Detroit, standing strong in covid times

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When the motor stops, the spirit continues. #staysafedetroit pic.twitter.com/y3QFxJG9qQ

— Doner (@doner_agency) March 30, 2020

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January 27, 2018 -- part 3: Rose's, and Bon Bon Bon

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Rose's Fine Food.  We spent enough time at Pewabic that we were ready to have some late lunch.  But not too much lunch.

Two cousins, both Rose's granddaughters, started Rose's Fine Food.

There wasn't enough room at a table, so we sat at the counter (the counter seats have backs, so that was fine).  It turned out the counter seats are the best seats in the house, if you are curious about how your food is made.  They left our menus within reach.  We watched them make dish after dish, and kept consulting the menu to see what those various choices might be.  All of them looked good.

We ordered four sides.  Greens, grits, potatoes, and parsnip soup.  All of these were very good, and the greens were REALLY good.  Mmm, mmm, mmm.

This was the perfect amount of food.  Not too much, not too challenging, on top of pie a couple of hours earlier.

Then we went to Bon Bon Bon, which makes exceedingly intricate and delicious chocolates.

When I told them how much I liked the wall, I was told there had been a fire, and they just sealed the wall and kept the distressed look.

Bon Bon Bon -- everything very thoughtfully and carefully done, but not ritzy.

This was my choice.  (Description follows.)

This is the one I picked for my better half, who was off playing bridge and missed this whole expedition.

Zingerman's deli often has Bon Bon Bon chocolates.  This is the sort of thing I think of seeing at the Deli -- these really fancily decorated ones. 

Fancy old cash register.

We didn't actually eat these the same day.  We saved them and ate them a couple of days later.

Very intricate and thoughtful package design.  I think you could mail these and they would come to no harm.  Not ritzy, but doing the get-it-there-in-one-piece job thoroughly, in an un-fancy way.



They were yummy.  I liked my coffee one best.

Mmm, mmm, mmm.

What a great expedition.  That was a good day, right there!


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March 29

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Off to Kansas for a family visit.  Leaving Detroit Metro (DTW).

A (fairly) clear look at Detroit.  The Renaissance Center has an easy-to-recognize silhouette.

The bridge to Canada is just above those words.  The Detroit River is between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

A wider view.  The Detroit riverfront is in the upper left corner (you can see the Ren Cen).  The expressway at the right edge is Interstate 94.

Shortly after the prev, we went through the clouds.  It was cloudy all the way to Lake Michigan.

That's Benton Harbor, Michigan, where the white point sticks out into the lake (a bit above and right of center).

It stayed clear over the lake.  I got the clearest view of Chicago I've ever seen from the air.

That white-covered rectangle that points right is Navy Pier, and all the green in the lower left are Grant Park and Millennium Park.

West of Chicago.  I thought the houses looked like Australian art dots.

I like the contrast between the man-made shapes and the rivers.

Hmm.  I wonder what this is.  I found it in maps.google.com, but there was no label.  It's just east of Batavia.

Ok, just another 20 seconds of research was required.

I thought there was a particle accelerator somewhere near Chicago. I googled "Batavia accelerator," and, of course Google knew all about the Tevatron......

Lots of clouds on the second half of the trip, too.

Descending toward Kansas City.

I thought this was interesting -- so many things going on, all in one set of fields.....

I saw lots of purple trees, as we got closer to the ground.

Here we are at MCI.

DTW to MCI is about 17 hours in the car, and 1.5 hours in a commercial airplane......

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July 29 -- Detroit -- RenCen, train station, bridge

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Once upon a time, Detroit had many different language/culture-oriented neighborhoods. For example, there were Polish neighborhoods, with Polish Catholic churches. Now, we were told, Catholic churches often do best when they serve a Spanish-speaking population.

I believe this church is in use, but have no idea who is served.

Approaching the RenCen from the northeast.

The People Mover, in front of the RenCen.

Front entrance to the RenCen (with the tail of the People Mover).

You'll recall that several posts ago, from near the Ambassador Bridge, we could see the old train station in the distance.  Here we look back, from the opposite direction.  You can see the arch of the bridge, between the trees at left and the train station.

Can you see the line of decorative grass plants, green with gold tops, just in front of the train station?

I think this is an inspired planting.  Not too expensive (I bet), but dramatic and low maintenance....

I like the way the dotted lines in the street seem to lead to the grass in this shot.

Grass shadows on rusty metal.

Grass, and trees.

Sad abandoned train station, with grass.  We were told that this building is at the top of many architects' list of "building most deserving of restoration."

This is a huge building.  I guess one thought for it is condos.........  The other side looks across the river at Canada, without other tall structures in between at present.....

Driving on by.  The shot above is basically the north face; this is the east side.

I haven't mentioned expressways.  Given the dearth of public transportation that has been truth for Detroit for the last 30 or 40 years, at least, it's not a surprise that a lot of really big roads lead to downtown Detroit.

Fancy new bridge, over the roads leading toward the bridge (which can be seen on the horizon).

We had dinner in Mexican Town, which is very close to the shot above.

On our way home, one last glance at the bridge.  The red, at the top of the lights, says Ambassador Bridge.

Wow.

I'm surprised I got so many pics that I thought were worth sharing, from a bouncing jouncing jarring crowded reflecting too-close too-far tour bus!

It was an excellent tour!  I learned a lot, and saw all sorts of things I didn't know existed.

Detroit looks much more colorful and lively than it was the last time I was downtown.

Hooray.  A healthy Detroit would be an excellent thing for Michigan!

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July 29 -- Detroit -- Heidelberg project, and Indian Village

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Next, we checked out the Heidelberg Project. This was our second walk-about during this tour.

Tyree Guyton attended the College for Creative Studies. He decided to take action to call attention to the plight of the urban poor by turning dilapidated houses and adjoining property into a large art installation.

At first glace, I thought it sort of amusing, that he had covered this building with stuffed animals, but the closer I look, the creepier it seems.........

Much less creepy -- heat-flattened bottles.

Totally not creepy -- smiling faces on the sidewalk.  Though, I suppose, those are creepy, too, if you think of them as smiling faces getting walked on by people who Do Not Care....

Looking back at our bus.

It seemed very weird, in the distressed neighborhoods we drove through, to be riding up high in an air-conditioned tour bus, looking out at their uncomfortable circumstances.....

Paint on the trees, as well as the sidewalks.

The dots look very cheerful, but I suspect that if you got up close, you'd see something creepy.....

Dots on the road.  With bus.

Some of the messages were spelled out.

Some weren't.

Speaking of creepy.....

An unspoken theme of this tour was barbed wire.  We saw tons of it, here, there, all over the place......

Just beyond the end of the Heidelberg project, what looks like a beautifully pastoral "suburban" block.  (I'll bet it isn't, but from here?)

Right, 90 degrees, from the above, is this lush garden of beans (and a little corn).

I had been wondering, looking at so very many vacantly green lots, where were the vegetables?  Is it the case that people in these neighborhoods do not have the emotional wherewithal (or the knowledge?) to grow tomatoes, beans, squash....  These neighborhoods aren't exactly replete with farmers' markets, or even regular grocery stores.

If I were a crusader, maybe I'd come here and build vegetable gardens, and teach people how to take care of (and cook?) the veggies..................

In any case, I was glad to see all those beans (though I wonder if anyone is actually picking them -- they look like an untrammeled jungle.........).



Yet, again, something completely different -- less than two miles from the Heidelberg Project is the Indian Village neighborhood. Big, nice, houses, taken care of nicely.

Here are several, to give you an idea, taken from a moving bus.

In Ann Arbor, I'll bet the smallest of these would be over $500,000, easy, and the bigger ones closer to a million.  Here, we were told, they are about $250,000.

I heard someone say "You could walk to work at the RenCen from here!" But googlemaps says it's 3.6 miles....... Not very far, but pretty far to walk.

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