KCRag Forum

Going there this weekend / next week.  It's been around 8 years since I have been and I didn't spend much time there.

I plan on flying up with my oldest son and taking in a ball game and then we are driving to Sandusky to spend the day at Cedar Point.

We will be doing the usual photog thing in Detroit as I will be photographing a lot specific projects in the city as well as stock photos for my websites.  So we will get ground shots, aerials etc.

So any ideas?  Is the GM center worthwhile?  Anything else?  This is one city I know little about and only have a few days to take it in.

Thanks in advance!

If you are downtown you have to go to either Chellios (sp) Chili, or American Coney Island.  Chellios is right across from the stadiums, hard to miss, American Coney is at the intersection of Lafyette and Michigan Ave., where the building comes to a point.  (You don't want to one on the point, you want the one next to it.  If you make it there go down to the bathroom, pretty crazy setup...

If you want good BBQ head to Corktown and try Slows, KC has the best BBQ in the world, but if Slows has the 2nd best, great sides, meat, setting, everything.  While you are over there you can explore and take pictures of the old train depot, it's an absolutley incredible building.

The Rennisance Center (GM Headquarters) is a pretty cool building, maybe just walk through it to see it, and get to the riverwalk.

The Ford Mansion tour up north is pretty awesome, it will give you some insight on how the company, industry, city, and region were born.

Belle island is a nice drive, and a pretty awesome place, I would check that out as well. 

If you have any specific questions or need more let me know.

Chaz IV 

Take the tunnel bus over to Windsor and gape in awe at how different it is, even though Detroit's skyline overshadows it. Just amazing.

pls take some aerial photos of detroit's ruins, the "urban prairie."  thx.

I believe this is the last week you can visit hallowed Tiger Stadium before they tear it down.

Greektown is nice, although I think it was nicer before the casino was built.
I think you can't judge metro Detroit's development progress fully unless you go to Troy, Livonia, etc.
Pics from a Troy flyby would be great.

Well, I was just there over Memorial week.  GM/Rennaissance Center is a pretty spiffy buidling but its the one that stands out most.  The view from Coach on the 72nd floor is quite amazing.  The restaurant no longer rotates but you can still walk around the whole thing.  The show floor for GM vehicles is cool and has some old cars to check out along with new ones.  Greek Town is quite nice and has some great foods but the casino/hotel (still in construction) overshadows it.  Be sure to have your passport with you if you intend to go into Windsor (Canada).  The big casino over there was recently acquired by Ceasars and so theres now a huge sign on that building. I have many photos of my trip but haven't had a chance to load up any on here.  The Ford mansion is very nice as I stayed up in Saint Claire Shores.  The Jefferson Street drive is beautiful along the lake and next to many nice homes.  There is still lots of ghetto in the area especially downtown.  Though they are trying hard to revitalize their downtown and other areas, I think they are having a more difficult than we are as their economy seems to be lagging worse than ours.  When I was up there, they had gas prices of $4.19.  EW.  Anyway, have a great trip and take lots of photos.  I'll try to put some of mine up from the Red Bull Air Race, etc. Cheers! 

One other thing I forgot, the Penobscot Building downtown is worth a visit.  When I was there there was a gallery and sort of a small musuem.  The art and detail of the building is amazing.  IMHO one of the most remarkable 20th century buildings outside of NY and Chicago.

OH, and take the People Mover around the core of downtown Detroit. 

visit the decrepit union station. it's a reminder of our successes.

i intended to spend time in the city on my cross-country whirlwind last year. i ended up just spending a few hours in ann arbor, then had my friend drive me over to windsor to catch my VIA train the next morning. windsor sux, btw.

DaveKCMO wrote: windsor sux, btw.

I enjoyed Windsor! The beer was terrible, but the contrast alone was enjoyable.

Having both grown up and attended college in the Detroit area, I might be able to help you out a little.

Cheli's Chili, mentioned above, is a good place to go.  It's downtown, across from Comerica Park and Ford Field which are the new stadiums.  Tiger Stadium, unless you grew up in Detroit, probably isn't the best place to go.  It's starting to fall apart and is more nostalgia than anything else at this point.

If you get the chance, try to peek in to the Fox Theater (absolutely gorgeous inside) and the Detroit Opera House.  Both are historic and beautiful.  Going into the Renaissance Center and taking the elevator up will give you a great view of Detroit, Windsor and the river.  Unfortunately, there isn't much else going on along the river, although you can still take river cruises if that appeals to you.  Also, check out the Detroit Institute of Arts and if you have time, the Detroit Science Center and Museum of African American History.  They're all pretty interesting.  The DIA does Friday Night Live events and hosts musicians, which is free with museum admission.

The casinos are big, but nothing spectacular.  Both Greektown and Mexicantown offer delicious food, and the Eastern Market has some great Italian food and a farmers market on the weekends.  If you can, head over to Pegasus on Monroe, it's one of the larger and more well-known Greek restaurants and is fantastic.  If you're craving pizza, Pizza Papalis is also a great stop, but be prepared to wait a while - the deep dish pizzas take about 30 minutes to cook, and they're what is worth going for.

As far as things outside Detroit, they just recently restarted tours of the River Rouge Ford factory.  Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village host the history of Detroit as well as famous vehicles from history (the Rosa Parks bus, the car Kennedy was shot in, etc.).  Those are in Dearborn, which isn't far from Detroit but due to the lack of public transportation you'll want a car or a cab to get there.  Also, driving through Grosse Pointe/Grosse Pointe Shores/etc. is a nice throwback to the automobile era where all the "big money" families lived.  Beautiful old houses right along the water.

Troy or Livonia are horrible places to go.  They're the epitome of suburbia, so if you'd like to spend your trip eating at Applebee's and looking at drug stores, by all means.  Otherwise, they're probably not worth your time.  Downtown Royal Oak/Berkeley/Ferndale have cool bars and downtown areas that are usually pretty packed on weekends.  Ann Arbor is also a fun place to go - both the campus downtown and city downtown are full of restaurants, bars and shops.  The University of Michigan campus is also pretty nice to walk around, but if you only check out one area, the diag/law quad area is gorgeous (State St and South University).

Feel free to message me with any questions or clarification!

Hey, if you enjoy museums, you can check out the new and improved DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts) downtown.  It's really nice.

Thanks for all the info guys!  I will pm for any further questions.  I just hope the weather forcast gets better this trip may be delayed.

bahua wrote: I enjoyed Windsor! The beer was terrible, but the contrast alone was enjoyable.

No kidding. The best is relaxing, outside a nice, lovely street cafe in Windsor, and just listening to all of the gunshots across the lake in the good ol USA--although that might have been imagined while I was daydreaming and enjoying the peace of mind in Windsor.

What I really, really, really want to see is some photodocumentation of how DT Detroit is supposedly reinventing itself, and undergoing some pretty extensive urban renewal. There are some views of DT Detroit that are simply amazing, like from the Tigers' new ballpark, for example. And Grid, you might also be interested in some of the old areas near Ford Field. I was there for SuperBowl and that neighborhood is like a MUCH denser Crossroads or Bricktown. Also there's an old monorail that goes downtown, there's gotta be some cool photo ops there (you could at least get on it and shoot some pics along the way since it had some great views). The modernist building that the Hard Rock Cafe in is awesome (you have to go inside especially); Rosetti won several awards for that one. Probably one of my favorite buildings of theirs. There's also an entire Mies van der Rohe district. If you're an arch student or just a fan of design, you have to check that out.

And if you do NOTHING else while in Detroit, you have to go see the Eastern Market on a Saturday, when there will be thousands upon thousands of people shopping there. It's truly incredible.

Detroit is one of my favorite cities. You have to have an open mind with a city like this, though.

Time Magazine is running a series of articles over a year about the problems faced by Detroit.  Here is the first in the series.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 96,00.html

Here is the link to an archive of all articles about Detroit.

http://www.time.com/time/detroit/archiv ... ,1,00.html

An interesting, albeit radical idea on how to transform Detroit:

http://www.urbanophile.com/2009/08/09/d ... -frontier/

One natural response is the ?shrinking cities? movement. While this has gotten traction in Youngstown and Flint, as well as in places like Germany, it is Detroit that provides the most large scale canvas on which to see this play out, as well as the place where some of the most comprehensive and radical thinking is taking place. For example, the American Institute of Architects produced a study that called for Detroit to shrink back to its urban core and a selection of urban villages, surrounded by greenbelts and banked land. Here?s a picture of their concept:

Were I an aspiring farmer in search of fertile land to buy and plow, I would seriously consider moving to Detroit. There is open land, fertile soil, ample water, willing labor, and a desperate demand for decent food. And there is plenty of community will behind the idea of turning the capital of American industry into an agrarian paradise. In fact, of all the cities in the world, Detroit may be best positioned to become the world?s first one hundred percent food self-sufficient city....

To anyone with aspirations in this area, it is Detroit that offers the greatest opportunity to make your mark. It is the ultimate blank canvas. For urban agriculture and many other alternative urban dreams, it is Detroit, not New York City that is the ultimate arena in which to prove yourself.

i think that is exactly what should happen to detroit and large portions of many american cities, including KC. 

Yes, they can call the greenbelts "interpretative archeological sites." 

fascinating article, Max.  I would love to see some of these ideas, particularly relating to urban agriculture and arts-related communities, come up in Funkhouser's New Tools program, at least as fodder for discussion.  Desperation breeds ingenuity, and it is extremely heartening to see this kind of thinking coming out of Detroit...a place that doesn't really have any other choice, at this point.

one of the main problems that I see with many of these ideas, however, is that crime, and the perception of crime, needs to come down dramatically for any of this to be possible and large-scale.  You can't just remove everyone from these neighborhoods, or the associated issues (I suppose if you could, these old nieghborhoods would already be redeveloped, even given the state of physical deterioration).  Employment and education are the real big issues hiding behind the pretty "sustainable development" curtain, and I think you will always have trouble trying to create large farm and arts communities in the center of a poor, angry and desperate city.

But anyway, in the realm of radical ideas, I've always wanted KCMO to bank a variety of vacant buildings in some sort of arbitrary neighborhood with a lot of abandonment and simply give them away to "new blood" - folks from outside the region that are willing to sign here or there to gaurantee that they will be living in or restoring the space, starting a business within 6 months, or are in arts related field, or whatever.  Much like a low-cost Kansas Free Land type deal (is this still happening?).  I understand the unfairness and problems implicit in this idea, but it seems they could be mitigated with enough thought.  If the price is right...