University program brings students to the city to discover Detroit for a semester.
Excerpt:
People in coffee shops and restaurants will treat you like royalty —
they will start to remember your name and your favorite items as you
become a regular, as I have at Avalon International Breads. I’m
Carolina, sweet cream butter scone and large "meaning of life" coffee
blend. Strangers on the streets will say good morning, hello or start a
conversation with you, and they will open the doors for you as you
pass. In the eight years that I've been in the United States, I’ve
never encountered people friendlier than those in Detroit.
I’ve had some very interesting conversations with strangers in this
city — people sitting next to me at Avalon while I devour my sweet
cream butter scone or people sitting at the bar at Cass Cafe ordering
the same local beer I’ve grown to love (Ghettoblaster, on draft). And
it doesn’t take long to learn that Detroit is a city of communities. As
the city tries to recover, communities and personal relationships
thrive.
Population loss to the suburbs and to other states is no secret
here, and as a result, there are too many empty lots and less than a
million people living in a city designed for two times that many. But
on the bright side, those who live here know and help each other,
because most of them cannot rely on anyone but themselves and the
people around them.
Read the entire article
here.
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