The consultants have spoken. Ypsilanti is less of a shit hole than it used to be!
We're still raggedy enough to be identified as an at-risk city by the generous state govt, but now we can call it "interesting, real, and edgy!" (Check out Mark Maynard for more info on the visioning meeting).
I never thought I'd come back to Ypsi after undergrad, but here we are, 2 degrees, 7 jobs, a mortgage, and a baby later; singing her praises to anyone who will listen, walking to the co-op, going to visioning meetings, and feeling pretty damn good about how far we've come.
Yep, we. When Peter asked about J's plans for finding a space for CR, I heard my self tell him that J is determined to find one, and we're not moving, so "it's just going to have to be in town!" and I realized that I really feel attached to a place as a home for the first time in my life. I know store owners and community organizers and at least half the population of the corner brew on any given night. When I drive through still-sleeping depot town with my cafe-au-lait ala Bombadill's, the scene (and the caffeine) makes me so happy I almost don't mind going to work.
I think things really are getting better. Ypsi people are actually seeing themselves as capable of advocating for positive change. Perhaps it is a blessing that the pavers on the corner of Michigan and Washington are messed up by truck traffic, and Water Street is stalled, and the Vu is not, and EMU doesn't pay taxes and we're all just struggling a little bit to keep it all together; maybe it's just that that keeps us from becoming self-satisfied and complacent and ignorant of the needs of others in our community. So the parking lots need to be resurfaced, and we could use some better signs. We have great music and art and vegetables and beer, lots of lesbians, the most phallic building in the world, and one happy music teacher avoiding a research paper by baking chocolate chip cookies for the recording engineers of the first full length Community Records studio album. Things are looking up.
2 comments:
I started to write a comment, but then it turned into a full on posting on my blog.
Ypsi is a great palace that can and is getting better.
Besides I can't complain too much about the neighbors. :-)
I read this this morning, then read Tom's blog tonight, then thought he copied you... (that's because you're so cool, Ame!) Right on, Ypsi!
You are really right about becoming complacent. It is easy for a community to become way too insulated; Ypsi still has to work to make things strong and viable, which is to it's benefit.
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