Positively Detroit!

This article is a little off topic for me, but there's been a lot of talk about it recently so I'll try and tie it back in at the end...

Author and columnist, Mitch Albom recently wrote an article in Sports Illustrated about Detroit. Detroit's been in the news a lot recently (not in a particularly positive light, unfortunately), and it seems that Mitch was attempting to counter that news. A good friend of mine, Jamie pointed me to a reply to Albom by Jim Boyle in Model D. Unfortunately, Model D won't get the same visibility as SI (or even probably the reprint of the article in Detroit Free Press), but I wish it would because I think both articles are important.

I've never been a big fan of Albom's writing style, but I think that both his article and Boyle's article say similar things about the city. I think the difference is tone. While both articles do point out positive things about the city, I didn't read either as particularly positive in tone. Boyle spends more time on specific neighborhood places that are positive - Albom spends more time on the sports (obviously, its in SI), big development, and ends with the general hopeful attitude of Detroit.

But unfortunately, both also spend a lot of time in negativity - Albom about the city ruins, Boyle about Mitch's attitude. Both seems somewhat self-defeating to me.

End of the day, I think these speak about different Detroiters - to me it seemed that both articles missed the demographic cohorts that the other picked up, and both are necessary to get a better picture of the whole. To paraphrase my friend Jamie, he said that these articles serve to divide Detroiters, while we should be spending more time trying to unify the two Detroits. So, this is where I can tie it back into branding - what we have are different brands for Detroit:
The Albom brand of a sports, ghost town with many problems, but a big can-do attitude.
The Boyle brand of an up-and-coming city filled with energy and activity.

Both are valid, but as Jamie points out we need some unification. Those trying to brand Detroit probably were pulling their hair out as they read these (both published just as the country started focusing on the North American Auto Show in Detroit). Wouldn't it be nice if we could come up with a simple, unifying theme for Detroit that shows both of these two Detroits?

How does the high-powered executive, the auto worker, the creative class professional, and the homeless guy with the mattress in the church came together? When do they come together? Tough questions, but in Detroit I believe they are coming together in some way. In the past that tie has been automobiles - they were the glue that brought everyone together in work and in play - but as that seems to be fading, we need to find that new identity.