WDET News
- The Great Livonia War
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Jun 19, 2008Arts and Culture - Link to Audio
The battle for Livonia City Hall?Not many posts on the online forum Detroit Yes make it to the site’s Hall of Fame. But in 2006…forumers began a thread which remains poignant for Metro Detroit today. As part of WDET’s focus on the city of Livonia….Detroit Public Radio’s Amanda le Claire explores what happened when Metro Detroit went to war….
SOQ
It began when an Oak Park resident saw a military helicopter above their home. After asking other members of the online forum Detroit Yes if they had seen it… someone humorously suggested that Detroit must be waging war against Livonia. The suburban city had recently opted out of the SMART bus system and tensions were high. The Detroit Yes forumers then imagined a full-scale military campaign against the city which pit urbanites against suburbanites and working class against affluent. But in retrospect….the fake war between Livonia and Detroit is more than just humor. It reveals a lot about how Metro Detroiters view each other.
Cut- Boileau :”….the separation between communities”
Forum moderator Lowell Boileu says that anxiety…coupled with angst over the ongoing Iraq War…..propelled the thread into something extraordinary. Detroit Yes forumers developed an entire story line of how battles between the two cities would play out. It begins when Detroit declares supremacy over suburban life…as embodied by Livonia.
CUT – Drama pt 1
Members of the online forum Detroit Yes then escalate the fake war between Livonia and Detroit. Almost every metro Detroit community must choose sides in the show-down between suburban vs. urban life. This might be a good time to say that this dramatization in no way reflects the opinions of Detroit Public Radio.
CUT 2- Drama pt 2
They say humor is the great healer. And what this one online forum topic seems to show is that even though Metro Detroiters can sometimes feel vastly different from each other..we can still come together to laugh about it. Thanks to Chuck Nanni….Mike Blank….and Rob St Mary for lending their voices. For Detroit Public Radio…I’m Amanda le Claire.