MOTOR CITY MOTORS THROUGH…

The people of Detroit compose a resounding response to the plight of their city in the short video Lemonade: Detroit.  These are stories of life inspiring art and regeneration.

Detroit has been the poster child for how a once-thriving city can lose it’s footing. Plagued by the loss of manufacturing, and public policies that facilitated parochialism rather than regionalism, Detroit has been hard hit by unemployment, poverty, and blight.

Yet the artists, business owners, and churches have engaged in 100 small endeavors to rebuild their city block by block, and I feel the love.  Living out there in the nippy cold has helped make this community determined and resilient.

Detroit is a lesson learned as to how cities rise and fall on both the health of the region as well as the downtown.  Different policies in Detroit could have resulted in much less severe circumstances for the city today.

Austin, our hometown, is moving in the right direction.  We say “yes” to a medical school – this will provide mid-wage jobs that can’t be moved and basic services that our community needs.   We say “yes” to more rail transit – as our region grows, we must be connected.

There is always great power in the character of place.  In the words of poet David Blair: “Steam and steel, that’s how hard I love you.”  This may be testosteroneplanet the sentiment that turns Motor City around.