-28T12:23:10","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T12:23:10","slug":"best-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/best-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit is&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This past week was an interesting one for me. It was filled with a lot of conversation about Detroit&#8217;s past, present and future. I attended a few panel discussion events as well as some small-scale community conversations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eightmile.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eight Mile Boulevard Association<\/a> 15th Annual <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eightmile.org\/Leadership_Luncheon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leadership Luncheon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/culturelabdetroit.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Culture Lab Detroit<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/michigancitizen.com\/events\/grits-and-grassroots-two-detroits-gentrification\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grits and Grassroots: Two Detroits?<\/a> Gentrification. Hosted by the Michigan Citizen<\/li>\n<li>Detroit Dialogues. A conversation series started by alumni Challenge Detroit fellow, <a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/12\/fellow-spotlight-cornetta-lane\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cornetta Lane<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Some very in-depth one on one side conversations with local artists and business owners<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In all these conversations there were a few common themes of race, equality, class and age. In a lot of my side conversations many puzzling questions arose.\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">Though I had very little insight as to how to &#8220;correctly&#8221; answer these puzzling questions, I did have one answer that seems to explain a lot of the puzzlement: Detroit is a lot of different things to a lot of different people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In my conversations I asked people to talk about their thoughts on Detroit and revitalization. I&#8217;ve heard so many contrasting, contradictory, complex opinions.<\/p>\n<p>DETROIT IS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the 7.2 square miles of greater downtown<\/li>\n<li>angry old people and happy young peopleHome<\/li>\n<li>home to the hardest working people on earth<\/li>\n<li>a bunch of abandoned buildings and \u00a0poverty<\/li>\n<li>80% black people and 20% other people<\/li>\n<li>a haven for culture, art and experiences<\/li>\n<li>an awkward teenager looking to find its identity<\/li>\n<li>Black bottom, Hudson&#8217;s and nostalgia<\/li>\n<li>A place to go for sports<\/li>\n<li>A place that needs saving<\/li>\n<li>A place that is perfectly fine the way it is<\/li>\n<li>Being gentrified<\/li>\n<li>An easy place to succeed<\/li>\n<li>Corrupt<\/li>\n<li>Big enough for all of us<\/li>\n<li>Trendy<\/li>\n<li>Been cool<\/li>\n<li>Worth fighting for<\/li>\n<li>Is a new haven for hipsters<\/li>\n<li>Is more than just black and white people<\/li>\n<li>A big responsibility<\/li>\n<li>Unique<\/li>\n<li>A big opportunity<\/li>\n<li>A integral part of this region and state<\/li>\n<li>Being taken advantage of<\/li>\n<li>Can handle gentrification differently than any other city on earth<\/li>\n<li>A place that forgets its elders and history<\/li>\n<li>Filled with racial tension<\/li>\n<li>On the rest of the world&#8217;s radar<\/li>\n<li>in desperate need of better transit<\/li>\n<li>Neglecting it&#8217;s youth<\/li>\n<li>Empowering it&#8217;s youth<\/li>\n<li>Complex<\/li>\n<li>Beautiful<\/li>\n<li>Dangerous<\/li>\n<li>Evolving<\/li>\n<li>Welcoming<\/li>\n<li>Cold<\/li>\n<li>Different<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whose thoughts and opinions do you agree with? Which ones do you disagree with?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past week was an interesting one for me. It was filled with a lot of conversation about Detroit&#8217;s past, present and future. I attended a few panel discussion events as well as some small-scale community conversations: The Eight Mile Boulevard Association 15th Annual Leadership Luncheon Culture Lab Detroit Grits and Grassroots: Two Detroits? Gentrification. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[288,289,290],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-livedetroit","tag-answers","tag-gentrificaton","tag-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}