Enough of the schadenfreude! (more on Detroit)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was all set to work on my the things I want to write about marriage, and go into more depth on healthcare, and a couple other topics. But to be\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/07\/enough-of-the-schadenfreude-more-on-detroit.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Enough of the schadenfreude! (more on Detroit)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was all set to work on my the things I want to write about marriage, and go into more depth on healthcare, and a couple other topics. 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{"id":936,"date":"2013-07-19T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/07\/enough-of-the-schadenfreude-more-on-detroit.html"},"modified":"2013-07-19T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T23:00:00","slug":"enough-of-the-schadenfreude-more-on-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/07\/enough-of-the-schadenfreude-more-on-detroit.html","title":{"rendered":"Enough of the schadenfreude! (more on Detroit)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yes, of course, Detroit has been mismanaged for as long as I can remember, and the City Council is astonishingly corrupt.\u00a0 There\u2019s a news item floating around about a Board of Education member who struggles to\u00a0write a complete sentence.\u00a0 Salaries and benefits that should have been reined in a long time ago, haven\u2019t been, and now the city is dysfunctional in countless ways.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the city government that\u2019s dysfunctional \u2014 there is virtually no middle class, let alone upper class, left.\u00a0 (Yes, there are a few such neighborhoods left \u2014\u00a0\u00a0 Sherwood Forest, Green Acres, Palmer Woods, East English Village and Indian Village, according to a friend.)\u00a0 Education levels are low and crime is high, and the number of vacant lots where homes once stood has grown so much that the current proposal (not sure how far along this is towards being implemented) is to basically deem some neighborhoods beyond hope, provide only essential services there, and try to get people to move to other, more viable\u00a0neighborhoods instead.\u00a0 (Here\u2019s an exercise:\u00a0 go to Craig\u2019s List and pull up Detroit houses for sale \u2014 then try to accustom yourself to the asking prices:\u00a0 not 100,000, but 10,000.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And there is perpetually talk that some new planned redevelopment project will revitalize the city, ever since the \u201cRenaissance Center\u201d of the 70s.\u00a0 (To my mind, the emphasis has always been misplaced, on big \u201cshowpiece\u201d projects rather than improving the education and work skills and work ethic of the residents.)\u00a0 Has Detroit hit rock bottom?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Even if it has, there\u2019s no guarantee that Detroit will climb upwards rather than being mired there.<\/p>\n

To be sure, there are some good places \u2014 the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Historical Museum, and John King Used Books<\/a> (which I haven\u2019t been to since my grad school days), and there\u2019s a science museum which periodically closes and then re-opens.\u00a0 There are the restaurants of Greektown (though I haven\u2019t been there recently and don\u2019t know whether the casinos have transformed the area for good or ill), and Eastern Market (another place I keep meaning to visit the next time we visit my folks in the suburbs), and probably large numbers of \u201chidden gems.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But the young and hip that Detroit periodically hopes to attract to some neighborhood that they hope will become \u201cup and coming\u201d have mostly found their nightlife in Royal Oak and Ferndale.\u00a0 Even the American Jewelry and Loan featured on \u201cHardcore Pawn\u201d is actually on the other side of the 8 Mile border.<\/p>\n

And at the same time, there are places which are gone now \u2014 the State Fair is no more, with the fairgrounds being touted as yet another site for \u201credevelopment\u201d and yet another plan for commuter rail.\u00a0 The former flagship Hudson\u2019s department store has been closed ever since I remember \u2014 I only remember news articles periodically about hopes for finding a new use for it \u2014 and apparently (I looked this up) it was demolished some time ago.<\/p>\n

My point being:\u00a0 this is not the time for carping and criticizing and pointing out that Obama boasted of saving Detroit.\u00a0 This is a time for hoping (and\/or praying) that Snyder, Orr, Bing (a good guy, so far as I can tell), and the true civic leaders in the city can create the best possible conditions for Detroit to become, if not prosperous, then at least functional again.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"