Looking back over the letters received over the course of 2014, we find some interesting incongruities. Enjoy this look back:
PLEASE KEEP THE IMPORTANT POLITICAL COVERAGE
Please continue focusing on the educational crisis that persists within Detroit. The more our citizens are aware of the issue, the closer we are to changing that system.
DUMP ALL THE STUPID POLITICAL COVERAGE
I miss Real Detroit, where I could find out what was going on each week without all the political bullshit. I've experienced black on white racism in this city and know the opposite to exist. If we want to rebuild this city we need to forget about stupid past hatreds. I think we are doing so.
TO HELL WITH THE HIPSTER BULLSHIT
What a load of hipster bullshit. Detroit Homecoming is nothing more than an opportunity to pitch development (gentrification) opportunities to investors, I don't disagree there. However, you couldn't possibly have approached this subject from a more privileged and selfish angle. Detroit doesn't exist solely for the benefit of artists and struggling writers. There are hundreds of thousands of residents who do mind the failed public services because they depend on them to survive. People who don't live in "edgy" neighborhoods and "tolerate" the social ills here because they choose to, but because they're deeper in poverty than you can imagine and they don't have a fucking choice.
The "boobs" running Detroit shouldn't give a damn about keeping the city "interesting" to you and your friends. Not if poverty and dysfunction is what interests you. If you're going to oppose development and gentrification, go for it. Stand up and fight for the residents who are being displaced and have nowhere to go. But if you just want to preserve your dystopian hipster theme park, you can go fuck yourself.
HIPSTERS MAKE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS
Laugh at the "hipsters" all you want, but at least they're doing something. You have to change the mindset of the region before the city can salvage itself.
WE LOVE JACK LESSENBERRY
Jack, Congratulations on your 1,000th article. It is one of the meatier columns in the magazine. I always want to catch your latest look at Detroit and its residents, and Michigan. The experts you contact to back up your sensible and fair opinions are names I pay attention to. Usually the regular news and other newspapers take notice and begin to follow their activities. Thank you for digging beneath the surface and getting to the basics of a confusing world, city, neighborhood. A thousand articles is not enough. Keep getting them out there.
DUMP JACK LESSENBERRY
Jack Lessenberry is truly a delusional man. I am surprised that you allow him to write for you.
METRO TIMES: SUPER-LEFT, BLEEDING HEART LIBERALS
I'm definitely no Republican or conservative, but all of you damned super-left, bleeding-heart liberals need to petition [former New York City Mayor] Michael Bloomberg to create his own nation where firearms are completely restricted, even for law-abiding citizens, everyone sings "Kumbaya," and nothing bad ever, ever happens in Bloomtopia.
You're great, Metro Times, but your hippie, ultra-left viewpoints get old real quick. Tighten up.
METRO TIMES: BIASED AND OFFENSIVE RADICAL RIGHT-WING MACHINE
Your so-called "piece" on Vice President Biden visiting Detroit was biased and offensive. I had no idea your publication was nothing but a radical right-wing machine. I don't know what happened to your company, but years ago it used to be the leading publication in what is happening in Detroit. Now it is just trash — probably part of what was pictured in your photographs. I will never pick up another Metro Times again. To be continued ...
