i think what i hate most about detroit is when people refer to it as “The D”

Today I read an article that theberrics.com published about Wild In The Streets - Detroit. In the first paragraph, the author wrote something very negative about the city of Detroit. What the author wrote really pissed me off, so I decided to stick up for myself and the rest of the skaters in the Detroit area with this email I wrote. I don’t expect anything from the author of the article, what has been said has been said, but I really want him, and whoever else may get a chance to read it (I CC’d steve and eric) to know that Detroit is a great place with a great skate scene. Heres what I wrote:

Hello Ryan. My name is Joseph Bowles, I’m a 24-year-old skater from the Metro Detroit area. I just read the article on today’s Aberican Times about Wild in the Streets - Detroit, and I am truly appalled that you, or whomever wrote the article had the nerve to say:

“Traffic seemed like less of an issue this year though, I guess because all of the cars in Detroit are either on fire or abandoned on the side of the road.” 

Wild in the Streets was with out a doubt the most amazing and positive things I have ever been a part of in my entire life. Not just because I was one of several hundred skaters riding through the city, but because I was riding through Detroit. I earned my bachelors degree from Wayne State University, which is located in the heart of midtown, Detroit and I now work at the University. I love the city of Detroit. Just because the media only covers the bad things that happen here does not make it a bad city. Detroit has so much positive energy and so many great and amazing things in it. It might not be as glamorous as LA or New York, but it certainly a deserves a better reputation than what the author of the article gave it, saying that all the cars are either on fire or abandoned. That’s a very cheap, and negative shot to take at the city and all the skaters that participated in Wild in the Streets. Especially when the article should be reporting about how amazing the day turned out to be. Sure, there were positive things mentioned, but only after the comment about how all the streets are filled with burning and abandoned cars. 

Detroit is a city that doesn’t get attention from the skate industry like many other cities, and a lot of it has to do with the bad reputation given to the city by the media, and now the author of this article. I speak for myself and the hundreds of other skaters when I say that having the chance to meet and skate with people like Ed Templeton, Andrew Reynolds and all the rest of the Emerica dudes was one of the most unforgettable things that has ever happened for Michigan’s skate scene. We need more things like this. Detroit is not just a crime filled shit hole, it is a great place with hundreds of great skaters who don’t deserve to continue to be overlooked by the rest of the skate industry. Let the media say what it wants to about Detroit, but don’t add to the negative reputation through the skate world, and especially through something as big and powerful as The Berrics. We need to be represented by respectable people and companies in skateboarding so Detroit and the entire state of Michigan can be looked at as a destination for skateboarders from all over to come and have fun, and not looked at as a place to be avoided.We dont want to continued to be overlooked and passed up and we certainly dont deserve to be.