Just finished Devil's Night And Other True Tales of Detroit (1990), an interesting book by Pontiac-born Israeli author Ze'ev Chafets. There's not much in it that I haven't absorbed from ten years of observing and listening to people of all sorts of ethnicities and backgrounds, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It's a time capsule back to the Coleman Young days, when the fiery black mayor ruled the roost, with background going back to the 1950s.
Detroit and its environs are endlessly fascinating. Conflict has always reigned here, which makes it a great continuous serial narrative with many dramatic installments. First there were competing Indian tribes, then the French entered the mix, followed by the British and Pontiac's Uprising, then the fledgling United States; surrender by General William Hull to an Anglo-Indian-Canadian force in the War of 1812; riots during the American Civil War; industry and car production, assembly lines and Fordisms; the 1943 race riots sparked around Belle Isle; the post-WWII boom and the 1967 riots; Coleman Young and white flight; and the casino and other urban development project years through the present. How many cities besides Detroit and Baghdad have been occupied and patroled by the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions?
Race, ethnicity and economics pretty much steal the show, though charismatic personalities sweeten the pot.
I strive to foster empathy for all parties and serve as a sort of netural observer, but I've been more irritated with the suburbs than with Detroit itself. I suspect that says more about my personality than anything else.
Chafets can't really answer why Devil's Night fires began in earnest in the early 1980s. What is evident, though, is the swath these Halloween period arsons have cut through much of the city, so much so that it appears more like rural Georgia or North Carolina than a northern urban center. Which is amazing.
Chaftets wrote from a perspective of twenty years' experience living in the Middle East, and he saw many similarities in the conflict of vision, desire and means. In this, he was clearly on to something.
A good quote representing white suburbia in the 1980s: "It's a war zone across Eight Mile[Road] . . . They[?] should put up a big wall, like in Berlin. I'm afraid to go back there -- it's like going into some Russian-held city. You don't know if you're coming back alive" (p. 137). How dramatic! And exactly as my ex-wife's extended family talked in the late 1990s before I cut them all loose.
A black Detroiter's perspective: "This is a strong city, although it appears weak" (p. 107).
Either way, I love spending much of my off-time exploring Detroit -- it's not only interesting, but I also know that most of the people I don't want to see won't be there, ever. And that's certainly a good enough reason for me, everything else being equal.
Today's Rune: Wholeness.
9 comments:
That books been on my reading list but I've never gotten around to reading it. I know a young lady who group up in Livonia, earned a Civil Engineering degree, and bought a house in Corktown. Most people thought she was nuts; however, her house has increased beyond most markets in the suburbs. Personally, I think Detroit needs to concentrate their efforts on the public school system. I'm seeing way too many of their failures.
Someone set my garage on fire in the middle of the night on devils night back in 1991. Luckily someone passing by woke up my mother by pounding on the door (thankfully she slept on the couch) or my brothers and I would have died.... our rooms were in the very back of the house and the smoke was pouring in.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Having only a relatively sparse knowledge of the US, it's been interesting reading about denizens of the old "Paris of the West". Maybe a new term will be coined - what with the Renaissance Building and the casino's being built? What's your opinion of the "downtown revival" I read about in wikipedia?
I still love Detroit. I'm one of those die hards who goes for coffee at Au Bon Pain at Campus Martius, shops at my friend's clothing store, Showtime" on Woodward, converses with a homeless guy walking down Cass Avenue and can't seem to get enough photographs of the amazing, detailed art deco interior of the Guardian Building. (Not to mention the Detroit roots of many diverse music genres and legends, i.e. Techno, Motown, Aretha, Seger, Cooper, Kid Rock, Eminem . . .) Detroit does have a unique, albeit, underground culture that no other city has (or really understands), but, it needs a lot of help and a lot of love. I am saddened when I sit in my friend's living room (7 and Woodward area) and hear gun fire. To see the many abandoned houses, piles of garbage, and children walking by prostitutes to get to the bus stop while driving through the neighborhood angers me. The horror is so real that is it almost surreal. But I will never stop believing that Detroit can make a comeback if given half a chance.
Anyway, Erik, thanks for your holiday wishes . . . and to you a Very Happy New Year!
Thanks, y'all, for the comments! Detroit seems to need a better grip on schools, security, responsiveness, and more people living downtown to get it above the million mark again. Critical mass. Pyhtia, I'll have to check out Showtime (and YES on the music scene), definitely and Sheila, that's awful! Danny -- there's some stuff going on (the Lions and Tigers and Red Wings play right downtown), cultural things, but there needs to be more of a permenent presence; ideally, there'd also be mass transit like in almost every other major city in the world. I still would love to see a "French Quarter" by the Detroit River as well, given that the French founded the damned place with tribal help in 1701.
Cheers all, E'
Happy New Year to you.
A happy 2007 to Detroit.
"How dramatic! And exactly as my ex-wife's extended family talked in the late 1990s before I cut them all loose."
the quote of yours above sounds rewarding and empowering. i don't recall being severed away by any sort of kitchen shears or wire cutters, but this was highly amusing to read.
-ann
ps: we were all born in detroit. i don't recall any of us mentioning putting a wall up. also, my parents were raised by factory workers. in, um, detroit. so. there's that.
Good to hear from you, Ann Richelle. My turn of phrase back in '007, a strange one.
Cheers in '013~!
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