Detroit vs. Somebody

Detroit is an odd city. I imagine, years before I was born, and many years before the generation of my parents, that Detroit was the most significant source for economic vitality.

But there’s something odd about all of that. We should be able to see it.

I was driving to Detroit, as I’ve done more than a couple times in the last few years, for a concert. As I'm pushing through the last leg of the journey, it starts to hit me that you can hardly see the city, once one of the wealthiest in the world, from the west. Now, this may be mostly due to the engineers building the interstate system, but Detroit is still a big place. There are tall buildings and intricate urban areas. And yet, all largely invisible from 20, 10, 5, and even 2 minutes away.

And I think this is because Detroit isn’t meant to look good to us. It’s not mean to hype up Americans. And it definitely doesn’t seem all that good to Michiganders, Ohioans, Wisconsinites, etc. The tall buildings aren’t unusually tall, nor are they new.

Think of the last big construction job in your city, or your hometown. Was it a building or an arena? Was it a skyscraper or gentrified housing projects? The newest sight-stealer coming to Detroit is Hudson’s Tower, set to be completed in 2022. Or 2023, or 2024, depending on how many revisions take place before they finish designing it.

Other than housing projects, the Little Caesar’s Arena is the last significant sweeping change coming to the city. A city that was supposed to develop the areas around the stadium’s parking lots and empty spaces. But cash-grab arena deals being what they are, none of that’s really happened.

So, when you arrive in Detroit it kind of creeps up on you. The Renaissance Center (GM) is behind stacks and stacks of layered old brick medium-to-tall structures. As if an illustrator were creating a sepia-toned pop-up book. The Ren Center’s hotel centerpiece is still the tallest building in Michigan, and one of the tallest hotels this side of the Prime Meridian. Its four satellite towers are also taller than most of the other Detroit buildings.

But you’d be hard-pressed to see them from the highway.

It’s also hard to see the baseball stadium, Comerica Park. Or Ford Field. Or the LCA. They’re meant to exist within the existing framework of the ‘rugged’ downtown landscape. Brick and mortar, meat and potatoes construction projects with the only the slightest of flair.

Why is this, I kept wondering to myself? I don’t get Detroit in the daytime. It’s a profoundly 1980’s Ronald Reagan, Working Girl, blue and grey suit with a brown belt and shoe city. Surrounded by warehouse and manufacturing emptiness and deactivated street lights, and then quite wealthy suburban yuppie communities creeping closer and closer but not really entering the fray.

And then there’s Detroit at night.

And then it hit me.

We’re not really supposed to like Detroit.

Canada is.

Well, Windsor is.

I bet Detroit, at night, looks fantastic from Canada.

And I bet it’s because Toronto is too far away and Detroit is practically the Wild Wild West. Or, at the very least, Westworld for the weekend.

All that being said, and maybe this is the Arcade Fire Spotify mix influencing my Canadian mentality, but I like Detroit. And have 4 more Detroit trips planned in the next two months.

Let’s calm down on the Detroit vs. Everybody for now. After all, I have to start printing Detroit vs. Toronto tees that will sell like hotcakes if the Pistons and Raptors meet in the playoffs.