This may come as a surprise
admits
Carine Martinez-Gouhier (as much a surprise to herself as to anybody else),
but my first impression of Detroit was
good. It was not thanks to the government but to free enterprise and the
hard work and aspirations to a better life of individual Detroiters.
My
first experience, and a few others after that, let me see glimpses of
hope for Detroit.
… The image of Detroit I had in mind was the one the media is
spreading: a zombie city, where the remaining inhabitants, those who
didn’t flee to the suburbs or further away, were left with abandoned and
burned-down houses everywhere, where crime and drugs are rampant; the
image of the fall of a formerly great American city.
Media reports ventured: Detroit was once the epitome of American success; will it represent America’s future?
Truth is Detroit is a city of many contrasts. Yes, the vision of a
ghost town is everywhere, but downtown, the empty streets and the blight
also stand alongside buildings filled with bubbly tech start-ups; some
abandoned houses are taken over to make room for gardens. The heavy hand
of government regulation and intervention is sometimes mind-bogglingly
absent, for better or worse for Detroiters.
Just like nature reclaiming abandoned houses though, free enterprise
is slowly trying to find its way back through the hurdles of statism.
… Detroit is fighting for its life. At the heart of the revival, is something quintessentially American: individuals taking responsibility for their lives, fighting the wilderness when necessary, convinced that they can make it on their own. If some insist in seeing Detroit as the future of America, this should be about this, not about the ruins of failed government policies.
