Robocop statue: A youthful lift for Detroit or a monument to blight?
Old movies can cast a nostalgic glow on just about any setting 鈥� even a struggling Rust Belt city such as Detroit.
That鈥檚 what a group of youthful idealists say they are hoping to do with a sculpture of, yes, Robocop 鈥� the hero of a 1980鈥檚 film of the same name in which a cop dies and is reborn as a cyborg in a dystopian Motor City.
It鈥檚 been a while since Detroit was mentioned in the same breath as 鈥渃ool.鈥� But add this idea 鈥� and the viral attention it has garnered online 鈥� to the moody, super-hip Super Bowl ad fronted by rapper Eminem, and Detroit is, if not exactly 鈥済rooving,鈥� at least stepped a bit out of its old rut in the pop-culture imagination.
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While these upticks on the zeitgeist meter hardly mean a major turnaround for a city that has suffered record manufacturing and population losses over decades, they do represent something else that has been in short supply around the once- booming home of the American car industry 鈥� youthful energy and maybe even a tad of whimsy.
On the other hand, given the negative image of Detroit in the film, observers are mixed on whether or not the Robocop sculpture is a less-than-useful form of 鈥渂light chic.鈥�
The idea took off online barely two weeks ago, when the city鈥檚 mayor responded to a Twitter inquiry about the sculpture idea. When the mayor鈥檚 office tweeted, 鈥淭here are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop,鈥� a social media campaign erupted online, raising $25,000 that was then matched by a private donor.
鈥淚t just hit a sweet spot,鈥� says Jerry Paffendorf, creative director for Imagination Station, the non-profit that helped organize the fund-raising campaign through its website Kickstarter.
鈥淒etroit usually has this profile of being scary and a place you don鈥檛 want to come to,鈥� he says, adding, 鈥渂ut this is just something that makes Detroit feel more welcoming.鈥�
The proposal certainly fits into a trend already well underway in many rustbelt cities 鈥� positioning art as a magnet for urban renewal.
鈥淭he artist communities bring exactly the kind of young, energetic energy that these cities need,鈥� says Syracuse University pop culture expert Robert Thompson, adding 鈥渋t鈥檚 what many cities from New York鈥檚 Soho to New Orleans have done and done well.鈥�
Whenever any city tries to promote itself, it faces a balancing act between the image it wishes to portray and the issues it faces, says La Salle University communications professor Michael Smith.
An 鈥渋mage鈥� is composed of everything we know about a place, filtered through our value systems, he says via email.
鈥淭here are many ways that we 鈥渒now鈥� about a place 鈥� news media coverage (including the hapless Detroit Lions), fictional portrayals (the movies, 鈥淩obocop鈥� 鈥淕rand Torino,鈥� and TV鈥檚 鈥�Detroit 187鈥�), messages created by city, spotlight events that draw public and media attention,鈥� he points out.
The real trick 鈥� and the reason why the Super Bowl spot struck a chord around Michigan and beyond, he says, 鈥渋s to tell the story of how the city is trying to claw back.鈥�
The meaning from this comes subtly, he adds, 鈥渢o the extent that these messages spur conversations about what鈥檚 next for Detroit, they鈥檙e meaningful.鈥�
To the degree that they sentimentalize and overlook the ravages of displaced workers and manufacturing flight, they are what John McCarthy, a professor of urban history at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, calls 鈥淩ust Belt chic.鈥�
He maintains that viewing blighted cities as blank slates for outsiders to compose upon 鈥� artists or not 鈥� is arrogant and undermines genuine progress towards renewal. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see anything in the Robocop image that is positive for the city of Detroit,鈥� he says, noting that the primary message it sends is at best, 鈥渁n ironic one.鈥�
RELATED: Detroit's next step to combat blight: buy and rehab vacant homes
