The Best Blog You’ve Never Read

I’ve got to give another plug for one of my favorite blogs – not one I read daily, because the posts are infrequent, only one every two weeks or so – but one I always make a point to drop by from time to time, because it always features a compelling story.  I’m referring to detroitblog, which chronicles the lives of people who are still hanging on (in many cases by their fingertips) in the desolation that is Detroit and trying to make their community a better place.

The latest feature is about a group of people working to preserve a fabulous old Polish Catholic church, St. Albertus, abandoned by the church hierarchy in 1990 but still important in the memories of the people for whom it once was the hub of the community.

The fabulous nave of St. Albertus

They don't make them like this anymore

Like many of the stories featured at detroitblog, this one speaks to the human desire to maintain a sense of familiarity and continuity, lest we become untethered in our lives and forget where we came from.  And like the other stories featured, it is overlaid with a sense of melancholy for what used to be.

Many of the stories at detroitblog are populated by the elderly – those who remember what once was.  But sprinkled throughout are also stories of those who came along after the decay set in, and are just doing their best to restore a sense of community to the tattered remnants.  The next story down the page features a group who have become the unlikely backbone of a largely deserted neighborhood – a bike club started by two brothers who developed a passion for customizing their personal bicycles and soon found themselves role models and father figures for the children in the neighborhood, and then leaders of an informal community service group.

Mike and Dwayne Neeley, leaders of the East Side Riders

Example of the Neeley's handiwork, parked in front of Dwayne's daughter's home and bike club headquarters

Stories such as these abound at detroitblog.  They can’t be done justice in summary.  They tell the stories of people who have little or nothing and yet still find it within themselves to give of what they have to those with even less.  For those suffering from teabagger fatigue, detroitblog is a welcome tonic.  Go there, read, and be healed.  Any time you need a reason to feel gratitude or hope for the future, you can always find detroitblog in our blogroll.  The posts may be infrequent, but what detroitblog lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in impact.