August 11, 2010

Brandi Loves Detroit



Canon EOS 7D | Canon 35mm f/1.4 | Available Light
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Brandi Keeler, a graphic artist and graduate of the acclaimed Center for Creative Studies, submitted the winning video in the first annual I Love Detroit contest.

The contest was sponsored by Garden Court Condominiums and Miss Keeler's award for the winning submission was a rent-free year in a Garden Court condo.

You can follow Brandi's year in the Garden Court and check out her interview with our local Fox news affiliate  here.


Now, I would imagine that a resident of a cosmopolitan nexus of trade and industry like New York, or even an expatriate Detroiter who has moved to such a city,  would find someone professing their love for Detroit to be a quaintly naive spectacle.

They would indubitably think that anyone who loves Detroit, does so because they haven't experienced anything better. Or they do so because they are overly sentimental.

Hey, I hear you... disembodied, theoretical naysayer. Personally, I am about as averse to naive sentimentality as one can be without actually killing one's self.  I like to deal with the truth, no matter how unsettling, disquieting, or discomforting it is.

Here's the truth about Detroit. Much of the city languishes in disrepair and abandonment. That much has been documented ad naseum in national and international media.

Here are some other things that are true about Detroit:

■ Much of the city is populated by intelligent, thriving, artistic, creative, entrepreneurially-inclined people who have a vision and rightly see Detroit as a open canvas to which that vision can be applied.

■ The cost of living in some of Detroit's safest, cleanest, most vibrant neighborhoods is less than the cost of living in a roach-infested shoe box in some other cities. Places like New York, and Chicago, and LA are great places to live… if you have shitloads of cash. If you don't, you are liable to be confined to low-rent neighborhoods with crime and decay that rival anything you'd find in Detroit.

■ Most importantly, Vernor's Ginger Ale is the most delicious "pop" ever created by humanity. Never heard of Vernor's ? Of course you haven't. You know why? Because you're not in Detroit, are you?

I rest my case.

All bullshit aside; Detroit, for all its issues, is not a bad place to be at all.  That's why Brandi Loves Detroit...and so do I.

[View the weekdaily blog and meet more of: The People of Detroit ]

4 comments:

tanya Simpson said...

What I would pay for a Vernors right now! That is the TRUTH! Keep it up Noah, hot stuff as always

Urban Geographic said...

And loving Detroit is something you do so well!...Your project has intimately introdcued me to your city - kudos!
:-)

Confessions of a Candegirl said...

This is my favorite post by far. You mentioned Vernors...what more can you say? 313LOVE!

Colique said...

Very well put Noah. How greatful i am to have you as a commrade in these sweet n salty streets of the 313!! By the way- Vernors was the first soda i was allowed to drink as a child... and only then if i had an upset stomach. Mmmmm Detroit!! Makes ya BurP!! Har-Har!! Peace!!