How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass

by Aaron Foley

Overview

In one of Curbed: Detroit's Top 11 Books about Detroit, Aaron Foley, editor of The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook, offers the definitive inside look at one of America's most talked-about and least understood cities.

With a wry sense of humor, Foley, a native Detroiter, walks you through the most difficult questions about the Motor City, offering seven simple rules for making it there. Perfect for coastal transplants, wary suburbanites, unwitting gentrifiers, or start-up disruptors, this recently updated guidebook offers advice on everything from the glories of Vernors ginger ale to how to rehab a house to how to not sound like an uninformed racist. In twenty short chapters, Foley walks you through:

- How Detroiters do business

- The unofficial guide to enjoying Faygo

- How to be gay in Detroit

- How to raise a Detroit kid

- How to party in Detroit.

Both hilarious and insightful, this no-frills look at Motown is written for those who live there but also, as Vanity Fair put it, for anyone participating in contemporary global urbanization who would like to avoid behaving like a subjugating dick.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948742313
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	17 Years

About the Author

Aaron Foley grew up in Detroit, which gives him more street cred than a lot of others. He has written about Detroit for several local and national publications including CNN, Jalopnik, and MLive. He is the editor of The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook and was appointed Detroit's first Chief Storyteller by Mayor Mike Duggan in 2017. He (still) lives in Detroit.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

Chapter 1 Seven Rules for Living in Detroit: Or, How to Not Look Like a Dumbass the Moment You Get Here 11

Chapter 2 The Quick-and-Dirty Tour 19

Chapter 3 Difficult Questions About Detroit With Simple Answers 39

Chapter 4 How Not to Offend People When Talking About Detroit 55

Chapter 5 How You Should Be Talking About Detroit 63

Chapter 6 How to Be White In Detroit 69

Chapter 7 How to Make Peace With the Suburbs 81

Chapter 8 How to Drive in Detroit 91

Chapter 9 How to Deal With the Men in This Town 111

Chapter 10 How to Be a Woman in This Town 119

Chapter 11 How to Party Like a Detroiter 125

Chapter 12 How to Raise a Detroit Kid 139

Chapter 13 How to Do Business in Detroit 147

Chapter 14 How to House-Hunt in Detroit 159

Chapter 15 How to Renovate a Detroit House Without Being a Jackass 179

Chapter 16 How, if Possible, to Discuss Detroit's Most Difficult Topic 195

Chapter 17 How Not to Be a Jealous Jackass 203

Chapter 18 How to Take In Detroit Media 209

Chapter 19 How to Be Gay in Detroit 229

Chapter 20 How to Be a Detroit Hipster 235

Chapter 21 How to Be Black in Detroit 243

Closing Thoughts 249

Acknowledgements 252

About the Author 255

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Aaron Foley’s book is essential reading for anyone who cares about America’s cities and the racial and demographic differences that divide us. Foley delivers truths with humor and honesty.” —Celeste Headlee, broadcaster

Editorial Reviews

Aaron Foley's book is essential reading for anyone who cares about America's cities and the racial and demographic differences that divide us. Foley delivers truths with humor and honesty. —Celeste Headlee, broadcaster

Aaron Foley possesses a preternatural ability to parse issues of race, class, urbanism, and pop culture in a complex and generous way that avoids tired orthodoxies and knee-jerk justifications but is always on the proper side of social justice. — Vanity Fair

The picture Foley paints isn't always pretty, but it's always real. All readers — native Detroiters and new arrivals, citizens of America and residents of outer Mongolia — should thank him for telling it like it is. Isn't that what all books are supposed to do? — The Millions

From the Publisher