Kim Trent’s hometown loyalty is as tight as the Temptations’ harmonies and Miguel Cabrera’s hitting.
She was born and educated in Detroit, is a fourth-generation member of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, has two WSU degrees and is on its Board of Governors, reported at The Detroit News for four years and was a Capitol Hill aide to former Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick for six years.
But this week brought a tipping point that could cost the city the type of asset it wants to keep.
“I'm trying so hard to hang on to my beloved city, but I'm not going to continue to be a sitting duck,” the 45-year-old resident says online after back-to-back car thefts.
Her 2014 Ford Fusion was swiped Monday from a lot outside the Elmwood Park co-op townhouse where she and husband Ken Coleman live with their 5-year-old son. The car’s temporary replacement, a rented 2014 Dodge Charger, was boosted two nights later from the same site just east of downtown.
“I'm such an urban girl and the idea of living in the suburbs doesn't appeal to me at all,” Trent tells 5,000 Facebook friends. “But I've been forcing my husband to stay here and I'm pretty sure our time left in the D is short.”
Trent’s spouse of nearly 16 years also is a native Detroiter. Coleman has been a Michigan Chronicle reporter and editor, a Detroit Charter Revision Commission member (2009-12), a political adviser to Congressman Gary Peters and author of On This Day: African-American Life in Detroit. He’s now a congressional campaign consultant to Mayor Brenda Lawrence of Southfield.
“You can't make the business case for living here with a 5-year-old child: high auto insurance rates; challenged public schools; horrible city services, etc.,” he comments under his wife’s post. “I mentor here; I write books about here; I pray and party here. but I just can't live here anymore. Never thought I'd feel this way.”
The double theft draws more than 200 social media comments on Trent’s page and a prominent mention Friday by Free Press columnist Stephen Henderson. “It’s impossible for a city to thrive or rebuild,” he observes, “when it’s this hard for people who have choices about where they live to keep their property safe.”
That afternoon, Henderson added a personal reflection on – where else? – Facebook:
I'm in Detroit to stay -- because it's home, because it's what I know, and because it's important to be here now. But that's a stiff ask of people raising families here. (I am, too.)
Trent, student recruitment manager for an Ann Arbor nonprofit called Michigan Future, was elected to an eight-year term on Wayne State’s board in 2012.
This week’s double-whammy within 48 hours reflects a neighborhood pattern that’s tough to shrug off. After heist #1, she posted:
Thieves stole tires from three cars on my block on the same night my car was stolen and attempted to steal a fourth car's tires, so this is obviously a gang of professionals. Two of the other cars were my same make and model.
My neighbor's son owns a car like mine and his car has been stolen three times! She said one time they pushed it and stole his tires, and they stole it again on the very day he got it back from the shop!
In that same Tuesday thread, she comments presciently:
The rental car company sent me a shiny new Dodge Charger and my neighbor took one look at it and said, "Why did they send you that? That's going to get stolen too."
Friends react to Thursday’s update and talk of moving with anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance – the classic stages of grief, minus denial. This sampling includes posts that are condensed:
• Chastity Pratt Dawsey: Feel blessed you were not IN it when they stole it, like I was. We moved 90 days later. It's sad.
• Donyale Stephen-Atara: Damned shame supporters of the city are being run out one by one.
• Huel Perkins, Fox 2 Detroit: You deserve so much better.
• Tracey Bivens: I have lived in Southfield for almost 15 years and I have never had the things done to me that happened to me in Detroit -- cars being broken into constantly, windows to my home being broken into, etc.
• Shawn Ellis: After several break-ins over several years, it was two break-ins in eight days that finally prompted Liz and I to move in early 2007. We came home from a hockey game to find our home ransacked on a weeknight. . . . I'm still not happy about the move because of my sincere love for Detroit, but I have to admit that it was the right decision.
• Diane Hutcherson, AAA Michigan attorney: Please stay! I know it’s hard. (I've had a gun pulled on me, tires stolen and smash and grabs.) The problem is even though you move, unless none if what you do involves the city, you will be subjected to the same thing when you are here. We have to fight back. I've stopped a fight and on a separate occasion stopped a guy from continuing to beat the $%& out of his girlfriend. We all have to fight back and all fight back together. In the end, though, you have to do what's best for you.
• Olivia Engelbrecht Ezeobi: I know you are passionate about making a difference in Detroit, but safety comes first.
• Tracey Campbell: Crime issues are exactly what holds our great city back. . . . Like you, I am so torn on what to do. You should not feel terrified driving into your own neighborhood. . . . I do love the D and I see the hope for the future, although without significant investment in the crackdown on crime, we will never be the awesome city we dream of. . . . I pray that we do not have to resort to defending ourselves or moving from a place we call home.
• Valeria Bond: Don't give up on us now. Detroit is coming back. Also with the new elected officials I believe they will help get Detroit back on track.
• Catherine Ephraim, CBS Detroit traffic coordinator: Detroit has my heart. Always will. However, I like the peace of mind and lower bills I have living in Novi.
• Otis Mathis: We need you and your family who love Detroit to stay, but support what ever you decide.
• Nzingha Masani: I know how you feel! My van was stolen downtown.
• Melissa Millender: Come join us here in Plymouth. I love it.
• Alanna Jackson: The thieves ran me out. The crimes against us were escalating and I feared that the next time I would be home when they broke in our house. I didn't want to leave, but for the safety of my children I did in 2008. Haven't regretted it one bit.
• Errol Anthony Henderson: Issues of personal safety for yourself, loved ones and especially children trump most everything else. You can always return under different circumstances, but you and everyone deserves to be secure in their own person, in their own home, and in their everyday comings and goings. . . . Being born and raised in Detroit, it was a difficult conclusion for me to draw, as well.
• Marshall Tolbert: The question is how long can you really afford to stay. And at what price. It's not fair to your family to stay in prison, all locked up and still not secure. . . . I love Detroit but I could not have my lady not safe. Safety in not an option. . . . The really sad thing is the wolves are always watching and they know who you are and what you have. Move, stay safe.
• Gregory Trent: I love Detroit too. But now just from a distance.
The writer worked with Kim Trent at The Detroit News and commented on her Facebook thread Thursday.
Related coverage at Deadline:
Henderson: 'Unraveling' Detroit Is Losing the Battle to Keep Middle-Class Families, March 21