The smell of development is in Detroit\u2019s air. In the realm of community development, the conversation has placed much weight on \u201cdevelopment\u201d, but it\u2019s also important that we focus our gaze on \u201ccommunity\u201d and what we mean by that word.<\/p>\n
So\u2026what is a community? When does it start and end? At what point does a group of people become a community? Does community need a place? How long is a community? Who defines a community? Who tells the community\u2019s story? How do you know when you\u2019ve entered a community? What does the edge of a community look like? Can\/How does one craft a community?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start at the beginning\u2026<\/p>\n
The word \u201ccommunity\u201d is based on the Latin \u201ccommunitas\u201d or \u201ccommunis,\u201d which refers to common or public good. It also refers to a spirit of togetherness, unity and duty.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m no anthropologist, but just from observation, communities are in constant flux. What does this mean for a healthy neighborhood in Detroit? That large question still needs to be answered. We need to protect and celebrate the history and people that have been in this City, but (as so many have said before me), we need more people within City proper. Surely it\u2019s a balancing act – we need diverse communities in order to grow.<\/p>\n
I wonder, though, when the first white people moved into neighborhoods like Southwest, did it still feel like a community? Is the question less of \u201cWhen does a community start and end\u201d and more of \u201cWhen does the percentage of white people in a place upset the sense of community?\u201d Perhaps the best question is, \u201cHow can communities adapt to change and still protect their cultural identity?\u201d<\/p>\n
Though there are many diverse communities in Detroit, a common belief among them is the shared belief in the victory of the City. Despite where people may have come from previously, we are all here together to work for the betterment of the City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The smell of development is in Detroit\u2019s air. In the realm of community development, the conversation has placed much weight on \u201cdevelopment\u201d, but it\u2019s also important that we focus our gaze on \u201ccommunity\u201d and what we mean by that word. So\u2026what is a community? When does it start and end? At what point does a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21056","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\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}