Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content

Middle State

Halfway between zombie and awake

Middle State

Main menu

  • Home
  • Comments and advertising
  • The state of me

Tag Archives: Detroit River

Another view

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Middle State
11

Photo by MZ

Isn’t this a pretty picture?

I took it last week at Cranbrook, a little slice of heaven tucked away in a suburb of Detroit. You know Detroit, subject of network TV documentaries about things like industrial wastelands and economic war zones and cities of heartbreak and hope? The Cranbrook campus, which features a prestigious private school, science and art museums, and 40 acres of woods, fields and garden paths along a small lake and several streams, isn’t part of Detroit city proper. But Detroit is more than what is contained within its city limits. It is a sprawling region made up of a decaying center city as well as its myriad suburbs spread out along the Detroit River, adjacent Lake St. Clair ,and stretching north and west toward countless inland lakes, rivers and streams.

There are trees and parks and boulevards and other interesting things within Detroit city limits. But you won’t see them on a network TV show. What you get is what’s now being billed as “ruin porn.” You get images of despair and decay because that’s what people in California and New York and Florida and Texas think is Detroit. Why clear anything up for anyone outside of the “flyover zone?”

Photo by MZ

Look at this picture.

This is how Dateline NBC depicted Detroit in its Sunday feature. It’s not as warm and fuzzy as the first. The bare branches suggest death, decay and abandonment. I took this picture minutes before the image of the flowering tree at  Cranbrook gardens. This gnarled old-timer crouches over a lake within 1,000 feet of the happy pink lady.  Same place. Two different views.

See how easy it is in any given situation to play up the good or focus entirely on the bad? What’s apparently too difficult to do is to craft a report that shows the many layers of a complicated situation. It’s easier to show the same tired images of our abandoned train station, the bums in the gutter, the wayward youth, the noble poor woman feeding, clothing and housing  three babies on $200 a week, and, of course,  the crazy guy shooting and barbecuing raccoons in his yard.

I was disappointed that Dateline didn’t showcase a wider view of our region and include some images of Detroit’s many preserved neighborhoods and cultural treasures, of the many movers and shakers who work tirelessly to establish smart and innovative programs to reinvent this “city of heartbreak and hope.”

I’m not going to sugar coat things here. The reports themselves are not wrong. We have crime. We have corruption. We have massive urban decay. We have poverty and illiteracy and many other woes. We are the epicenter of the economic collapse. But, the Detroit area is so much more than the gnarled, half-dead tree and the crazy coon man.  There are still a few pink ladies twirling out in the open yet they remain invisible to the national media.

Here are a few responses to that show if you’d like to hear the rest of the story:

The mayor of Detroit responds.

Reaction by a former journalist who was interviewed for the story.

A Web site with some beautiful images of Detroit that you’ll never see on a network show about Detroit.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted in Bitchfest | Tagged Dateline NBC, Detroit, Detroit River, media, Michigan, reporting, skewed views, stereotyping, Urban decay | 11 Replies

States I visit

  • aiming low
  • beyond the dooryard
  • cardiogirl
  • dharma bum
  • edenland
  • from tracie
  • hardcore zen
  • hippo brigade
  • i am bossy
  • i should be napping
  • in jayne's world
  • libby logic
  • little dragon fruit
  • mama mary show
  • momma mia, mea culpa
  • pampers and pinot
  • postcards from a peaceful divorce
  • redhead ranting
  • rock and drool
  • san diego momma
  • suburban kamikaze
  • the bean
  • the bloggess
  • the suniverse
  • thin spiral notebook
  • unmitigated
  • wanderlust
  • whiskey in my sippy cup
  • wreke havoc
  • you've got to be kidding me

Categories

The library

  • August 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007

The vault

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

The Map

Proudly powered by WordPress