Barack Obama visited Detroit last night. He still wants us to have hope. | Opinion

Barack Obama wants us to think about cities, and taking risks.  

Obama was the surprise guest speaker at the Kresge Foundation’s centennial celebration, held Tuesday night at the Detroit Institute of Arts. And boy, was it a surprise. The dignity and intellectualism with which Obama approached the office of the presidency has aged really, really well, and that quiet depth was on full display in the former president's on-stage conversation with Kresge President and CEO Rip Rapson. On stage at the Detroit Film Theatre, Obama talked about Detroit’s resurgence, Kresge's contributions over the last century, America at this moment, the auto industry bailout, the nature of public service and what he hopes his legacy will be.

But he started with cities, and what they can teach us.

Cities are imperfect, because we are imperfect

I've never been in the same room as Obama — I joined the Free Press Editorial Board just a little too late to be a part of his endorsement interviews, which I will always be sad about — and I have to tell you it was a little bit surreal. That's him, right there, in an open-collar white shirt and dark (not tan) suit, more weathered than when he left office, but still the president we remember, talking about people and places and things in our city.

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An early stop for Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign, Rapson recalled, was a visit to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where then-U.S. Sen. Obama argued that cities should be economic engines and centers of culture. For a presidential candidate to tie himself to urbanism, Rapson said, was both unusual and audacious.

Almost two decades later, cities are in a precarious position.

Here in Detroit, absent a full quotient of daytime workers thanks to the move to remote work wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, offices are too often empty, and the businesses whose success is attendant on the presence of those workers are struggling. Investments in transit have lagged. At the same time, housing prices continue to soar, making the cost of living prohibitive to many, particularly those with the longest residency in cities.  

With all of that, Rapson asked Obama, would he make the same case today?

“Absolutely,” Obama replied.  

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Imperfection is inherent in the nature of cities, the former president explained. Our disparate backgrounds and cultural identities and ideas and insights are the collision of our imperfect humanity, and that's catalyst, creating new and vital energy and innovation.

"The thing that I would also say today is more true now than ever — it is vital for us to bridge some of the biases between cities, suburbs, rural communities," Obama said.

More than 80% of Americans now live in metropolitan areas, and wage growth, jobs and job growth inevitably followed.

"A lot of other communities felt left behind as cities pulled in resources. That may sound strange for a city like Detroit, that felt it was going in the opposite direction," Obama said. But across the country, it's more readily apparent, and it has contributed to the acceleration of political polarization.

Everyone in a region should feel like they're part of, and invested in, the core city, even if they don't live there. Building those bridges takes intention, Obama said, "And we haven't always gotten that part of it right."

All of that, the president said, has "manifested in some odd politics."

"Odd?" Rapson asked archly.

"Well, problematic," Obama replied.

Which brings us to risk.

The calculus of risk and kindness

Kresge has been able to effect great change with its philanthropic dollars because it pursued an unusual investment strategy, Obama said. Rapson, who became head of the foundation in 2006, pushed the institution to understand risk and where Kresge's dollars could be most effective, yielding significant investments in early childhood education, development of public spaces, the arts — and, of course, a huge investment in the Detroit bankruptcy grand bargain that saved the art collection at the DIA and protected the pensions of Detroit retirees from decimation by the city's creditors.

Philanthropies are too often cautious, Obama said, spending dollars on the same sorts of safe investments, with the same safe outcomes. Kresge, he said, took calculated risks, using its resources to "jumpstart" the efforts of regular Detroiters to make change.

"Those of us who have so much," Obama said, "the least we can do is take some risks on behalf of those who don't."

Obama was speaking of Kresge and other wealthy foundations and individuals, but it seemed like a glimpse at a bigger idea.

When Rapson asked Obama about his daughters, his pride in their accomplishments was clear. But it is more important, Obama said, that they are kind.

I wonder what America would be like if we were more kind? If more of us accepted our own security, and pledged to risk just a sliver of it on those who have less instead of guarding it jealously, as though we were under constant attack from our fellow citizens, each of whom feels the same way? What if the lessons of our cities — that our differences and imperfections are stimulating, not threatening — held true for our country?

I miss hope. It feels like it went missing, sometime in the last eight years. But Tuesday night, I remembered what it was like. It's worth the risk.

Nancy Kaffer is editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it in print or online.