A trip through Detroit's east side

[Zooks]

Bike looks beautiful in those pics.

Good to see it 'in the wild' - where it should be.

[bradleymaynar]

Great pics! It's interesting to see how things change over one's lifetime. Some of it good, some of it bad.

Thanks for sharing.

Brad bt

[duaneage]

Go here for even more about detroit. Sad to see what has happened there, a lesson for all of us.

Select the link on the left marked Tour Detroit. The host of this site has spent years trying to save the grand old buildings that are still left.

www.detroityes.com

[themess]

Thanks for the tour. I used to go to Detroit on business once in a while, so I'd seen snippets. You tied some of them together.

It's sad to see what has happened, especially because it was entirely preventable. My first visit to Detroit was in 1984, for just a day. Flew in to the main airport, rented a car, went downtown on I-94, and returned in the evening. I didn't see a single Japanese brand car on the trip. The car companies were (and still are) completely inbred. Thinking that you can learn something from your competitors is heresy, and people who thought that were figuratively burned at the stake. (I worked for suppliers, met with car company people, so I've seen it first hand.) Now Ford is run by an outsider, but he wasn't let in until the company is all but bankrupt.

The Lustron steel houses have an interesting story. To read about it, check out:

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Detailed/12270.shtml

Tom

[duaneage]

We are about to watch chrysler be sold for 14% of what the germans paid for it 9 years ago. GM is in horrible shape, their GMAC unit is getting crushed by defaults in the mortgage business just as the Unions are letting it be known that not only are concessions not on the table, they are looking for a bump up in what they have now.

Detroit itself is a textbook exampole of how not to run a city, and further what happens when white flight, runaway crime, corruption, and faith in one or two industries combine.

My step brother lives in Troy and it's his opinion they should just raze the entire detroit area and start again, it's so far gone. There are entire neighborhoods missing, nothing but grass and sidewalks. People lived there, raised kids, bought homes, paid taxes, and enjoyed life at one time. Now there are only memories.

[snowbeard]

wow, great shots! bike looks great, really sharp! I recognize it from it's debut here

my father grew up, from what it sounds like, near you, only 20 years earlier I suspect. he's 62 now if that tells you anything. went to wayne state for part of his schooling, and moved back there to work after school with my mother.

they moved to the sticks from Woodward Ave in '70 when the gunshots came too close and halfway houses became the new neighbors. I wonder if he'd recognize that building or any of your shots...

Thanks for sharing!!

[bronzeback]

Nice...I could shoot many similar shots here in Richmond. Some of the old stuff that's had weeds growing over it since the yankees took over and what not... Also similarities more current, like what was nice when I was a kid looks like **** now. Great thread I enjoyed reading, bike looks sweet too!

[mark]

Very interesting. Good writing too. Thanks.

[t3rmin]

One of the best looking bikes on the forum. Love the pics.

[Boondocks]

When the movie Eight Mile came out a great many of my friends and I were pretty amused. I technically live south of Eight Mile, and I have several friends that live/have lived in the areas portrayed in the film.

To people that never venture near the city Eight Mile might seem like a mile marker not to be crossed, in real life it is much more complicated than that. There really isn't much difference between one side and the other in my opinion, it's all kind of a gray zone of fun/sadness.

I actually travel the road often, it is a major artery between the east side and the west side. It's the first stretch of road that I took this bike down, and if you read the thread about it breaking down last week, that took place on the 'wrong side' of eight mile.

I lived in Grosse Pointe City at 837 Fisher Rd. from 1980-1985. I drove to work every day down Eight Mile to my job as Division Controller of the Industrial Power Transmission Division of Dana Corp.. The division offices were above Formsprag, one of our plants on Hoover Rd. in Warren, MI. Eight Mile Rd. meant nothing to me but a main thoroughfare, and I suppose I worked on the "wrong" side of it in an industrial area. I've never seen the movie, and have no interest in Eminem.

Grosse Pointe was a great place to live, and my wife loved it. It was sort of a "Preppy" capitol, but I was a motorcycle riding "Anti-Preppy" wearing blue jeans & running shoes (instead of the requisite Chinos and Dockers) with a folding hunter knife on my belt. Detroit was close, but the enormous change from Grosse Pointe seemed like a border crossing. I rarely went into Detroit, but would likely be packing a gun if I did.

You didn't mention Indian Village, which in my time there was sort of a protected enclave of older well maintained homes in Detroit. Is it still viable?

[Boondocks]

Detroit's Indian Village Neighborhood

I answered my own question. Indian Village is alive and well. This is an east side Detroit neighborhood with beautiful and diverse homes. It was designated a historic district in 1972. The link has a lot of pictures of Indian Village homes. This would have been a great place to live as well.

[beergood]

I good friend of mine bought a house in Indian Village two years ago. The house is large and mostly restored, and the neighborhood is beautiful. There are some problems, he's had his garage busted into once, and some kids threw an Everfresh juice bottle through his living room window last month, but the area is fairly well policed.

He plants about 50 jalapeño plants every year, and at the end of the summer we host 'Jalapeño Fest', which is one of the social events of the year. It's an all day/night affair, tons of people show up, and there are dozens of dishes, all containing jalapeños.

My buddies and I are in charge of manning the 4 grills, 2 smokers, and the deep fryer. Last year we served such dishes as jalapeño stuffed pork loin, jalapeño burgers, jalapeño kielbasa (made special by a friendly local butcher), jalapeño stuffed smoked turkey, bacon wrapped jalapeños stuffed with shrimp...you get the idea. A friend of ours that owns a polish restaurant has the old ladies that make the pirogies make several batches of jalapeno cheese and potato, those have to be tasted to be believed.

Everyone gets pretty drunk, and to up the ante, two years ago we began to hire a mariachi band to play for a couple of hours during the main surge. The first year with the band was great, there were four middle aged guys, they showed up in a white mini-van, and only the front man spoke any english. They kept going back to their van, which was in the alley, which was also where those of us cooking would take drink breaks. We figured out that they were going to the van to sneak drinks. They were having a good time, but were scared that we would be mad if we knew. After we figured it out , we demanded that they drink with us, and not hide in a van. After all, this ain't no Chi-chi's gig, this is Jalapeño Fest. They ended up staying several extra hours, and getting blitzed with the rest of us.

I realize that I have drifted off point, which is, yeah, Indian Village is doing great.

Thanks to everyone for the interest and feedback, the weather is breaking (again), and I might file an update/addendum to this thread.

[themess]

The Jalapeno Fest sounds like a great way to party!

[MissFabulous]

beergood... great write ups, and if you can, come to my rally in June. You're totally someone who sounds like a lot of fun to hang out with.

Keep documenting the riding and other adventures and rants... very interesting reads!

[beergood]

I would like to, I read the thread about it. Unfortunately, those dates overlap with a muscular dystrophy summer camp that I volunteer at.

http://www.beergood.com/camp/

Sounds like a good time though. With a little luck I will cruise that side of Erie this year though.