Why Michigan needs Detroit
By Andrew Mell
Andrew Mell
Western Herald
When we think of fun, successful cities, we think of places like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Many parts of these places are clean, diverse, successful, and full of life and culture.
Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor are the closest things we have to successful large cities, but they are small in scale compared to the largest cities across the country.
Michigan no longer has a powerful, influential big city.
Take note of “no longer,” instead of “never.”
A city must be thriving to be the lone representative of the United States for Olympic host city consideration in 1944, 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972, as well as being up for consideration with other US cities in 1952 and 1956.
It must be booming to be the home of various successful corporations.
A city with a skyline full of brand new buildings, full of business and commerce, and a cityscape full of towering cranes providing glimpses to the expansion and the innovations to come.
A city dubbed by many as, “The Paris of the Midwest.”
The city being spoken of is Detroit. It’s hard for younger people to imagine Detroit as anything other than a place in ruin, but truly Detroit was a very
successful and desirable place through most of the 20th century.
Detroit used to have clean, well-kept streets, an array of resourceful buildings, and a gleaming trolley system to usher residents all over the city.
Detroiters of every race and color would dine in fancy restaurants with breathtaking views of the Detroit River.
Belle Isle, a small island on the Detroit River used to be something that could easily be confused with Central Park in New York. Sweeping green lawns, rivers, bridges, and parks made the island gleam.
The Belle Isle Aquarium was designed by renowned architect Albert Kahn, and until its closure in 2005 was the oldest aquarium in the US.
Detroit’s population peaked at nearly 2 million people in the 1950s and continued to flourish until the late 1960s. In 1967, race riots broke out and thus began the demise of Detroit.
A phenomenon dubbed “white flight” occurred after the riots as white citizens fled the city for the suburbs.
The Tigers won the World Series in 1968, an act that provoked a sense of civic pride and unity, but that alone wasn’t enough to keep the downward spiral
from continuing.
In 1974 Coleman Young took the reigns as mayor of Detroit and oversaw the cities slow, painful demise. Under his 20-year helm as mayor Detroit fell from prominence to despair.
Like any topic invwolving politics, it can be argued who the blame lies with, but no argument can be made against the fact that Detroit was a far worse place to be in 1994 than 1974.
After Young, Dennis Archer took control of Detroit and began to try to turn the city around. Archer is a very respected former Michigan Supreme Court Justice and was considered the most respected judge in Michigan.
Archer oversaw the construction of Ford Field and Comerica Park and improved Detroit relations with the surrounding area.
Loyalists never took to him however, and after much tension he refused to run for re-election in 2001.
Then, of course, Kwame Kilpatrick won the mayoral election.
Loyalists and citizens of Detroit were once again happy, and Kilpatrick did everything in his power to turn a struggling city into one that might never recover.
Our parents grew up thinking of Detroit as a great city. When we take road trips, we go to Chicago rather than Detroit because Chicago is now considered the closest great city to us.
It is almost impossible to comprehend what Detroit used to be because it has been nothing short of pathetic for our entire lives.
For some, hitting rock bottom is the only way to recovery, and it’s fair to say that Detroit is very close to hitting rock bottom.
Perhaps from here the city can recover to be like what it used to be: a thriving metropolis of culture, industry, and entertainment.
Michigan is a great state that is struggling.
What we need is a great city to turn to.
What we need is the resurrection of Detroit.
Andrew Mell, a Western Herald opinion columnist, is a senior majoring in aviation, and can be reached via e-mail at melltimejr@hotmail.com.
Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=13970
Posted by HeraldAdmin
on Jan 24 2010. Filed under Opinion.
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Cody Kimball Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com
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To my estimation, for over three years, the Western Herald has published offensive, musings. Many of which seemed editorial ignored in regards to content, grammar, and cultural awareness/sensitivity.
In this article, Mr. Mell seems to paint an historical background of Detroit by summarizing the last 50 years of the cities existence in spotty one to two sentence paragraphs that rival content on Wikipedia. His main thesis, rationalizing why a state needs a “thriving” city, is forgotten and ignored throughout the entire piece. Ultimately, Mell concludes the city Detroit is “nothing short of pathetic.”
It is unfair to hold Mr. Mell completely responsible for these publications; he has the right to express his own ideas and thoughts. It is the responsibility of the editor- in- chief to censor, correct, and ultimately choose not to publish work that is unbefitting of a university daily publication. The perception of our University’s English Department are being compromised when this type of writing is published. I know we have more thoughtful and talented writers at this university as I share class with them every day. The Western Herald and Western Michigan University deserve more thoroughly constructed and edited columns than the ones Mr. Mell has provided.
I’ve been told no one reads the Western Herald and I’m beginning to see why: articles like this.
Not only is the content of this screed offensive to any non-white, non-privileged, non-male reader, but it is poorly-written and meandering. It has no overall thesis and rambles on with poor grammar and sentence construction.
It’s simply scriptural diarrhea and should be recognized as such.
However, we should not blame this poor sod of a non-writer named Andrew. There are millions of ignorant people out there who can barely write their own name, let alone a coherent argument (which this is far from). We need to place the blame solely on the editor of the Western Herald.
I’m not invested enough to research who that is, but I know s/he must be an incompetent and/or disinterested nincompoop. S/he made the decision to publish this drivel and then s/he decided to not even attempt to edit it for cohesion, grammar, or message. At least, I’m hoping it was a decision to not edit because if an attempt was made, the editor is less talented then even poor Mr. Mel.
Anyway, yeah this article [explicit] and WMU students should be ashamed that it is in your “paper”.
- James
Scott and James, I feel sorry for people like you. Just because your lives haven’t gone the way you wanted them to doesn’t mean that you have to demean people who are going places. Pity.