Detroit: Not Good Enough Part Two

ROADS AND TRANSIT

Everyone in this area right now is talking about the beyond-terrible condition of roads. I'll join in the griping.

Drive from Philadelphia-- a winning city in more ways than one-- on the Pennsylvania and Ohio turnpikes, and you know when you're back in Michigan. The condition of roads.

Does Michigan have the most decrepit highways, roads, and streets in the nation?

It's hard to imagine a state with worse ones. I've driven all over this country-- south, east, west-- and never encountered anything like it.

There's an epidemic of potholes throughout Metro Detroit. Not potholes. Craters. As if bombs were dropped.

We all know friends, relatives, acquaintances with ruined vehicles from hitting those monster holes, resulting in thousands of dollars in repairs. A Conspiracy Theorist would speculate it's a plot to keep road crews and auto repair shops continuously prosperous and occupied. The craters aren't good for anyone else.

INSURANCE

Compound this with Michigan's auto insurance rates, highest in the nation. For residents of the city of Detroit in particular, running a vehicle is prohibitively expensive. Like paying rent. Own a car and you may as well live in it.

TRANSIT

Then there's the bus system. I'm sure someone has asked the question before. They must have. But: WHY are there two bus lines in Metro Detroit?

Woeful inefficiency-- a holdover from the city/suburb divide which has destroyed prospects for everyone. And from the long-time racial divide in this town. Which everyone on all sides needs to get over as quickly as possible if we're all to move forward.

At the moment Detroit is attracting a modest number of go-getters from the east coast. From New York City most of all. On the east coast people don't need to own a car to get around. Many don't. They depend on public transportation. They're used to it-- subways, trains, trolleys, buses. This applies also to those who move here from Chicago.

IF Detroit's to move credibly forward-- to keep pace with other cities, and to begin to catch up to them-- it needs a workable regional transit system. NOW.
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NEXT: Changing the Psychology.

Detroit: Not Good Enough

A RANT IN FOUR PARTS

It's curious. There's been very little finger-pointing over Metro Detroit not winning the Amazon HQ2 bid-- not even making the top 20 cities. An embarrassment. What was experienced instead from media in this town was a giant sigh of relief that we were out of the running.

A loser mindset. A Detroit Lions mentality. "Boy, we almost made the playoffs this year. We almost won that game."

Fear of success. Change can be troubling.

Yeah, I know, Dan Gilbert, Mayor Duggan and Company tried to give away too much to a gigantic corporation.

Obviously not!

This area needs a sea change in attitude. It needs, frankly, to wake up. Metro Detroit has lost its best, most ambitious, most talented individuals the last several decades and is still losing them. It needs to give aggressive go-getters reasons to stay. Bids, plans, projects, hyperbole. Confidence and cockiness. Talking big. Creating an image of the future which investors and public alike can believe in and buy into.

It needs a winning attitude.

NEXT:  Transit and roads.

Detroit and Amazon

AN OPPOSING VIEW

WHAT DOES IT SAY about Detroit journalists that an argument in support of the now-failed Amazon HQ2 bid is a contrary view? Did the plan have too many tax-giveaways for Amazon? Was it too sweet of a deal? Obviously NOT-- the city of Detroit did not make the cut.

Don't kid yourself. Scoring the Amazon 2 headquarters in competition with every other city in America would've been a huge victory for Detroit. It would've signaled to investors around the world, "Detroit Is Back."

THE CRITICS

Here are three of the arguments against Detroit's bid.

Valerie Vande Panne, an opponent of the Amazon HQ2 bid, takes indirect shots at it at Alternet:
https://www.alternet.org/local-peace-economy/5-big-myths-sold-defenders-capitalism

Philip Conklin  and Mark Jay take on Detroit's fledgling comeback at Jacobin:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/01/detroit-revival-inequality-dan-gilbert-hudsons

Eric Starkman presents a hyperbolic essay with his reasons why the bid was mistaken:
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/19208/starkman_motown_s_near-death_amazon_giveaway#.WnDDq2inHrd

Vande Panne makes a few good points in relation to small business. The Jacobin essay has to be taken for what it is, given that it was published by a neo-Marxist magazine whose goal is the end of capitalism.  Starkman's is a shriek against the injustice of the universe. Job in the Bible shaking his fist at God. Yes, the economic system is unfair. Amazon is not a benevolent corporation. To quote from a classic film, "The grown man knows the world he lives in." Or: If you're going to change the world, don't make Detroit, of all places, the sacrificial victim.

POINTS

A.)  JOBS.

Vande Panne lists "Jobs Will Save Us!" as a myth. She's wrong. I travel through southwest Detroit and the impoverished downriver suburbs nearly every day. Rootless people are everywhere; on disability, on drugs, lacking purpose. Wasting their checks at the downtown casinos. That's reality, not myth. For most people in this world, a job gives purpose. Reason to get up in the morning. Structure. Self-respect.

The claim is that Amazon 2 will bring to a city 50,000 jobs. That's a lot of paychecks. A lot of money being spent in a town. Circulating. There's a multiplier effect. People, services, and small businesses working to serve the employees. Any city in the beat-down condition Detroit is still in, when presented with such option, has to say, "We'll take it."

B.)  2008.

The biggest argument for accepting a large-scale project like Amazon is where this town was in 2008. I was staying downtown then, when the auto companies collapsed and the economy bottomed. Downtown was a ghost town-- scores of large office buildings sitting vacant. After six p.m., what downtown workers there were vanished and the downtown of a great city turned itself over to vagrants and pigeons. I lived in an almost-empty building which itself seemed populated by ghosts.

One man turned this around. Love him or hate him, this is fact. At the time he began buying up properties and pumping money into this city, a comeback seemed like illusion. Like many, I just wanted to get out of town-- and for awhile, did.

With his money, Dan Gilbert took enormous financial risk. It's still a non-guaranteed bet-- the comeback is shaky at best. Businesses like Nike have been encouraged to open stores downtown, possibly with sweetheart deals, because that's how it's done. The roulette wheel is spinning. The bet is that Detroit will come back. No one knows for sure if it will.

Is there going back to 2008? Does anyone truly wish to go back?

C.)  IMAGE.

The biggest burden Detroit has carried for 50 years is its image. For 50 years it's been portrayed as a place of crime, poverty, and ruin. The negative psychology has been a cloud hanging over town. As with a sports team, winning begets winning, and losing begets a downtrodden attitude. The city will come back for real when it believes it will come back-- and when investors and tourists around the world believe this as well. Winning the Amazon contest would've instantly changed the perception of Detroit. The psychology. "Detroit Is Open for Business" would've been the message. What killed the city is disinvestment. Ways need to be found to turn this around.

Yes, this would benefit evil big-money capitalists out to make a buck. But, how did Detroit become a major city to begin with? Wasn't it because of entrepreneurs? Industrialists? Uh, capitalists?

D.)  CITY-STATE.

Gore Vidal among others posited that in the 21st century, with the rise of a global economy, the dominant political-economic entity would no longer be the nation-state, but the city-state. Which means, yes, Detroit very much IS in competition for jobs and resources with every other large city on the planet. We can deign to compete, and sink further into oblivion, with attendant lethargy, poverty, food stamps and substance abuse. Or we can plunge fully into the contest and put the latent talents we have in this town to use.

E.)  A NEW VISION.

At New Pop Lit we believe business is not a zero-sum game. Inviting major players like an Amazon doesn't squeeze out everyone else. Instead, such companies generate activity and resources, which smaller entities, if quick enough, can take advantage of. There are a lot of hustlers in this town. People want to make a buck. Sorry, but few wish to make their own clothes and exist at a subsistence level. That's not the world we live in. Today that lifestyle can be lived in impoverished third world countries or in nostalgic history books. More poverty? Been there; done that.

We're here because we're hustlers. We see opportunity for tremendous growth and we aim to be part of it.

K.W.

"Best Detroit T-Shirts"

Who has "Detroit's Best T-Shirts"*?

WE do! Hit the "Buy" button on this page and take a look!

Can you afford NOT to own one? :-)

(*Per informal poll taken at Detroit's big "Dally in the Alley" festival.)

City versus City?

THINKING BIG

Detroit decision makers--especially media people-- need to get it out of their heads that Detroit can be satisfied to exist as an adjunct of the media power of New York City. A  poorly-respected stepchild of New York, at that. Detroit should be putting everything into establishing itself as its own power base.

Before he died, Gore Vidal made the argument that with the rise of the global economy, the world was returning to the situation which applied in ancient times. Vidal was quite the student of history, of course, which gave him the ability to see when patterns repeated themselves. His argument was that in the 21st century it will be not nation competing with nation, but city-state competing against other city-states. The power centers of the ancient world were cities like Athens, Rome, and Carthage. This is how we need to view the situation of the present day.

To control its destiny, Detroit needs its own media. Media centered in this town and controlled by those who live here, not by a competing place. We need to write our own narrative. More than this, media is like an ongoing advertisement announcing the Detroit brand. In this postmodern age, power is determined by how much noise you make. Noise equals power.

This means that Detroit power brokers-- the giant automakers, notably-- need to push to have one of the large networks based in Detroit. Or lacking that, they should be taking steps to create their own large-scale network. This would give them-- and this area-- enormous leverage in the ongoing international game.

Far-fetched? Not really, considering the leverage the automakers have through their ad buying. They may be the biggest ad buyers in the country, maybe in the world. Are they receiving full value and clout for their dollars? Truly?

We at NEW POP LIT are interested in print media. We want print culture-- and arts culture generally-- centered here. We envision a time when we'll be publishing an intellectual magazine out of Detroit able to compete straight up with an influential magazine like The New Yorker. Not just competing with, but beating, as we'll be the new model compared to old.

At the moment we have our hands full with our new literary journal. (Which can be purchased via the Buy Now" button on this page.) We KNOW that we can and will outdo any other literary journal based anyplace else-- including the well-funded journals in New York City. We know this because we know where to find exciting and talented new writers that cronyism-clogged New York won't even look at.

We"ll not be content to be a poor stepchild to anybody.

About Detroit's New Bridge

As Detroit remakes and reinvents itself, it needs to grab every opportunity to stand out to the world. This means grabbing every opportunity to show itself as a significant center of new art.

Plans are afoot from various parties for a new bridge to Canada-- whether near the Ambassador Bridge or further downriver.

Why not create the new bridge as an intentional work of art-- and thereby capture the imagination of the world?

This is exactly what was done in New York City 129 years ago when the Brooklyn Bridge was constructed. Its creators set out to create a bridge visually distinctive, unlike any that had ever existed. They wanted it to be as important as sculpture. An artwork. This included incorporating gothic arches in it, as a nod to Europe's gothic cathedrals.

Another classic example of engineering as art is the Eiffel Tower in Paris, erected as a symbol of the modern. The city became the center of artistic modernism.

Can Detroit become the New Paris?

Detroit's builders, politicians, financiers and artists need the imagination to be as ambitious as possible. They need to have the mission of making Detroit an arts city-- the surest way to attract attention, credibility, people, and investment-- along with the mystique and magic that accompanies art. A new bridge to Canada provides the opportunity to create a lasting foundation for future growth. The kind of architectural event that will be talked about for decades and centuries to come.

Will the city's (and state's) leaders grab this chance?

NEW POP LIT #1 Is on Sale!

--along with other exciting products. Simply click on the "Buy Now" button to examine our line-up. From dynamic new pop-lit writing to the best Detroit T-shirts, we have it. We define cutting edge.

New Publishing in Detroit?

New publishing in Detroit?

Who would dare start new publishing in Detroit?

The people behind NEW POP LIT, for one.

They're out with their first title, a collection of stories, essays, and poems from the nation's best DIY writers.

The title: NEW POP LIT Issue One.

The kickass cover is by Detroit artist Alyssa Klash. Our task from the beginning was to find writing to equal the cover. We believe we have.

The writers include Detroit author Kathleen Crane; zine legends Jessie Lynn McMains and Wred Fright; small press publisher and novelist Delphine Pontvieux; underground filmmaker Pablo D'Stair; avant-garde "Pop Picasso" artist and writer Dan Nielsen-- and other unique talents.

Readers will discover a variety of approaches to the literary art. Not fully literary. Not quite pop. Approaches toward an elusive hybrid. A fresh start for readers and writers.

More exciting "Made in Detroit" titles will follow!

http://newpoplit.com/

Representing Pop Lit!

Pictured: NEW POP LIT's Kathleen Crane (right) chatting with young Detroit go-getter Kendall Waterman.
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With all the food vendors, beer sellers and t-shirt hawkers at Detroit's huge "Dally in the Alley" street fair, who was there to represent the lit game?

WE were!

Read our official report on our appearance at the event right here.

Douglas McIntyre Is Wrong

Here is an article by Douglas McIntyre of  24/7 Wall Street which discusses Detroit's failure to regain population. The thinking being that, because it's not gaining population now, it won't. An interesting and pessimistic premise, which is wrong.

First, Detroit is in the process of bottoming. A long-term bottom, one that took place over decades. The last "seller" of the city sold. Everyone was down on it. The city reached a point from which it had nowhere else to go but up.

A stock or commodity or market-- or a city-- usually spends time at a bottom. Meanwhile, it's accumulating latent energy; the strength and resources for an eventual comeback. That's happening with Detroit now. The rebound in population and business won't be immediate. That's not how nature with its laws works.

Second, a host of creative people are moving into Detroit. In absolute terms their number is tiny-- but in time, their presence will be felt.

Granted, it will take an unforeseen spur to jump-start the comeback and bring more people into town. NEW POP LIT believes art and literature will be that spur. See our blog posts on the matter here and here.

Is there a better city for creating an internationally-recognized new bohemian arts scene?

We have the necessary grittiness and authenticity. Street cred-- in multiples. Artists are gathering. Soon, so will writers.

But Mr. McIntyre of 24/7 Wall Street has the data! Numbers and spreadsheets. There, right in front of him. They show. He knows.

What esteemed Mr. McIntyre lacks is imagination and vision. Things never found on a spreadsheet. Also absent is a sense of history-- a sense which knows the world is in continual flux. Nothing stands still. The world we see now is not the world which will exist ten years from now. No one can predict the coming changes-- changes usually made by those who see a potential future and go about creating it. We at NEW POP LIT see that potential here and now in Detroit.

We also know that Douglas McIntyre is no gambler. Carefully-cautious pawn-progression chess moves only. No spectacular leaps.

If he were a gambler he'd bet on Detroit!

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NOTE: If you're anywhere near Detroit this Saturday, stop by the NEW POP LIT booth at the huge "Dally in the Alley" street fair in Midtown aka the Cass Corridor. Hear more about our plans to set up new publishing in Detroit-- and take a look at our prototype lit journal. For more info about the event read our main site's most recent post.

MegaDetroit!

A FOLLOW-UP TO THE PREVIOUS POST

What's MegaDetroit?

MegaDetroit is merely a Detroit of the size of a previous incarnation. 1.8 to 2 million inhabitants. This time at the forefront of at least two major industries.

Is this possible?

Take out a globe of the world and look for geographic crossroads. You'll see at those crossroads-- Instanbul for instance-- world-class cities.

Detroit is not only at a key geographic crossroad. It's also placed near large freshwater lakes. Because industrial plants consume large amounts of fresh water, there may be no better location on the planet for industry than Detroit. Fresh water; waterways; cool weather; transportation-- there are reasons why industry grew up here in the first place!

The city needs, however, more than the automotive industry. It needs a double punch.

Detroit's second major asset right now is its edgy reputation. Its street cred and attitude. This is why artists have begun moving here. It's why writers need to move here as well.

As I outlined in the previous post, the publishing industry is undergoing a shakeup. New technology is changing publishing and it will change the publishing product-- the art.

The conjunction of forces provides major opportunity for this tough weathered town. Opportunity that needs to be grabbed.

How to Be Pro-Detroit

AN ARGUMENT

I've noted an aversion in town, among some, to positive publicity about Detroit coming from New York City and other big media centers. For instance, articles which showcase Detroit as a haven for artists.

Is Detroit a perfect town for artists, writers, and other DIYers? Of course not! The recent arrest of graffiti artist Shepard Fairey says it's not. The question is whether there's ever been a perfect city for artists to live in and work. History says not.

In the 1950's when Kenneth Rexroth and the Beats were revolutionizing poetry and prose in San Francisco, they faced constant harassment from police and other legal authorities. But they also had a few sympathizers. They had the atmosphere of the city at that time to draw on for their art (long before dot.com'ers from Silicon Valley took the town over). They also had themselves.

I was in a recent twitter debate (@DetroitLiterary) with the former editor of Detroit's main freebie newspaper about this very topic. She found laughable the idea that Detroit could become the new center of publishing in the U.S. I positioned the discussion in terms of "Detroit versus New York"; terms she didn't like.

Yet it's a legitimate way to present the challenge. Manhattan and its "Big 5" monster publishing conglomerates dominate the book business. To not acknowledge this would be like a new car company not noticing the presence and clout of automakers based in Detroit.

There are solid reasons for auto manufacturers to be located in and around Detroit-- the Great Lakes; St. Lawrence Seaway; and geographic position as a major gateway transit point among them. (The location of the industry here wasn't an accident.)

There are equally compelling reasons for the publishing industry to NOT be located in New York.

The economic facts can't be wished away. Right now Manhattan is a ridiculously expensive place in which to live and do business. (Think office leasing rates, for starters.) On top of this, the Big 5 publishers cling to what has become a fatally flawed, top-heavy, vertically-organized business model. In this time of print-on-demand and e-books; when an entrepreneur can create a virtual office at a coffeeshop; "economies of scale"-- the rationale for monopoly and size-- has become an irrelevant concept.

The person I discussed this matter with claimed advantages for New York, but didn't state what they are. Access to chi-chi Manhattan restaurants? An abundance of Ivy League grads? She also claimed disadvantages to operating out of Detroit.

No doubt Detroit CAN be a tough place in which to live. I know this well, having lived in Detroit's Cass Corridor in the 1990's, when it truly was the Cass Corridor. (An experience I've written about, including in an essay referenced here.) However, a writer or artist who has things too easy-- who doesn't exist in an environment with some edge to it-- tension to stimulate the senses-- will produce pablum. As we've seen out of the Big 5 the past so-many years.

(For a famous movie scene which makes a similar argument, see this.)

(For a discussion of publishing timidity, see my interview with John Colapinto of The New Yorker magazine. Note his final answer.)

Why Detroit versus New York? Why not? A city is in competition with other cities for jobs, investment, and talented individuals. If a spate of pro-Detroit articles in the New York Times or Vanity Fair spurs talented people to move to Detroit, this is a good thing. If the articles are part fact, part fiction,, it means nothing, because in time the myth of Detroit as an artist's city will necessarily become full reality. For much of the world right now, "Detroit" is a creature of the imagination. This is a unique opportunity to be used.

What Detroit needs more than anything else is people, of all kinds. The city has the geographical size and infrastructure for a population of two million. The city limits currently contain a third of this.

Notice the way the city is laid out. The gap between downtown and the New Center, for instance. In the 1920's, when the city was growing swiftly; when it was one of the richest cities on the planet; city planners envisioned a new New York.

Given that entrepreneurs like Dan Gilbert are investing huge sums of money on the prospect of a revived Detroit, there needs to be enough reasons for more people to move here, to keep the comeback going. Real estate deals alone won't cut it. You need people living in those condos and houses-- or on land that now sits vacant. Organic arts movements in a city make that city an appealing place for artists, tourists, and young professionals alike. People want to be part of a dynamic happening. They want to visit and live in a magical, mythical city that stimulates the imagination. (See Paris of the 1920's.)

In creating such a scene, writers are as important as artists, because they'll write about, publicize, mythicize that time and that place.

All that's needed for Detroit to become the center of new publishing is for people in Detroit and the world to believe it's possible.

NEW POP LIT in Detroit

NEW POP LIT in Detroit? See the report--

https://newpoplitinteractive.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/new-pop-lit-in-detroit/

"Making Sense of Detroit"

A RELEVANT ESSAY

An essay written in 1999 by David M. Sheridan, "Making Sense of Detroit," for Michigan Quarterly Review, is more relevant today than when it was written
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mqr;c=mqr;c=mqrarchive;idno=act2080.0038.301;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mqrg

Sheridan outlines the cycles of Detroit's history, from dystopia to utopia. It's hard to think of another American city which in little more than 200 years has had such exhilarating highs alternating with devastating lows. Detroit has been knocked down more than once. This is always followed by dreamers seeking to impose their vision upon the ruins. Which is certainly happening now. Whether this is bad or good is open to discussion.

I have a selfish reason for recommending Sheridan's essay, in that it describes an essay of my own about Detroit-- one which seems no longer available, but must be archived somewhere. I'm mentioned far down in the body of the long piece, not as a writer, but a bartender, which I take as a compliment. Do I have credibility to speak about Detroit? My essay; Sheridan's remarks; my own history are evidence that in some small way, I do.

Detroit Writer Celebrates!

Detroit-area writer Kathleen Crane celebrates her nomination by NEW POP LIT (www.newpoplit.com) for a Pushcart Prize.

Stay tuned for her upcoming collection of stories, Aloha from Detroit. Guaranteed to be exciting!

Detroit Writers Wanted!

AS CO-EDITOR at the hottest new literary site around, New Pop Lit (www.newpoplit.com) my mission is to help discover exciting new writers. Writers with artistic ambition, energy, and edge. Writers who want to join us in reviving literature.

Can the much-beaten down but recovering and soulful city of DETROIT and the talent it contains help us do that?

THAT, Horatio, is the question we seek to answer. Send us your writing to newpoplit@gmail.com and your art to newpoplit3@gmail.com.

Join us in creating the New New!

Ongoing Gentrification of Detroit

I made two minor discoveries this past weekend which cause me to question what's happening in Detroit's Midtown.


One was finding that the Biggby Coffee outlet on Woodward Avenue has shut down. Unlike some other spots, the Biggby shop was not chic, overpriced, or in any way upscale-- and had a diverse, multiethnic clientele.


The second discovery was stopping into the Cass Café on Saturday night with a friend, and finding a small crowd. When I lived in the Cass Corridor in the 1990's, the Cass Café was not only the most upscale saloon in the Corridor (back then spots like the Bronx and Third Street Saloon were total dives), it was invariably packed on weekends. Or even week nights. There was always quite a diverse mix of people, ethnically, in age, and in profession-- Wayne State professors mingling with low rent characters, including a host of starving artists, musicians, and writers.


Where has everyone gone?


Presumably I walked into an anomaly-- that usually the Cass Café is packed, and I happened to hit it on an off night.


It remains a very cool place.


I'll have more observations about the local scene in upcoming days.