Living in the D

Category: Transportation

The pedestrian life, month 7: I'm worn down

When my car kicked the bucket in April I was bummed at first, then I became intrigued with the challenge of getting by without it. It was spring and there was a bus stop nearby. I wouldn't have to worry about parking tickets or spikes in gas prices. Maybe I'd lose a few pounds. Yippee!

The weather's still decent enough to leave the house with a smile and I've learned a lot. I'll admit my optimism had blinded me to the nagging reality I already knew: It's really, really difficult being a pedestrian in Detroit.

The walking-bus-biking-bumming rides plan works, but only if circumstances line up just so. A heavy rain, a blister, an encounter with an angry thug - any little bump can make things difficult and erode one's sense of control.

I've found myself watching someone in a wheelchair boarding the bus and wondering how much harder it is for him. How far did he have to roll to the bus stop and were the sidewalks paved and passable? Without a window to roll up and a door to lock, did he feel vulnerable to the weather and meanness of the streets? Do all the buses have working lifts?

Not that it's anywhere near the same thing, but I cut the bottom of my foot a week ago and have been walking with a limp, wishing it would heal already. That small obstacle was enough to scare me away from the bus routine. Pain aside, would a hobbling woman be a target for a knucklehead looking for someone to mess with?

I've been riding my bike instead. I can bundle up against the 40-degree chill, but what about when there's a foot of snow on the ground? What if I need to transport something heavy to somewhere out in Sprawling Burbsville?

All this makes me thankful I'm not in a wheelchair, on crutches or working a job that requires carrying anything other than myself and a change of clothes 12 miles from home. Problem is, plenty of people are. It shouldn't be that way.

It's been eye-opening, I'm worn down and angry about what kind of community - or lack thereof - we've built in Metro Detroit. Much like the U.S. health care system, which the late Walter Cronkite neatly summed up as "neither healthy, caring, nor a system," we have a nonsystem in Metro Detroit that's been carved out by those with health and money to exclude those without. If you can't drive or be driven, for physical or financial reasons, and your circumstances don't line up just so, you're out of luck.

Category: Scenery

Bringing some sunshine from Maui

One time, long ago, my sister went on a luxury house tour and upon returning to our much-more-humble home, she kicked it and yelled "I hate this place!"

That's kind of how I felt when I returned to Detroit on Sunday after a week in Maui. I know, there's no comparison between carefree vacation time spent on a tropical beach and the regular workaday routine of home, but it was depressing to see Detroit again, gray and foreboding, after those days in the sun.

The weather isn't the only way Hawaii felt like the polar opposite of Detroit. The "default" music in Maui is reggae - perfectly suited for the laid-back surfer lifestyle. You hear it on the radio, in cabs, at family picnics. In Detroit, it seems every car that goes by is blasting loud, horribly uninventive gangsta hip-hop - perfectly suited for our well-known attitude problem.

One road we drove in Maui was dotted with unmanned "honor system" fruit stands. Prices were posted, you took what you wanted and put your money in the box. They trusted you, even with the trees where the goods came from standing right there, practically begging you to pick a few star fruits and run. Could you imagine that in Detroit? The stand and those trees would be picked bare and the thief would be selling them on an offramp, claiming the money would go toward youth basketball.

Still, I don't want to go negative. It was a great vacation and I'm very lucky to have experienced it. Let's share some of the good vibes with this lovely tune by the late Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole. It's sure to put a smile on your face. Aloha!

• More Images

Category: Civic pride

Movie helps spurs revival of Highland Park's McGregor Library

The fabulous yet closed McGregor Library in Highland Park is finally seeing signs of life. The city of Highland Park has formed a 503(c) nonprofit to raise funds for the refurbishing and hopeful reopening of the jewel.

The library's bronze doors were finally revealed this week, albeit for just a short time for a movie, after being hidden under plywood for so many years.

Highland Park was an idealic suburb within the city of Detroit in the '50s and '60s. Now, 50 years later, it stands as a symbol of all that is wrong with racism, corporate greed and lack of opportunities. This is what happens when there is a breakdown and flight of an educated middle class - its effects are felt throughout.

Drive through any number of streets in the two historic districts and you will see only a smattering of homes that are kept up to their classic looks. Drive through other streets and see the sense of abandonment the residents must feel - burned-out shells of buildings, empty lots, trash strewn about and blowing from corner to empty corner. The schools are abandoned and windowless, the streets pock marked with asphalt patch. Industry, shopping and dining are almost nonexistent.

If Detroit is the barometer of what our cities are becoming, then I would say Highland Park is the barometer for Detroit.

All may not be lost. Recently, the city began policing itself again after a wave of corruption and scandal. The Wayne County Sheriff's Department is no longer assisting in patrolling the town. The new police chief, Theodore G. Cadwell II, said at a council meeting last night that the department has solved every major crime this month, either arresting or identifying those responsible. The city has a new mayor, Hubert Yopp, who is dedicated to holding property owners responsible for appearance and bringing back the library to its purpose: helping to educate the city's residents.

Benefit for library on Thursday
On Thursday at Taste, there is a benefit for the library with actor Danny Glover, the star of the movie "Highland Park," appearing to help raise money for the library and embrace a neglected treasure.

Category: Events

Check out haunted houses, Halloween events for good causes

This weekend I was excited to learn about two haunted houses in the city of Detroit, both of which support causes close to my heart: homelessness and Belle Isle.

Over the next two weekends Cass Community Social Services is daring Metro Detroit to experience Detroit's Urban Legends, the agency's haunted house in the 126-year-old Cass Community United Methodist Church. For the seventh year, petrified patrons will have a chance to brave the 2,500-square-foot attraction. Don't be put off by it being a church - the Web site has this to say: "WARNING: Last year, one patron left Detroit Urban Legends by ambulance!"

Volunteers from around the state help make this what promises to be the scariest haunted house around. This year contributing groups include Swartz Creek youth, Albion College students, Wyoming Park UMC and Michigan State University students.

The event raises money for programs that support homeless mothers and children. Tickets cost $10 for adults (ages 12 and older) and $8 for children (not recommended for children under 5). Groups of 12 or more are eligible for a discount. Transportation is available for groups of 20 or more. Cass Community United Methodist Church is located at 3901 Cass at Selden in Detroit. Call (313) 883-2277 for more information.

Detroit Parks and Recreation is also hosting a haunted house the last weekend of the month on Belle Isle. The Halloween Extravaganza as well as Angels' Night events and halloween parties for children happen all over the island as well at the casino building at various times Oct. 30-31.

I'm working up the courage to go so I may help out in a fun way. I hope you are up for the challenge, too!

• More Images

Category: Recreation

Fall and pumpkin hunting takes me out of the city

For some things you just have to leave Detroit to truly enjoy and to me fall is one of them. I couldn't wait for official fall to visit Blake Farms cider mill in Armada a few weeks ago. I could not pass the place without stopping for fresh cider and warm doughnuts. Oh, were they good!

Finally, it's officially my favorite time of year again and not just because of the change of seasons or the colors on the trees but because of pumpkin patches and corn mazes, too. I go past the city limits and suburbs out to rural areas in Michigan just so I can go pumpkin hunting every fall. Every year on my hunt I try to find new places to visit to explore another part of Michigan.

You can find all kinds of fall and Halloween-related stuff at detnews.com/events or MichiganScreams.com This site isn't just for haunted houses, which I was happy to find out because I am a total wimp and cannot handle to be scared even a little. Instead, this site offers links to attractions that include haunted houses and haunted woods as well as pumpkin patches, corn mazes and even some cider mills.

Although I hate to admit I have to leave Detroit sometimes because there are things I can not find here I am encouraged by the idea that as this city becomes more green and prairie-like that maybe one day soon I will be able to hunt for pumpkins down on East Grand Boulevard or in southwest Detroit while enjoying a warm cup of cider. I am allowed to hope.

• Enlarge

Tour East English Village homes looking for owners

Note: This is a repeat of what appeared in today's Homestyle section, because it deserves another mention.

East English Village will put a different spin on its first home tour 1-5 p.m. Sunday: houses that have lost their owners. Five distinctive, bank-owned homes in the historic east side Detroit neighborhood will be on display, all within walking distance.

Beautifully maintained, occupied homes will serve as check-ins and garden stops.

As a highlight, the "Camelot Rug," an antique needlepoint piece that graced the Oval Office during President John F. Kennedy's administration, will be on display at the tour check-in. Participants also may get a glimpse inside the Alger Theater, which is under renovation, on East Warren Avenue at East Outer Drive.

The tour is free, followed by an afterglow with featherbowling at the Cadieux Café. To register, call (313) 216-1729 or visit www.eastenglishvillage.org/tour.

• Enlarge

Category: Sports

Thanks, Tigers, for a great summer

Oh, Tigers, you have no idea how much we wanted to see more of you.

Your fans love you. Metro Detroit loves you. From the suburban sports bars to the beggars sitting in Grand Circus Park, reveling in the roar of the crowd on the next block, we love you.

You brought a live energy to downtown, a certain indescribable good feeling that radiated from the ballpark whenever you played.

I often joke that I don't care about the stats and pitcher rotations and all that sports mumbo-jumbo; I go to the games for the hooplah. I love the green molded seats, the scowling tiger statues, the overpriced beer, the fuzzy feline ears women fans wear, the hopeful kids with gloves. Even without a ticket, I could grab my friend and her dog from the Kales building and trot around the area, letting tipsy fans scratch the pooch's ears and take in the game and fireworks from behind the fence. It was free, it was fun, it was fantastic.

It's the kind of experience you can't possibly get from the Pistons, way out there in sprawlville in a sea of asphalt. The Wings and the Lions bring their own excitement to downtown, too, but it's just not the same with snow on the ground.

So now the the season ends, the ballpark falls silent and we'll have to amuse ourselves watching film crews build and blow up buildings instead. Bless you boys. It was a great summer.

Category: Architecture

Downtown under dramatic clouds

&

Gusty, tempestuous clouds drew ArchBlogger, camera clutched in hand, toward the New Center and downtown on Saturday. He spent a good long time with the Fisher Building, and then camped in his car at Cass and Charlotte, where there's a particularly good vista on the towers along the river.

The fruits of that labor follow below -- at least for now, mostly without comment.

The Fisher Building. [All photos by ArchBlogger.]

-

The old General Motors Building, now State of Michigan offices since GM's move to Renaissance Center in the late 1990s.

-

The recently renovated Westin Book-Cadillac Hotel catches a sliver of pre-sunset light. The Book Building looms left, while the Penobscot Building pokes its head above the hotel.

-

Cass Charlotte.

-

Downtown seen from a few blocks farther down Cass.

-

Downtown from John R just north of the stadiums. The orange towers are, from left, the Guardian Building and the David Stott Building.

• More Images

Category: Scenery

The little theater that could

Like many once-proud intersections in our city, the corner of East Warren and Outer Drive needs some love. It's been getting some, in small batches, from a group of neighbors and optimists led by one man on a decadeslong quest.

For 26 years, local resident Geoff Gowman has been on a mission to renovate and reopen the Alger Theater. The 825-seat room, first opened in 1935, sits vacant but full of potential, having seen multiple owners and revival plans that have come in fits and starts since it closed in 1977. In the early '80s, a church almost set up shop there; in 1984, it reopened briefly as a B-movie house showing horror films.

It's been a long journey, and Gowman and the Friends of the Alger Theater have made miles of progress, but as with any effort that depends solely on regular folks' donations, sweat and sheer hope, it's a big job.

Back taxes of more than $30,000 were owed when the group took ownership in 1986, and "the city would not bend," Gowman said. The bill was finally paid off some eight years ago. The theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Sunday, the Friends opened the lobby for a peek inside. It was one of those beautifully incongruous Detroit scenes I've grown to love: trays of wine and cheese served amid peeling plaster and dust; the Balduck Mountain Ramblers playing bluegrass under a bare lightbulb hanging from a water-damaged ceiling; people in church clothes or flip-flops or Detroit T-shirts milling around, gawking at the long-darkened interior. A recently donated vintage projector stood in the hall, threaded with a reel from "Saturday Night Fever."

What's next? The roof has been fixed, so now the Friends can set their sights on repairing years' worth of water damage inside, member and architect Mark Tirikian said. After that, there's plenty of renovation work to do, including undoing some renovations done in gaudier times (red shag carpet on arm ledges and blotchy paint jobs on the original metal wall sconces, for example).

The hope is to get the building back in shape and reopen it as an entertainment destination and anchor of the neighborhood. How long will that take? Nobody knows, but the drive is there and they've come this far already.

For more information check out the Friends of the Alger Theater.

• More Images

Category: Scenery

Artists 'tag' blighted buidling into work of art

I returned from Burning Man two weeks ago and assumed I would return to not much having changed in Detroit while I was out in the desert surrounded by art cars, and sculptures and 41,000 people glowing at night.

It appears I was quite wrong as I found out when I was taking my normal route home on Grand Boulevard east of Woodward. There I saw the side of a nine-story building being painted bright, almost neon, blue. I knew something was up and boy was there. As the week progressed the building began to look like a cross between a Jackson Pollock painting or a Rorschach inkblot test - both in Technicolor.

I made sure I drove past the building at least twice every day to see how the drips and scribbles were progressing as I tried to figure out just how it was being created. No one was ever painting when I went by so they must have been doing it under the guise of night.

Then one day I saw a truck in the lot and stopped by to inquire. I found two very tired artists. I spoke with Sam, Sammie Tuggle, who is a teacher working on the project with Catherine Craig, (Katie) another teacher in Detroit who was not there. Catherine was awarded a grant and is working with Detroit Arise on an art program for kids. She also works with the Vanguard Community Development Corporation and with North End Neighborhood kids to help create the mural when they are not working at night. I drove by one afternoon to see kids on the roof pouring paint off the building to drip down the mural. How exciting that must have been!

Catherine brought in the help of a local graffiti artist, tag name Elya, to help with the Pollack/Rorschach style of painting. Actually it is a style of tagging that is applied with a fire extinguisher. I have seen it numerous times around the city spelling out words. It is not my favorite style of graffiti; I actually find it too sloppy in nature. But for this application it is perfect!

The arches of rainbow-colored spattering bring something to this neighborhood that it sorely needed; proof that there is life there. Sam told me that sometimes up to 100 people a day were coming up to them when they were painting during the day (which is why they switched to night) to tell them how wonderful it was, to thank them and just shout out support and honk as they drove by!

It's a far cry from the "666" or "FUD" that were painted on there in the past. If it can contribute to people taking pride in there neighborhood and becoming involved in programs to improve the morale for people living there, I say put paint cans in the hands of everyone.

Click to see more images of the building by Detroit News Photographer Daniel Mears.

CORRECTION: Katie was working with "community+public arts:DETROIT" through CCS not Arise Detroit. C+PAD according to Sioux Trujillo the Associate Director currently has seven projects in progress throughout the city. Each of the artist or teams of artists received $30,000.00 to work on these projects that were funded by The Skillman Foundation, The Kresege Foundation and The JPMorgan Chase Foundation.