With the following disclaimers: that I am an Ohioan by origin, that I’ve never attended a camp or college in Michigan, that I don’t own a cottage or condo ‘up North,’that I’ve crossed the Mackinac Bridge only once, that I still have to check how to spell Mackinac vs. Mackinaw, that I’ve never been trout fishing in the U.P, and that it’s taken me a decade to adopt Michigan as my present state and Detroit as. . . well, sorta my kinda town...I submit to you that I’ve come to understand what Michiganians -- or Michiganders (?) and even some Yoopers out there are talking about when they tell you what makes Michigan so peculiarly Michigan.
Off the top of my head, (and with no particular order in mind) here’s my short list:
Cherries.
Sweet,tart, dark,light, cherries are Michigan’s signature crop and ubiquitous fruit. Come to Michigan for cherries in salads, cherries in salsa, cherries in bread, cherry lemonade, cherry wine, cherry picking everywhere you can possibly get ‘em. World’s largest cherry pie pan, with a 17,420-pound capacity is on display in Traverse City, home of the National Cherry Festival. Absolute Michigan!
My-oh-my, Cherry Pie (slightly burnt!)
Fast Drivers own the road in Michigan. Watch for them. They know where they’re going, and they use colorful hand signals when vexed. Best to stay out of their way.
(Well, perhaps not this fast). MotorSports Hall of Fame cars on display, Dream cruisin' at the Detroit Science Center
Sure sign of recovery: a Ford concept car makes its appearance sporting scramble pattern camouflage.
Michigan Turns.
Where else but Michigan do you turn right to make a U-turn to go left? Drives me and my trusty GPS crazy.
Coney Islands, the chili-dogs.
What I would give right now for a coney smothered in raw onions -- not much. Coney Islands (known in New York as Michigan-style hot dogs) are legendary in Detroit. Coney Island restaurants, found in abundance, serve cheap and plentiful greasy-spoon diner food, Mediterranean-style, and according to Chowhound, are predominantly owned and operated by Albanians - and Chaldeans. (If you must go, order the Greek salad. It's still a pretty good deal.) Fancy Mag
John King's Rare and Used Books
You can't be in a hurry here. Over a million rare and used and well-used books spill off the shelves on four dusty floors of an old glove factory, standing as a Detroit landmark visible from the freeway. For the real treasures of John King's Rare and Used Books, you need a secret handshake and an escorted trip to the "back room." A mecca for readers and collectors who love the thrill of the hunt.
John King, himself.
Hitsville, U.S.A.
Home of Motown Records and the world-famous Studio A, still stands on West Grand Boulevard, like oooo baby, baby, sunshine on a cloudy day.
The Heidelberg Project.
Twenty-five years ago, artist Tyree Guyton picked up a paint brush and a broom with the determination to clean up and transform vacant lots and abandoned houses in the heart of the city. Today the Heidleberg Project stands as an international symbol of the power of creativity to provoke thought, inspire action and heal communities.
Artist, Tyree Guyton (candid shot on the street, taken with the artist's permission and a donation to the Project.)
The Ruins of Detroit.
Athens has the Acropolis; Detroit has the Michigan Central Station. Some call photos like these porn. But there are the dreamers among us, who still believe that the city can rise out of its monumental urban decay, out of the ashes. In its depth, Detroit may be just the place to show us the way for all cities to renew and survive.
The photos below are mine. For the coffee table book of note, see Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.
Starlight Lanes, a theater turned bowling alley, now gone. 8 Mile Road.
The famed and infamous: Michigan Central Station
Beyond restoration, a terrible beauty is born
The Mitten.
A map of Michigan for dummies. Only in Michigan can you describe your location by pointing to spots on the palm of your left hand, uh, or is it the back of your right hand? Cartophilia: Maps and Map Memorabilia: Michigan Mittens
(Image: Wikimedia+Photoshop_)
The Big House.
The biggest, baddest, loudest stadium in the Big Ten, third largest stadium in the world. To be seated in the House for a U of M game is an out-of-body experience. Go Blue.
Zingerman's.
Way beyond a heavenly deli, a mecca for foodies, listed among the Top Ten Food Markets in the World by Food and Wine Magazine. Artisan breads and cheeses, chocolates and munchies, kugels and killer brownies, holiday fare, name it and you can taste it there. You must go! On Kingsley Street, downtown Ann Arbor.
Check out and bread counter: Zingerman's, Ann Arbor
Rivera Court at the DIA.
The art, the soul, and very center of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Diego Rivera’s fresco masterpiece stands today, just as it did when it was unveiled in 1933 -- an iconic and haunting tribute to the industry and technology and workforce that built the city. For a panoramic view of the work, see DIA - Rivera Court
Detroit Eastern Market.
One of the largest, one of the oldest, and one of the most entertaining places to be in the city as you shop for produce. On a busy summer Saturday, more than 40,000 people flow through the market sheds, and surrounding eateries, specialty food shops and retail boutiques, covering over 40 acres of prime real estate in midtown.
Note: for best BBQ and live jazz, take a seat on the street at Bert’s Market Place on Russell. Smokin' hot.
The Dream Cruise
There are auto people, and there are auto people who own garages larger than their houses. For these people, there’s the Cruise -- a once a year rite of passage whereby their classic vehicles come off their blocks, to be driven with security escorts and displayed in guarded lots charging $200 a spot. For the rest of us, the Dream Cruise is one big tailgate party -- drivin’ and gawkin’ around Woodward Ave.
DON'T GIVE UP ON DETROIT.
In case you've missed the news,between Caterpillar (earth moving equipment) and the Kindle, Fortune Magazine has named Detroit #14 on its "Top 100 GREAT Things About America" heralding "Motown's rise, fall, and --we hope-- rise again."
On another positive note, a recent article in the New York Times featured "Young Muscles Building Detroit," siting census figures that "indicate a 59 percent increase in the number of college-educated residents under the age of 35, nearly 39 percent more than two thirds of the nation's 51 largest cities.
Photos: V.Henoch
BBQ photos: M. Henoch (SmugMug)
UM Stadium: wikimedia.com
/ "
City Lights," (in
my files from the Web and "Photoshopped")
Can't find original source, but will give credit to
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Comments
Detroit. Tough town, tough subject, but there are those here who still believe... Thanks for dropping by.
Beautiful photos.
I grew up near the Lodge Freeway and Webb with the lights of the Fisher Building in my bedroom window. Northville was a farm town. Ann Arbor one of the few places you could see a "foreign" movie.
My family was and is from the state going on seven generations. A graveyard in the town of Deerfield used to be the family celery farm. Gramps was the DA. Dad worked for the Federal Reserve on Fort. St., I believe. My uncle had hotdogs stands all over town. Mom grew up on Boston Blvd. Her house is the last from that generation still standing.
I just made plans today to visit. I'll take mom back to her place near Chrystal Lake that borders a vast cherry orchard. We used to pick up relatives from Ohio at the train station. We used to sit on a friends porch and watch the Supremes leave for their gigs.
You forgot Deerfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum--one of the greatest collection of American cars and industrial machinery in the country. My grandfather used to erect monuments in the city to Catholic saints. One is still on Belle Isle.
I left because after the riots I knew there was little future for me in the city, especially as a writer. But i remember talking to Elmore Leonard (sp?) who lives in Bloomfield Hills about it. He said there were more opportunities for exactly the reason I left, but I still always felt like a duck out of water--despite all that history.
I've noted the city has attracted some cache lately among the artistic who have a thing for ruins, dereliction, and cheap housing. I wrote a memoir about growing up in the city that nobody will buy, including Wayne State Press, for whom it's a natural, but I think the story is too depressing and the kids working there too bored and brainless.
If you ask me what I think happened to the city, it's not a pleasant analysis and I'm not sure anything has changed. Mi. is still one of the most segregated states in the US.
Hassah! For making an Editor's Pick. Otherwise I would never know.
I knew absolutely nothing of Michigan and now I know something. The Heidleberg Project takes amazing dedication. What a wonderful thing!
Ben-- yes, the Henry Ford - the great Grand-Daddy of All Museums in the D -- certainly warrants inclusion in this list -- but the DIA is first in my heart -- and I work -- as an exhibit developer -- at the Detroit Science Museum -- so that's where I've taken most of my photos. (Come to think of it, I don't have any shots in Dearborn... hmmm) For visitors coming to town, the Henry Ford is the must-see -- but rarely do we recruit visitors... PERHAPS next month, when my family will come in for a weekend, we'll get a few takers for an afternoon at the museum -- photos then.
And Midwest -- of course! I "forgot" the Lake. Michigan, like Ohio is a Great Lake State. . . for me it's Erie, always was, always will be. Living on the "snow belt" of that great big, moody, stunning "inland sea"--
I actually have another post -- where I ask my colleagues what makes Michigan Michigan in their mind... perhaps, I'll post it as a follow up.
(Personally, I much prefer beach days on the Atlantic coast -- from Rehobeth (Deleware) to Hilton Head to Kiawah Island (S.C.) -- nothing compares to the morning cry of gulls, and jumping into the ocean, sand and stones at your toes, and the warm, murky waves crashing over your head... )
yup, love the Guardian Building. Got some photos of its amazing detail. I'm starting a running list of "omissions" to my admittedly short list here . . . perhaps I'll consider a "sequel" to this post.
Detroit has been touting its renovation since the 60s. Now it has open fields and flocks of pheasant. You found the beauty that we locals find but the reality is that manufacturing has left America and left gaping holes in most of its cities. Detroit's corruption has been international news for years.
It is a lesson for all of America--a lesson in shame.
I've have a post from my book on my blog, "Stumpf, The Dancing Gorilla," set in the fabled city of Hamtramck, which was once the largest city "inside a city," and now is the last stand of the working class neighborhoods of Detroit during it's "Golden Age." My story uses fictional techniques, but is entirely true.
There is a subject for a photographic montage before it too is turned into a ruin.
Ben - you've given me new directions to go exploring. Thank you. And I will check out "Stumpf..."