Detroit’s foreboding urban myth is a masquerade for what’s yet to come.
On Thursday, Oct. 17, many students attended an event held in honour of Pulitzer Prizing-winning author and journalist, Charlie LeDuff. The former New York Times writer came to campus this week to promote his new book, Detroit: An American Autopsy.
LeDuff’s oratorical style was inimical to mediocrity as he pandered to the packed audience in Rozanski 101. His gesticulating presentation was a combination of angry humour and jovial realism. Although he spoke vividly of the dysfunction that has plagued the city of Detroit, he failed to provide any authentic anecdote. Much of LeDuff’s comedic responses were “cursive,” but he did highlight some important realities for the audience.
LeDuff began by reading an excerpt from his 2013 release, which underscored what’s been happening to many cities across the world, not just Detroit. LeDuff highlighted key issues such as; the rise of homeless shelters and homicide rates, corruption at the higher levels of government, and the decay of infrastructure and community institutions. Although the defiling of Detroit may sound like an anomaly, if we dig deeper, the conditions of Detroit are symptomatic globally, particularly in industrialized cities, which have also had former glory-years.
Much of LeDuff’s populist rhetoric was aimed to garner applause and laughter, inviting comments from the audience, which helped his presentation flow. His narrative was chalked-full of expletives, which tended to inflate his style but discredit the quality inherent in the pages of his book.
Perhaps LeDuff’s best moments were when he proscribed the foreboding normalcy of what is to come. In his own words, his book “is about life.” It’s about the struggle that we have as people, and after the fall-out of joblessness, lost pensions, abandonment, this abnormality “becomes the norm.” But this begs the question: what makes this post-mortem Motown any different than any other city with similar malfunction? Does the localized empathy that LeDuff has towards Detroit apply globally? Could Detroit simply be another victim in the “rise and fall” of cities such as, Liverpool, Pittsburgh, and Hamilton?
Perhaps one way to alleviate the pain would be for Detroit to recapitalize its assets. By auctioning off the many famous paintings by Kandinsky, Warhol and Van Gogh to private investors, Detroit could recoup some lost capital. Secondly, the pensions that are owed to many of the hardworking automotive workers could be sold as bonds, so that the stakeholders of Detroit could reclaim what’s rightfully theirs. Thirdly, an initiative in revitalizing Detroit’s culture could bridge the gap in fostering the lost pride once held by many music and sports enthusiasts in the last fifty years. Perhaps these idealistic prospects may seem unattainable, but if political entitlements are what is hindering Detroit’s rescue, then perhaps a shift in technocratic ideology may be its ultimate salvation?