My buddy Vinit had a conversation with Jaron while waiting for the Q-line. Jaron is colorblind, and despite not being able to see colors, he is still able to feel colors. Vinit stated that “the energy people around [Jaron] give off when they are happy, sad, bored, irritated, perturbed represents a color in his mind.” Truly immersing myself in Detroit means feeling the colors like Jaron does.
 
Visitors always talk about immersing themselves in a new place, yet it’s not always easy to do such a thing. During my two months, I plan to explore Detroit and get as immersed as I can. Nevertheless, you can take as many pictures and go to as many tourist attractions as you like, but that won’t immerse you in a culture unless you actually interact with the residents of that place. 

I have had a great time in Detroit. I love going to downtown and checking out what’s popping, and oftentimes I take pictures of whatever strikes my eye. These moments have been great, but what has made my experience more special than any other ordinary tourist experience is my interactions with the Detroit residents.

Detroiters also have great pride and energy in their city. This week while Pauline and I were in Campus Martius, we saw a procession of 20 people walk through the downtown park and pridefully sing a song about Detroit. On that same day, I waited thirty minutes to get free ice cream at Campus Martius. While waiting in line, it was really cool to just talk to the other friendly people waiting in line. What struck me most while waiting in line were the celebrities, which largely consisted of local Detroit newspeople. The newspeople thanked us so much for coming to get ice cream (every scoop of ice cream meant a dollar donated to the Salvation Army). They were very joyous and willing to talk to anyone waiting in line. Less than 24 hours before I got free ice cream, I experienced the Detroit fireworks. Even though it was raining and gunshots were fired, these things did not prevent everyone from aweing and cheering loudly every time a firework blasted.
             
Truly immersing myself in Detroit means living the values of Detroit. I want to radiate the positivity, energy, and authenticity I have felt from Detroit. By carrying out these values, I will feel the colors. Ironically, feeling the colors means focusing less on the colors and focusing more on the experiences. Describing our experience at the fireworks, Vinit stated “I was no longer distracted by colors, but I became more aware of their friendships. I became more aware of us.” To authentically immerse myself in Detroit, I must continue to become more aware of the friendships I have made with the people in Detroit. 

​​Picture of me and my bros at the fireworks. The fireworks caught my eye because they were so bright and loud. It was amazing to experience it with so many other Detroiters and feel the energy in the air. When you extract the color, you can see our friendship more clearly. 

At Street Democracy Carly and I are conducting interviews for a video that we'll be making in order to convince the judges on the importance of the Street Outreach Court Detroit ((SOCD) or Street Court) program. In short, Street Court is a program we facilitate that represents people who receive traffic tickets, misdemeanors, and civil infractions. But instead of paying the fines monetarily, they do so with effort to help get out of their current situation and hopefully better themselves in the process. So for example, instead of paying a fine they would go to the doctor to get a check-up, apply for health insurance, enroll in job training, etc. dependent on whatever their current situation is. 
 
     When conducting the interviews for this video, Jayesh — our supervisor — told us that there are many clients that have been enrolled in the street court program and then in affect their child also enrolled in the program. He told us about this one story where the mom had a lot of traffic tickets and was struggling with drug abuse and then in affect her son was also installed in the program for similar reasons. Eventually, they both ended were successful in the program and continued to progress in terms of rebuilding the many aspects of their lives after the program. 
 
     One of the most encouraging things about my job here is being able to hear previously homeless parents and grandparents talk about their children and grandchildren. Almost all the time they explain how their hopes and prospects for their children have changed now that they've been through the program. It's so encouraging and touching for me because I'm relatively not that far removed from high school. When I speak with someone whose son is about to enter senior year of high school, doing good academically, and is hopeful to receive a basketball or baseball scholarship for college it is so uplifting because I have friends and know people who were in similar situations not too long ago when I was in high school. It's awesome to see that those teens are able to better their lives due their parents progression in getting out of homelessness. Even though I haven't done anything personally in their lives it's great to know that our program not only had an impact on the lives of our clients directly but also for their kids and hopefully for generations to come in that family.
     Because of this tremendous potential that the program can have I was interested in seeing the perspective of the child living in poverty in Detroit. Although these are success stories, obviously this isn't true for all, and probably not most, teens in Detroit or any place for that matter. But because of this I was curious about what the teens of Detroit living in poverty feel about their situation, their neighborhood, and what needs to change in order to improve both. Too often do I think we disregard the youth in terms of considering their input for change, and especially the marginalized; yet this article I think does well in not only taking Detroit teens seriously but being earnest about portraying their perspective on future change. 
 
     This article titled "'It took my childhood.' Detroit teens talk about life in the city" by Jennifer Guerra talks about how the 'hoods' of Detroit have given and taken away a lot from the teens. What's great about this article is that Guerra almost allows the teens to write the article themselves with most of it being direct quotes from the teens, thus emphasizing how serious she is taking them in their opinions of impoverished Detroit neighborhoods. One of the main teens mentioned in the article named Najai Jones talked about how the hood has "taken family and my peace of mind. It took my childhood." Char'De another main contributor to the article was explaining how although she appreciates part of her neighborhood, she wants to leave because of the struggle, blight, and poverty that comes along. However, Jones has a different perspective. She explained that "it’s not the neighborhood necessarily that has to be changed, it’s the people that’s in it. And leaving is not going to help them." Both arguments are valid. In all of this it's important to take into consideration that in order to solve any of these problems it's vital to first be proximate. These articles need to be made because it's the first step in being proximate. In order to even start to think about changing some of the hurt that goes on in these neighborhoods, we first must prioritize interacting with the parents and the youth which are the proudest and most useful advocates for change in these areas. 
 
The link to this article is: http://stateofopportunity.michiganradio.org/post/it-took-my-childhood-detroit-teens-talk-about-life-city
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http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-2/detroit/index.html
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          Detroit fits the description of an Anthony Bourdain episode perfectly- it is truly a part unknown. Bourdain’s article begins by discussing what we have already learned as students living here over the past few weeks: Detroit is more than what its reputation impresses onto the world. It is more than just a blighted city with vacant buildings and burned down houses. It comes as no surprise that Detroiters hate to watch tourists take pictures in front of abandoned buildings, while failing to grasp the broader identity of the city.
            The article goes on to describe the uniqueness of Detroit and its citizens. Detroit is not like any other city and its citizens are not like any other citizens. “Detroit looks like mother****in’ Detroit.” The people who have endured the struggle, and were brave enough to stay in Detroit are the true Detroiters. These are the people who share pride for their city, who helped forged so many precious American values, who helped make Detroit what it is: a beautiful city.
I agree with Bourdain’s article in every sense. When I first came to Detroit, I like many others wanted to take snap chats of all the abandoned buildings. Maybe it’s because I knew I would get reactions from my friends, asking about how I could live in such a scary city for the summer. Maybe it’s because I truly wanted to show Detroit for its good and its bad. Either way, what I showed my friends told them absolutely nothing about Detroit. My friends would have to travel to Detroit to even begin to understand it. Only then would they meet the people and have the conversations to paint an accurate picture in their heads. Detroiters are the type of people to get mad that Baltimore and Buffalo were featured on the same documentary as they were, because “their problems weren’t nearly as massive.” Detroit is the type of place where you can walk down the block in any part of the city and see only people wearing Detroit clothing. It is the type of city that doesn’t want to tear down buildings for new mega malls.
              This article has further pointed out the importance of the 139 sq. miles report I am currently working on. I hope this report provides people across the country with a baseline of facts that can shape their impressions of Detroit in a more accurate way. I also hope that after this report is published, fewer people will ignore Detroit as an up and coming city. But in all honesty, Detroiters couldn’t care less what the rest of the world thinks of them. They value Detroit for what it is. Detroit is beautiful not for its shiny downtown buildings but for its unwavering authenticity to show all sides of what makes up its identity. 

​http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jack-ma-%E9%A9%AC%E4%BA%91-chief-teaching-officer-of-alibaba-holds_us_59503fe9e4b0f078efd982c9
 
This fascinating article is about how Alibaba, the world’s biggest online commerce company with transactions last year totaling $248 billion (more than those of eBay and Amazon.com combined), came to Detroit this month to hold an important presentation. Jack Ma, its charismatic founder and executive chairman, spoke about how the company plans to add a million U.S. jobs by motivating American firms to sell to Chinese customers and companies.
 
When I saw that such a huge company decided to come to Detroit to hold this unique and unprecedented presentation, I was really surprised. Alibaba could have easily gone to the Silicon Valley or Seattle, next to its “American competitor” Amazon. Jennifer Kuperman, Alibaba’s Head of International Corporate Communications explained that Detroit was chosen because of its mid-west proximity to both a “high concentration of US farms and small business product marketers”. However, the article notes that symbolically, the selection of Alibaba’s conference venue draws a parallel between the “economic renaissance” of Detroit and how the Chinese company wants to “re-energize” business growth for American companies by increasing sales to China.
 
This article emphasized how Detroit is becoming a place for entrepreneurs and small business owners. It echoes the work of my community partner, Build Institute. Indeed, Christianne the manager, attended the Alibaba meeting and told me that Alibaba offers a mix of services between Amazon and Etsy, the e-commerce focused on handmade and vintage items. Build Institute actually offers the “Etsy Craft Entrepreneurship” program that trains underemployed or low income adults with creative skills. Will Build’s graduates one day be able to sell their products not only in Detroit and the U.S. but also China?
 
While doing research for my job I have also come across a lot of information on different small incubators, similar to Build, that help motivated Detroit entrepreneurs grow their idea into successful businesses. According to the Kauffman Index, Detroit is the 26th country in the US with the highest percentage of adult population that owns a business as their main job. There are many opportunities and events to help promote entrepreneurship in the city such as the “Detroit Entrepreneur Week”. Finally, I really believe that collaborative aspect of Detroit is unique and will allow the city to continue growing at a tremendous pace.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/columnists/2017/02/03/detroit-microsoft-gilbert-duggan-technology-innovation/97439840/

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/03/411765237/detroit-hopes-to-drive-tech-startups-away-from-silicon-valley

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/02/tale-two-cities?zid=311&ah=308cac674cccf554ce65cf926868bbc2


When I hear Detroit boasted as the new “Silicon Valley of the Midwest”, it’s easy to imagine an alternate reality, where Detroit’s neighborhoods bustled with silicon chip innovators and manufacturers. Where companies like Hewlett-Packard originated on Wayne State’s campus. And a giant apple logo rested on the top of the Renaissance Center. But, it is not in Detroit’s identity to be a “Silicon Valley” of anything. Though Microsoft moved from the suburbs to Campus Martius downtown, and tech-startups revitalized parts of the city, I must stress the difference between Detroit’s culture and people and that of Silicon Valley. For example, 79% of Detroit is black while 2% of Santa Clara County is. Startup incubators aren’t immune to this difference. At TechTown Labs, Black and Latino/a founders make up 31% of clients, while at Combinator Y in Silicon Valley, this value is at 7.7%. Other staggering statistics show that 14.2% of Detroiters own a bachelor’s degree or higher, while this number is at 65.7% in Mountain View, California. Making Detroit a tech hub means more than just recruiting tech startups and big tech companies into downtown and midtown, it is about bringing individual neighborhoods into the tech sphere.

The numbers only provide a glimpse of Detroit’s people and culture – the experience and stories of Detroiters provide wider view. Though downtown and midtown have made great strides, many neighborhoods in Detroit still suffer from crime and poverty. When I talked with two DTX students from an under-served neighborhood, they stressed to me though they were excited about the technology, it is especially difficult to recruit entrepreneurs from where they're from. For TechTown or any tech incubator to be successful in growing Detroit, they must not be afraid to recruit in unfamiliar spaces. Furthermore, they described the importance of role-models in inspiring and spurring entrepreneurship and tech in African American youth.

Perhaps Detroit’s tech revitalization will achieve the diversity Silicon Valley could not achieve. Perhaps it will reach out and build a tech world with its communities, rather than pockets of wealthy neighborhoods and pockets of under-served ones. Perhaps Detroit’s entrepreneurship will deviate from the gender-based discrimination the tech sector suffers from. Per The Guardian, 60% of women working in Silicon Valley face unwanted sexual advances. While difficult, it is not impossible for Detroit to overcome these challenges. And at TechTown, I want to help as much as I can to support a diversifying and gleaming entrepreneurial sphere in Detroit. Compared to flawed Mountain View or Silicon Valley, truly there ain’t no mountain high enough and ain’t no valley low enough to keep Detroit from getting to the bright futures ahead.

Detroit’s surrounding neighborhoods don’t see the same sort of coverage of economic development that Downtown Detroit and Midtown Detroit do. While Downtown and Midtown receive much of the attention and capital of wealthy investors and city government, I and many others believe trying to incorporate Detroit’s neighborhoods into the conversation of economic development is integral to city-wide recovery. This is the point of interest that I took before coming to the city of Detroit and the interest that lead to my placement with a non-profit organization in Southwest Detroit.

The article goes into detail about nine major developments taking place in a “Changing Detroit”. Of the nine developments highlighted, seven are in Midtown or Downtown Detroit and each of these developments are valuable additions to Detroit in terms of economic growth and accessibility.
The last few developments of this article are what strike me. The two developments focus on the neighborhood of Southwest Detroit.

The first focuses on the building of a state-of-the-art healthcare and social services facility, “CHASS” – Community Health and Social Services. “Since 1970, some of the best healthcare accessible to the community of Southwest Detroit was found in a converted car dealership.” Of the people served by CHASS, 96% have incomes at or below 150% poverty and 67% are uninsured. When the new building opened, ironically people came in to ask “is this still for us?”.

The second project focused on the Southwest Detroit Business Association’s efforts to replace the streetlights in the community to increase walkability and safety at night. In 2013, 60% of all Detroit streetlights were nonfunctional, mostly in the surrounding neighborhoods. 2.3 miles of new streetlights would remove the effects of the visible symbol of dysfunction and help people’s ability to work, as most businesses would close earlier so employees could get home before dark.

While much of the highlights of innovational development lie along the M-1 rail in Downtown, surrounding neighborhoods where most people seeking jobs live are so neglected that projects are being carried out now to finally address basic needs.

The article makes subtle hints that to thrive as a city, the surrounding neighborhoods must also flourish and I agree with that notion. While Southwest Detroit is gaining attention (and unfortunately, increased gentrification), most of the resources are still pouring into the development of Midtown and Downtown. I am glad to see the efforts of many non-profits in the area to provide services to residents of Southwest Detroit to try to bridge the inequality gap. 

​http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/jpmc-scenes-from-a-changing-detroit/?utm_content=bufferd70de&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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Working in the heart of Downtown surrounded by nice restaurants, the beautiful Campus Martius park, and shiny office buildings, I definitely have seen that Detroit is not just the destruction and the crime that people disparage the city to be.  When my friends and family call and ask me about how work is going and about Detroit, I have found it easy to describe my surroundings by saying “it looks a lot like New York”.  Although visually looking around I could be in Lincoln Center or even Times Square with the opening of Spirit Plaza, comparing Detroit to New York is simply incorrect and even detracts from the city rather than adding to it.
​
Reading Anthony Bourdain’s article, Kick out the jams, I was reminded about what drew me to applying to this DukeEngage program in the first place and why  this summer has meant a lot more to me than taking another internship back in New York would have.  In a very fitting, Detroit style, Bourdain rightly points out that “Detroit looks like nowhere else. Detroit looks like mother****in' Detroit. As it should”.  For Detroiters, they have no interest in hiding or forgetting the economic hardships, the shrinking population, and the struggles from poverty.  Detroiters get their identity from pointing at these massive obstacles with pride, making it clear just how terrible things are.  They do not come from a rich city.  They do not have the support of a good public education system.  They probably did not have the luxury of being able to run around their neighborhood as a kid without their parents worrying about their lives.  They come from a place where the odds are stacked against them, yet here they are starting innovative businesses, creating nationally acclaimed art, and rebuilding a city from nothing. 

​It is this resilience, toughness, and grit that gives the locals such a fierce sense of Detroit pride and loyalty.  I’ve seen this in the director and founder of Detroit Experience Factory, Jeanette Pierce, who not only has spent her whole life here, but has also dedicated her life to teaching the world about just how great Detroit is.  Even for her wedding, she could not bear to not include the whole city and had a public wedding right in Campus Martius Park open to anyone and everyone.  In my next weeks here, I look forward to more trendy dinners and exploring coffee shops, but I also look forward to exploring more abandoned buildings and seeing where the wonderfully, strong Detroit identity comes from.
 
http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-2/detroit/index.html

In a shiny glass conference room on the ninth floor of the main Quicken Loans office, a tour guide asked a group of 16 Duke students if they knew what an HBCU was. Maybe a few of them were sleeping or not paying attention, and many of our group is international, often unaware of bits and pieces of American culture. Regardless, 3 or 4 of us raised our hands. The vast majority of the room stared blankly at our tour guide as he spelled out the acronym: “Historically Black College or University.”

Since that moment, I have been thinking about the way Duke and its peer institutions teach and value the Black American experience. The students at these school are widely considered by our highly selective college admissions system to be some of the smartest and most accomplished in the world. They know volumes about the intricacies of quantum physics, can code innovative interactive applications in java script, and can quote paragraphs of Hobbes, Hume, and Olson. But I’d be willing to bet money that 50% of Duke students could not name 5 HBCU’s.

Whether implicitly or explicitly, Duke is enforcing a hierarchy of knowledge, placing value on certain aspects of history and curriculum and ignoring others. African American history classes, which cover some of the most pivotal events in the chronicles of our nation, are seen as niche interests, rarely frequented by the Goldman-bound Econ majors who represent Duke’s best and brightest. 

This hierarchy poses a real threat to cities like Detroit. If the nation’s creme de la creme, those expected to rebuild and reinvigorate cities across the U.S., are focused only on balancing checkbooks (which is undeniably important) and minimizing carbon emissions (also undeniably important), then they will ultimately lack the cultural capital necessary to truly understand American cities. In Detroit, it is impossible to ignore race. The city, according to the most recent census, is 83% black. It played a historic role in the Underground Railroad, and its black population multiplied by 611% throughout the Great Migration in the 20th century, as black families fled Southern white violence. The city of Detroit became home to some of the most vicious housing policies in the nation, and white flight plagued the city. Race riots in the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s marred the its history and revealed the North’s oft-forgotten resistance to racial equality. Housing segregation was enforced both by automobile manufacturers and by federal and municipal legislation, confining Detroit’s black community to neighborhoods like Black Bottom, which would ultimately be destroyed in the urban renewal projects of the 1970’s. The extent of white flight in Detroit allowed for the development of a strong, distinct, and unapologetic black culture in the city, which may or may not be appreciated by those leading the charge for redevelopment in the city.

The 16 of us students came here to think about broad economic development in a previously bankrupt city. But if our idea of development is fully tied to the gleaming buildings of downtown and the vegan brunch restaurant in Corktown, then perhaps we are enforcing gentrification, not growth. Predominately White Institutions like Duke need to make a whole-hearted effort to teach all of their students a fuller version of American history, one that will allow them to actually engage with our rapidly diversifying nation. I cannot count the number of times that Duke students from New York and Los Angeles have expressed shock at the racist legacy of the South, claiming that they were never exposed to that in their home cities. Yet, if they truly understood this nation, they would know that their urban communities deal with the same violent policing, the same segregated school systems, and the same economic disenfranchisement that have been present time and time again in Durham, and that I am now witnessing in Detroit.

Duke needs to prepare students to confront the legacies of structural racism in this country as they go on to influence the realms of sustainability, business, and policy. If Duke students are going to “Challenge themselves and change their worlds,” as DukeEngage advertises, they should probably know the definition of an HBCU.

Article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/the-other-detroit/308403/

Let's be honest here: I'm tired of writing or saying that Detroit is nothing like the movies, media, news articles and any other medium that ever said anything about the city. It has become a mantra, something that us, as the DukeEngage Detroit cohort, learned to say and repeat in robotic mannerisms whenever anyone asks us what we think of the city, or any variation of the question. 

Sure, the city of Detroit is not like what we thought we knew about it. But why would it be?

Call me weird or rude if you want to, but it's time people stop focusing on the past and comparing their preconceived notions to what our eyes really see in Detroit, and I'm including myself in this. It doesn't really help anyone. 

Cities aren't simple objects that can be accurately portrayed, to have their essence and values condensed into a measly vial. Cities are complex organisms, working engines that play with both power and hope, that encapsulate the extremes of our society and provide us with a means of organization. And you can't really know them until you become a part of them, not by simply visiting, but by living in them – experiencing its struggles, giving back to its community, connecting to its people.

We need to recognize the reality as it is, and to have the courage and creativity to imagine how it could be. 

I'm not saying any of this is easy. This week, for this post you're reading right now, I was supposed to find a news article that struck me for some reason, and to write about it. This is the third hour I spent trying to find such article, just today, and everything I've seen so far is either another crime story, a sports article, or the more rare unrealistic and overly optimistic predictions on how Detroit will become Silicon Valley in the next few months, if it already isn't. Yes, the media does provide a predominantly negative view of the city, but it's not as if those crimes never happened. And yes, we've seen how impactful is the entrepreneurship in Detroit, but instead of being moved by the desire for greater and greater profit margins, as it happens in Silicon Valley, here the goal is more or less centered around rebuilding communities.

Detroit is not a war zone, but it's not the paradise some try to make it seem like. It's both in low levels, like one article on the 21th page of my Google search seemed to understand. Out of all the amazing achievements of the city in the past years, from public service to flourishing startups, the vast majority is concentrated in an area of 7.2 square miles in a city almost 20 times that size, called Downtown Detroit. Away from this area, the city still has a long road to cover.

It's a tale of two cities.

While it seems that complaining about Detroit has become almost a taboo in the city, it is only by recognizing reality as it is that we can even envision what the future could be like. Although I was sure since the beginning of the program that I wouldn't be able to impact Detroit in a significant way, I knew that I could, at least, show the world the way I see the city. We most likely won't leave Detroit with multiple nonprofit projects, or having tremendously improved the quality of life of the neighborhoods we work in. But if there's one thing we can do, that thing is to raise awareness about the things that strike us the most, to be the starting point for change. And maybe, one day, we might not have a tale of two cities in the city of Detroit.

Link: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/02/tale-two-cities
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The New York Times article, “The Lights Are On in Detroit” really caught my eye due to the resurgence it has caused for the city in addition to me personally being able to notice a different in Detroit’s night life. At the end of December, Detroit finished their $185 million project (paid by both the city and the state) to add and replace all street lights with bright LED lights across the city.
 
Along with picking up trash, fixing potholes and degrading roads, and the new lights, the city government is showing the Detroit residents that none of them are forgotten. After decades of a declining population, Mike Duggan, the mayor of Detroit, could confidently say the population is now holding steady and even rising.
 
Although most of the growth of Detroit is focused downtown with the help of billionaire Dan Gilbert, the owner of Quicken Loans, there’s still 139 square miles of the city that needs to prosper. The Obama administration’s efforts to make LEDs cheaper has allowed the city to replace and add lights so that 65,000 bright LED lights now stand across the city.
 
The new, stronger lights will save Detroit almost $3 million in electric bills. Since the lights use aluminum wiring, it discourages crime because no one wants to strip that material. In addition to these benefits, it will cut carbon emissions but more than 40,000 tons a year.
 
It’s not just economic and environmental effects these lights are having on the city. It’s also helping small business owners and night life. Many restaurants had to shut down in the evening because when it got dark out people weren’t comfortable with walking around at night. Now, there’s much more foot traffic and small business fronts are booming!
 
I believe this is one of the best programs the City of Detroit has implemented in years. Growing up a few miles up Woodward, I was always warned not to be Downtown Detroit at night. It wasn’t safe even for a group of my friends and I because it was dark and crime was more likely to happen, just like in any big city. With the new lights, it’s pretty incredible how the night life has increased and people from many suburbs are here to enjoy Detroit in hours that weren’t spent outside before.  
 
A non-intended ripple effect of these new lights is trust within the government. Now that they can hold promises of rehabilitating Detroit and adding the infrastructure that the city and surrounding suburbs needed, trust may be one of the most invaluable things that came out of this project.           
 
Photo from the NYT article: