The hardest thing for me to do on any given day is clear the cobwebs out of my head so I can start writing. This is what I’m trying to do now…get the juices flowing. As a result this is going to ramble a bit.

Yesterday, long after the cobwebs had cleared I was winding down going through Michigan links, starting with Black At Michigan, then moving to The Goodspeed Update, and from there to my man Mark Dilley.

Who turned me back on to Detroit Summer.

Detroit Summer is a summer program built on the old Freedom School model. Teaching kids about their heritage, but more importantly teaching them how to organize and how to re-imagine Detroit. I don’t think we have anything like that here in Baltimore. One of their projects this summer was to interview various older progressives in Detroit in the wake of the Superbowl, trying to get a grip on different types of development options. I can’t front, after almost 30 years of watching the Pontiac Lions play there’s nothing like having them back in the city. And I tried my damndest to get back to the city in time for the Superbowl, knowing it was my one chance to get into the A-list gigs for free.

But this type of development is really unsustainable. It shouldn’t take youth to point that out, but it’s going to take youth to bring home new solutions.