{"id":12976,"date":"2015-03-31T16:21:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T21:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/?p=39"},"modified":"2015-03-31T16:21:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T21:21:40","slug":"catch-the-detroit-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/catch-the-detroit-lightning\/","title":{"rendered":"Catch the Detroit Lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been re-reading and thinking about\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/reason.com\/archives\/2014\/08\/26\/rise-of-the-hipster-capitalist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this<\/a> article recently. There are some unfortunate clich\u00e9s here and there, but ultimately the author does a great job making a\u00a0<em>meaningful<\/em> point in the din of &#8220;who are Millennials anyway?&#8221; stuff that shrinks and grows every couple of news cycles.<\/p>\n<p>My TL;DR:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gen Y folks value business attitudes that encourage entrepreneurship, hustling, and being one&#8217;s own boss.<\/li>\n<li>Mistrust of and nonloyalty to big companies has spurred young people to invest in and create ventures that support some kind of social good.<\/li>\n<li>The Millennials differ from their immediate predecessors\u00a0because they shirk both revolution (unlike the Boomers) and ennui (unlike the Slackers).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Detroit-wise, I hope I&#8217;m not the first to tell you that entrepreneurs are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3007840\/creative-conversations\/how-young-community-entrepreneurs-rebuilding-detroit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">running the place<\/a> right now. I\u00a0<em>really<\/em> hope I&#8217;m not the first to tell you that talking about the city that way <a href=\"http:\/\/publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com\/2014\/06\/23\/criticism-for-a-travel-article-on-detroit-with-no-black-presence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">isn&#8217;t the best idea<\/a>. There&#8217;s universal agreement that the city is forming a new future, and fortunately there are plenty of people voicing concerns about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/magazine\/story\/2014\/09\/is-there-room-for-black-people-in-the-new-detroit-111396.html#.VRr_K_zF-So\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">who will have access<\/a> to the next chapter.\u00a0For cautious better and unfortunate worse, Detroit&#8217;s trajectory is being set by hipster capitalists.<\/p>\n<p>Who moves here? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/new_detroiter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">People who can<\/a>. People who <a href=\"http:\/\/wdet.org\/posts\/2015\/03\/11\/79818-new-york-billboards-say-move-to-detroit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">can&#8217;t afford<\/a> their dream cities. Lots of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.knightarts.org\/knight-arts-challenge\/detroit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">artists<\/a>, lots of <a href=\"https:\/\/ynpndetroit.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">activists<\/a>, lots of <a href=\"http:\/\/ventureforamerica.org\/where-we-are\/detroit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">idea-havers<\/a>. Lots of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UkQTh6cDrm0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">people like me<\/a>. The &#8220;make something happen&#8221; attitude that gets people approximately my age to wheel, deal, and steal is doing incredible stuff for Detroit businesses, communities, nonprofits, creative pools, taste buds, and tax coffers. It identified a city empty enough so that<span style=\"color: #545454\">\u2014at least for a while\u2014any change\u00a0was better than no change. Now that the edge has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/10\/20\/dining\/20Detroit.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">worn off<\/a> some of the more radical stuff, it&#8217;s high time to think about what the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=htz9CS-Zmms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new boss<\/a>\u00a0wants for the city.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And while I do mean &#8220;wants for the city&#8221; in a pretty broad, idealistic sense<span style=\"color: #545454\">\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/candychang.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;I wish this was&#8221;<\/a> kind of stuff\u2014I have a feeling that all the responses will end up looking the same. Who doesn&#8217;t want a Detroit free of crime? A viable public transit system? An educational universe that teaches, nurtures, inspires, and empowers? An end to racial mistrust, police brutality, war, hatred, ignorance, death itself? I want these things, odds are you want these things&#8230;I bet even\u00a0Matty Moroun wants these things. And that&#8217;s\u00a0<em>good\u2014<\/em>if there&#8217;s something that never fails to tap my optimism, it&#8217;s that the scores of Detroit-bound Millennials are overwhelmingly empathetic, opposed to ignorance, and ultimately concerned with coming here in the <a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/2014\/10\/30\/for-real\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;right&#8221;<\/a> way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But what I <em>really<\/em>\u00a0want to know is\u00a0a little more nitty gritty. Is your small plates restaurant going to do some <a href=\"http:\/\/rosesfinefood.com\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tangible good<\/a>\u00a0or is it just going to taste good? Do you want to <a href=\"https:\/\/makeloveland.com\/2015\/mi\/wayne\/detroit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">buy that house<\/a>\u00a0so that you can keep spinning out <a href=\"http:\/\/demographics.coopercenter.org\/DotMap\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Detroit&#8217;s racist past<\/a> or do your part to halt that ongoing tragedy?\u00a0And to be clear, I&#8217;m fine with\u00a0any answers to any questions. I firmly believe that all cities depend on all kinds of people<em style=\"color: #545454\">\u2014<\/em>good and bad, engaged and negligent, passionate and agnostic. I want the questions asked, however, because I don&#8217;t think that Detroit is or should be known as the place where you can do whatever you want, a place so experimental and Wild Western that hipster capitalism can reach real damage. I want the Detroit transplants who generally look, think, and act like me to ask where they want to fit or fight.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also been playing a lot of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.citiesskylines.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this game<\/a>\u00a0lately. When Electronic Arts shamefully destroyed the excellent SimCity series, a couple of guys took it upon themselves to make a modern city-building game that doesn&#8217;t suck. If you don&#8217;t mind my editorializing, it&#8217;s a damned fine game. You&#8217;re in charge of every big-deal decision a city planner could make, from infrastructure to industry and plots to public transit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/01.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-40\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/01-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"01\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/02.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-41\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/02-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"02\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/03.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-42\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/03-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"03\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/04.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-43\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/04-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"04\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I love the details here. If you destroy a house in order to build a road, little red frowny faces balloon up to mark your victims&#8217; dissatisfaction:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/05.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-44\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/05-300x137.jpg\" alt=\"05\" width=\"300\" height=\"137\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">And if there&#8217;s a blighted burger joint dragging down property values, just point-and-click with the Bulldoze tool:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/06.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-45\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/06-300x137.jpg\" alt=\"06\" width=\"300\" height=\"137\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/07.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-46\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/07-300x137.jpg\" alt=\"07\" width=\"300\" height=\"137\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/08.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-47\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/08-300x137.jpg\" alt=\"08\" width=\"300\" height=\"137\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Talk about tripping off the power! I saw a few Reddit commentors joking that the game should be retitled &#8220;Eminent Domain,&#8221; and they&#8217;re not wrong. I remember playing <i>SimCity 3000<\/i> as a preteen and plowing through entire neighborhoods to build train tracks and highways, never sparing a thought for the simulated lives I was likely destroying. Now, though, I play carefully. Even ridiculously<em style=\"color: #545454\">\u2014<\/em>I&#8217;ve done entire playthroughs with the main goal of leaving every existing road, school, home, and occupied building peacefully alone.<\/p>\n<p>What if I were playing a Detroit scenario? Would I carve up the North End to build a solar power plant? Would I legalize marijuana to attract new residents? Would I run free with the Bulldoze tool, spending not a dime (dream big) to convert blighted neighborhoods into the Great Plains of the Great Lakes?<\/p>\n<p>And what would my peers do? What would the hipster capitalists do? What\u00a0<em>are<\/em> the hipster capitalists doing, and why are they doing it? My empathy for nonexistent in-game citizens surprised me, but shouldn&#8217;t my (slowly improving) lack of empathy for real-life vulnerable Detroiters shock me even more? What are my wants for the city?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/Capture.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-48\" src=\"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/benjaminbreuninger\/files\/2015\/03\/Capture-300x194.png\" alt=\"Capture\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been re-reading and thinking about\u00a0this article recently. There are some unfortunate clich\u00e9s here and there, but ultimately the author does a great job making a\u00a0meaningful point in the din of &#8220;who are Millennials anyway?&#8221; stuff that shrinks and grows every couple of news cycles. My TL;DR: Gen Y folks value business attitudes that encourage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12976","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}