Walking down from my friends' house to the Castro this morning I passed a guy huddled up in a doorwell (it's cold and rainy) with a hand-made cardboard sign that said "Broke, Ugly, Dumb - every little bit helps" It was the first thing I've seen that reminded me of Detroit, because God knows you get enough stupid begging lines downtown (and enough stupid people giving people money because "that line is great!").
I love SF and frankly, I can't believe I don't live here. As much as I like Detroit, SF is pretty much everything I want in a city, at least on paper. Every time I visit I've pretty much chained myself to a lamp post by the second or third day, just so I won't have to leave. Surprising even me, however, was my reaction to being here this time around. This time, it's still really great, but it's really easy to talk to people who say "you need to move here!" and tell them I genuinely enjoy living in Detroit.
While San Fran has more stuff going on, has more gay people than is almost conceivable, has better shopping, has a ton of natural beauty, is navigable without a car, has amazing restaurants, is deliciously liberal and is the soul of the gay community in this country ... I still am digging the people, places and possibilities in Detroit, now matter how broke, ugly or dumb it may be.
The view's pretty good though.
2 comments:
I wonder what would happen in Metro Detroit if we picked one day each year and called it Gay Day?
Every gay person in the Metro area would be asked to support just one gay business that day. I would imagine that just like in economics, there would be a multiplier effect where each dollar spent would have a spin-off helping to create a more vibrant gay community for all of us. We might not become San Francisco, but I'm sure that we would become a stronger community.
"... I still am digging the people, places and possibilities in Detroit, now matter how broke, ugly or dumb it may be."
Well Said.
Post a Comment