By ELENA RUE for Powering a Nation (www.poweringanation.org)

In the course of reporting on a story about energy and employment in Detroit, my colleague Mike Ehrlich and I talked with several people about the resurgence of the city. It's impossible to discuss the future of Detroit without acknowledging the current state of the shrinking city, but those who are committed to seeing Detroit regrow are not leaving its history behind. Rather, the people who live there are re-purposing historic buildings, planting urban gardens in vacant lots and retraining people left behind by the auto industry.

Having never visited Detroit, Mike and I were leery of falling into the same trap that many journalists do: focusing on the graffiti, wandering souls and dilapidated buildings scattered around the city. Detroit City Councilman Ken Cockrel touched upon this issue in an interview.

"Detroit often gets a very bad rap," Cockrel said. "And all too often what happens is that when we see journalists come to the city of Detroit, they tell the same old story. It's like, OK, show me some abandoned buildings, show me a crackhead, show me somebody with no teeth in their mouth, because that's easy. It's a lot harder to find some of these other stories in the city of Detroit. It's a lot harder to find some of these stories about the really cool bar and restaurant in a dilapidated town that is booming every single day of the week. You know, it's a lot harder to find a story about the school where all of the kids are doing really really well. That takes a little bit more work."

With the passion and enthusiasm that many Detroiters have, it is clear that leaders are trying to move the city toward a brighter future. But given the state of the economy and slow job growth, this recovery could take a long time. As journalism students from a different part of the country, we are largely unable to witness this change first hand. However, we were encouraged by one small change we were able to see during our two trips to the city. During our first trip we came across a very large building with boarded up windows. We took one photograph of the building and moved on.

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The boarded up exterior of the former American Electrical Heater Company on Borroughs St. in Detroit. Photo by Elena Rue

 

One week later, we returned to the same spot and were delighted to see that each and every board had been beautifully painted. We later found out that the building, which used to be the American Electrical Heater Company, was now owned by TechTown, a non-profit that supports alternative energy and high technology industries. Eventually, TechTown is planning to remodel and reuse the building, but in the meantime they commissioned artists from the Detroit Mural Factory to depict Detroit's past, present and future on the building's exterior. The eight artists engaged youth ages 6 to 19 in the mural project and are encouraging others to do the same throughout the city.

ImageThe same view of the former American Electrical Heater Company after it was painted by local artists and youth. Photo by Elena Rue