Sports, Spirits: Motown Blues

Not only did the Detroit Lions feast upon the Washington Redskins on Sunday, but the Tigers sit atop the American League's Central Division. The Tigers' run for the pennant prompted Sports Illustrated to credit the team with lifting a sagging city's spirits. Humans cannot live without clichés.

Winning teams make fans feel better; they sometimes boost community morale. The glory years of the Steel Curtain, for instance, lent Pittsburgh a modicum of relief from decades of industrial decline. The football Steelers proved no substitute for jobs in mills, however; despite four Super Bowls in six years, Pittsburgh's slide persisted. The Steelers have won two more Super Bowls since, yet despite pockets that appeal to observers such as ourselves the golden age has passed and will not return.

Detroit, too, confronts a dismal present and a difficult future. Although Motown remains a very large city, its population of just under 1 million is down considerably from its 1.8-million peak. Vast swatches stand vacant. While Detroit lacks the romantic mythology associated with certain other big cities, it still summons memories -- Hudson's Department Store, the London Chop House, ethnic neighborhoods, the Tigers and Al Kaline, the Red Wings and Gordie Howe, the Lions and Bobby Layne, and Motown tunes.

Detroit recently elected basketball legend Dave Bing mayor. The city has called on Robert Bobb -- a former Richmond city manager -- to bail out its schools. Detroit boasts spiffy stadiums. Here and there urban sodbusters will return. Islands of prosperity will exist. The smart set will patronize bars serving 125 beers and 37 different martinis. Detroit will not come back.

The future of Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and similar relics will require a rethinking of cities generally, and, probably, lower expectations and more modest ambitions. And we're still rooting for the Tigers and Justin Verlander, Goochland's very own.