My Dad and my Grandma grew up in Detroit, and my great grandparents lived in the city for a time. My gram LOVED her home town. During my childhood she took me all over the city and as a teen we enjoyed the Jazz Festival every summer. I grew up in the burbs, but spent so much time in the city, it is HOME!

So many memories, including the first year of our marriage when Paul was working downtown and we lived in a little one bedroom apartment about fifty feet from I-75. We were asked to stay in Detroit with his company back in 1991, but we said no, and took off for the west. It has saddened me so much to watch the decline. I pretty much agree with everything that was said in this video, but I would add to Steves analysis that when you have a city filled with the “entitled”, that sort of atmosphere tends to chase away the productive and those who want to suck on the teat of government are the ones who stay.

Few cities have handed out as much cash/perks/government programs to its citizens than Detroit has, and there is zero evidence it has done any good. The whole situation is a cautionary tale to We The People. Frankly, as I watched this video I was reminded of that scene in Atlas Shrugged when Dagny and Frank find Galts Motor.  Complete and total decline…

 

I was friends with a mormon black guy when I was a teen and I remember him telling me one time that he and his family were offended that everyone always talked about the fifty percent of Detroiters who were on welfare.  He said to me, “They never talk about the fifty percent of us who work hard, stay off the dole, and live independent of the government and its handouts.”  He told me that the strength of the motor city was in its churches and a strong sense of faith, independence, and family.

 

So many of those families were descendents of slaves who made it north after escaping from slavery.  Right on the border with Canada, many of those who survived the underground railroad landed in Detroit/Canada where they were able to start a new life.

 

It would be easy to think that because of the riots in the sixties that Detroit was constantly struggling with crime and instability.  But I had so many wonderful friends, of all  ethnicities, religions, and political persuasions.  I like to think that living in the melting pot of Michigan helped me to develop my worldview, rather than growing up on the plains of Wyoming where my parents started when my Dad was teaching Seminary for the LDS church full time.

 

Perhaps the best memory of my youth was working for a week at a muscular dystrophy camp two summers in a row, where I met some of the most wonderful Detroiters – both campers and staff.  Those two weeks created some of the best memories of my childhood.  Every time I would walk into the main lodge someone would ask me to sing and play the piano.  My singing and playing has never been so appreciated as it was during those camps.  And it was so good to step out of my mormon community and rub shoulders with people from all sorts of religious backgrounds for a week of service and fun.

 

I also have great memories of my months of working as a waitress at a Birmingham Restaurant during the months leading up to my marriage.  The guys in the kitchen were always singing, and we had a lot of fun plating the food and bantering with each other.  They always called me “Jenny Baby”.

 

Paul asked me to marry him on a park bench on a small hill off Woodward Ave in Birmingham.  All of the memories of our courtship and early days as a couple are tied to Detroit.

 

I pray for better days for the Motor City.  Motown can revive!

From the Queen of Detroit: