Day 3: Detroit

Day 3: Detroit

Quote of the day:

I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine.
Oh I heard it through the grapevine,
Oh and I'm just about to lose my mind.
Honey, honey yeah.

Weather: Cool and sunny and slight breezes, with a few light showers, and a misting at the Ford Rouge plant, then rain in the early evening clearing to end up sunny

Pics: Avalon Bakery, art all over Detroit, Slow’s, baseball and football temples, Ford plant

THB hits the FitCtr early (too early), then scoots out ($7 cab ride) to Avalon Bakery to get cookies for the group and some breakfast goodies (just okay) for himself. THB even takes the bus back ($2). How does commute hour work in Detroit, you ask? Well, there were 7 people on the bus heading downtown, and zero traffic. Breakfast of mixed berries, coffee with steamed milk for THB, and cereal with fruit and coffee for DB, comes to a few dollars over our $50 worth of included coupons!

Scott Hocking, an installation artist, leads the tour today through lunch and right up to the Ford plant tour in the mid afternoon. It is an intimate look at a significant part of near-downtown Detroit, and extremely depressing, worse than New Orleans after Katrina. This is an area that has shrunk in population from over 3 million to around 800,000. Many blighted areas, empty lots in all sizes from small to gigantic blocks, crushed factories, even a “renaissance” zone (officially the I-94 Industrial Park Renaissance Zone) where the area has been left to go wild (and incidentally help with the return of the ring-necked pheasant back from local extinction) awaiting some master plan renaissance. Even in neighborhoods where artists and others are working to help regenerate communities, it seems a long slog, with maybe a block or two being recovered. Ever. Where there were still-functioning hoods, they seem about at the same level as East Oakland (THB does Habitat in hoods around the Coliseum…same-same or worse here in Detroit). The better kept up parts of Detroit are of course further out in the burbs, nowhere near downtown. We passed one place for sale, big mansion with ironwork gate spelling out Stone Hedge. Someone whips out their smart phone: $425k (something tells THB that you could start the bidding at $125k and back taxes and snap it up, they’ll throw in the power mower).

This is the deep dark red rust of the rust belt. So, is this an art tour? There is plenty of art on the streets, on and maybe in the dead factories, on the buildings. In these cases, it is a sign of decay. Should we come to a city and focus on this part of the community? What does it mean to be a voyeur, er, tourist looking at the downside? Is THB depressed or just pragmatic: local economics have conspired against this area and have been doing so for over 50 years. What does bottom look like? Is this it?

If you are thinking about helping, here are two art-based groups worth thinking about:
http://www.heidelberg.org
http://www.powerhouseproject.com


Lunch (on a more cheerful note) is at a relatively new bbq spot, Slow’s, in a part of town that Slow’s owner is helping regenerate (not easy, the 20 story train station is around the block, totally gutted and you can see through the building where all the windows have been removed…see pic). The place is packed when we arrive and when we leave. THB and DB (though sitting miles apart) manage to share pulled pork and brisket sandwiches (way above average), waffle fries, and lemonade. Included.

Scott gets us to the Ford Rouge plant at the moment we are to start our tour, 2pm, taking us through the Hispanic (and of course, depressing) part of town, Delray (short for De la rey?), along the Rouge River, through the dump….you know, the same thing we have on the E-ville/Oakland border: a street that few people live near and locals can come and throw their trash off the back of the truck.



We see Ford 150 trucks being built, fair number of people on the factory floor (is that a good thing?).

Cookies from Avaolon Bakery: sea salt cc, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin/cranberry

Dinner, on our own: bar bites and drinks in the hotel lounge, $53