Funny how a few pictures of just one of the many abandoned buildings here can start the most ignorant rants and really bring the lowest of the low out.
Anyone who's ever been to downtown Motown, I'm sure, has seen the building that used to be Michigan Central Station up till 1988.  Just one look at it and any half-witted imagination can see beyond the decay and realize that it was once a beautiful building, even if it did violate the 'location location location' rule which was one of the reasons why it's in the state it's in today.  She's been stripped and robbed for her pipes, stoneworks, etc.  There's been as much debate about what to do with her as there was regarding Tiger Stadium, just a hop, skip, and a jump down Michigan Ave.  It's a sad sight, no doubt.  One that used to constantly make me wonder what the hell went wrong every single morning and afternoon when I would drive passed it when I worked downtown.
Sadly, though, it's just one of many.

Who would've thought that pictures of this once great building would spark comments hating on the city and the industry that helped make this city what it is today.
Since when is an abandoned building a metaphor of some sort for the auto industry?
Did the auto companies bring this on themselves?  Yes, in a lot of ways they did.  But as much as the auto companies have put their fingerprints all over southeastern Michigan, and someone's opinion that they don't deserve to be "bailed out" with taxpayer money (failing to keep in mind that it's far from the first time the Big 3 have ever gotten tax dollars) doesn't justify putting all of the city and it's citizens into the same category - stating they brought this on themselves, let them pay.
My immediate mental response to that is, blatantly, go fuck yourself.

This is my hometown.  And I'm damn proud that I'm a 3rd generation Detroiter.  I am who I am today because of where I came from - where my blue-collar roots were planted by my great-grandparents.  And this is a blue-collar city.  I don't mean that as just in reference to a good majority of the people who live here, I mean it in our attitude.  Yes, we have an inferiority complex.  We don't like outsiders talking trash about the city (case in point), but we'll do it without a second thought.
We are, collectively, some much more than what makes any national news; more than our deep-seeded corrupt local government, more than our biggest failing industry, more than our reputation for high crime rates, all of that that just about every single other major city has (but is so often forgotten about when Detroit gets thrown into the equation).
We are where folks will debate till they're blue on where to get the best coney dogs (Lafayette, all the way!), the home of our beloved Faygo and Vernors (the Michigan cure-all), the potato chip capital of the world (partly in thanks to Better Made), the birthplace of the urban freeway, the city to first here MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, and do I really need to bring up the music - the famous Motown sound, birthplace of techno, Bob Seger, Jack White, our beloved Stevie, and on and on. 
No, I'm not mentioning Marshall because he's a transplant.
But, in his defense (oy, I can't believe I'm doing this), he did a good job on a PSA that was aired at the NCAA Final Four at Ford Field.
No matter where I go, I will always have Detroit in me.  Just one of those things that won't ever change, that can't be changed.
All about the 313, baby!

Citing the inspirational Detroit forces that have fueled creators from Albert Kahn to Iggy Pop, he sets the scene: "The following poem is the Detroit from my mind. The Detroit that is in my heart. The home that encapsulates and envelops those who are truly blessed with the experience of living within its boundaries."

I have driven slow,
three miles an hour or so,
through Highland Park, Heidelberg, and the
Cass Corridor.
I've hopped on the Michigan,
and transferred to the Woodward,
and heard the good word blaring from an
a.m. radio.
I love the worn-through tracks of trolley
trains breaking through their
concrete vaults,
As I ride the Fort Street or the Baker,
just making my way home.

I sneak through an iron gate, and fish
rock bass out of the strait,
watching the mail boat with
its tugboat gait,
hauling words I'll never know.
The water letter carrier,
bringing prose to lonely sailors,
treading the big lakes with their trailers,
floats in blue green chopping waters,
above long-lost sunken failures,
awaiting exhumation iron whalers,
holding gold we'll never know.

I've slid on Belle Isle,
and rowed inside of it for miles.
Seeing white deer running alongside
While I glide, in a canoe.
I've walked down Caniff holding a glass
Atlas root beer bottle in my hands
And I've entered closets of coney islands
early in the morning too.
I've taken malt from Stroh's and Sanders,
felt the black powder of abandoned
embers,
And smelled the sawdust from wood cut
to rehabilitate the fallen edifice.
I've walked to the rhythm of mariachis,
down junctions and back alleys,
Breathing fresh-baked fumes of culture
nurtured of the Latin and the
Middle East.
I've fallen down on public ice,
and skated in my own delight,
and slid again on metal crutches
into trafficked avenues.

Three motors moved us forward,
Leaving smaller engines to wither,
the aluminum, and torpedo,
Monuments to unclaimed dreaming.
Foundry's piston tempest captured,
Forward pushing workers raptured,
Frescoed families strife fractured,
Encased by factory's glass ceiling.

Detroit, you hold what one's been seeking,
Holding off the coward-armies weakling,
Always rising from the ashes
not returning to the earth.

I so love your heart that burns
That in your people's body yearns
To perpetuate,
and permeate,
the lonely dream that does encapsulate,
Your spirit, that God insulates,
With courageous dream's concern.

11 Stanley Cups, baby!!!

Damn, that last shot scared the shit out of me.

Thank you, Ozzie.

 

Eat.  Watch movie.  Go to sleep.

Whether or not I get to sleep all the way through depends entirely on the hockey game.  This is Detroit, after all.

I didn't fall asleep till after 2 a.m. so I'm already a bit cranky from being so tired.  I was really hoping that I could come home, get a couple things done, then off to bed for me.  But nooooo.

The game starts at 8 p.m.  I'm figuring, as long as it doesn't go to OT, it will be over around 11 or so.  When (not if) they win, the 2-3 hour barrage of noise will start.

I may or may not be in a not-so-good mood tomorrow.  If I'm not, I could blame it on the Red Wings.  But I won't.  How could I?  This will be Lord Stanley's Cup number 11 for them.  If it wasn't so hot out, I'd be wearing my jersey.  But I'm just way too tired to stay up and watch the game.  Actually, I haven't watched any all season and I don't want to jinx them.

Like I said, this is Detroit.  We take our hockey very seriously.

 

Pudge is favorite of metro Detroiters

 

Why do you live where you live?
Submitted by memtony.

Once a Detroiter, always a Detroiter

Young people feel thwarted in their ability to explore other cultures and break down barriers

July 8, 2007 BY ROCHELLE RILEY, FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

They are 17, and they want their world to be a better place. They want to ask questions, debate the answers, dig into their differences and discover the things they share. They don't want to be afraid of each other. They want to knock down the walls, shred the stereotypes. They are eager to grow.

But in their high schools, they have felt shackled by fear, political correctness and a curriculum that teaches you how to pass tests but not how to think and explore and understand.

This is what fairly gushed out from five bright, young people in a recent conversation at the Free Press, and it does not bode well for the future of southeast Michigan, one of the nation's most racially polarized regions. If educators don't feel they can attack issues of race and cultural differences in a classroom setting, where is this kind of critical learning going to happen?

This is an area where about 40% of high school students are minorities, where tens of thousands of Arab Americans are not counted as such by the U.S. Census, where some school counselors regard Asian Indian students as white, and where diverse histories and cultures are barely explored at the classroom level.

There are few lessons about the lasting impact of slavery, the combative history of the Middle East, or the enormous impact of Latino culture on the United States. Most high school students don't read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" unless they discover it on their own.

Maybe this isn't the case in every school district. It certainly shouldn't be. But the panel of 17-year-olds from Detroit and its suburbs who met with me all said it was true -- and frustrating -- for them.

As the NAACP opens its 98th national convention in Detroit this week, with a focus on recruiting young members and re-examining its mission, it's worth hearing young people talk about what they want and expect to learn in school. These students -- intuitive, astute, thoughtful and passionate -- made clear what some adults forget: Life should be part of education, or else how do we learn to live it together?

The Ste.Claire Boblo boat made an 8 hour trip up the Detroit River from Toledo and is now docked at Tricentennial Park.
freep.com

 

Only a Detroiter would get excited over this.

Detroit Expects Half of Iraqi Refugees

Lutheran Social Services of Michigan has received government data on numerous refugees recommended for resettlement, said Belmin Pinjic, the service's director of refugee services.

"That's the first sign that someone is in the process and should be coming," he said. "How long that process should take, we don't know."

The agency has already started to contact the prospective refugees' family members who live in the Detroit area, Pinjic said.

The Department of Homeland Security said this week it has approved the refugee applications of 59 Iraqis who should be arriving in the coming weeks. The department provided no details about where they would settle but said it has already completed interviews in refugee cases involving more than 700 men, women and children.

The Bush administration announced in February it would allow up to 7,000 Iraqis into the U.S. by the end of September _ up from 202 in 2006. It would be the largest Iraqi influx since the 2003 invasion.

Besides contacting relatives of refugees, immigration groups in the Detroit area have been locating translators, transportation and housing, and fielding donations of furniture, clothing and appliances, Pinjic said.

Southeastern Michigan has about 300,000 people who trace their roots to the Middle East. They are heavily concentrated in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, widely considered the capital of Arab America because of its national Arab-American museum, many mosques and scores of Arabic-signed businesses.

Pinjic and others expect that as many as half of the new refugees will come to the area _ either initially or after first resettling elsewhere.