Detroit - coming home to SF

Detroit is a place like none other I have ever seen in the United States. Traveling on the various roads - on Mack Ave. from downtown to Gross Pointe, MLK Blvd. during the evening time with Justin, General Motors Blvd., Woodward Ave., etc. - you notice that Detroit is a place where you have to find a nice place essentially. Though downtown has seemingly received some money from city coffers, the area still lacks a vibrancy that you find in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. There is not the kind of foot traffic (and car traffic) that you may expect of a city with a population of 850,000. That's the other thing, this is a city that is over 2.5 times the area of San Francisco and built for 2 million people - yet since 1950 the city has lost almost 1.15 million people to the outlying suburbs and sunbelt states most notably. You see it all over the city with regard to the infrastructure. Building after building after building, dilapidated with crumbling brick, boarded up windows, weeds overgrown for years. You'll see blocks where people live in a house and the three or four homes around it are completely abandoned with weeds and grass overgrowing on the surrounding lots. If you took Detroit's square mileage with 1950 population, you would have almost as many people per square mile as you do today in San Francisco, or roughly 15,000 folks. Now think about San Francisco with the same infrastructure but only 42.5% of the capacity. That is current day Detroit. 

The day after I got back from Detroit, walking San Francisco took on a different experience. The occasional smells of urine on the streets on my walk to work were not as potent, the sun shined a bit brighter (though it did shine bright before as well for I love walking to work when I am working in SF), I smiled a bit more at the locals I passed by. The homeless men and women and shady looking characters I may pass on a day-to-day basis did not bring upon the same level of mixed emotions. I kindly declined to give the man at Walgreens on Polk and California money but I looked at him in his eye and told him to have a good day rather than not look at him or ignore his request. I was more thought-provoking and open-minded toward the scenery around me. I was able to come more to grips with the fact that no matter what city or town you live in each place has its own set of issues and problems to improve upon. The levels of those issues is the matter that strikes a different chord here in San Francisco and California as a whole. We may have budget issues, the recession has not been kind to us given the subprime loan crisis, San Francisco has ongoing troubles trying to solve a homeless crisis that becomes seemingly unwinnable as time keeps passing, downtown people and car traffic is lighter than I can ever remember it, and certainly the extremely liberal SF Board of Supervisors (and mayor Gavin Newsom as well, who I hope finds a way to keep the 49ers in SF) seems to bother me more and more as I get older and pay more in taxes. But I'll take those issues and the new 9.5% sales tax. Why? Because I love San Franciso, I love California, and there is still no place like it even with all the travel I have done. I have not been everywhere, but I've been to New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, South Africa, Western/Central Europe, Hawaii, and others (big shout out to Milwaukee baby!!). The natural beauty of San Francisco, the various strong economic sectors and hard working individuals that fuel the engine here day in and day out, the arts and creativity and the sheer activity and movement of those who live and visit here continue to inspire me to want to achieve more everyday in various aspects of my life. It makes me want to travel more, read more, write more, reflect more, appreciate the arts more, take in someone's personal story, appreciate my friends, appreciate my family, and more. Visiting Detroit allowed me to explore a city I've always wanted to see for myself - its good, bad, and ugly - and I still have hope that Detroit will see brighter days. I have a soft spot for the city given its great history and for all it has done to strengthen this country since the beginning of the 20th century with its vast contribution to the automotive industry and heavy industry as a whole. The visit also allowed me to appreciate my second hometown a little bit more.