Comments on: The Fall of Detroit http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html a site about everything Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:21:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Rick Neece http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html/comment-page-1#comment-185792 Rick Neece Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:47:48 +0000 http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html#comment-185792 Jeff I hardly qualify as someone who should comment, but Danny and I spent a year-and-a-half or so in Troy, at the Somerset Apartments, across the road just South of the Somerset Collection, in a "beautiful, parklike setting." I worked for Saks Fifth Avenue, again just across the way, as Visual Merchandising Manager. One of my staff members was a performance artist who had a hard time getting up in the morning to be at work on time. As much as I liked him, I nearly fired him. We also attended a couple of his shows, which were often terrifying and which once made the front page of the Sunday Arts Section of the Free Press. Now I won't be able to name the area we went to, downtown, near Greektown, to see his shows. But I remember being terrified of the neighborhood, hurrying from the car into the little theatre and back after the show was scary. Still, it was thrilling to be present in "unsavory" climes, sit in folding chairs and see a work that someone I knew worked so hard to create. This is getting long, my apologies, but one other time, a warm, bright Sunday afternoon, Danny and I decided we'd drive over to Grosse Point, and work our way down along the lake to downtown, then get on the freeway back up to 16 mile. Somewhere along the downtown part, we took a wrong turn and were suddenly exactly in the middle of "the wrong part of town." Razorwire everywhere, we actually drove by the <I>old</I> Saks, downtown, boarded-up. We had no idea where we were. We panicked, we slowed down at red-lights but didn't stop unless we had to. We eventually found our way to a street name we recognized and managed to get out of the <I>ruined</I> territory. For all our terror that day, I remember sensing what it must have been like back in the day. One could see it had been a thriving metropolis. No movie made really captures the post-nuclear feel of the place now. Makes me sad that it passed and that it may have little hope of a comeback. Jeff
I hardly qualify as someone who should comment, but Danny and I spent a year-and-a-half or so in Troy, at the Somerset Apartments, across the road just South of the Somerset Collection, in a “beautiful, parklike setting.” I worked for Saks Fifth Avenue, again just across the way, as Visual Merchandising Manager. One of my staff members was a performance artist who had a hard time getting up in the morning to be at work on time. As much as I liked him, I nearly fired him. We also attended a couple of his shows, which were often terrifying and which once made the front page of the Sunday Arts Section of the Free Press. Now I won’t be able to name the area we went to, downtown, near Greektown, to see his shows. But I remember being terrified of the neighborhood, hurrying from the car into the little theatre and back after the show was scary. Still, it was thrilling to be present in “unsavory” climes, sit in folding chairs and see a work that someone I knew worked so hard to create.

This is getting long, my apologies, but one other time, a warm, bright Sunday afternoon, Danny and I decided we’d drive over to Grosse Point, and work our way down along the lake to downtown, then get on the freeway back up to 16 mile. Somewhere along the downtown part, we took a wrong turn and were suddenly exactly in the middle of “the wrong part of town.” Razorwire everywhere, we actually drove by the old Saks, downtown, boarded-up. We had no idea where we were. We panicked, we slowed down at red-lights but didn’t stop unless we had to. We eventually found our way to a street name we recognized and managed to get out of the ruined territory.

For all our terror that day, I remember sensing what it must have been like back in the day. One could see it had been a thriving metropolis. No movie made really captures the post-nuclear feel of the place now.

Makes me sad that it passed and that it may have little hope of a comeback.

]]> By: Sheila Ryan http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html/comment-page-1#comment-185497 Sheila Ryan Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:01:19 +0000 http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html#comment-185497 Calamari Press -- <a href="http://motownmovement.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">"The Sound of Young America"</a> Calamari Press — “The Sound of Young America”

]]> By: Derek http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html/comment-page-1#comment-185487 Derek Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:38:49 +0000 http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html#comment-185487 Besides football, they have hell good sporting teams... and Peter Markus lives there so technically it will be the next US HQ of Calamari Press! Besides football, they have hell good sporting teams… and Peter Markus lives there so technically it will be the next US HQ of Calamari Press!

]]> By: Sheila Ryan http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html/comment-page-1#comment-185284 Sheila Ryan Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:58:19 +0000 http://www.clusterflock.org/2008/07/the-fall-of-detroit.html#comment-185284 An observation and an aside. Observation: The longest stretch of time I spent actually <em>in</em> Detroit (as opposed to passing through or over-nighting) was a (working) week nearly ten years ago, but I recall finding certain aspects of the city quite attractive (or maybe I mean <em>potentially</em> attractive). I'm not quite sure what I mean by this, but it's my recollection of an overall impression: that if . . . I knew not what . . . Detroit could be a good place to live. It sounds as though "I knew not what" didn't come to pass. Aside: Reading "Detroit" in the title of your post triggered the memory of a dream from last night, the details of which I'll spare you (mostly because they are fading) save to say that a principal figure in the dream said to me, "They think you're from Detroit." An observation and an aside.

Observation: The longest stretch of time I spent actually in Detroit (as opposed to passing through or over-nighting) was a (working) week nearly ten years ago, but I recall finding certain aspects of the city quite attractive (or maybe I mean potentially attractive). I’m not quite sure what I mean by this, but it’s my recollection of an overall impression: that if . . . I knew not what . . . Detroit could be a good place to live. It sounds as though “I knew not what” didn’t come to pass.

Aside: Reading “Detroit” in the title of your post triggered the memory of a dream from last night, the details of which I’ll spare you (mostly because they are fading) save to say that a principal figure in the dream said to me, “They think you’re from Detroit.”

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