The Motor City as seen from Belle Isle.
“There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees; and there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living, whose reason for being might be geographical but whose growth is based on industry, jobs. Detroit has its natural attractions: lakes all over the place, an abundance of trees and four distinct seasons for those who like variety in their weather, everything but hurricanes and earth-quakes. But it’s never been the kind of city people visit and fall in love with because of its charm or think, gee, wouldn’t this be a nice place to live.”
― Elmore Leonard
You know, Detroit has gotten a bad reputation for a very long time. Initially a fur trading post, then a lumber mill, and then the mecca of American auto manufacturing, people once flocked northward and established a city of more than a million mostly reasonably well-paid factory jobs that eventually mostly fizzled out like a soggy firecracker. There are financial problems, racial tensions and all sorts of urban blight. But after visiting the area for a few days, I hope it is a Phoenix that will rise from its ashes. Who can say? There are certainly still many excellent reasons to visit Detroit.
We started our journey from the Upper Peninsula with the intention of meeting friends from Chicago, one of whom is pretty enamored of Detroit and offered to be our tour guide. Along the way, we stopped at Tobico Marsh, just north of Bay City. Paul wanted to sojourn through Bay City after learning from our guide in Saginaw that it was "doing a lot better over there than Saginaw." They have indeed made an effort to regentrify the waterfront area in the aftermath of the auto industry's decline.
Despite the clouds and even a few raindrops, the Tobico Marsh attaches to Lake Huron and is a great respite for migrating waterfowl.
The marsh harbors a lot of wildlife...but we saw not much...still pretty.
The walking path around the marsh. A storm was brewing in the distance.
This is a great place to walk as you get the lake and the forest.
We made it into Detroit in plenty of time to meet our friends and enjoy the chef's table a Selden Standard. We highly recommend this restaurant if you come to Detroit. We enjoyed watching the chefs cook in the open oven and on a large grill surface.
We promise not too much food porn but this was an example of a "salting."
Patricia Green wines. Always a good idea. Big open wood oven in the background.
The next day our lovely friend Marcia made us a food porn worthy frittata for breakfast. Now that's friendship!
Our great Chicago friends goofing off for us in the photo. Marcia, a great cook, is in orange.
Admit it. Marcia made your mouth water, right?
From here, we were off to the Detroit Art Institute. At present, they only admit a few people per hour and reservations must be made in advance. I know it's not the best situation for the museum, but as a visitor, having a lot of time and space to see everything was a very special joy. We were NEVER crowded or rushed. The museum has an extensive collections, both ancient and modern.
From here, we went with our tour guide Jim to explore the early skyscrapers and waterfront buildings and views downtown. The lobbies of the Fischer Building and others were works of art in their own rights.
Our tour guide for Detroit, Jim Hoover. He LOVES Detroit, visits often and knows the nooks and crannies. And bars...but not so much in 2020!
Skyscraper lobbies
The Fischer Building
Pensive Pirate Paul takes it all in at DIA. The African American modern artists section and the Day of Dead ofertas sections were really stunning.
We hit another re-opened restaurant for dinner, The Grey Ghost, and we also recommend that place. They had lovely food and a nice cocktail menu and wine list. You won't leave disappointed.
The next day, we were off to the Eastern Market, a really beautiful farmers and outdoor market with city streets lined with street vendors. The vegetables were huge and looked tasty. If I lived in Detroit, I would shop there regularly. There are also many murals all over Detroit but particularly in this area.
If it's edible or floral, you will find it (and more stuff!) at Eastern Market
Detroit has MANY murals. This one is near the market.
Then we were ventured to The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. This is a large complex with both a traditional museum space that is quite large and an outdoor museum as well. If you want to see both, plan on being here ALL DAY. It's phenomenal and large. We were mostly interested in the transportation aspects (although the traditional museum also has furniture and sewing machines and other industrial innovations sections.) Half a day is about as much as my brain can kinda sorta absorb at a museum anyway! We saw an eyeful: Buggies, cars of all ilks from many time periods, buses, trains, airplanes...you name it!
The car Kennedy was assassinated in. It was "upgraded" and repaired so no bullet holes etc. Subsequent presidents also used it.
The Eisenhower car. Kennedy also used this one. Note the open roof. No more of that!
The FDR-mobile
Teddy Roosevelt preferred the horse and carriage
Neon signs and cool cars
You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.
Charles Kuralt's mobile studio for his show ON THE ROAD.
The bus that Rosa Parks refused to get up from her seat on. An honor to see it.
There was SO MUCH in this museum. If in Detroit, go for it. Allow plenty of time.
Jim also knew about an art installation that has been in place for a number of years called the Heidelberg project (because it is on a street named that. ) This project involves an entire block of a rundown neighborhood and utilizes junk and waste items as art.
There are many clock images and many shoes in Tyree Guyton's neighborhood which has turned into an art project.
The gang admires the work
These are a collection of rusted auto hoods.
Sunbathers
Paul liked all the blue shoes.
Noah's ark
The installation is world renown and definitely unique!
These faces were also repeated many times, often on the sidewalk pavers.
You won't see this sort of collage very often. It was fun to walk through it.
Our last dinner together in Detroit was in our neighborhood of Corktown at Lady of the House. Tasty tapas and housemade gin! Corktown was an early neighborhood composed at its origin of Irish settlers. It has fallen on some hard times, as has most of Detroit and is trying to make a comeback. The three houses (the one we stayed at is the MIDDLE one) on the block of our airbnb really tell the Detroit story all in one city block.
Our block in Corktown. Three "maids" all in a row tell the story of Detroit. The house on the right is pretty ramshackle and has had NO love at all. The paint is peeling and some window are boarded. The middle house where we stayed has been renovated lovingly and still stands in good shape. The next house is ultramodern and stands on a space where the prior building was ripped down and replaced. We saw every imaginable dwelling from "caved-in-and-still-occupied" to newly produced. There was nothing to keep these types of building from being in stark juxtaposition.
I had been to Detroit in the early 80s when the Renaissance area was up and coming. Then again in the 90s but only out to Auburn Hills. In 2020, I've made my first real effort to explore this major US city--once the 4th largest and now not even in the top 20. Population has gone from well over a million to about 700,000. It's easy to tell that the city is limping. But Detroit isn't dead yet. . I'm rooting for her rebirth.
Detroit is beautiful - though you probably have to be a child of the industrial Midwest, like me, to see it.
----P. J. O'Rourke
Paul's Ponderings: We had a great time in Detroit, which reminded me of another large mid-west industrial city that we visited a couple of years ago, St. Louis. It's full of open spaces, then a neighborhood with some cool stuff, then dilapidated buildings, then a strip mall, repeat, repeat, repeat. The downtown seems to be holding it together best and there's continued restoration on things like the massive central train station near downtown. We had some great food and drink and in general wandered around and saw some highlights.
We kept chewing over "what happened here" that made this town fall apart versus someplace like Chicago, which has its own problems, but nothing as problematic as in Detroit and the general consensus was diversity of business over the years.....the car industry made Detroit and when it left, more or less, it darn near killed it.
That all said, we really did NOT do this town justice and need to come back....plenty more to do. We hope/plan to return at some point.
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