A friend of mine posted this article from the Globe & Mail (a Toronto Based
newspaper) the other day.
OT - but kinda funny reading this - seeing as how there has been a bevy of
posts on the 'Crisis in Detroit' recently.
After decades of neglect, the city once known for packing heat is now
generating some. Downtown buildings are being resurrected, eclectic eateries
are springing up and the city has landed next year's Super Bowl. DOMINIC
PATTEN goes exploring
By DOMINIC PATTEN
Special to The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - Page R10
As you chill the beer and open your dip and hips in preparation for watching
this year's Super Bowl from Jacksonville, Fla., just take a moment to think
about miracles. And I'm not talking about the Philadelphia Eagles defeating
the odds-on favourites and defending champions, the New England Patriots.
I'm talking about urban miracles. Specifically, where a once-ominous and
deserted nighttime downtown core is transformed into a teeming weekend
winter wonderland. The type that's full of families in matching puffy coats
and gaggles of teens cautiously eyeing each other over hot chocolates like
something out of a 21st-century Norman Rockwell painting. That's what it was
like at downtown Detroit's new Campus Martius Park for the very first Motown
Winter Blast this year.
After decades of neglect and disrepair, the city that was once best known
for packing heat is now generating some. "Detroit is a city undergoing a
renaissance," Jennifer Granholm, the Vancouver-born governor of Michigan,
said in an interview, "and now is the time to see it."
The city has become a burgeoning dining, sporting, entertainment and
cultural centre. In recent years, Detroit has turned things around, building
on the best of its past and betting on the future, and even landing Super
Bowl XL in 2006.
Three casinos have opened in the city since 1999 and big business has
returned. Many of the former ruins of Detroit -- the warehouses, factories
and corporate headquarters -- have been turned into either retail stores or
high-end lofts for the affluent professionals moving back downtown. New
stadiums, hotels, clubs and restaurants have also opened their doors and
flourished.
It's not the first time the city locals call "the D" glittered so brightly.
As recently as the 1950s, when it boomed with the wealth of the auto
industry, Detroit had it all. But cities, like heavyweight champions, never
stay on top forever and even the Big Three couldn't withstand the riots of
the 1960s, the flight of the middle class to the suburbs, the decimation of
the manufacturing and tax base, and soaring crime rates that consistently
saw Detroit labelled "the most dangerous city in America."
For years, the city virtually turned a blind eye to the urban blight that
dominated downtown. Vandalism and squalor occupied many buildings. In 1988,
not a single construction permit was issued in Detroit. For a city that was
once renowned for its stunning architectural vista, it was a burnt-out husk.
"We all know the decline of the city didn't happen overnight," said Susan
Sherer, the executive director of Detroit's Super Bowl Committee, "and it
can't be fixed overnight, but there's a lot we've done, and lots more we can
do."
Slight good news came late last year when the annual City Crime Rankings
publication, based on crime data reported to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in 2003, upgraded Detroit to the second-most dangerous city in
America, after Camden, N.J. Better news, like the devil, is in the details.
The ranking is based on all of Metro Detroit, and as police insist, violent
crime and petty theft is significantly down, especially in the downtown
core. "I would put our downtown up against any downtown across the world,"
Second Deputy Police Chief James Tate said. "It is by far the safest place
in the entire city."
This January, at the Motown Winter Blast, tens of thousands braved the cold
and the downtown streets to take in dogsled rides and ice skating with local
National Hockey League legends, as well as sample music and food from local
performers and restaurants at Campus Martius Park. "We had around 250,000
guests here for the Auto Show and the inaugural Winter Blast this year,"
Deputy Chief Tate said, "and not a single incident."
That's a good omen for the Super Bowl extravaganza next February when Motor
City expects an estimated 150,000 visitors and 800 million television
viewers. (As a process of continuing beautification, the city is trying to
deal with its abandoned buildings by aggressively identifying absentee
landlords and opening cafés and retail stores on the buildings' ground
floors in the coming year. If that isn't an option, some will be draped in
flags and façades: a temporary but cosmetic fix for a potential Super Bowl
eyesore.)
The Winter Blast and this year's Auto Show were but a couple of the events
going on in Detroit over the next 12 months and beyond.
In March, there's a vintage couture exhibition including outfits by design
houses such as Balenciaga and Dior at the Henry Ford Museum. The Majestic
Theater Center on Woodward Avenue, in the city's downtown cultural district,
will be the place to be in April.
That's when Detroit -- the hometown of Motown, the MC5, hip-hop superstar
Eminem and the White Stripes -- launches the Motor City Music Conference
with performances from more than 400 national and local-based artists in 40
different venues throughout the city.
The block-long Majestic complex, whose art-deco façade has recently been
renovated, has been at the heart of Detroit's music scene for years. Some of
the conference attendees may grab a bite at the Majestic Café or the
Pizzeria.
Most, however, will want to either take in a big show at the theatre itself
or check out the action upstairs on stage at the Magic Stick.
The Red Wings are clipped right now because of the NHL lockout, but Major
League baseball will play its annual All-Star Game in front of 40,000 fans
at Comerica Park, the home of the Detroit Tigers, on July 12. With its
Ferris wheel, pantheon of fame and giant Tigers pacing the rim of the
multipurpose stadium, Comerica Park, which opened in 2000, is almost a
bigger star than the players on its field.
The theory is that big ticket events, along with the return of corporations
such as General Motors and Compuware, and their thousands of employees,
provide fuel that's turning the downtown around. So, while the Pistons, the
current National Basketball Association champions, actually play out in
suburban Auburn Hills, top-notch hoops will return in 2008 and 2009 when the
regional and Final Four tournaments of National Collegiate Athletic
Association are held downtown. "Having the new dual stadiums of Comerica
Park and Ford Field right downtown has spurred numerous bars, restaurants,
housing and new business," said Mike Healy, a spokesman for the Detroit
Tigers.
Just a few years ago, the downtown was so pockmarked that the best part of
walking around was the dramatic steam from the manhole covers. Now, getting
around the city has become more pleasant thanks to multimillion-dollar
renovations that have widened downtown sidewalks and beautified them with
benches and better lighting.
The opening of the magnificently resurrected 40-storey Guardian building on
nearby Griswold Street and the illuminating glass of Compuware's 15-storey
world headquarters brought a further injection of retailers, including
Borders Books, into the city's core.
After years of looking like a bomb crater, Campus Martius Park, the city's
flagship urban space, was finally finished. With its skating rink, indoor
café and warming area, the park, unveiled in November, 2004, was another
benchmark in bringing a healthy street life back to downtown.
"The city has always had a lot going on," said Robert Stanzler, owner of the
internationally sold Made In Detroit clothing line. He has been selling
T-shirts and jackets that proclaim "Detroit Muscle" for almost a decade.
Almost two years ago, Stanzler opened his first store, in the Greektown
neighbourhood. It has been a success and Stanzler thinks it has to do with
the changing ethos of his town. "We needed to show some positive hometown
pride, to show what a cool, what a historic and significant place this city
is."
The resurrection of Detroit has as much to do with fixing the old as it has
with building the new.
Four 19th-century mansions were renovated in 2000 to make up the Inn on
Ferry Street. Surrounded by museums in the city's cultural centre, the inn
recalls the vast wealth that once permeated Detroit. "The inn," it was noted
when the establishment was given a National Preservation Award in 2002, "is
a signal to Detroit that preservation is good for business and lays a strong
foundation for the future."
A century or two away from the Inn on Ferry Street, the Renaissance Center
has put paid to the notion that modernity can't be fixed. A critic once
called the four soaring towers, which dominate views of the city, "fortress
architecture that cities ought to shun."
Now, after an eight-year and $500-million surgery, the centre has turned
into a swan. The worldwide headquarters of GM, the aptly named Renaissance
has emerged with an inviting Jefferson Avenue pavilion, a car museum,
restaurants, a shopping mall and a glass Winter Garden at the rear of the
complex that looks out on to the city's recently completed scenic river walk
and park.
Seldom Blues, located on the same level as the Marriott's main entrance,
opened its doors and its kitchen in June, 2004. The combo of jazz club and
sleek dining might not seem a natural jam, but, it works.
Fine feasting has become a growth industry in Detroit. There's still the
four-diamond pleasures of Iridescence and the palatial luxury of the
Whitney, but the city has seen over two dozen new restaurants open in the
past few years.
Want to nibble? Hit Small Plates, where almost everything on the varied menu
is a delicious appetizer. Want atmosphere and American fare? Go to Congress,
the basement ultra-lounge that is part nightclub and part good eats. Want
some delicacies and dancing? There's the Rhino @ Harmonie Park, a soulful
hot spot with great lamb chops.
Detroit has also much to offer to the cultural traveller. The now-thriving
theatre district has more seats than anywhere else in the United States
except New York. At the Motown Historical Museum, you can stand where the
Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye recorded some of their best-known
hits in Studio A. Or check out the ideals of arts and crafts at Pewabic
Pottery or the healing power of song at the International Gospel Music Hall
of Fame.
African Americans make up the majority of Detroit's population and the
largest museum in the United States dedicated to their history is here. With
Black History month upon us, the Charles W. Wright's permanent exhibition,
And We Still Rise, which made its debut in November, and the travelling
exhibition Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, on display
until Feb. 27, simultaneously reveal how far things have come and how far
they still have to go.
Just up the street sits the Detroit Institute of Art. Though it's under
renovation until 2007, the DIA is worth a visit. Auto fortunes brought the
world's masterpieces to Detroit from ancient and rare Mesopotamian moulds to
Chinese scholarly paintings to self-portraits by van Gogh and Warhol.
The most potent and localized gem in the collection is Mexican muralist
Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Frescoes. Nelson Rockefeller destroyed the
Rivera mural his family commissioned in New York, but the auto barons
ignored the artist's socialist subtext and revelled in his depiction of the
physical power and design of their industry.
Visitors can glean some of Rivera's inspiration by taking a tour of the Ford
Rouge Factory in nearby Dearborn. The muralist spent a month in 1932
studying what was then the world's largest industrial complex, producing
millions of cars a year. Tours were discontinued in the 1980s for safety
reasons, but last May, after years of refurbishment under the supervision of
Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, the plant, with a new visitors
centre, was reopened.
The new Rouge tour provides a bird's-eye view of the assembly line in
action. The films and guide lectures are suitably self-aggrandizing, but
once you're in the actual factory, the rubber really hits the road.
Strolling the catwalks is a bit like being inside the Death Star from the
first Star Wars movie, but in a good way -- the beauty and functionality of
the Rouge's industrial design was a model in efficiency.
After the Rouge, buses take you back to the Henry Ford Museum. The museum,
which opened in 1929, is filled with a collection that could have been
curated by Dr. Seuss. There is a vast array of trains (including the world's
oldest surviving steam engine), planes and automobiles, including the car
JFK was killed in. The Henry Ford also captures the highs and lows of
American Exceptionalism with such vestiges as the chair that Abraham Lincoln
was shot in and the bus that Rosa Parks refused to go sit at the back of.
In many ways, it's emblematic of the history of Detroit. The rise, the
promise, the fall and the stubborn refusal to take it any more.
WHERE TO STAY
-Inn On Ferry Street: 84 East Ferry; 313-871-6000;
http://www.ferrystreetinn.com. History meets modernity.
-The Marriot at the Renaissance Center: Renaissance Center; 313-568-8000;
http://www.marriott.com. With its 73 floors and 1,300 rooms, it feels a bit
like being on the set of a sophisticated sci-fi flick.
WHERE TO EAT
-Seldom Blues: 400 Renaissance Center; http://www.seldomblues.com;
313-567-7301. Great vibe, jazz and views of the Detroit River.
-The Whitney: 4421 Woodward Ave.; http://www.thewhitney.com; 313-832-5700.
Lumber baron's mansion still sparkles with old world glamour.
-Astoria Pastries: 541 Monroe St.; 313-963-9603. Try the house specialty --
frozen-lemonade smoothie.
DIVERSIONS
-Charles W. Wright Museum of African American History: 315 East Warren St.;
313-494-5800; http://www.maah-detroit.org. An abundance of culture, history
and pride.
-Detroit Institute of Arts: 5200 Woodward Ave.; 313-833-7900;
http://www.dia.org. Under renovation, enough of its permanent collectionon
is ondisplay to make it impressive.
-Comerica Park/Ford Field: 2100 Woodward Ave.;
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com. Replacing the fabled Tiger Stadium was no
easy task, but Comerica Park, and its neighbour, Ford Field, do a pretty
darn good job.
-MGM Grand Casino: 1300 John C. Lodge; 1-877-888-2121;
http://detroit.mgmgrand.com. Go any day, any time for the full-on
experience.
-Majestic Theater Center; 4120-4140 Woodward Ave.; 313-833-9700;
http://www.majesticdetroit.com. Pivotal Detroit hangout.
-Campus Martius Park: 800 Woodward Ave.; http://www.campusmartiuspark.org.
Detroit's new people-watching perch.
-Motor City Music Conference: (April 20-24); http://www.motorcitymusic.com.
-MLB All-Star Game: (July 12) Comerica Park; http://mlb.mlb.com.
Made In Detroit: 400 Monroe St.; http://www.madeindetroit.com; 313-963-6080.
Eminem wore some of MID's hometown gear in the movie 8 Mile.
MORE INFORMATION
-Detroit Tourism: 313-202-1800; http://www.visitdetroit.com.
-Super Bowl XL: (Feb. 5, 2006) Ford Field; http://www.sbxl.org.
website: www.gerald-matrix.com
event organiser/writer/dj: Kick Magazine - www.kickmagazine.ca
radio host: Equinox Radio on Electrique @ www.netmusique.com
