Hello, my name is Detroit

Had some fun. Had some laughs.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:09:00 +0000

John Lennon once said -- and millions of people subsequently quoted him -- that life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. It's a cliché, sure, but as someone else once said, the cliché is cliché for a reason.

A New York native, I first set eyes on Detroit in October 2000, and have spent the last 11 years in and out of the shadows here in the Motor City, pursuing a career in New York City while not-so-privately obsessing over one of the most unloved cities in the country. Looking back, it's easy to figure out why. As a hopeful reporter, I saw Detroit as one of the greatest untold stories in the United States.

As happens quite often in this business, professional curiosity can often take you some really unexpected places. Over time, I fell in love with Detroit in a way I never expected to. It started to feel like home.

I made repeated attempts to transition from being a part-timer, ducking in and out between trips around the globe, trying to see how I might move in for real and settle down. It never seemed to work. The more I came to know Detroit, the more I loved it -- the good and the bad -- but I never felt one hundred percent sure that throwing my pretty solid career as a travel writer away and moving to Michigan was a great idea. Anyone who's tried to keep a news career going in Southeast Michigan over these past ten years no doubt can identify.

While I dithered and planned and scrubbed plans and started all over again, times changed. Detroit changed. The city, long left to its own devices, was drawn out of the shadows. As the economy fell apart in 2008, with the auto industry front and center for the drama, national media types once again took an interest in a city that had been all but forgotten in the decade or more prior.

In the ensuing years, Detroit became a thing. It was being discussed in many different circles. Reporters swooped in, trying to make sense of it all after years of having been tuned out, often missing the point entirely as they drove around the ruins, writing off the city for dead. (Unexpectedly, it would be a Chrysler commercial that finally showed the world a proper glimpse of Detroit's incredible humanity.)

The word itself -- Detroit -- became hip. Artists flocked in. Alongside this, businesses began to take chances. Downtown, already with so much going for it, flipped into gear. Then came Whole Foods Markets, announcing a Midtown store -- a curveball that threw even the staunchest city supporters for a complete loop. Today, I read New York-based Curbed Networks' new Curbed Detroit real estate blog for the first time, along with many of you. Another thing to file under things you didn't expect to see around here, any time soon. Suddenly, Detroit is cool. Suddenly, everyone is saying it is the new Brooklyn. I don't know if that's true. But if that's what people need to tell themselves to get psyched up to come hang out in the city and make it a little sunnier, than so be it.

All I ever wanted, from the very start, was for the world to stop ignoring Detroit. Today, I look around at a city that still faces unbelievable odds, odds it probably won't completely overcome for generations, but I see a city with a brighter future, something I never dared think about, after learning the hard way the perils of treating Detroit as if it were like any other American city.

Today, though, no matter what happens to it, Detroit is once again part of the national (and global) conversation. This is all that could ever be asked, after all. Magical solutions to its brokenness do not exist. And at day's end, Detroit must save Detroit. But I now take comfort in the fact that the world will be watching, lending a hand where it can, if Detroit will let it do so.

With so many changes both here and in my own life, I'll be moving on for the most part, leaving this blog to internet history. I'll still be involved locally in at least one very fun (and to me, very important) way, working with Eat It Detroit, a local outfit that celebrates Detroit's rich food culture and heritage. Join the conversation over there, if you can.

In summary and in closing, thanks to all of you who read this blog over the years, It was incredible to see the traffic transition from almost entirely local in 2007 and 2008 to an international audience in the years that followed. I hope it did some good. I hope someone learned something. I know I did. Thanks.

Hello, Whole Foods

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:10:00 +0000

Pigs really can fly, because the city of Detroit is getting a Whole Foods. Seriously. Corner of John R and Mack, taking up the space that was the Chase Bank, as well as that vacant lot between there and the parking lot behind The Ellington. Predictably, this announcement means a lot of complaining. Detroit is like that, bless it.

Three things.

#1 THE PRICE ISSUE. Whole Foods' 365 Brand products are generally pretty affordable and always of good quality. An excellent store brand that even the most die-hard cheapskate like myself can buy regularly. Things like organic instant oatmeal for about $2 a box, half gallons of great-tasting organic juices for $3.99 a carton, massive packages of pasta for $.99, storemade hummus for $1.99 a tub, organic wheat crackers for about $2 -- the list goes on. The quality is outstanding, and if its a few pennies over another chain store's generic brand, then so be it. I can taste the difference, and so would anyone who gave it a shot. But instead, too many people get hung up on their expensive prepared food and some of the very pricey produce -- you don't have to buy that stuff if you don't want to. Then again, it is easier to whine than it is to become a savvy shopper. Whatever. Go peddle your nonsense somewhere else, because you're wrong.

#2 THE SIZE ISSUE. Some people have wondered if 20,000 square feet -- the size of the planned Detroit store -- is too small. Again -- welcome to Detroit, where nobody knows shit about shit, but is happy to chat to you about it anyway. Fact: The Maple Road store, as in, the closest one to Downtown Detroit right now, is only 23,000 square feet. It's got everything you need. I should know. I shop there all the time. I'm thrilled to be able to not have to do a nearly 35-mile round-trip to buy my cheap organic store brand dry goods anymore. (Well, I will be, in 2013.)

#3 THIS ISN'T REALLY ABOUT YOU. Even just the announcement of this store is an immense brand boost for the city. Bigger than many people realize. It's not just a grocery store opening. Whole Foods is one of the most upscale brands in the country. Having that attached to Detroit does things for this town's image on a national level that even the most well-meaning, community-involved, PR-savvy Detroiter never could. Detroit's growing reputation as a cool new frontier town/art center/fill in the blank is great and all, but that is not going to save Detroit alone. People with money are going to do that. People who shop at places like Whole Foods. Show those people that something like this could thrive in the city of Detroit, and suddenly, they're feeling a lot more at ease.

You don't have to like any of this, but then again, this isn't really about you, and thank God for that.

Pedal power

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:43:00 +0000

It has been said more than once that one of modern Detroit's finest features is all the extra space on the road for cyclists. This is a true thing. Check out this charming documentary short by Alex Gallegos that highlights the Motor City's growing bike culture.

Not too shabs

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:02:00 +0000

Summer on the Riverwalk.

Craigslist, Detroit style

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 15 May 2011 02:35:00 +0000

Armed and dumb

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 14 May 2011 22:59:00 +0000

If only everyone senselessly murdered in Detroit had someone who cared enough about them to raise hell.

That's the lesson, maybe, from the whole Greg McNicol drama. One week after the Aussie landlord was shot and killed in front of his apartment building at the corner of Canfield and Beniteau, the DPD booked Freddie Young, 62, for the killing. Swift justice? How un-Detroit!

Then again, the plan to murder McNicol wasn't exactly foolproof or smart. Broad daylight, witnesses, happened while he was arguing with a deadbeat tenant in front of the building. If the cops couldn't pin this on her, they shouldn't be cops.

Can't help but wonder though, how much it pissed off City Hall to have Australian politicians calling and sending letters. Or to see the grieving widow stage a presser (pretty much) at the crime scene. Can't help but wonder if things like that greased the wheels just a tad.

The way the Australians and McNicol's family fought back, even if only in a small way, the fact that his widow refused to be scared off, raises a really sad and interesting point. After all, how did Detroit react? Same as usual -- for every one person who felt something, anything at all, there were nine more who heard the news, maybe muttered something under their breath, something about lying down with dogs, and changed the channel.

Your daily Kwame-related LOL

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:00:00 +0000

Just when you thought you'd never have to hear about or from him again, back into the spotlight comes the former Little King of Everything. This time, with a big fat lawsuit against SkyTel, former communications provider to the good folks at Coleman A. Young.

At issue: The company released public records. To the public. On request. This act of releasing public information to the public has made plaintiff have a sad. Weep. All of you.

The whole thing seems like a very funny joke. As usual, some of the best bits of the story come courtesy of the unsinkable former United States Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick. Mother of the complainer. Er, complainant.

Who is to blame for Kwame's downfall, we ask? Newspapers, we're told. Judges. It's all just awful. Also, you guys, someone has totally been tapping her phones for years.

"Everything that has happened from judge misconduct has slapped my son around,” Cheeks-Kilpatrick said in an interview with the psychiatrist whose diagnosis of the former Detroit mayor is the center of the case, which SkyTel is asking the court throw out, on grounds of it being dumb.

“This all got him to the place he is now," posits Cheeks-Kilpatrick. "The helplessness and slavery that he feels is because of this.”

Ha ha she said slavery. Awesome.

That old chestnut

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 05 May 2011 02:53:00 +0000

If you're just tuning in, here's a retread of one of the local stories that locals like to talk about least.

Unfortunate, but true: Roughly half of Detroit's adults are functionally illiterate, meaning they can get by, but don't ask then to grasp anything fancy.

The problem runs right up to the top -- think former Detroit Public Schools board president Otis Mathis, notorious for his poor writing skills. (His penchant for masturbating in front of a female colleague finally got the best of him, you may remember.)

Here are some countries that, according to the CIA, have higher literacy rates than the city of Detroit:

Zimbabwe (91.2)
Honduras (83.6)
Haiti (62.1)

USA #1, etcetera.

Color me Detroit

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:30:00 +0000

Three years, three terrible cameras, thousands of images. Here are 63 of them.

Bad things happen everywhere. They are just more likely to happen to you here.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:33:00 +0000

So maybe you heard about this girl who came out of her house in Hubbard Farms or wherever the other day, only to find her car without its tires. Bummer.

Obviously, this is an epic pain in the ass that no decent citizen should have to deal with. The victim chose to write her way through the frustration. Good call. Annoyingly, though, this person felt she had to preface her story with that old Detroitism. You know the one. Bad things happen everywhere.

It's sad that this dumb and annoying thing happened to her. It's even more sad that the rah rah/sis boom bah, Let's Fix Detroit booster crowd has its followers running so scared that they have to put disclaimers in front of everything they say that might be remotely negative.

Is free speech dead? (Has Detroit been annexed to Canada?) Is refusing to tow the line and gloss over the realities of modern-day Detroit (which range from annoying to just plain sickening) when speaking in public now a crime?

It ought to be possible to love your city more than life itself AND have no patience or tolerance for its stupidity. If this concept confuses you somehow, you really aren't much of a help to Detroit.

Bad things do happen everywhere, but the difference between many other fine cities and Detroit is that in Detroit, there is an atmosphere of permissiveness, of apathy. Love the cops or don't -- yes, these are some fine men and women, but on the whole, they are just not up to the task. Sometimes they come through and do great work. Sometimes, you're just on your own. Facts is facts. That this is allowed to continue, year after year, is Detroit's fault. Detroit permits this.

Stick your head in the sand all you want, but bad things in other places usually happen far less randomly. They happen in terrible neighborhoods that everyone has given up on. They happen to people who run with wrong crowds. People who are in the drug trade. People who have family troubles.

In Detroit in 2011, all you have to do to become a target is own property. Sometimes it's a smash 'n' grab during a hockey game. Sometimes it's just petty theft. Sometimes it is home invasions. Sometimes it is worse. Sorry, but firebombings do not happen everywhere as a matter of course. Get that much straight at least.

The story of those two little girls who died earlier this year when an arsonist decided to torch a home, for whatever reason, or the other one about that man and his father who were killed when they surprised a burglar in their home up by Moross not too long ago should be upsetting to every Detroiter. What about the lady crossing the street from her home by the Tim Hortons on Jefferson, killed in broad daylight for her purse? No? Nothing?

Too many people -- particularly self-appointed saviors living in hip areas near the core, where they're safe from most of the problems that plague most other neighborhoods -- can't face the reality of what the city has become, so they say things like, "bad things happen everywhere."

Until everyone stops rolling over and taking it, deluding themselves into thinking that if they lived in a semi-decent neighborhood in Chicago, they had just as much chance of interrupting an armed home invasion when they come back from the grocery store, or watching their little girls die at the hands of arsonists; just as much chance of waking up in the morning to find their car up on blocks, or leaving their home to go to work, only to be shot and killed by a purse snatcher just steps off a busy street corner, then Detroit doesn't have a chance, sorry.

UPDATE 4/22: Here is a great -- and by great I mean frustrating as fuck -- example of what I'm talking about. First, read this. Now, read this. Find brick wall. Smash head into it. Rinse, repeat.

Why does Muslin terrorist Jack O'Reilly hate America?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:45:00 +0000

Shari'a law, as we know, has taken over Dearborn. This latest rash of armed robberies -- not really armed robberies, you know. This was just people being executed for not following the rules. Right? Wasn't it? I don't know! WE NEED TO BE ASKING THESE QUESTIONS.

Proof that Americans have at long last completely parted ways with reality, we have these politicians around the country using little old Dearborn, which they've never seen, as an example of why we must now take action. To stop what happened in Dearborn from happening anywhere else. Stuff like this. Now that's an example of a very funny joke. (Except that it's not a joke. An elected official in Texas is wasting taxpayer time chasing ghosts.)

What happened? Kids whose families moved here from the Middle East get taught to be proud of their heritage? Pork got taken off the school lunch menu? Jesus, the horror. What, are observant Jews now terrorists, too?

The only crime against America that Dearborn has committed, as I see it, is that none of the other restaurants there are quite as good as the shuttered Michigan Avenue La Shish location. I mean, now that was some fucking great bread and hummus. If keeping that place open meant letting the terrorists win, then dammit, I retroactively surrender. Come home, Talal -- all is forgiven. (No wait. Probably don't.)

UPDATE 4/20: Shocking photographic evidence of Dearborn's descent into Shari'a hell, documented by the fearless, Jesus-and-America-loving Jeff Wattrick.

THIS. YES. +1. COSIGN.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Maybe it's just because she's hungry -- and face it, in times like these, you really just want to eat -- but Debbie Stabenow has just said a thing that is less dumb than just about anything a Michigan politician has said in a long time. What she said:

"Why should Eastern Market only be open on Saturday? Why not Sunday? Why not every day?"

Good questions all, Debs. Srsly -- let's think on this for a minute. There are other things, to be sure, but one of the most ready-for-primetime things in Detroit is easily the Eastern Market.

Attracting a fantastic mix of tens of thousands to Russell Street and surrounds on Saturdays -- News says up to 40,000 each go-round -- the market one of the first places you want to bring an out-of-towner, to show them just how great Detroit can be when it wants to be.

More than that, the thing about the market it is that for once, Detroit is ahead of many other cities, trend-wise. What is super and awesome and taken for-granted here is only dreamed of in too many other cities. New York has no permanent public market district, for example. It did, but it doesn't now. The amazing guys at the New Amsterdam Market are struggling to bring it back -- and we do mean struggle. It's taking them years, even with all their fancy friends in high places.

Here in Detroit, the thing is already done. What is old has become new again. So why not make one of the very best things about Detroit even bigger and better? Dan Carmody and his crew have certainly been trying -- and succeeding, if you ask us. The market looks great. (It'll keep looking better, if the money keeps flowing -- they've got some cool plans in place.) Anyway, it is great to see someone at the state level recognize the effort and do their bit to help; after all, what's good for the market is good for the state's ag biz, certainly. A biz that is more important than ever, as other economic opportunities shrivel up and blow away.

Beginning in July, the market will open on Tuesdays -- at least for a while -- but the plan is to explore Sundays as well, which would basically be like Saturdays, but with more locally-made foods and goods.

DO IT. NOW.

The murda map is back. (Sorry.)

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:19:00 +0000

View Violence in Detroit 2011 in a larger map

Back in 2008, when I was in Detroit a whole lot more than I am at the moment, I started compiling a homicide map. In those days, (memories!) getting information out of the DPD was essentially impossible. The idea to adopt a sunshine policy towards crime in the city -- or, should we say, crime that people bothered to report -- and show people where it was or was not happening, well, it just hadn't really occurred to anyone. Just for grins, I tackled the project myself.

The lessons were quick and easy. The more dense the population, the higher the violent crime rate. (Duh.) Sure, the areas around the city core (much safer than many people think, if you don't count smash 'n' grabs during sporting events) had a bunch of dumped bodies and whatnot, but the big stuff -- your multiple homicides, your idiots spraying bullets into nightclub crowds, etc -- odds are, that happened somewhere far, far away, out towards the exits.

After the 2010 Census results came in, and we saw just how much and how fast the city was changing, it occurred that it might be fun to fire up the homicide map idea again; this time, expanding the focus to include major carjackings and the like. There are now multiple websites that do this sort of thing, but with far too little information beyond what initially gets spat out over the scanners.

These days, the cops are much better about releasing information, making it easier to get a clearer, overall picture of what's going on. This is a good thing and a bad thing -- for example, Midtown residents may prefer to remain in the dark when it comes to the amount of armed robberies that have taken place during the evenings along Woodward Avenue so far this year. (Too many, frankly, to include on the map.)

One thing hasn't changed though, if the first three or so months of the year are any indicator: If something really terrible happens, there's a good chance it's going to happen out on the fringes of the city, where more than half of Detroiters now live.

The map will be continuously updated, as events unfold; for suggestions, corrections and clarifications, please drop me a line. Oh, and PS? Looks like I'm coming back. Soon. The blog shall rise, for reals. My apologies, in advance.

Let's do the numbers

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:44:00 +0000

View Detroit 2011 in a larger map

Statistics recently released by the Census Bureau show the city of Detroit in far worse shape than some people had imagined. That is not surprising. Detroit is great at pretending things aren’t nearly as bad as they are, which is part of the city’s charm. We are talking, after all, about one of of a very few places in the first world where can you drive down some street that looks like it just got slammed by a dirty bomb, only to have someone point out the one thing that didn’t go kablooey as some super-duper example of how everything is in turnaround. It’s fucking adorable.

Less adorable: The news that census tracts in the city sustained losses up to nearly 70 percent. City-wide, you were lucky if you got off with less than 10 or 15 percent decline. (Relatively few tracts did.) In the last ten years, we’ve seen a pattern of instability creep into places that were previously thought to be untouchable.

Curious to see where the people are, where they aren’t, who’s screwed, who’s not screwed, where the renaissance, if it ever resumes, will hit first? This map may prove useful. Any suggestions or corrections, please drop me a note.

Does that Bentley come armored?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:21:00 +0000

“Yes, tax the Super Rich. Tax them now. Before the other 99% rise up, trigger a new American Revolution, a meltdown and the Great Depression 2.”

— Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

Interesting read, here. Taxing, schmaxing, whatever — does it not occur to the shrinking number of Americans sucking up what dollars are left, that what happens all throughout Latin America might end up happening here?

Are we good with heading for a place where anyone with any material worth to speak of becomes a sitting duck, a target of an increasingly angry and desperate citizenry? Detroiters like Johnette Barham have already seen the future, sadly.

But that's Detroit, and as we know, what happens here could never, ever happen anywhere else, ever, because mostly it just happens to black people.

Seriously, though -- do we have to get to the point where anyone with a good job in Boston, say, a nice house in San Antonio or a successful restaurant in Minneapolis, is suddenly a target for kidnappers? How far do things have to deteriorate, before the poor get really pissed? Scratch that, they’re already pissed. How long before they figure out who is to blame?

When they do, it’s going to be one hell of a show. Everyone bring treats! (What goes with revolution -- red velvet?)

UPDATE: Vanity Fair joins in the fun. (via Wonkette)

And you think your commute sucks.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 23:31:00 +0000

As seen on Michigan Avenue.

From Thief in Chief to Bitch Boy: The Kwame Kilpatrick Story

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:47:00 +0000

Yes, yes, this blog is in hibernation, but, Confession. Listening to Judge Groner dress down the Boy Failure just now? Kind of a turn-on. Just wanted to throw that out there. And just when we thought things couldn't get more exciting, how about the audible shock expressed when G handed down his ruling? Enjoy jail, young man. AGAIN.

With any luck, dude will get the five years. It's the least he can give us; how much money did his buddy, whatshisface, get to redo the curbs in all those neighborhoods where there aren't even any sidewalks anymore? For that alone, he should be in jail. For reasons of being unbelievably stupid.

Oh, and PS, friend -- in your little speech there, about how you could feel something changed in Detroit when you were sent to jail, part the first? Yes. Something did change. The city was no longer being passed around between you and your friends like some kind of dirty whore; for once, order had been restored and the sun fucking shined on Detroit, just a little tiny bit. We all felt it too.

But that's probably not what you meant.

Our forefathers would be bursting with pride, or into tears, or whatever

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:12:00 +0000

Hey now, just in time for Independence Day, here comes "Are You There Dave Bing, It's Me, Detroit" out from behind the curtain, to give DPD Chief James Barren the ol' KTHXBAI, on grounds that...well, heck, what grounds -- who knows! Does it matter? Just enjoy the fireworks!

Things you can also enjoy today include but are not limited to our newly updated 2009 Detroit Murda (and other major incidents where firearms were involved) Map. Because, hey, The More You Know and etcetera.

So, here we go.

Ding, dong, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Separatism enthusiast and aging supermodel Monica Conyers? Done. Over. Sayonara. Bye now. Kenneth Junior says this is probably her last day on council. Oh, Ken -- if only. Stick to being huggable. The charter says you only get booted if you are convicted. Seems it doesn't say anything about pleading guilty to a felony, probably because the nice people who wrote it assumed that anyone pleading guilty to a felony would probably just leave without having to be asked. Clearly, the charter was written in a different time, in a different Detroit.

Never mind all that, for now. What one really wants to see is the national press getting on this. It may be time for Mr. C to finally stop pretending his wife doesn't exist, time to be subjected to a bit of public humiliation. It doesn't matter what he's done in the past; we all eventually reach our sell-by date and have to be smart enough to retire or try our hand at something new. We hear Dallas is lovely at this time of year?

Meanwhile, the Freep reports that Martha Reeves is AWOL, giving interviews to the British press about how awesome Downtown is and not attending council meetings. What is she, crazy, missing all this excitement? (Oh, wait.) It's said Reeves is on tour in the UK, but that sounds an awful lot like "hiking the Appalachian Trail" to us. Maybe she's taken a lover! Free Press, will you be at the airport to ask her the hard questions when she finally comes home?

Detroit's sloppy murder math

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Recognizing that a sunshine policy is the best policy, the Baltimore police make homicide statistics readily available. Charm City's popular weekly newspaper and even its ailing daily chart homicides for public view, on easy to access murder maps. This is all smart stuff for a city that for years has struggled with serious violence. Knowing your problem, and where your problem is, can be an important first step to getting things fixed.

Detroit knows it has a problem, but prefers to pretend otherwise. The stressed-out police force has no similar policy, the local media do not keep faithful records. Heck, we can't even get the numbers right. When the FBI's latest report on crime in the nation was released, Detroit fessed up: Our numbers were too low. Oops. Our bad. We're actually #1 in per capita killings.

Kym Worthy is pissed. How, she asks, can we begin to solve a problem, if we can't even keep proper records? Of course, record keeping was never Detroit's strong suit; among other reasons why, perhaps it's easier to cope when you aren't constantly having your face shoved in depressing statistics.

It's time for the police department to assign someone to be in charge of the body count; it's time for, say, Metro Times to make itself useful and follow the Baltimore weekly's lead. It seems like a project the News might enjoy - show the people just how violent Detroit actually is, and where exactly the violence is taking place.

There are two reasons this sort of grim tallying of the bodies is useful. One, it will quickly show outsiders how safe much of the city actually is. As you learn quickly in Detroit, not all blighted areas are dangerous. Some of them are just empty.

An informal (and incomplete, thanks to impossible standards of record keeping) survey of homicides in the city over the past year shows the lion's share of murders taking place out on the West Side, past Livernois, where more than half of Detroit's population currently lives.

You could count the number of reported killings Downtown, in Midtown and the East Side below I-94 on two hands, tops. (Reported being the operative word here.) North of I-94, the East Side remains as lawless as ever, but with the population dwindling there so dramatically, even large sections of that area show less violence than many expect. Southwest Detroit performs reasonably well, also.

To get the ball rolling, I pulled together this map in 2008, followed by this one for 2009, which reports through early May.

Any reporter interested in taking the reins should feel free to do so. It's a little time consuming.

Best seat in the house

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 24 May 2009 12:56:00 +0000

Movement..it's back and bad. Intended to stay an hour or so, ended up leaving more than four hours later. The $5 drinks in the VIP section are bewilderingly bad but the seats sure aren't.

An afternoon at Buddy's

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:03:00 +0000

Can we talk? Buddy's. Six Mile and Conant. One of the many mysteries of Detroit is that its own home grown version of a Sicilian pie, also known as Detroit-style pizza, never hit the big time. People crowd into Chicago to cram leaden slices of deep dish pie down their gullets because Chicago is famous for it, even if they really should be eating instead the wonderful thin crust pies you can get all over town.

I happen to think that Buddy's pies are marvelous. Light crust, no sugar in the dough and little to none in the fragrant tomato-basil sauce; the cheese isn't exactly fresh mozzarella but it is not the plastic mess that New Yorkers have begrudgingly become accustomed to. In a word, this pizza is interesting. If you're not from around here, well, it isn't like lots of other pizzas you have had.

The original Buddy's, a former speakeasy, is in one of the more desolate parts of the East Side, and yet inside it's all smiles...

...outside, too -- this guy was out in the parking lot waiting for his order to come up and told us we had made the right decision to drive all the way over here. He wanted to pose with my friend Justin in front of his Land Rover. "You may forget everything you saw in Detroit today," our new pal said, "But you won't forget Buddy's."

And another one...

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Another beautiful day, more pictures. The Dequindre Cut has been transformed into an exercise track, extending just over a mile from the Detroit River (ish) to Eastern Market (ish). It turns out to be more fun on a bike than on foot, for a number of reasons.

The Riverwalk was very busy today, of course, with lots of people hanging around Rivard Plaza eating ice cream, riding the carousel and whatnot. This turns out to be a great place to go if you find yourself in a bad mood.

Belle Isle's Scott Fountain was on, then it was off, then it was on again. At least it was on some.

The beach has yet to be combed out, but that doesn't stop these sunseekers.

Oh, hey, GM! Enjoy the $4 billion you got yesterday from Treasury.

Oy, such weather we're having (and so early, yet!)

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:43:00 +0000

What an unbelievably beautiful day.

Hello, revolution? When can you start?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 17 May 2009 13:01:00 +0000

If you're not pissed off, you really have lost your mind.

We're talking, of course, about the fact that instead of competent business leaders, accountants, lawyers and urban planning experts from around the country, Mayor Bing's Let's Save Detroit team turns out to be nothing more than castoff mayoral candidates, former Kilpatrick flunkies, a convicted felon, people in drug-slinging biker gangs.

Come back, Ken!

There's cold comfort, at least -- Barbara Rose Collins announced she was taking her tiara and going home after years of "service" to the community in City Council and the House of Representatives. This means we are likely to never hear a stirring rendition of "Onward, Christian Soldiers!" sung in council chambers ever again. Sad.

No time for tears, though - city government is back to business-as-usual, which is to say, looks like it's back to being the local money trough, seeing as this town is all out of better ideas re: how to survive.

Isn't it enough, already? This guy proposes a revolution. The blog endorses this and stands ready to help in any way it can.