Down and out in Detroit

I'm sitting with April at the very first bar that I ever came to in the United States, the Majestic, which also has Grand Bowl, the oldest bowling alley in America and the small club/poolhall upstairs called the Magic Stick. I came here with Chris, my roommate at the time. He was an alcoholic and I think he was still using heroin when I lived with him. By coincidence, we found out later that we knew some people in common, specifically April's estranged husband Scott and his band at the time. I was sort of a road photographer for Scott's band briefly while Chris knew the old lead singer for the band. I asked about Chris last night when I went out with Scott and April, and Scott told me that he saw Chris panhandling outside of CVS the other day. I went to that CVS today looking for him. I didn't see him but I did talk to another panhandler and the manager of the store and they knew of him. He was a pretty terrible roommate and when I left Detroit I was glad to be rid of him. He was very much into music and introduced me to Modest Mouse. He lived in Portland in the early 90s, worked for Nike and saw the grunge movement take off firsthand. He was working for the public radio station at Wayne State University when I left. I'm definitely surprised he's ended up like he has.

Detroit means a lot of things to me but mostly I remember the culture shock and the unhappy first seven months I spent here. I wish I could live here now because I still like it. It was odd driving into Detroit yesterday on Fort Street and seeing all the boarded up buildings and most of Tiger Stadium gone and the area around it even more decrepit. When the Tigers moved downtown to Comerica Park, it was the first step in revitalizing downtown Detroit. It just meant that the bars and shops around the old Tiger Stadium closed down and now it's a sad little neighbourhood where people just drive through and don't stop.

What's left of Tiger Stadium

I walked around campus and a lot of strange memories kept coming back to me. The picture to the left is of the classroom where my first American class was held. I'm much different now of course than I was seven, eight years ago when I lived here. I regret that I didn't really enjoy this city like I would now. It is unlikely that I'd ever live in Detroit again though. The city is not doing well, it never was, and now with the economy this place has been hit hard. Diego Rivera did a mural of Detroit industry at the Detroit Institute of Arts that I saw today. It's beautiful; it was interesting looking at that old vibrant Detroit and compare it to the doldrums the city has now been in for far too long.


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