Neighborhood Reporting Lab

Perry Sylvester is a Detroit advocate. Here’s how he came to love the Motor City.

Perry Sylvester, a Utica native, champions Detroit’s future through community organizations. Meet Planet Detroit’s 2025 Neighborhood Reporters in this Q&A series, written by Neighborhood Reporters.

by Aderonke Ibironke March 11, 2025March 11, 2025

Perry Sylvester of Planet Detroit's spring 2025 Neighborhood Reporting Lab. Photo by Aderonke Ibironke.

Overview:

-Perry Sylvester supports journalism and resident education to build a city of which everyone can be proud.
-Sylvester envisions a future where community engagement fosters equitable and sustainable solutions to meet local needs.

This story is published as part of Planet Detroit’s 2025 Spring Neighborhood Reporting Lab, supported by The Kresge Foundation, to train community-based writers in profile writing. This year’s participants will focus on highlighting grassroots leaders driving positive change in Metro Detroit.

Perry Sylvester, a Utica native, says he recognized the true beauty of the city from the beginning. Long before the developments and investments, Sylvester knew Detroit was a national gem; ahead of its time, and often the indicator for the direction of the country.

Sylvester has developed into a fierce defender of Detroit. When he is not reading or engaging in local politics, he spends his time as a Detroit Documenter, recording city government events to help residents stay informed.

Sylvester’s commitment to the city does not come without accountability. While he appreciates the new and exciting things happening all around us, he is watchful that Detroit remains a place by and for the people. He says he believes Detroit, and the greater Detroit area, can reach its full potential as a thriving city through the power of community organizations. Sylvester supports journalism and efforts to educate residents in hopes of creating a city we can all be proud to call home.

Perry, how long have you been in the Metro Detroit area?

I was born in the Greater Detroit area, and I’ve spent most of my life here. I spent some time in East Lansing and Germany for my studies, but home has always been here in the Greater Detroit area. The connection has always been here, and I’ve been an advocate for Detroit.

Why have you always been a Detroit advocate? Can you explain where this affinity for Detroit comes from?

I’ve always seen Detroit as very much ahead of its time and ahead of the curve. If you want to know where things in the country are going, you can look at Detroit. The auto industry and suburban development model, and their eventual collapse, is a cautionary tale for what happens when you prioritize constant expansion and new money. When I hear folks talk about the challenges Detroit has faced, I tell them they’ll soon be facing similar challenges if they keep using the auto-centric growth model.

It’s the same thing with art; it drives impact in every medium. I remember sneaking in to see the jazz groups all around the city as a kid.

So as someone who’s been in the area for a while, how do you uplift and advocate for the city?

I’m always challenging the idea that Detroit is full of problems. Yes, Detroit has problems, but most of these are regional issues. For instance, not being able to maintain the roads is not a Detroit issue, rather an issue of surrounding areas, like Macomb, not wanting to support a regional transit system.

There is also the aspect of people wanting to hang on to certain bad experiences like the bankruptcy. It’s true there were a lot of problematic policies at that time, but those have largely been handled by now.

I support the work of organizations like Detroit Documenters and Outlier Media for telling the story of what’s really going on in the city. They are producing real and actionable info to help people improve their lives and gain access to resources — or bring attention to the need for resources. My hope is that one day we can operate as Greater Detroit with collaboration amongst the three counties and a connection with Windsor, creating a future where we all can thrive.

What do you do outside of Detroit Documenters?

Aside from keeping up with local journalism and government, I’m an avid reader and I enjoy researching the history of ideas. Currently, I’m interested in spreading awareness about the coming of a potential “polycrisis.” The attitude of society is that the world is all material, and we can continue to use our resources to build what we want because there is no greater purpose to our humanity.

However, I would argue that there is more to our reality, and humans need a sense of connection to something greater than themselves. The constant use of energy will eventually lead Western civilization to an impending doom.

So considering Detroit’s constant growth, what do you see as the future of Detroit?

It’s certainly not in the tax capture-driven developments that cause tension. The future lies with the community block clubs, community gardens, urban farms, homesteads, and the food co-ops, to name a few. These organizations are the seeds for transformative change. The new and shiny developments are so energy intensive and specialized that they may not be sustainable. As a person who loves going into the core city and seeing all the cool things happening here, I don’t know how long we can continue to divert resources to these projects.

With all your efforts to increase community engagement with local government, what is your hope for the city of Detroit?

I hope it continues to grow. I hope, through community engagement, we can keep coming up with creative responses to meet our needs in a way that is equitable and sustainable.