My year with Challenge Detroit has taught me to be a staunch defender of Detroit. \u00a0An eternal optimist when it comes to Detroit’s future, I thoroughly enjoy engaging anyone and everyone in conversation about what great things lie ahead for this city.<\/p>\n
Today, however, I am disappointed in Detroit.<\/p>\n
There is currently a bomb threat in place for the Times Square People Mover Station. \u00a0This is not why I am disappointed. \u00a0Unfortunately, safety concerns are a reality in most big cities. \u00a0The reason I am upset is because of how I see my city reacting to the threat.<\/p>\n
Moments ago while walking to Bucharest<\/a> to pick up lunch, I witnessed horrible interpersonal communication; something which I normally list as one of Detroit’s many unique positive attributes. \u00a0Blocks behind me, an older woman dressed in nice clothes and uncomfortable shoes was barreling down the block, yelling for assistance in stopping a bus ahead of her. \u00a0Of course, I shot my hand in the air, attempting to hail the bus myself. \u00a0The bus was delayed by a red light, and when the woman was a mere 10 paces behind me, I gave her a warm smile and ensured her not to worry, she’d certainly make the bus. \u00a0To my dismay, as the bus approached us, it slowed down, but did not stop. \u00a0The driver opened the doors, and hissed that he would not be picking the passenger up, as she was not waiting on the sidewalk. \u00a0The woman, nearly in tears, described that none of the buses were following their normal schedules or routes because of the road closures from the bomb threat, and she had been scrambling for nearly an hour trying to figure out how to leave downtown to head home to one of Detroit’s neighborhoods. \u00a0My heart broke for her. \u00a0I consider myself to be fairly educated on city policies, and I had no idea that bus passengers must wait to board a bus from the side walk. \u00a0Even right now, examining the website<\/a>, I don’t see any mention of this rule.<\/p>\n As I continued to walk, I overheard a conversation between a biker and a police officer, the latter was guarding the area taped off by the Detroit Police Bomb Squad. \u00a0The biker was explaining that he was new to Detroit, and was unsure how to reach his apartment building without using the closed streets; he was hoping the police officer could recommend an alternate route. \u00a0At first, the police officer completely ignored the pedestrian. \u00a0Eventually, evading the biker’s question, the officer instructed him to “move along.” \u00a0The biker, unsure how to get home, again asked the officer for alternate directions. \u00a0When I had walked far enough away that I could no longer hear the conversation, the biker was still stuck, and the police officer remained cold and stand-offish.<\/p>\n For me at least, this is not the Detroit I know and love. \u00a0It pains me to see public services and public officers ignoring the needs of Detroiters. \u00a0I am used to an open, helping city, and I sincerely hope today was just a fluke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My year with Challenge Detroit has taught me to be a staunch defender of Detroit. \u00a0An eternal optimist when it comes to Detroit’s future, I thoroughly enjoy engaging anyone and everyone in conversation about what great things lie ahead for this city. Today, however, I am disappointed in Detroit. There is currently a bomb threat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12216","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\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}