The Pain of a City

Sometimes those of us who live on the west side of the state of Michigan complain about or demean the eastern side of the state--especially the city of Detroit.  Looking at recent stats from that city, however, causes one to be deeply saddened by what looks like an increasingly speedy death of our State's largest city unless a way of renewal is found.  

Here's some of the latest info:

"No major city in the US today looks more beleaguered than Detroit, where in October the average home price was $18,513 (yes, that's right) and some 45,000 properties were in some form of foreclosure.  The city's public schools, facing a $408 million budget deficit, were taken over by the State in December; dozens of schools have been closed since 2005 because of decline in enrollment.  Just 10 percent of Detroit's adult residents are college graduates, and in December the jobless rate was 21 percent. ...as its population dips further, the city's struggle to provide services and prevent blight across an ever-emptier landscape will only intensify."  From The Atlantic Monthly

For people (Christians, that is) who are called to seek the welfare of the city and to be agents of cultural renewal this looks like it could be one of the big projects in our State over the next 10 years.  What a challenge to seek to renew a city or as the word of the song we sang a couple of weeks ago at EverGreen put it, 

You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

[Verse 2]
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City