Deep Pockets

Pocket Neighborhoods

While driving through Northend on my way to Hamtramck yesterday, I had a thought about "Good Pockets" not just in Detroit, but in many cities.

Pocket neighborhoods are little areas that are in better shape than other areas. In Detroit the pockets are fairly small, yet powerful. In bigger cities, the pockets can be much larger, with less stress in between. These deeper pockets are because cities (like New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, L.A., San Francisco) literally have deeper pockets.

People coming into Detroit don't always see them because they are off the main drag, or they only look at the number of houses that are in disrepair. They see it through the lens of the news, the statistics, their built-up fears, or any number of things that don't actually measure the strength of a neighborhood.

Love Your City

It's easy to love cities or neighborhoods where every street is pothole free, and every lawn is manicured. Detroit is rough around the edges, and the middle ... ok in a lot of spots, but it has character and a history and is populated by (guess what?) human beings. Human beings who struggle with life, money, keeping up with family, love, self-esteem, addiction, foreclosures... everything that anyone can deal with.

So whether your city is well-kept, middling, or downright struggling to make ends meet, appreciate the beauty that lies beneath: the relationships between neighbors. That's the reason that we have good neighborhoods is the connection between the people that live with us. Pocket neighborhoods grow when we open up our hearts, and our pockets grow.