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A little back story:
I grew up in the Detroit East Side suburb of Grosse Pointe. The Pointe was a pretty great place to grow up. It was a nice, safe area, but was located less than 10 minutes from downtown. The house that I grew up in was 4 blocks from the ghetto in one direction, and 2 blocks in another. My area was referred to as the ‘Cabbage Patch’, a neighborhood of relatively modest houses belonging to working parents trying to get their kids in a good school system. In the summer, with the windows open you could often hear gunfire in the distance. I am not kidding. Once I found a slug from what looked like a handgun in the middle of our balcony.
I remember hearing that Grosse Pointe Park had more police per square mile than any other city in America. Most of them were doing what we locals half-jokingly referred to as ‘border patrol’, which is exactly what it sounds like. I realize that it is not politically correct, but it was a fact of life that I grew up with. Detroit is an interesting and complex place, and communities do what they can to survive, and many fail.
Anyway, it was a cool place to grow up, because there was always the city, just a few blocks away. With it’s constant promise of homeless that would buy alcohol for you in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. There were many un-policed areas where speed limits and road laws don’t exist. Breaking into abandoned buildings often proved a good distraction for a couple hours. And on the rare occasion that you did run into the law, you were often just told to go home, and whatever contraband you had would be confiscated. The police had bigger things to worry about than a bunch of suburban kids causing relatively little trouble.
I’m not justifying any of it, but it was certainly fun at the time.
Today:
I had to make a quick run down the Fisher Building, which is located downtown just west of Woodward (Detroit’s Main Street). I was leaving around three o’clock, and since this was my first day commuting on the newly finished (well, it will probably never be totally finished) 750 I decided to take city roads and side streets home. I had my camera with me, and decided to snap a couple pics of the bike in front of various things/places.
Detroit has a lot of little pockets of what used to be nice neighborhoods, and are now mostly abandoned. This building is located downtown off Woodward near Wayne State University’s campus. Personally I find the fake castle exterior interesting, but very tacky. There are a few other abandoned buildings on this block, many more empty lots that used to have homes and buildings on them, and a couple of people still holding out. As is typical in the city, across the street from this building there is a nice house in what looks like the middle of a successful restoration.
Rivertown:
My second summer home from college I took a job as a waiter at the Soup Kitchen Saloon, in Detroit’s Rivertown. The area was originally a shipping port and industrial center. Most of the shipping and manufacturing has stopped, but the area had undergone a transition into a restaurant and entertainment district. There were a lot of bars and restaurants, an outdoor concert venue, and some nice loft buildings. It was one of only a few vital areas in Detroit at the time.
The Soup, as I will call it, was a blast to work at. The job itself sucked, but the people I worked with were fun, and I always had cash. I also saved almost no money that summer. Most was spent at other bars and after hours clubs.
The Soup started out as a mariners’ bar in the 1850’s and had since turned into Detroit’s home of the blues. We had live music most nights, featuring some pretty big names in blues, and usually did a pretty good business. We also had an owner and manager (as well as waiters) that like to disappear for extended stretches of the evening and indulge in coke binges. I wasn’t really into that, so I struck a deal with the bartender, and ended up drinking during most of my shifts.
I am still friends with that bartender.
Anyway, in the late 90’s Detroit approved casinos, and the original plan was to put them on the waterfront. Many of us thought that was stupid. Casinos don’t need views, because they don’t have windows. They don’t want you to be reminded that there is a world outside of the gambling, although I guess the hotels would have a nice view of the river.
The casino owners, with the help of the city, took ownership of most of the area. Landowners that wouldn’t sell mostly found their buildings condemned and taken away, citing eminent domain. The owners were then given a ‘fair price’ for their property.
A few years went by, temporary casinos were built elsewhere, they became a lot less temporary, and when the new ones started construction, they were all in different areas. Now Rivertown is a shell of what it once was. There are a couple bars and businesses, but most of it is abandoned and torn down.
It bums me out whenever I drive through it. Another reminder that you can’t go back home.
Here is the lot the Soup used to stand on:
And another picture looking in the opposite direction:
I grew up in the Detroit East Side suburb of Grosse Pointe. The Pointe was a pretty great place to grow up. It was a nice, safe area, but was located less than 10 minutes from downtown. The house that I grew up in was 4 blocks from the ghetto in one direction, and 2 blocks in another. My area was referred to as the ‘Cabbage Patch’, a neighborhood of relatively modest houses belonging to working parents trying to get their kids in a good school system. In the summer, with the windows open you could often hear gunfire in the distance. I am not kidding. Once I found a slug from what looked like a handgun in the middle of our balcony.
I remember hearing that Grosse Pointe Park had more police per square mile than any other city in America. Most of them were doing what we locals half-jokingly referred to as ‘border patrol’, which is exactly what it sounds like. I realize that it is not politically correct, but it was a fact of life that I grew up with. Detroit is an interesting and complex place, and communities do what they can to survive, and many fail.
Anyway, it was a cool place to grow up, because there was always the city, just a few blocks away. With it’s constant promise of homeless that would buy alcohol for you in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. There were many un-policed areas where speed limits and road laws don’t exist. Breaking into abandoned buildings often proved a good distraction for a couple hours. And on the rare occasion that you did run into the law, you were often just told to go home, and whatever contraband you had would be confiscated. The police had bigger things to worry about than a bunch of suburban kids causing relatively little trouble.
I’m not justifying any of it, but it was certainly fun at the time.
Today:
I had to make a quick run down the Fisher Building, which is located downtown just west of Woodward (Detroit’s Main Street). I was leaving around three o’clock, and since this was my first day commuting on the newly finished (well, it will probably never be totally finished) 750 I decided to take city roads and side streets home. I had my camera with me, and decided to snap a couple pics of the bike in front of various things/places.
Detroit has a lot of little pockets of what used to be nice neighborhoods, and are now mostly abandoned. This building is located downtown off Woodward near Wayne State University’s campus. Personally I find the fake castle exterior interesting, but very tacky. There are a few other abandoned buildings on this block, many more empty lots that used to have homes and buildings on them, and a couple of people still holding out. As is typical in the city, across the street from this building there is a nice house in what looks like the middle of a successful restoration.
Rivertown:
My second summer home from college I took a job as a waiter at the Soup Kitchen Saloon, in Detroit’s Rivertown. The area was originally a shipping port and industrial center. Most of the shipping and manufacturing has stopped, but the area had undergone a transition into a restaurant and entertainment district. There were a lot of bars and restaurants, an outdoor concert venue, and some nice loft buildings. It was one of only a few vital areas in Detroit at the time.
The Soup, as I will call it, was a blast to work at. The job itself sucked, but the people I worked with were fun, and I always had cash. I also saved almost no money that summer. Most was spent at other bars and after hours clubs.
The Soup started out as a mariners’ bar in the 1850’s and had since turned into Detroit’s home of the blues. We had live music most nights, featuring some pretty big names in blues, and usually did a pretty good business. We also had an owner and manager (as well as waiters) that like to disappear for extended stretches of the evening and indulge in coke binges. I wasn’t really into that, so I struck a deal with the bartender, and ended up drinking during most of my shifts.
I am still friends with that bartender.
Anyway, in the late 90’s Detroit approved casinos, and the original plan was to put them on the waterfront. Many of us thought that was stupid. Casinos don’t need views, because they don’t have windows. They don’t want you to be reminded that there is a world outside of the gambling, although I guess the hotels would have a nice view of the river.
The casino owners, with the help of the city, took ownership of most of the area. Landowners that wouldn’t sell mostly found their buildings condemned and taken away, citing eminent domain. The owners were then given a ‘fair price’ for their property.
A few years went by, temporary casinos were built elsewhere, they became a lot less temporary, and when the new ones started construction, they were all in different areas. Now Rivertown is a shell of what it once was. There are a couple bars and businesses, but most of it is abandoned and torn down.
It bums me out whenever I drive through it. Another reminder that you can’t go back home.
Here is the lot the Soup used to stand on:
And another picture looking in the opposite direction:
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