{"id":12386,"date":"2013-12-31T04:45:26","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T04:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/katiedictus\/?p=26"},"modified":"2013-12-31T04:45:26","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T04:45:26","slug":"december-leaving-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/december-leaving-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"december | leaving detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

after eight and a half hours of driving, i finally merged onto the last highway i needed to get me home to my family for christmas, a road that should have been familiar. instead, the new hwy 29\/hwy 41 interchange in the heart of green bay, wisconsin looked like something out of the jetson’s with towering on\/off ramps three layers tall. definitely<\/span><\/span><\/span>out of place in a suburban city of less than 100,000 people. this transformation has been happening over the past several years (after all, major roadways don’t spring up overnight), so it’s not as if i was unaware, but i certainly was unprepared. i felt a mix of sadness, frustration, anger, and alienation as i sped along amidst these feats of civil engineering. this was a road i’ve been traveling since i was born; exit 169 to shawano avenue would get us home after trips to grandma’s, the mall, restaurants, wherever. i <\/span><\/span><\/span>know<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span> what it looks like. but not anymore.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

as my emotions ebbed and i began to think, i realized that this is exactly the type of change that i would love to see in detroit: massive restructuring of roads and open spaces, additions of public mass transit, <\/span><\/span><\/span>a real twenty-first century forward-thinking deal<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. but why would i want that for detroit when it upsets me to see it in green bay, a city that could use a few keen urban planners. how could i wish these changes on people who have inhabited a city that i have been in for less than six months? what right do i have to prescribe a cure for detroit? and why do i ultimately care about a city to which i have no ties?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

as detroit evolves physically, so too must the mindset of the people evolve. and vice versa. we must constantly ask ourselves if people are ready for a proposed change and if a proposed change is ready for the people. it’s a forever struggle but we must be mindful that urban planning and revitalization is not an emotionless science but a complex study of all factors, human and built. it is rare that these factors exist in harmony, but when and where they do, beautiful, desirable places can be found.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

after eight and a half hours of driving, i finally merged onto the last highway i needed to get me home to my family for christmas, a road that should have been familiar. instead, the new hwy 29\/hwy 41 interchange in the heart of green bay, wisconsin looked like something out of the jetson’s with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12386","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\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}