chasing the wind

today the Free Press published an article about the building that is probably the best physical symbol of the city of Detroit: Michigan Central Depot. its frequently referred to as Michigan Central Station, and thats what i have always know it as.

the building was built as Henry Ford's empire was coming together. it thrived through Detroit's industrial heyday. it began to wither as the racial divide in the Detroit deepened in the late 60's and 70's. its doors were shuttered in the late 80's as Detroit's hard times set in. since then is has been a majestic decrepit symbol of the city.

i remember coming into Detroit as a kid, and i knew that the hockey game, Greektown, or the Tigers were only a few minutes away. its broken windows and stained facade were a sign to me that the we had arrived. we made it through the decay of outlying Detroit and that downtown was mere moments away.

as i made this same trip through out the years its status as a well visible signpost remained, but it took on the deeper meaning of embodying Detroit's woes. i have given credit to that building in creating my interest in construction on a large scale. somewhere in high school i thought that it would be great if someone fixed up that old station. somewhere in college i decided that it would be best if i could fix it up, then i Detroit at large. and while those dreams are like chasing the wind, i still think it deserves credit for helping to funnel me into my present profession.

the station has been shuttered for all of my memory. for the last 20 years. there have been a number of renovation proposals of late, but none have come to pass. but in that time my perspective on Detroit has changed. i used to view the downtown area as an outpost in a decaying, dangerous urban jungle. ive come to see in recent years that Detroit at large is inhabited by good people. sure it has its urban prairies, its main street shabbiness with crumbling and condemned businesses. but behind these are their old proprietors. Detroit's residents today are largely victims of the past. the legacy that the race riots and the sputtering manufacturing industry. the adage is that is takes money to make money, and in the 70s all the money left for the suburbs and only visited for hockey games and baseball games. more recently it has left Michigan all together. people like me have moved out in search of greener grass.

while i have found greener grass in DC professionally, i still miss Detroit. its shabby facade, its tenacity(sometimes to a fault), its blue collar ease. in DC i have found work. i have also found that vagrancy, crime, and slums are not unique to Detroit. Detroit has a reputation for it, and perhaps a larger problem with these issues. but that can be in large part attributed to the economic decline and recession that Detroit has seen. i have never been one to assign blame to 'hard times' for people's bad situations, but its hard not to at least allow it to factor into Detroit's equation. the people suffering there today cannot be blamed for Detroit's decline. the auto execs who failed to see changing trends arent suffering in slums. but those who are voted to keep Coleman Young in office for decades as their city rotted beneath their feet.

they are those who accepted union jobs on the lines for generations and didnt try to better their lot. they found a meal ticket and clung to it. unfortunately that ticket has lost its value. the article that sparked this cites Ford's ground breaking $5 a day wages in 1908 and revolutionary assembly line and Model T as what made Detroit. since then little has changed. we still manufacture cars on that same premise, and still pay people roughly the same when adjusted for inflation. but it makes sense to any person in management that if your value has not increased, then neither will your pay. you cant lament a steady wage when you havent added value as the author of that article does.

what can bring Detroit back to boom is not early 20th century manufacturing. its the resurgence of early 20th century style ingenuity. the kinds of leaps that Henry Ford and Jimmy Durante made are what we need now. Jake Sigal, who started up Myine Electronics to make internet radios, is the future of Detroit. people like him who innovate and take a chance could be the next Ford or Durante. Detroit needs some ingenuity like that of a century ago to make it great again. its not going to be easy, but it never was.

the Freep found R. Kelley. now Detroit needs to find a new Ford, and new Durante, another Peter Karmanos, another Dan Gilbert, and a real leader.