Abandoned Detroit

Thursday Aug 9

"Detroit is failure driven.  Detroit is made of broken glass and shattered dreams."

-Couch Surfing host Mars (in response to my comment that NYC is very success driven.)

Abandoned houses. 

It took several days to get too far from this nook in Highland Park on West Goldengate.  I worked most of the daytime, and I couldn't find anyone to go ride around with me.  For the sake of having a tourguide, knowing which way to go and what to look for, not getting lost, robbed or raped, it only made sense.  Finally, I asked our next door neighbor, Work, and he was happy to join.  First we rode through Palmer Park, what was once a lovely and giant park.  In some ways it still is; there is a golf course somewhat sectioned off by giant mansion-like homes with designer cars and closed gates.  While I had read about it and sought it out, Work had never known this part of the park existed after living a lifetime in Detroit.  I think that was intentional design.  The public pond was only intermittenly cleaned and full of trash, but they did maintain some fish and crawfish inside to please the general public. 

After the park, we went toward the downtown and then weaved in and out of residential streets to return.  We passed a historical Ford plant--now with a broken window quantity that would have at one time rivaled its vehicle output--and Dollar Tree's that were hopping next to chiquer stores that had been closed down. 

In the neighborhoods, there were empty lots from homes that had been razed and every level of abandoned house from those with rock-sized holes in the windows to those that had been completely gutted, burned, or covered in foliage.  Most interestingly, among these houses were still inhabited homes.  As we crept in one abandoned house, a man in one of the few inhabited houses of the block across the street was mowing his lawn.  It was an interesting dichotomy and a testiment to the human sense of dignity, to watch this man take pride in his "plot" of land, even surrounded by these others in disarray.  Next to the burned house was a home inhabited; then another abandoned.  As we tried to step through the sidewalk leading to the house now covered in weeds waist-high, the next door neighbor told us that there was nothing to see in there and that he had "stuff" in there (I.e. we shouldn't enter). 

Notes to self: 

Instead of paying for an apartment in NYC without so much as closet space, perhaps I should consider coming to Detroit where I will not only have my own closet space but also an entire abandoned house next door for any extra storage. 

Instead of four people paying a total of $2,200 a month to sublet from a fifth person (Side note: The best way to make money/take advantage of people in New York City  is to rent an apartment and then sublet it to others for way above that cost.) the four of us could have come to Detroit and bought TWO houses for one month's rent.  Christ-do you know how many Detroit homes I could own with what I paid in one year's NYC rent? 

With over a thousand community gardens now in the city I would have been able to find a way to participate there, and I definitely would have found plenty of needy inner-city kids to teach dance to.  :-)