The Queen City could learn a lot from the Motor City

There are a multitude of comparisons one can make between Buffalo (“the Queen City of the Great Lakes”) and Detroit (the “Motor City”) in these modern times of a weakened economy and the depressing spinoffs it creates.

Both cities had relied on heavy industry and were magnets for skilled and unskilled laborers alike to find employment, settle down and create neighborhoods and friendships they thought would last forever. Fast forward to the present day.

Detroit’s population dropped 25 percent in the past decade, according to USA Today. At slightly less than 714,000, it is at the lowest count since 1910.

The 2010 census figures revealed that the city lost, on average, one resident every 22 minutes between 2000 and 2010. Buffalo lost approximately half of its population from 1950 to 2000, according to the New York State Comptroller’s Office.

This population loss is the fourth highest among large cities nationwide. Buffalo has had five consecutive decades of declining population levels.

That brings us to the now-infamous Clint Eastwood commercial broadcast during the Super Bowl on Feb. 5. The plug was for Chrysler and forged a solid connection between the determination of Detroit and the recovery of the American automotive industry.

I admit seeing a thread of politics when I saw the ad, but if I lived in Detroit, I would have been proud of it.

“People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared, because this isn’t a game,” Eastwood says in the commercial. “The people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together; now Motor City is fighting again.”

He also said if we cannot find a way through tough times, we make one. It’s tough to argue with a guy so rugged and so unflinchingly strong. He’s even standing in a grimy, darkened alley, not a lush golf course.

“This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do, the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. Yeah, it’s halftime America. And, our second half is about to begin,” he concludes.

Buffalo needs a Clint Eastwood.

Our voices were raised the same Super Bowl weekend not in pride but in indignation. Why? Because New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had negative comments about hotel accommodations here. That’s it? Brady’s assessment wasn’t worthy of a response yet plenty of people rose up out of their chairs and said they were mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

Detroit’s “Dirty Harry” would have turned the other cheek and gone back to work. Aren’t we all a little tired of defending ourselves whenever a talk show or second-rate comedian serves up some smart remark about Buffalo?

Last month, Detroit firefighters were surrounded by an unruly mob as they tried to do their job on the city’s west side.

Two persons were saved from the flames, but a man and woman inside the home died. Detroit police told television station WJBK it took officers 13 minutes to get to the scene. They say considering travel time and other emergencies in the city that night, the response time was “acceptable.” The president of the firefighters’ union said his men and women are often “unprotected” on the streets.

Yet people stay and make their way out of tough times in Detroit, just as Eastwood said. And they are doing the same thing in Buffalo.

It’s time we devoted less time to submitting suggestions to the Food channel and concentrated on helping build a better community. It should not require a road trip to Detroit to discover how hard work pays off and that giving up is not an option. It’s not about hotel rooms and chicken wings.

It’s halftime in Buffalo. What will you do to make our engines roar in the second half?

(David F. Sherman a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York, a group of community newspapers with a combined circulation of approximately 75,000 homes. Opinions expressed here are those of the author. He can be reached at dsherman@beenews.com)