Detroit. Stop it.

This weekend I worked extremely hard.

I drove to the beautiful Fisher Building in Detroit and then I counted skeins and skeins of yarn for the inventory at City Knits. I fondled Classic Elite Lush and my God, I would have licked it if I wouldn't have gotten a hair ball.

Driving into and out of Detroit the last 2 nights has given me additional feelings for you, Detroit. First of all, you make me feel uncomfortable and stupid in my mini van. You make me feel ashamed of myself in my stupid suburban car with my stupid sensible bob. Perhaps if I were more 'urban' I wouldn't feel so out of place.

Also, Detroit, frankly you scare the shit out of me. I'm afraid of you. Your abandoned streets and ghost town appearance make me extremely uncomfortable.

And then, when I feel horribly guilty for being afraid of you, you make me sob like a fucking baby. Because as I drive down Woodward avenue and I look at the majestic homesteads on either side of the road. Especially neighborhoods like the Boston Edison district I can't believe what's happened to you. That you used to be full of life and now you are nothing but an empty and very scary shell of your former self...it's sad.

How the Hell are you going to GET IT TOGETHER for the Super Bowl? Tell me because I want to know. I know we're supposed to be talking about all the great things happening in Detroit, and there are lovely things happening in Detroit. But could you stop scaring the shit out of me?

Why do you do this to me. I try so fucking hard to love you Detroit but you keep being so stupid. STOP IT.

Other highlights from the weekend: A farewell party for our friends Sarah and Bryan on Friday we didn't attend nearly long enough.

Cards with Rachel and Mike also on Friday where I burned my fucking nose smelling a fucking candle. I have a small red spot on my nose.

Finally, some people are getting their shirts.

So much is happening right now Internet. I want to keep you up to date but God, it's hard. I'm exhausted. Let's meet up again tomorrow night.

Comments

[Becky]

This yarn counting thing...would that be another JOB? My God, girl, you're wearing me out here.

[Caracao]

The Super Bowl will be fine. Detroit has done it before with a lot less to offer at the time. It takes guts to host such a big event during the dead of winter.

Repeat business is always a good sign.

[Saple]

Really worried about the Super Bowl? Get involved.

http://www.sbxl.org/volunteers/

[MelissaS]

I disagree, but hope to be proven wrong.

Friends stayed at the Ren Cen a few weeks ago and the conditions in the hotel (service and cleanliness) were really disappointing.

I suppose they have a year to hire people to actually clean the hotels, perhaps some of Kwame's high school buddies could actually do something besides shove reporters who question his administration's wild spending.

Oh wait, Kwame took a 'pay cut'. Wow.

I'll believe Detroit can handle the Superbowl when I see it. I wish Archer was still mayor. I'd have more faith in the city if he was still running things.

[SueFromOhio]

This is totally off topic...

I was listening to 89X this morning (I can only get it in in the mini-van) while taking the midget to school and Chuck said you in Royal Oak won't be having your annual St.Patrick's Day parade this year. How sad. But I don't even know if you're Irish. Anyway, if you listen to that station, is it me or does frickin Kelly Brown sound like she has a lozenge in her mouth when she talks...AARRGGHHHH might as well be slurping soup while she talks....

[Pants]

I'm part optimist, that hopeful side of me thinks Detroit can successfully patch its cracks.

I'm also part robot -- that logical side is less confident.

Detroit, you'll be happy to know I'm not afraid of you, and I'm the one who's usually driving, not Liss.

[Kristin]

OH MAN I love that Classic Elite Lush. I have the springy green one, and if it wasn't so expensive, I would eat it. Instead, I think I'm going to make some cabled arm warmers.

[emily]

I'm thinking that a momtini MATERNITY shirt would be soooo funny. I need one.

[Maia]

You get PAID to fondle yarn??!

[Robin Alexa]

You paint a very good visual as far as what I can remember of Detroit. Windsor's not much better.

[Rebecca]

Good point. A group of us went to Detroit this weekend to the Masonic Temple for the Phantom of The Opera. We ate ate Hockeytown and really wanted to go walking around a little before the show, but honestly, you tend to walk into things when you walk looking over your shoulder.

I sure hope they have a plan. Detroit really is a beautiful place, all it needs is a good scrubbing. And people that care.

[mrsmogul]

I've never been there but I always think cars and Madonna.

[A]

I love City Knits.

I love Detroit. It's the people. The surroundings, yes, are a little scary. I hope I live to see a day when it is not.

[sbk]

I'm so excited to be moving out of Detroit. Mind you, I love Royal Oak, but Detroit is the type of city that you'd rather fly over, not to. After every visit to metropolitan cities, my husband and I were always very sad to return to Detroit.

I guess if you were born in the area, which we weren't, the city grows on you more. Or so I've heard. But as a visitor, you typically don't want to return.

Melissa, I'm with you. I'll believe in the success only when I see it.

[MonoCerdo]

Detroit, to me, is il capo di tutti capi of the dirtastic Midwest cities. Not unlike a natural disaster, I both fear and respect it, never sure if it's going to show me a good time or break my knees.

[CursingMama]

You didn't lick the yarn??? I would've licked the yarn and enjoyed the furballs......I dream about yarn. This time spent counting yarn must certainly be another job?

[Lil' Sis]

Rebecca, did I shoot you with a paintball gun?

Maybe it's that I have different interests than most of the readers of this blog, but Detroit as a whole doesn't scare me. The things that scare me about Detroit are the police, fire department and municipal workers because they are incredibly corrupt on all levels. Well, there may be one or 2 good ones. But I haven't seen them. Detroit needs suburbanites to come in & spend money at the shops & restaurants & other various attractions so it can get better. In the poor communities, it's kill or be killed, but if there are more jobs (or better paying ones) available, they become middle class and less prone to violence because then they have something to lose.
So stop being a bunch of fraidy-cats & go out in Detroit once in a while. Start slow. Go in the daytime.
But don't take my parking space. And remember, "being afraid" doesn't count as an excuse for driving like an asshole.

[MelissaS]

The problem is, it *is* often scary and frankly when I get the chance to go out, I don't want to be afraid...I just want to have fun.

When Logan and I were dating and pre kids, we loved going to detroit and the grittiness of the setting was part of the charm. But now we (I mean me) just want to go out and have a few drinks with friends. I don't want to be gritty.

Finally, people will live in the city and want to be a part of the city when the administration stops being so corrupt. The closest Logan and I came to actually living in Detroit was when Archer was mayor. Things were heading in a better direction.

My entertainment dollars aren't going to save Detroit. Sorry.

[Lil' Sis]

Oy. Even Bonnie has started considering buying a riverfront high-rise condo downtown. But i think I pointed out, "Maybe it's that I have different interests..." and I think that sums it up. Hell, I would feel horrifyingly uncomfortable in that Bosco bar in Ferndale or the Blue Martini in Birmingham (tho not scared, just maddeningly irritated) but you like those places. Unfortunately, cheap drinks and a decent band or jukebox tend to be found in areas you wouldn't like.

But I still think you're a pussy.

http://sites.gizoogle.com/?url=http://www.suburbanbliss.net/

Have a look at how you could be yourself, only hipper. And with more gold teeth.

Miao.

[MelissaS]

There are places with cheap drinks and decent music that don't happen to be in places where I'm afraid of having my face sliced off.

If Bonnie moves to Detroit I'll keel over and die. She wouldn't even move to ((((Gasp)))) Royal Oak back in the early 90's.

[AmyinMotown]

Lots to say and no time to say it--but I'll leave it at this: As someone born and raised here who has lived in the actual city my whole life, my defensive "whatever, suburbanite" shields go up when I hear comments like yours.

BUT.

But. Did you say a single word I can refute--or much of anything I haven't said myself? No. I am a Detroiter, and I love it here. I hate the veiled racism I feel in the suburbs (and I must state I don't think your opinions have a single thing to do with racism, either. With all the genuine racism in this city it's not fair to play that card when someone speaks uncomfortable truths). But I am sick of it--sick of the quality of life issues. Sick of paying one-third of our monthly house payment toward taxes that pay for no services and a 15-person secuity detail for a giant football-playing mayor who is more than capable of defending himself. Sick of worrying if we're ever going to be able to afford private school for our three-month-old because there's no way in hell she's going to Detroit Public. Sick of the overwhelming problems and sick of feeling like somehow I can fix itif I just did MORE. We are seriously considering finally saying screw it, and "hitting Eight Mile Road."

[Sarah]

We did that drive down Woodward Ave when we came to the Auto Show in January. (Thank you again for the advice on our trip.) We stayed downtown to make it easy for the husbands to get to the Cobo Center. The wives headed out to the Somerset Collection--taking Woodward all the way to Big Beaver. The waitress at the hotel assured us it was safe to do. I can't say I was scared, but I was uneasy at a few points. Some of the houses along the way were beautiful, but I was unwilling to mosey around.

I live in a so-so neighborhood in Milwaukee. So I acommitted to urban neighborhoods and renewal and blah blah blah...I also have kids and want them to grow up and feel secure. When we visited Detroit in 2002, our minor explorations into the area outside of downtown were less depressing. Our trip this year was depressing, especially to return home and read just how bad the Detroit budget had gotten.

I might not get back to Detroit for a long while to compare again. The husbands found the Detroit show less than thrilling. The Chicago show was much better in my husband's view. Three days in Chicago will not only be less driving but easier to fill.

[MelissaS]

Amy I so know what you're saying. I want to love Detroit. My heart bleeds for Detroit when I try to imagine what it once was when our grandparents lived there.

The racism you feel in the suburbs is real. It may not be obvious racism but we're definitely racially divided out here. (Though I hear Farmington is quite diverse.)

You have a long time love of the city and I want to love the city but I can't be moved to buy housing there or to spend a whole lot of time down there in general because I have my own neighborhood. (With it's blow jobs and all).

All the issues you bring up are the exact issues that made us give up looking for a house in Detroit and focus our search in Royal Oak. It's unfortunate for the city that it's so hard for young families to picture living there. You have to be so committed to Detroit to endure the high taxes, lack of services, crime and crumbling public schools. Most people are understandably not that committed.

[knice]

I thank all of stupid parents and grandparents for leaving the the city in droves because they didn't want to stay next to some of color. the Exodus has been happening sinces the 50's and has nothing to the current adminstration or the previous administration or the one before that. It has everything to do with the inherent and preceived superiorty complex that most europeans have about themselves. Your neighborhood has just as much promblems it is just somehow you all can supress it. What is going in Detroit is just a precursor that is what is going to hapen to the suburbs eventually then we will not have to worry about you because most of you people will not be able to handle it and kill yourselves, another third will shoot up a school and final third will blow up a federal monument.

[knice]

I thank all of stupid parents and grandparents for leaving the the city in droves because they didn't want to stay next to some of color. the Exodus has been happening sinces the 50's and has nothing to the current adminstration or the previous administration or the one before that. It has everything to do with the inherent and preceived superiorty complex that most europeans have about themselves. Your neighborhood has just as much problem it is just somehow you all can supress it. What is going in Detroit is just a precursor that is what is going to hapen to the suburbs eventually then we will not have to worry about you because most of you people will not be able to handle it and kill yourselves, another third will shoot up a school and final third will blow up a federal monument.