The Problem with Re-gentrification in Detroit: Just Getting IT Out of My System
Republished from medium
The problem with re-gentrification is the gentry.
In the past the Gentry were the people communities built themselves around,
They funded the construction and management of institutions, set moral and social standards for a region of geography.
Albeit the Gentry of the past exploited people and animals and resources, while poisoning the atmosphere and frowned on them…
…Exploited people….
…We just frown on them.
Yet in many cases there can be a benefit in being an exploited person.
If the person doing the exploiting is important enough to
Learn from.
I occasioned to spend some of my youth serving as an occasional Shabbos goy, and because of that experience, I learned some of what human beings are capable of, at scales that I could not imagine. Until I witnessed them, from a very interesting perspective. I witnessed people translating the ideas of others, into things other people (people in mass, small towns of people) would execute.
And I wanted to do that thing.
I wanted to draw the inspirations for the movements of small nations.
I don't mean small nations forced to move by environmental conditions, disaster or conflict or the closing of shops for a meandering, nomadic, migrating ecosystem. I don’t mean ethnicity or religions.
I mean people that all speak the same language, eat the same food, suffered the same traumas.
I grew up in a world in which most people spoke the manufacturing doctrine of God, Detroit Steel & Jesus, Unions, Presidents and the Mayor on one side, and on the other, Art, Philosophy, Self Determination and a bunch of academic crap.
Today’s Gentry are patrons of “experiences”, some immersive, most cursory.
The new Gentry is embracing impermanence in nanoseconds.
It’s the prelude to another Gilded Age…
…except the new glitter, bling, whatever it is…
…IS…
…A copy, even at its first presentation to the patron.
It’s is as unique as a snowflake.
Or a pair of sneakers.
The experience is only new
to you.
And today’s poor can’t afford to follow today’s gentry around, absorbing experiences.
So!
The answer is, to hunker down and start providing the experiences.
The consumer is a level of transaction, a patron is an enabling supporter, possibly a transitory exchange that crosses boundaries or norms, based on their relationship with what you provide them.Cater to a set of people at a level you feel is acceptable for the amount of whatever you're asking or demanding in exchange.
And while the places you love slip into disrepair from disuse and / or (lack of patronage) and eventually complete disregard. You say, “I’m keepin’ my shit Juan Hunnerd Yo! Dis iz fo’ my peeplez in da hood!” While others are eating your people’s lunches.
Which will motivate some to say, “These ____s ain’t loyal”.
To which I say, “Pookie and Ray Ray Gotta Eat”.
And… Pookie and Ray Ray want what you have. And they can take it from you. It ain't personal, unless you make it personal.
The problem is today.
It is well within the realm of possibility. That they can legally get what you’ve got to identify yourself as cool. iPhones are the new Coca Cola and Apple is soon to be the new Magnavox, okay I’ll be nice…Sony.
Yes. Sony owns every-damned-thing, but they stopped being technologically relevant more than a decade ago. You can buy a camera with almost the same capabilities as their best $50,000 unit for under a $1,000. And while you’re waiting to back the next Blair Witch Project, remember this…
…IT DOES NOT CREATE WHOLE LITTLE HAPPY TOWNS OF PEOPLE whose success is based on your idea’s success. Helping you do something similar, repeatedly, consistently.
Kayne West understands this, but…
In Detroit…
…There is a severe lacking of serious luxury at the creature level.
The home life of Billionaires is not that much different from someone earning a couple hundred thousand a year, anymore.
It has something to do with the number of people serving you, that live in walking distance of where you encounter their servitude.
The greater the distance, the more inconvenient for the one demanding service.
The speed at which you live your life.
The amount of time you spend intentionally moving slowly &
The place you choose to move slowly through.
For a very long time now, the latitude to take things slowly has been an almost un-affordable luxury. One that demands one leave their living environment to go far away (but not in search of experience, but solace.)
And oddly the trend is to demand more space in which not to occupy. Because you’re working to pay for a-get-away or you’ve managed to get away.
I aim to create a better class of gentry.
One that has a first name relationship with the people they leave to “Run the Ranch.”
Way I see it, it’ll work if the people that “Run the Ranch” own just about half of the ranch.
The people that run the ranch can dictate how to run the hood they live in, But the dude, dood, doodess, what ever, says how to run the ranch, cuz that’s what they do. They bring in the people that patronize the ranch.
I translate the ideas of the guy with 51% ownership into pictures that others can imagine and some mo’ people make reality.
The people seeking to consume that reality, don’t respect what I do very much.
The people funding, designing & building that reality are all asking the same question. How can we get some value out of a relationship with Pookie and Ray Ray?
The answer is SPECTACLE!
It’s Bread and Circus
It’s Ring-a-ling Bros.
It’s Cirque du
It’s the 5 Trillion dollar blockbuster hype machine of the week.
It’s a small army of people that walk in, do something magical, take your money, leave you with a happy feeling and leave.
Other places…
… and this is what Detroit should be doing…
Have small armies of people that others visit, while Detroiters do the same magic tricks every night, take the visitors’ money and send them away, ready to come back.
“Thank you! Come again soon…
…with more of your wealthy friends.”
She's self assured that don't know how to utter one dirty word. Imagine that. Here they are now, screaming.
“Entertain us!”
I know you’re ready,
But are you really prepared?
Anyway, I had another so-so dining experience in a new hip-n-trendy spot in Detroit.
And I realized the people dragging me to these places are young rich and tasteless.
They know that 3 ounce portion of lamb tongue is expensive and so therefore it is worth experiencing.
I know that this 3 ounce portion of "lamb tongue" was before cooked very much like, if not identical to the Lengua I get in my tacos from the truck between the church and the bakery, in a neighborhood where almost everyone acts like they don’t speak English.
It’s the spectacle that brings all the milkshakes to church.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://subspace.city/2018/12/30/the-problem-with-re-gentrification-in-detroit-just-getting-it-out-of-my-system/