Dancing and shouting

Am I the only one who was glad to see the strippers stand up and fight for their right to earn a living like everyone else?

The women showed up in force at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center last week to urge the City Council not to crack down on Detroit's adult entertainment clubs because doing so, they argued, would result in thousands of jobs being lost -- theirs included. They were a vocal bunch, and the case they made ultimately won over enough council members to get support. No more more lap dances, but plenty of jiggling and gyrating will continue to take place.

I thought the issue was interesting because, until the strippers began to speak up, and the media listened, they weren't part of the equation. This has been about the pastors and churches urging council to crack down on the club owners. I got the feeling no one was thinking about the single moms trying to raise their children on their own, (without welfare), or the college student trying to get through school, or the woman who felt the stage and pole was a much more lucrative alternative to a desk and phone.

Honestly, I would have a problem if I had a daughter who thought this was the best way for her to earn a buck. I would hope that I would enable her to access better opportunities. Once a woman goes down that road they are branded, and the mark is hard to shake. I am a bit bothered by the fact that Tamara Green is referred to as the "dead stripper tied to the alleged Manoogian Mansion party," by the media. She left behind children and family who know her as much more. The reality is that, no matter whether people may see the environment the clubs provide as immoral at worst or seedy at best, the work is legal. I do respect others' rights to ply a trade,.

As I listened to a number of women who professed to being exotic dancers call into a radio show to advocate for their position, the thing that struck me most was the opportunity this represented for others in our community. Wouldn't it be great if more people spoke out with similar passion about the state of education for our children, safety for our neighborhoods, or better employment opportunities in general?

Right time to right size

My son and I have a ritual in which we go for a swim (sort of) at the Y downtown, then go to Lafayette Coney Island for a bite. I say kind of, because he is still learning to swim, and I'm really just getting him more comfortable in the water. But he has certainly gotten the eating afterwards part down pat.

Yesterday, after the meal I took him down the block to view the demolition project at the site of the Lafayette Building in the heart of downtown Detroit. Of course, he thought the bulldozer sitting on the huge pile of rubble and the partially collapsed building were cool, and we took a couple of photos as a result. But as I stood there I thought about an excursion I took him on last weekend in Macomb County, to an establishment on M-59 where one of his friends was having a birthday party. I recall driving past a development of McMansions that sat where once a farm had stood, and was disturbed to see that none of the homes in subdivision appeared to be occupied.

As I stood there this weekend on Michigan Avenue taking the photo of my son in front of the demolition site I thought back to the image of the subdivision and realized that sprawl is now sickening to me. Sprawl has killed communities and is responsible for many of the problems we have in this region. People fled the city after the 1967 civil disturbance in Detroit, and as more people ran away from the city, the suburbs expanded into rural environs -- as developers convinced farmers they could make more money per acre longer term by selling for the money they were offering. (Which is why you'll notice the next time you drive past a new subdivision of those McMansions that there are no trees).

At a time when we have waayy too many vacant houses in the city and an overabundance of empty space in the central business district of the city that is the hub of the state, the fact that we are building entire subdivisions of homes 30 miles away is a travesty.

The Lafayette Building didn't have to die. I have a theory, that if we encourage colleges and universities to develop satellite campuses in the collection of empty skyscrapers in the central business district we could create a foundation for sustainable downtown redevelopment. We could guarantee a sizable population of people living and working downtown, and hopefully attract an intellectual class that we could ultimately motivate to help rejuvenate the city core. That is just my 2 cents. I know that those who are working on the rightsizing strategy for the city have similar ideas. I look forward to seeing their proposed master plan. I also hope that it will motivate developers to quit looking to build as far away from the city as possible.