We want to start this post by saying that not all of Detroit is the way we're describing it in this post. I think our interpretation and experience in Detroit may be a little misleading. I don't mean that we are making anything up. But the most interesting part of Detroit to us was the deterioration of the city. That's what we spent most of our time checking out. The focus of this posting is mostly on that and it isn't the only aspect of the city, its just the most prominent aspect of Detroit. There is a lot of art and a new culture rising in Detroit as young people move into the city to explore space and mediums that can't be utilized the way they can in Detroit. You take a major city and bring it to its knees, remove most business, most money, most of the jobs, and most of the people and you have the shell of a city with barely anything left. The possibilities in Detroit feel endless. If you have the means to support yourself, the city has really interesting things to offer that are almost impossible to find in any other city.
According to what we've been told Detroit had a population of around 1.5 million people in its prime. Now there are about 800 thousand people, roughly half of what it was. On paper the unemployment rate is around 20%, but the mayor of Detroit has publicly stated that he thinks its closer to 40%-50%. One in Three homes in Detroit are abandoned. Detroit is separated from Canada by the Detroit river. The city on the other side of the river is Windsor Canada. Someone told us that there are three homes for sale in Windsor for $5,000 and all three of them are trailer homes. In Detroit there are over 12,000 homes for sale for $5,000. That is why there is so much potential in Detroit. There is a surplus of space and its all pennies on the dollar. The only problem is making a living once you're there.
The first night we got there we met up with a gentleman named Kevin. He's the brother of my brothers friend. Kevin moved to Detroit eight days before we got there so like us he was really interested in exploring the city. That first night we went to a party downtown. It was being held in the only synagogue in Detroit. We got there and there were a ton of people on the sidewalk and on the street eating and drinking. It was weird because police kept driving by and telling people to get out of the street, but they didn't seem to care that there was a big ass party and that people were drinking in public.
THE PARTY.
Then a marching band started playing in the middle of the party. They weren't very good, but it was wild to say the least.
Then we went upstairs and explored the synagogue. The top two floors were empty.
But there were some pews and an alter (or whatever it is in a synagogue). Perfect place for a photo shoot.
There was a keg at the party but the line to get to it was really long, and it was in the hottest room in the building, so Brooks and I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to go find some beer at a liquor store. Even in a city like Detroit you'd think that liquor stores wouldn't be difficult to find right? WRONG! We walked down to one intersection on a busy street nothing, we walked down to another on a busy street, nope. That's where we saw the homeless dude. "Look there's a homeless guy, if anyone knows where to get booze its him." as he staggered over to us I asked him if he knew where a liquor store was. He said, *gurgle* *gurgle* *rumble* *blaaaah*. "Wait what?" That's when he lifted his head up and stuck his finger over the Tracheotomy in his neck. Then we could understand what he was saying. He whispered, "Yeah there's one a block down there just on the left, you can't miss it, can you give me a few dollars?"
"Listen dude, I don't really want to get lost so we'll give you $5 if you'll take us to the liquor store."
"OK, this way."
So we followed him for a while. We were walking around downtown Detroit following a homeless guy who was staggering back and forth on the sidewalk, sometimes he'd wander into the street so we followed like, "Oh, we're crossing here?" Then he'd stagger back onto the same side of the street. "Oh, you just can't walk in a straight line..." A lot of the streets he took us down were completely black until cars drove down because most of the street lights weren't on and so many buildings were empty so there wasn't any city glow. Walking around downtown Detroit was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done. We finally got back to a busy street that we followed the homeless dude across. There were a few people standing across there talking in a few groups. He walked up to them and asked, "Do you know where there's a liquor store around here?"
"YOU SON OF A BITCH! thanks a lot man..." we said to him. Then we turned to a girl who was sitting in front of the diner on the corner and we asked her if she knew where the liquor store was around there. She said,"Yeah right down there on the right" I asked her to elaborate because I didn't want to get poor directions and get lost in that city. She stood up and walked over to the street pointed and said, "do you see that sign with the blinking lights on it about 4 blocks down there? That's the liquor store. You're driving right?"
"No we're walking."
"Don't go down there."
"Seriously? I can see it from here."
"That's Kedzie, you don't want to walk down there. Well, do you have a knife?"
"No"
"Then you have no business going down there. Trust me!"
Needless to say that was all of the advise we needed, we walked back to the party. On the way people driving by would yell at us out the windows of their cars. We walked past a dude started shadow boxing to words us as we walked by. It was really crazy! The next day we wandered around to find a diner for breakfast. We found one and I had to take a picture of the menu. Not because the things on the menu were that special, but because the prices were right!
The rest of the trip was spent mostly driving around different neighborhoods in Kevin's truck, or on mopeds looking at houses and spaces in the city.
Almost all of these buildings are abandoned.
Kevin told us a story about a friend of his that bought two houses next door to each other for $1. This is the picture of the two 50cent houses. He's going to salvage anything he can from the house on the left then bulldoze it and try to rebuild the house on the right.
Burned out abandoned school.
There were signs that said "no standing" all over the city. I'm not really sure why.
Tires just abandoned on the side of the street.
Taking it easy.
Abandoned church.
This building goes on all the way down as far as you can see, about 5 blocks. The whole thing is abandoned.
Another abandoned school.
Garbage just chilling on the side of the street. There is a home opposite of this, it was probably just dumped there and no one has come to clean it up.
I feel like this is a symbol of Detroit life.
Like I said, it was really surreal to come from a town like San Francisco that not a single inch is being unused, to go to a town like Detroit where so much of it is just falling apart, unused, and being turned from man made structure back to trees and grass, Its a testament to the reliance of nature. That's something that is really nice about Detroit is that so much of the town is being turned back into green space. Evidently there is a real problem with arson in Detroit. People will just go torch a house for shits. So to combat the problem the city will just bulldoze houses that are too far gone to repair. Then the property will just become open field. These videos were taken not far from downtown where ten or so years ago (maybe longer) every piece of property had a house on it, now there might be a house every third or fourth.
Kevin, Thank you so much for having us, we had a great time. Be safe, and come visit us in New York when you have some free time!
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