Link to Flickr Set

After only four days in Detroit, I became attached to certain spots. The formerly grand row of mansions leading up to the bridge to Belle Isle (a circa 1848 island park, complete with abandoned zoo, Tudor aquarium and greenhouses, boat club and Art Deco lighthouse). The big neon sign across the Museum of Contemporary Art:

The crumbling 2-story 20s buildings of Del Ray, festooned with angels. And of course the enormous hulking landmarks — the Michigan Central Depot and the Packard Plant (where some friends had to dodge a fire set in the stairwell they’d entered by…)

This Harper’s article from last July shares some great history and context, and some hope for the future – mostly in urban farming. Rebecca Solnit is right — a city full of empty buildings (firehouses, commercial, castles, churches) looks pretty good to a bunch of space-starved artists from New York City.

One of the most remarkable people I met there was the proprietor of the Temple Bar, an Art Deco bar that his father and uncle built and ran together until the late 60s. The bar served the nearby Masonic Temple until they built their own inside. George works with the Cass Corridor Local Development Corporation — a nonprofit that provides affordable housing while preserving buildings in that area, the former estate of Lewis Cass. It was really wonderful to run into someone so active and interested in his community and neighborhood — while he served us $3 cocktails during karaoke night!