The media likes to paint the city of Detroit Michigan as a horrible place but unsurprisingly the media doesn’t give you the whole story.

In the summer of 2017 and 18 I visited the city of Detroit on mission trips with my church.

The experiences where surprisingly positive and eye opening.

From my home in the DC area it took about 12 hours to get to the motor city (with frequent stops). My companions on the trips were already friends I had, Detroit had a large impact on our friendships, specifically bringing us closer together. After each trip was over our group chat had messages like “take me back” and “I found flights for $150” on it. Even though the destination wasn’t a beautiful beach with an all inclusive resort we still wanted to go back. Now on to the actual experiences in the city.

The first time I entered the city I would be lying if I said I loved the vibe or what my eyes saw. Here are some of the first shots I got of the city.

Those pictures don’t do it justice but these can.

Here are two things I want you to take away from reading this:

1. The city has gone through a lot in the past fifty years. It all started during 67 race riots and slowly after that anyone who could get out of the city moved to the suburbs creating a community of almost solely low income residents. The city saw some of its worst times during the first one and a half decades of the 21st century, but there is hope. In the past ten years the central part of the city has been developed and people on the ground are even reporting that the “hood” parts have been seen some improvement in recent times. Its sill going to take time and hard work but it is possible to rebuild the city.

2. The majority of the people are just trying to live their lives, and most of them are kinder and more friendly than most suburbanites. Yes there are crack heads and crazy people but those people are everywhere. I, a politically right leaning, young, white, “rich” (in comparison) person was able to have practical, meaningful and respectful conversations with an older, African American, politically left leaning person. Its all about mutual respect (which people from ALL sides seem to be lacking these days).

What They Thought

More than 95% of the people I interacted with were respectful but sometimes inquisitive about what a white teenage boy was doing in their “hood” part of the world. Sometimes the people that live in places like Detroit feel as if they are forgotten by the rest of the nation, so when they saw us helping out they were pleased. As with all social situations there were a few people that were not very happy to see us, from what I know their mindset is something along the lines of “this our town, we don’t want these rich white people from a different city to come help us”. I don’t necessarily blame these people for their mindset either, it’s an understandable one, especially since most of the current residents have lived there their entire life.

The Hood Vibe

The “hood” part of Detroit is like no where I had ever been before. One of the first things you will notice is that there are massive swaths of land that are just overgrown fields of nothingness. There used to be buildings but when so many people left they were abandoned and eventually knocked down. There is also very little going on, there would be a car now and then but the ambient noise was very low. You would also see very little people walking around, since many of the homes are abandoned there are little people so populate the sidewalks. All in all it kinda felt the country in a city.

What We Did, and Where We Stayed

The majority of our days were spent doing something lawn care related at various sites throughout the zip code 48214. The church that we partnered with serves the residents in the 48214 zip code. One of the needs in that community is lawn care, many of the residents are elderly and cannot cut their own lawn. We were able to meet the needs of some of these people by cutting their sometimes very overgrown lawns. These people were so grateful that they brought us water and food, even when they didn’t have to. The second day I was there we were cutting an overgrown lot near the main road and a random kind stranger bought us one of those 32 packs of plastic water bottles. This was the first time I was like “ok, that was epic (in a wholesome way) and unexpected” (remember I was 15 years old when I went the first time).

Another need in the community was for a laundromat type store. So the church’s community development wing hatched a plan to turn on old building they owned into a local coffeeshop/laundromat/community center. They even had an area in the basement for mission teams like us to stay in. The Commons, opened in 2018, it was the first business to open on the main thoroughfare (Mack Av) since the riots more then 50 years ago!

Downtown Detroit

Most of our time was spent in the east side neighborhoods, but one night we went to the downtown area and the waterfront. The vibe there was laid back but the economic downturn of the city was definitely noticeable. There are still unused buildings and signs of the downturn. But it wasn’t all bad, there were a good amount of people around, enjoying themselves during the night in the city. In recent years the central core of the city has been developed and more businesses have come in.

I can’t exactly compare Detroit to any other big American cities because I’ve never been to any big American cities. I’ve been to Washington DC many times but the vibe there is much different than other cities. One reason is because pretty much all the buildings are under 4 stories (there is a rule that no buildings can be higher than the Washington monument). Detroit definitely has its own charm and feel to it and the only way to experience it is going there yourself.

Should You Go?

 Well, it depends who you are? If your ideal vacation is sitting on a Florida beach and doing nothing then no, Detroit is probably not the right place for you. But if exploring a city most people don’t want to go near sounds fun and interesting to you then I highly suggest it. Just stay as vigilant as you would in any big city and there’s a very good chance you will enjoy the experience. For more info about vising Detroit click here.

Thank You.

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