Detroit graphic artist Dylan Box broadly covers Detroit-reboot issues in a blog post about his get-acquainted meeting with an entrepreneur moving Galapagos Art Space here from Brooklyn.
Our earlier summary of the key topics doesn’t include an instructive anecdote from 2012 that touches a hot button in discussions on reviving the city. Box calls it “income and social stratification” – a restrained way of saying new Detroiters and long-timers.
"There was no sign or spoken indication that Tashmoo was turning black residents away. . . . Inclusion and neighborhood pride were at the core of the event. So where did this impression come from?"
On a Sunday at the edge of downtown a few weeks ago, Box, two Wedge Detroit design studio-mates and Galapagos founder Robert Elmes “ended up talking for two hours about art, development, and politics both here in Detroit and New York,” the blogger recounts.
The conversation left Box feeling “that Robert is going to do his best to involve his new community in the development.” He adds:
The hardest part . . . will be in involving the neighborhood he will soon be occupying. It's not always as simple as just opening the doors and saying that you're open to the public. Let me relate this with a story:
I worked with Revolve Detroit to run a shop pop-up shop over in West Village in 2012 to help encourage retail spaces in the area. For us it was a chance to show off the space to residents and get people excited about the possibility of having stores and restaurants in a space that hadn't had them in years.
We were doing it in conjunction with the Tashmoo Biergarten, a pop-up outdoor festival taking place in a lot on Van Dyke. I had been living in the neighborhood for a couple of months and figured it would be a good way to meet some of my neighbors at the same time. One late afternoon as Tashmoo was in full swing, a middle-aged black couple from the neighborhood walked into the shop and poked around. In making conversation, I happened to ask if they had been over to Tashmoo, yet.
"They don't want people like us over there" she said.
Now, there was no sign or spoken indication that Tashmoo was turning black residents away, and knowing Suzanne [Vier] and Aaron [Wagner], inclusion and neighborhood pride were at the core of the event. So where did this impression come from?
It could have been the crowd, which tended to be white, affluent, and from outside the neighborhood. There was also the actual physical appearance of the space, with a small fence around (as required by law when you have outdoor event with alcohol). And even just the event itself: Here was a fancy beer-and-food event that might be a bit outside of people's price range. (I love pierogis as much as the next polish guy, but $6 for 3 of them can definitely seem extravagant.)
There was no racism, no malice -- just an honest lack of dialog and conversation.
It's hard to make spaces that are opening and inviting to everyone. I won't pretend that it's easy to do, but developers and business owners have the responsibility to ask themselves if they're building something that is accessible and available for people who live in the surrounding community.
Racial and class tension is a real thing, and if developers prefer to build walled gardens, we will have learned nothing about the previous effect of income and social stratification.
In fairness, Tashmoo’s two middle-aged neighbors may have sensed a generation gap rather than a racial one. Galleries at the pop-up’s Facebook page and media photos show mostly – if not totally – under-40 guests at its outdoor gatherings.
In any case, Box shares a timely reminder about the value of reaching neighborly hands across social, economic and other groups.
Related coverage at Deadline:
Peace Talks: Brooklyn Art Space Founder Wins Over Detroit Critic, Dec. 28
"There was no racism, no malice -- just an honest lack of dialog and conversation," Dylan Box says of the 2012 event. This scene is from September 2011. (Facebook photo/Marvin Shaouni)
