Creative Ways Can Combat Detroit's Image Problem

As someone who tends to ponder deeply on creative ways to improve Detroit, I do a variety of research in the area of creativity and its impact in reviving cities & communities.  I often think in particular on how to improve the image of the city and have written about it in the past but had a couple of pieces on the subject rejected as commentaries in the papers.

I recently did a search on "Detroit + image" and an NPR story that I hadn't heard about from a few months ago came up about Detroit's image in movies.  There are a number of other choice examples that could have been used and the story failed to mention that Detroit is an easy target for jokes on television as well.  So given the problem of a bad image that continues to plague the city this piece from four years ago is still most relevant and I will follow it up with a way to foster creative ways to make the city a better place.

 

Detroit’s Image Problem

2005

At the recent Detroit Regional Chamber, Partnerships luncheon, a couple from Hamilton, Ontario told of their decision to expand their business into Detroit.  At first they were apprehensive about setting up shop in the city with the main image they had of Detroit being that of the riots.

 

Last year two animated shows, the Simpson's and King of the Hill both made jokes at Detroit's expense, the latter made a homicide reference even though it has been years since the city's reign as the murder capitol.  Also the past couple of year's comedians & talk-show hosts keep using Detroit as the butt of jokes. Most recently Adam Corolla, who co-hosted the Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel, who last year made the crack on national TV about Detroiters burning the city if the Pistons went on to win the championship.  Corolla made a similar crack about burning cars after a sports championship win but since it was on a cable channel it didn't seem to cause as much of an uproar as Kimmel's comment.

 

As a marketing slogan of the past so aptly put it, "Image is Everything" and in Detroit, image is the problem.

 

So what is it going to take to combat the negative images of Detroit that continue to persist?  The city is counting on a big image boost from the Super Bowl but aside from superficial fix ups what is being done to ensure the maximum pay-off and image enhancement?

 

Overcoming a long-term negative image problem is going to take more than landscaping & facade improvements along with major projects such as Campus Martius, the River Walk, the new stadiums and once they're built, the permanent casinos.

 

If we are truly going to make the transition to a world-class city, innovative, visionary and radical ideas need to be embraced.

 

The Creative City by Charles Landry, is a book that came out a couple of years prior to Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class but for some reason it didn't get the attention it deserved.  While Rise of the Creative Class was more of an overview on the nature and impact of creativity, The Creative City gets into the nuts & bolts of what it takes to make a city more creative and competitive.

 

Among the things the book suggests, is setting up a center for the public to gather to have dialogue and debate issues, and to act as an ideas factory to provide homegrown solutions.  It also suggests bringing the radicals and activists to the table to provide input.

 

The book also stresses the need for culture to take center stage.  "Culture provides insight and so has many impacts; it is the prism through which urban development should be seen.  The cultural industries, hotbeds of creativity, are perhaps the fastest growing sector in modern urban economies."

 

Another book that came out a couple of years ago entitled Unleashing the Idea Virus by Seth Godin and while it applied primarily to businesses, it could be applied to a city as well.  So what we need to do to overcome our lingering image problem is to create an idea virus that Detroit is a hip & happening city and back it up with visionary projects & programs.

 

The Creative Community can provide solutions if given greater opportunities.  An excellent essay by William Cleveland,, Translations and Change: The Arts as Infrastructure in 21st Century America"provides insight on just what the arts and the creative community can accomplish.  "The arts community brings untapped capacities as bridge builders, translators and problem solvers.  We bring the language and technology of transformation."  One suggestion is to establish forums for discourse and problem solving between and among artists, scientists, engineers, economists, philosophers etc.

 

I am tired of Detroit being the "Rodney Dangerfield" of urban cities, we deserve a little respect and we are inching forward to earning the designation as a world-class city. We have persevered and with an extra push, we will prosper once again.