DukeEngageDetroit
  • Program
  • Community Partners
  • Student Blog
  • Program Highlights
  • Learn About Detroit
  • Past Projects

Week 1, Thomas wang

6/9/2017

1 Comment

 
My Detroit orientation was spectacular. One thing I have noticed is that people in Detroit love Detroit and have a lot of Detroit pride. People here absolutely hate when other people say bad things about Detroit, and Detroiters are always willing to defend their city. Detroiters are very cognizant of what other people say about their city, but they know that the media portrays Detroit in an unnecessarily bad light. My favorite part of Detroit is downtown, which is where most of the scavenger hunt was located and is where I work. Downtown has many cool buildings, food trucks, an awesome sports zone, and many beer tours. Another thing I appreciated during the Detroit tour is that the tour took our group to the more desolate areas of Detroit, such as the areas near the Heidelberg Project. The tour didn’t want to paint Detroit in an unnecessarily rosy light, and they showed a relatively comprehensive picture of Detroit.

The main thing that surprised me about Detroit is how nice and down-to-earth the people are. People are always very willing to have a conversation with you and make you feel included. During the scavenger hunt, Detroiters were always willing to help our group with finding the artifacts. They never made it seem like they were in a rush or that we were wasting their time.

During my time in Detroit, I hope to impact the community by promoting MoGo, which is the Detroit bike share company. MoGo helps improve mobility and give Detroiters another method of transportation. Bike sharing also increases the sense of community in Detroit because biking is a social act. Creating a sense of community increases Detroit pride and will revitalize Detroit. By the end of my internship, I want to see a bunch of happy people riding red MoGo bikes. I also want to get involved in activities in Detroit. For example, my work partner Pauline is very interested in urban farming, and she introduced me to a Detroit urban farm called Plum Street Market Garden which is operated by Keep Growing Detroit. I was never involved in urban farming back at Duke, but it was really cool helping the urban farm out. I helped pick strawberries with some other people there. They were super chill and even let me eat the strawberries!
​
Picture
1 Comment
Timothy Arnaz Williams
6/12/2017 04:38:00 pm

That's good you have an open-mind about your surroundings. Continued to do your part to make the city better.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    July 2022
    June 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    July 2019
    June 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    July 2017
    June 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Coffee And (____)
    Detroit Culture
    Gentrification
    Heidelberg Project
    Social Enterprises
    Social Enterprises
    TechTown

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.