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Published: April 9th 2007
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Growl! Detroiters are tough!
A 15-foot tiger at Comerica Park -- a very popular baseball stadium at the heart of Downtown Detroit In the mall, I saw a souvenir shop of T-shirts that had these on:
"Be good to me. I have friends in Detroit." "I'm tough. I vacationed in Detroit." These struck me. What's with Detroit? ... ummm, aside from the fact that Eminem is a Detroit native. Well, a city of angst? Stevie Wonder also came from Detroit, but he's classy. Detroit must be a city full of variety and history. So here goes my impression of
Downtown Detroit, plus a thrilling experience while walking downtown. Read on.
GM Renaissance Center
The General Motors Renaissance Center (also known as RenCen) is the most prominent structure along Jefferson Avenue downtown. It is always the cityscape backdrop in the news especially on the Fox Weather Report that I tune into every morning. I mentioned before that my project in my recent company is with GM... makes me think my past work still tries to haunt me! Haha!
We walked inside the majestic building and we were welcomed by long strips and slabs of glass artfully arranged into an artwork they call "Borealis". We took the escalator taking us one floor down and enjoyed vintage
cars on display. I am not much of a car fanatic but looking at the Pontiac Solstice and Hummer makes me drool! For now, I have to be satisfied sitting on the driver's seat and have pictures taken in them. Haha!
People Mover
We walked a couple floors up and we took the unmanned elevated train called the
Detroit People Mover. We hopped into the train from the Renaissance Center and it circled downtown. Pretty convenient, huh? We saw new and old buildings. Busy and abandoned buildings. Majestic and scary buildings. All these I've seen in circling downtown with just $50 cents.
Greektown Casino
We took of the Greektown station and got inside Greektown Casino. It was nice to see the colors of a typical American Casino but I wasn't happy being smothered in cigarette smoke. Since it was my roommate's first time to get into a Casino, we decided to play on a penny slot machine -- yeah, we're cheap. Haha!
Just outside the casino is a strip of all things Greek (and Mediterranean). It was a short street filled with a greek bakery, a few greek restaurants, etc. I started to
Great Lakes
One of the vintage cars on display inside the GM Renaissance Center miss Toronto's Greektown.
The Chase
No, I am not talking about the Chase Bank. But yeah there is a big Chase Bank Building near the Campus Martius Park.
So. We (a group of 5 good-looking people -- tee hee!) walked out of the Compuware Building, which is also across Campus Martius Park, when a tall black guy walked towards us shouting, "Do you have something to eat?". We ignored him and continued walking. But he kept walking and he kept following us for a couple of minutes. I think another black guy joined him in in following us so we, instinctively, walked faster!
I was getting a bit scared. I'm glad we lost him when we crossed the street. I haven't recovered from that yet when another black guy (taller and stouter) tried to stop us by giving us miniatures of the Amerian flag in toothpicks! Gosh! What does he want? Did he intend to poke our eyes with the toothpicks? Or was he just selling them? He looked pretty scary to start with, so, not knowing what to do, we simply ignored him. We walked even faster, and a bit more scared! I
GM Wintergarden
A 5 story glass atrium of shops and restaurants inside the GM Renaissance Center facing the Detroit River walked my fastest and did not look back. We crossed a few streets and finally lost him when we were near the Wayne County Building. Geeez! We hurried back to the building where Luisa parked her car. My friends said that 4 black men were following us! My!!!!! The first guy who was asking for something to eat chased us after we ignored the "Toothpick Boy", plus 2 others!!! Ackkkk!
Oh, by the way, my roomate previously had a sprain on her ankle. But, miraculously, she got healed after this chase. Thank God we each got into the car all in one piece! I bet any of those men could just grab and carry us, one on each hand! Hah! God is good. We're safe now.
I realized that Detroit is Manila's Tondo.... haha! I'm sure only my fellow pinoys would understand what I mean. Anyhow, next time I visit Detroit, I should only walk around at 12 noon! Haha! And oh, bring pepper-spray.
Ford Field
We decided to just drive around downtown and LOCK our doors. Luisa brought us to Ford Field which is a football stadium -- home of the Detroit Lions.
Ambassador Bridge
A view of the Ambassador Bridge that connects to Windsor, Ontario, Canada The street was empty.
If you're wondering why it's called Ford Field... It's simply because the Ford Motor Company sponsored its construction.
Comerica Park
Right across Ford Field is the Comerica Park. Comerica Bank sponsored the construction of this baseball stadium that's why it's called the Comerica Park -- home of the Detroit Tigers. Wow, Detroit is filled with sports animals! (If you know what I'm talking about -- Tigers and Lions in the same street -- tee hee!)
We had fun posing by the huge tiger. There were also hugh tiger heads in each pillar of the stadium. It's an interesting structure altogether.
Woodward Avenue
In my previous posts on Detroit, I mentioned that Woodward Avenue is the first official street in the whole USA. That's why it's numbered 1, as a street code. So. From Downtown Detroit, we took Woodward Avenue to get to Southfield (our office), which is 20 miles north east of Detroit.
We passed by a couple of buildings of Wayne State University on the left side. On the right, we saw the Detroit Institute of Arts which had a replica of
The Thinker.
World Map
A silhouette of the World Map on the ground by the Detroit riverfront I remembered seeing my first
The Thinker at Stanford University in California.
Back to Downtown in the Same Week
Last Saturday, April 14, Luisa toured a few more friends Downtown. She took me with her, and I commissioned myself to be the official photographer of the tour. Nyaha!
This time I was able to take a better picture of
The Fist which is near the GM Building. It's an artwork in the middle of the street (Jefferson and Woodward Avenues). It is the fist of the world renowned boxer Joe Louis in the 1930s. I heard it was painted to white (vandalized) overnight. I don't know why anyone would do that, but it just shows how "controversial" that artwork is. I read that "it was unveiled at the height of Detroit's years as the murder capital." Detroiters either loved it or hated it.
Dearborn -- Ford Country!
From Downtown, Luisa drove us to Dearborn which is about 30 minutes away. It is obviously a city that's all-things-
Ford. There's Ford Street. The Ford Motor Company world headquarters. Ford Medical Hospital. Henry Ford High School. I told you! All-things-
Ford!
We also went
Canadian Ship on Detroit River
Those buildings stand on Canadian soil to the mall called Fairlane Town Center. We ended up starving so Luisa took us to a popular Mediterranean Restaurant called Ram's Horn. This branch is the original branch. Not only is Dearborn popular for
Ford. It is also popular for having the most concentration of Arabs in the nation, thus the best Mediterranean and Arab food. No wonder, as we entered the restaurant, I saw a lot of Arabs in their black clothing dining there, too.
We had taboulli (or taboulleh) and a Shawarma Platter for less than $10. I tried their Lentil Soup, out of curiousity. I never had Lentil Soup before and I don't think we have that in the Philippines. Well, my verdict -- It was okay. Like Monggo Beans, but lighter in taste and texture.
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Ralph
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Fierce!
That's a fierce-looking tiger! Loved the pics and the excellent narrative, as usual. The 'Chase' would be funny if it wasn't so scary... don't forget, safety in numbers! Great tour across the varied landscapes of Detroit and Dearborn. Makes me feel as if I was there! Keep it up and take care!