I interviewed Roxy Tedesco, a 27 year old woman that moved with her family to Detroit from a small town in West Virginia ten years ago. Her experiences with Detroit are different from mine because I have never lived in Detroit.
Since I have a relatively low opinion of Detroit I decided to begin the interview by asking Roxy what she likes about living there. Her number one reason for liking Detroit is that there is so much to do.
She says that sports are an important part of life in Detroit and with the Pistons, Lions, Tigers, and Red Wings it seems like there is always something going on. When she gets together with friends they usually either go see a game, go to a club, or to the Motor City Casino. She used to go to the casino about once a month, but she's thinking about cutting back because she hasn't been winning as much lately.
When she feels like she wants to get in touch with nature there are a few options. She can go to the zoo which, according to Roxy, has some nice exhibits, the beach, or the Belle Isle and the Whitcomb Conservatory. She visited the conservatory for the first time recently and she said that it was a lovely area and wandering around all the foliage was a nice escape from the concrete jungle.
She is thrilled with the number of shopping and dining options in Detroit. Coming from an area where the nearest grocery store was half an hour away it is a nice change to have so many shops and restaurants nearby. She really enjoys the variety in the area. You can get food from just about any country you can think of... German, French, English, Greek, and more. She eats out a lot and she is grateful for the opportunity to have something different once in a while.
Roxy also likes Detroit because the housing is cheap. You can get a decent house for only ten thousand dollars. Of course you would have to deal with a high crime rate, but you can spend some of the money you are saving on security features for your home.
From what Roxy has said Detroit actually sounds pretty nice. So I asked if there was anything she didn't like about it. She said her main problem is the crime. There is a lot of it in her area. Her purse was recently stolen as she was leaving a restaurant downtown. So it has made her a little jumpy and she is always on high alert when she goes out. She understands that sometimes you have to make a compromise when you choose a place to live and right now she feels alright about dealing with a high crime rate since she can be near the activity of a city. Though she would like to start a family soon and she says that she wouldn't dream of raising her children in Detroit.
Speaking with Roxy made me wonder why Detroit has so much crime. I have been to other poor areas that do not have the same problems that Detroit has. So I did a little research and I found that one of the poorest cities in the country, Fort Thompson, SD, has an average annual household income that is less than half that of Detroit and a similar unemployment rate. Yet their crime rate is also less than half of Detroit. The main difference between these two cities is the people. Detroit is about 80% African American and Fort Thompson is about 80% Native American. I don't know much about Native American culture except for what I have seen in movies. It seems that they have a respect for life and they seem to think of each other as part of an extended family even if they are not actually related. I think that this may be a part of the reason for the lower crime rate in Fort Thompson. If we can figure out what makes one area more dangerous than another maybe we can reduce crime everywhere.
I did learn quite a bit from my interview with Roxy. I found that Detroit does have some good points like entertainment venues and tasty food. Unfortunately its high crime rate and bad reputation keep many people away. If there is any hope of improving Detroit I think it has to start with the people. Though it seems like they just wish it would get better instead of doing something about it so I don't think that its going to change any time soon.
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