Outsiders’ attitudes ruin positive news for the city

It was a big day for announcements in the city yesterday, that’s for sure. We finally get the The Announcement from Whole Foods. Somerset CityLoft opened to a preview crowd, and opens to the public today. Mayor Dave Bing announced a new organizational plan for providing city services to Detroit neighborhoods.

Of course, it didn’t take long for my “friends” to start ripping on the city on my Facebook page, especially after I posted a link to the Whole Foods announcement on my page. I’ll withhold names to protect the guilty, but my friend who lives in the Howell area posted this: “If the place isn’t stripped of copper before it’s done.” That was followed by a few comments from a friend who lives in the White Lake area: “I give the place a year before they shutter for underperformance. I could go into reasons but they would not be nice.”

Of course, there was nothing to be said about the new shopping center, or even other good news in the city, like how the Tigers are (barely) holding out their first-place spot in the division. It always comes back to two things: Detroit is full of copper thieves, and no one in Detroit could really appreciate something as nice as a Whole Foods (assuming it will be nice, of course). No one will shop there, and the people that do will just steal everything, of course.

Does anyone else get as mad about this attitude as I do?

I know for a fact that neither of these two friends has actually lived in the city. I know one comes to visit occasionally to see a Tigers game, but I don’t know about the other. So is it just plain ignorance? They don’t want to venture off the perceived safety of I-75 and Comerica Park and see what else the area has to offer beyond a ballgame and drunks wandering around Greektown?

Maybe I’m overreacting, but tell me what you think. What do you do when people hate on your beloved city?

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This entry was posted on July 28, 2011 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.