{"id":12513,"date":"2014-02-27T22:44:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T22:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/maxkurek\/?p=33"},"modified":"2014-02-27T22:44:56","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T22:44:56","slug":"perception-vs-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/perception-vs-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Perception vs. Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Challenge Detroit fellows we are supposed to be ambassadors for the city. In general, I don’t find this to be a particularly difficult job. There are so many great things about Detroit (especially little-known things), that sharing them with others is more of a pleasure than a chore. At times though, by no fault of Detroit’s, this can feel like an uphill battle. What I am referring to here are the seemingly endless stories that choose to focus only on the negative. What’s the problem with these stories? Quite simply, the problem is that people actually\u00a0believe<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0them. They believe that Detroit is only as these articles describe: a barren, post-apocalyptic landscape where criminals roam the streets and police are nowhere to be found. As someone whose goal it is to change people’s perceptions of one of the country’s most culturally and historically relevant cities, it is beyond disappointing to see the mindsets these stories promote embraced by the general public.<\/p>\n

This<\/a> is an article I shared with my Challenge Detroit colleagues at our most recent Leadership Friday and I think it speaks precisely to the issues I’ve just mentioned. The article is a survey of the 16 biggest cities in America based on population density. Respondents to the survey were asked a variety of questions about their perceptions of each city and “answered” each question by rating the cities on a scale of 1 to 4. Cities with the highest percentage of 3s and 4s, compared to overall responses to a category, won that superlative. Superlatives included most fashionable, most intelligent, and cleanest.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Detroit didn’t fare to well when it came to people’s perceptions of it. When all of the responses were tabulated, Detroit ended up with the following distinctions:<\/p>\n