Detroit has three casinos, the MGM Grand, Greek Town and Motor City. The MGM Grand could easily be in Vegas. It's that nice! Greek Town and Motor City are both really nice as well, but not laid out in your typical giant gaming floor casino style. Both are in renovated buildings. Motor City is in the old Wonder Bread plant which is really cool and Greek Town is in something old as well. Brian, like Jill, loves Michigan, but especially Detroit so he gladly took on the role of tour guide and took us all over Detroit Saturday night once our casino hoping was done.
Detroit is an awesome city. I know that most people will read that and laugh because all you hear about Detroit is how dangerous it is, how there are no jobs and a plethora of other things you wouldn't necessarily associate with a city being described as "awesome." But, I've been to the city twice now, the other time was in the winter, and my opinion was only confirmed more on this trip. I like cities that have character. Cities that when they were built took the time to make their buildings beautiful. Most people when they think of the buildings of Detroit they think of abandoned factories and burned out neighborhoods. But there is some seriously amazing architectural details in Detroit. And not just the biggest buildings that make up the skyline as you're coming in. Pretty much 1 out of 3 buildings, regardless of size or stature in downtown Detroit has really extensive and beautiful details. They didn't just build a bunch of rectangles that shoot to the sky. They built character and that character, whether people chose to look past it or not, is still there today.
We ate dinner at this little place called Small Plates. It was like a tapas restaurant but not Spanish. We all ordered a bunch of stuff and shared. It wasn't the best meal I've ever had in my life but it was good. And, like every meal you buy in downtown Detroit, you're helping a place that obviously needs it. It was nice to support local Detroit business owners instead of eating at a Friday's out in the suburbs.
After dinner we went to Astoria in Greektown for assorted pasties of awesomeness. The place was so packed it took at least 10 minutes just to get your order taken. Not only were the deserts some of the best I've ever had, Astoria is full of character and charm. When people think Detroit, they certainly don't think places like this exist and that's a shame, because it's awesome. The Baklava I ate literally caused an "oh my god" verbal reaction while my mouth was still full from the bite.
Did you know that Detroit is the home to the only urban state park in all of Michigan? Yeah, neither does anybody else because the place was deserted. When we parked I was a bit nervous because it was already dark and we were on the riverside of an abandoned factory or warehouse. But, we were troopers and found a picnic table to eat our treats. I know I keep going on and on about how great it is, but this park was really pretty. It's waterfront location, the Renaissance Center and the rest of the skyline was right there. The Windsor skyline was just across the river. There's a lighthouse. It's quite and peaceful. It's a great park hidden right there in a city where people think the only green spaces exist after a block's been leveled and the grass has started growing back again.
Cliff Bell's as you can see from the menu was established in 1935. I don't want to pretend like I know all the details of their story but I can say, from my experience, this place is awesome! It went under for a while and then somebody bought it and restored it. They didn't renovate, they refurbished, which I think is really cool and only adds to the unique charm. It's a blues/jazz bar. While we were there a 92 year old lady who recorded her first blues album in the 1930s sang with the band. I'm not the biggest live music fan but that was freaking awesome. She was incredible. I hope at 92 I can remember the words to one song, much less a five song set from the 30s. I've lived in a bunch of places and I can easily say that Cliff Bell's is the most unique music bar I've ever been in. Again, it's in downtown Detroit.
This was the last picture I took in the city. It was on the wall of an abandoned building across the street from Cliff Bell's. It stood out to me first because I really like this kind of art and I think this one in particular is really cool. The other thing that stood out to me is the contrast in perception I think people would have seeing this piece of art on a wall in Detroit vs. a city like San Francisco. In San Francisco pieces of art like this are everywhere and the hipsters, thugs and high class a like all look at it with some sort of appreciation, but it's seen as art. My assumption, because this wasn't an advertisement and it was on a building that was clearly vacant and behind a chainlink fence, that in Detroit it's probably graffiti. I guess this picture sort of wraps up my own feelings towards Detroit vs. other cities that I've visited or lived in.
Detroit is obviously in this battle perception vs. reality vs something in between. In today's media environment where the blood and guts lead the headlines, Detroit isn't exactly leaving the media searching for stories. But, if you take a look at the news in your city, is it any different? I lived in DC for a year and a half and it's lead the nation in murders/capita on several occasions. Even a city like San Francisco has it's bad parts of town, they're just pushed off to the side, out of view. I'm not trying to instigate a debate over the socio-economic ramifications of urban planning, but there's something to be said about at least trying to keep everything mixed together. It doesn't help Detroit any that it's biggest industry is on the ropes and has been for a while. I don't think I'm blowing minds by suggesting that if the domestic car industry as a whole hadn't taken such a huge hit, all those abandoned burned out buildings would be thriving industry and a city that can hold over 2 million people might still be busting at the seams.
I'm not from Detroit and until seeing it I was one of those people that blindly teased it whenever it was brought up. Detroit has won me over. All it needed was a couple people who still think it's worth saving to show me around. Imagine what might happen if the people of Detroit thought there as value in doing that with their friends, instead of throwing their hands up in defeat.
1 comment:
Sounds like you had a great weekend and fell in love with the city, I know that makes Jill happy.
Post a Comment