Oregon Town Considers Dumping 'Detroit'
A tiny tourist town trying hard to make a name for itself in the Cascades foothills of Oregon might ditch its "Detroit'' name in an effort to shed the unwanted baggage that comes with sharing a moniker with the Motor City.
Voters in Detroit, Ore., a 300-resident village best known for boating and skiing, will consider a ballot proposal on Election Day that would dump its name in favor of something considered far less notorious: Detroit Lake.
Builder Doug DeGeorge, who helped get the proposal on the ballot, said "Detroit'' carries an unsavory image.
"I bought the old Detroit Lake Motel, and we turned it into a beautiful lodge,'' DeGeorge told The Detroit News in Michigan for a story published Tuesday. "When people asked me what project I was working on, I'd tell them I was building a lodge in Detroit.
"When I said, 'Detroit,' everyone would scrunch up their noses and furrow their brows. They'd say, 'My God, what are you doing building a lodge there?'''
Franklin Dohanyos, owner of Franklin Publicity Inc., a marketing firm in the Detroit, Mich. suburb of Royal Oak, said many people believe Detroit is nothing but guns, murder and crime.
"The country has a very poor image of Detroit, and if you want to get away from that, it makes sense to look into changing the name,'' he said.
East Detroit, Mich. voters in 1992 changed their city's name to Eastpointe. Alabama, Maine and Texas all have towns named Detroit, and there's a Detroit Lakes in Minnesota.
DeGeorge expects Tuesday's measure will pass. "I mean, no offense to the people of Detroit,'' DeGeorge said of the Rust Belt city often associated with crime, corruption, failing schools and a shaky auto industry. "It's a big city, and it's been around forever. We're just a beautiful city in the heart of the mountains, so by adding the name 'Lake' to it, you let people know what it's all about.''
Detroit City Councilman Gary Brown said Oregon residents are making a big mistake.
"Everybody has the right to change their name,'' Brown said. "But we're going to be the great Detroit that we once were. In the future, they'll be sorry they did that.''
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Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
