Real Life (and Detroit)

[sub_divided]

Last week I applied for a part-time job interviewing alumnae from the 30s and 40s who studied science or engineering, and were women, at the University of Michigan. My reasoning was something like: as a woman, as a failed former science major, as someone interested in personal narratives who once had a job answering telephones, this might be the only kind of history research I am actually qualified for.

I didn't get the job. This was a pretty smart decision, actually, from the perspective of the hiring board. Like I said before, my resume is clearly the resume of someone who is fairly intelligent, unfairly privileged, and highly unmotivated. I probably wouldn't have been able to manage a job on top of schoolwork, even a 10 hr/wk job on top of a light(ish) course load. It still hurts though. Sometimes I wonder if I am fit to do anything...

Bah. Plan B, work as an editor for the newly-formed Michigan Journal of History, is still in operation! It's not paid work, but I'll probably like it more...provided I can weasel my way in. This would mostly be a job editing other people's research papers. I think I can swing it if I submit a few of my own papers for consideration. Though maybe not -- I don't think I've ever turned in a paper where I didn't spell someone's name wrong or cite something wrong or have some stupid grammatical error someplace.

It's hard out here for an undergrad. With no marketable skills. XD. (I finally signed up for the general GRE! I was waffling, wondering whether I'd need it and whether my parents would pay the registration fee and whether it'd be better to sign up for something a couple weeks in the future or whether I should give myself more time, when I saw that I could take the test on Friday, October 13th. HOW COULD I RESIST.)

Far and away the best class I'm taking this semester is Politics and Community Organization of Detroit. Today we had guest speakers from the committee to save Tiger Stadium. I was afraid their panel wouldn't be very good, because the last panel, with Lolita Hernandez, wasn't very good. But it was great. From left to right:


1. Self-made businessman (hereafter SMB). SMB's grandfather moved to Detroit with his father in 1954, which is coincidentally also the year my grandfather moved to Detroit was my father. He (SMB, not my father) got his start selling peanuts at the old Tiger Stadium; with hard work and ingenuity he was able to expand this into a chain of grocery stores, then stock ownership, and just look at him today! Despite the importance Tiger Stadium obviously holds for him, he insists that his plans are not wishful thinking, but economically viable business propositions. He had a lot to say about the Illitch family (current owners of the Tigers and their new stadium, Comerica Park) and how they are essentially dictating what will happen to the old stadium (city property!) to the city council, who are afraid to cross him lest he relocate his baseball team elsewhere.

This guy turned every discussion into a critique on government interference. He loathes, loathes redevelopment strategies that call for government assistance, government tax breaks, government say of any kind. He thinks all of Detroit's problems are a result of the city government interfering with business, because government is inherently incompetent, and planned economies never work (just look at Hong Kong vs. mainland China!). Significantly, he used the phrase rational self-interest. Also significantly, he does not believe that racism has played any significant role in Detroit's downfall: it's pure coincidence that as the economy began to decline and those who could afford it began to leave, Detroit became poorer and blacker, until you got the present condition (Detroit is 90% black, 25% impoverished, and the school system is terrible).


2. Big-time Tiger Fan (BTF). BTF mostly left the discussion of government and economics to SMB and the historic preservationist to his left. He had a set of statistics on the stadium, like the fact that hundreds of people have been petitioning the city to let them use it for athletic events, concerts, etc -- paying for the privilege of course -- and his organization has also offered to maintain the stadium free of charge. But the city council has been turning everyone away, even the Ford family. He also pointed out that the city's current "redevelopment" plan is madness:pay millions of dollars to raze the stadium to the ground and make way for new development, in one of the most depressed parts of the city, where there is already ten square millions of undeveloped land? Obviously, they don't really plan to follow through on this.

Comparing Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park: they can't be compared. Tiger Stadium is the oldest major league ballpark in the United States, with zero luxury seating, where the furthest seat from the field is still closer than the closest seat at Comerica. It's also in a depressed neighborhood with no parking. (Before the freeways were built, Detroit had a pretty good public transportation system -- including, apparently, public transportation between Ann Arbor and Detroit. >_< when I think of the HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS I've spent on cab fare to and from the airport...) Anyway Comerica Park is much better suited to drawing wealthy suburban types to downtown Detroit, though sadly most of the surrounding businesses they'll spend money on are also owned by the Illitch family, and small independent vendors are not allowed.

3. Historic preservationist. A little condescending. But ultimately his views came closest to those held by the majority of the audience. Tax breaks are good, he says, because they come with conditions that ensure the stadium won't be torn down for parking lots or whatever. He talked about other cities were preservation efforts have really paid off, and about the economics of preservation vs. demolition. I'm afraid I don't really remember what he said. He and SMB got into a few fights.

4. Jim. Jim came late and there wasn't room for him at the table, so he sat off to the side looking awkward. Jim was black. Shut out of the discussion. And black. Er, well I thought this was striking at any rate. Jim talked a little bit about the racial factors preventing redevelopment, because Tiger Stadium is in a predominantly black neighborhood, but then SMB went off on his rant against Evil Government and how racism is a trumped-up charge and Jim must have felt he didn't have any support or something because he didn't bring it up again. (No one else did either, but of course he's right. I remember what it was like to see a game at Tiger Stadium, we took all of our valuables out of the car with us because common sense dictated that the area just wasn't safe. Race also goes a long way toward explaining why there continues to be no public transportation linking Detroit with its (affluent white) suburbs.)

Jim also talked about the mindset of developers in Detroit, who have only ever built on vacant lots and have trouble conceiving of a plan that makes use of existing structures, and about the kinds of strategies suited to urban development, in particular, and about Detroit being behind the curve in this regard. The historic preservationist backed him up on this (with a plea to the audience, which was by this time trickling out of the auditorium, not to abandon Detroit).

This journal has a new colorscheme, from here.