Detroit is a city that is hauntingly in my heart. For decades, it was a city of hope and opportunity that drew people by the thousands, including members of my own family. My grandfather left his hopeless sharecropper existence behind in Arkansas in pursuit of a better life in the Motor City. My mother-in-law landed her first job there, working as a social worker in its bustling neighborhoods in the 1940s.
Over time, of course, the city lost its luster — along with more than half its population. A dozen years ago, Detroit entered into bankruptcy, its downtown mostly vacant and its neighborhoods filled with thousands of blighted properties.
The city seemed tired and bruised when I arrived nearly 25 years ago for a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting. Detroit was clearly in need of great help. It somehow seemed fitting that even on a fun night out I saw “The Two Tops,” only half of the famed Motown group the Four Tops.
But the city remained fascinating to me. Friends took jobs there and I took tours of some of the blocks with just a house or two left standing. I paid homage to the great Diego Rivera murals depicting Detroit industry during its heyday.
Today, Detroit is once again a city undergoing great change. But now it’s an American phoenix, rising from literal ashes. For the first time since the 1950s, the city’s population is growing. Housing values have risen there faster than any other city in the country over the past decade. Homicide rates are the lowest they’ve been in years. Citizens who once had to wait an hour for a response from the police or an ambulance have renewed hope and higher expectations for government.
A lot of that has to do with the doggedness of Mayor Mike Duggan. He had plenty of help from other civic leaders, investors and foundations. Still, Detroit offers a dramatic illustration of the difference a strong leader can make. The Rev. Horace Sheffield III, a minister and community activist in Detroit, said in praising Duggan’s success, “If you came to my church 10 years ago and I had five members, and you come back 10 years later and I’ve got 5,000, I’ve got to have something to do with it.” You can read Alan Greenblatt’s story about Duggan and Detroit here.
I continue to find Detroit inspiring, particularly at this moment, when so many cities and their downtowns are struggling. And I can’t wait to plan my next visit.
