Something worth dreaming about: A city with many cultural events
What a whirlwind we all experienced this week in Hamtramck.
During last weekend, there was a 5K Paczki run and another event held to promote Tuesday’s actual Paczki Day, and now that that’s over, there is a major music festival shaping up for this weekend.
Whew!
Hamtramck may have its financial woes, but we are still a strong community. It’s heartwarming to see so many people come out and support our cultural events, and it’s even greater to see so many volunteers work so hard to organize these events.
With winter stubbornly hanging on, it’s a nice and needed diversion to the never-ending cold and snow.
Hamtramck still has a few more cultural events coming up during the year, but all of this activity this week had us imagining things. What if we had another music event in the summer – besides the Labor Day Festival? We’re thinking something along the lines of a block party situation.
Or what if we had several block parties scattered throughout the summer in different locations?
Most big cities have some kind of weekend festival going on in various neighborhoods, and although Hamtramck is a small town, it is rich with ethnic culture and young people who like to make music.
Of course all of this takes planning and finding people to volunteer to make it happen. But if there are enough dreamers here, it’s something worth expanding on and talking about.
It’s been said that more and more folks are moving into Hamtramck to escape the high rents that midtown Detroit is now demanding. Let’s cultivate this growing arts community so we can keep folks here instead of experiencing the constant stream of people moving in and moving out a few years later.
Our city councilmembers have been increasingly complaining of being kept in the dark about the city’s finances because our emergency manager won’t share information.
Well, perhaps there is another task they could undertake and get rolling, and that’s generating business and cultural events in our city.
