I will be thinking about these two ads, one from Apple, the other from Chrysler, and think about the way the city, its places and its people, really are the central character.
The city in both happens to be Detroit, and the auto ad literally enacts 20th century urban history and flight to the suburb, and shows the hollowing of the city.
The bike ad shows community and green shoots in the hollowed city.
They're a striking pair, both are lovely, and even though they are selling luxury consumer goods, they still say something about the value of the city. (And of course, the bike is more useful in creating value as distinct from wealth!)
Detroit's much bigger than Salem of course, but this way of experiencing the city is part of what I hope Sunday Streets can move towards.
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| Houses in Detroit |
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| Adaptation of "Before I Die" it looks like |
1 comment:
I was born in Detroit and have lived in various places around Michigan at different phases in my life. I see many disturbing similarities between Salem, Detroit, and its suburbs. One of the things I found initially attractive about Salem was that it had a familiarity with the midsize midwestern cities where I grew up. Of course those similarities were from the midwestern cities of 20+ years ago. Unfortunately Salem seems to be making many of the mistakes they did.
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