My Town Monday

Leaving Detroit is always easy, returning is hard, especially from New York. I was born in Philly and I will always feel at home in east coast cities. Even after 37 years away. In many ways, Detroit is not a livable city. There is almost no shopping, almost no movie theaters, few viable neighborhoods. The schools are a disgrace (Less than 30% graduate). The parks are unsafe. However, it does have the following things to return to:

An incredible art museum--one of the best in the world.
A new small art museum that's trying to show newer art and provide cutting edge lectures and music, a historical, science and African American museum
Artists and galleries that exhibit their work
Fine sports teams
A really good music scene-all kinds of music
Some great restaurants
Some great theater
A fine zoo
Ethnic, music and art festivals almost every weekend
A new riverwalk
A few good universities
A good used bookstore

If you include the metropolitan area you can add in a terrfic group of movie theaters that show art and indie films, great diversity, lovely parks, more waterfront, more music, more bookstores. Pretty much everything you want.

It's not New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago or even Philly, but damn, it's better than a lot of places. And it's home.

Check out Travis for other My Town Monday posts: http://traviserwin.blogspot.com/