Detroit Pride

[n0Mad]

The whole article is here, but I figured I'd quote this excerpt since it gave me goosebumps:

This is all small consolation to visitors who can't find a taxi. They see the cold, gray winters and abandoned downtown buildings and think they have stepped on the set of a post-apocalyptic movie. And then they leave. And that is one of the great tricks of Detroit: It is not cool to live here, and so anybody who is preoccupied with being cool stays the hell away, leaving a vibrant, exciting part of the country for the rest of us.

The thing about Detroit is that you can't just show up downtown expecting a party. You have to know where to go. The city's gems are hidden. Oh, you'll probably find Greektown on your own, and maybe you'll find the Detroit Opera House or Fox Theatre, but a lot of the great bars, restaurants, clubs, music venues and shops are nowhere you might expect. And the locals probably won't tell you, since they have long since given up on selling their city to cynical visitors.

[paradox]

And that is one of the great tricks of Detroit: It is not cool to live here, and so anybody who is preoccupied with being cool stays the hell away, leaving a vibrant, exciting part of the country for the rest of us.

:laughing :laughing :laughing :laughing :laughing

[Rayne]

^^ :laughing :laughing as well ... ^^

[kellygrrrrrl]

Word!

I like the article

[Onyx]

Great article.

This may sound strange coming from someone who doesn't even live there, but I have spent time in and around Detroit, and I'm not sure why, but something about Detroit just gets into your soul. God, I wish I could move.

I liked this statement too (and do understand it, having lived a miserable existence in Florida).

"I have fallen in love with the people, places and heartbeat of the Detroit area; it feels real to me, with history you can almost touch and people who understand who and where they are.

This is why I much prefer Detroit to, say, Florida. I find much of Florida to be depressing and miserable, a situation I address by not living there. But I would never claim to be right; some folks think Orlando is heaven, and more power to them.

I'll stick with a city that is north of Canada, short on glitz and overflowing with soul."

[sass_in_the_pants]

I was in Europe for a while and on the flight home I was chatting with some German engineer and telling him how happy I was to be home, how I was so excited to be back in Detroit that I could burst. Then, as we landed, there was a problem, a problem with the plane and the airport and the weather and everything so after being on a plane for eight hours we had to sit on it for another hour and stare out at the airport we all were supposed to be filing into.

"Fucking Detroit" I said.

He snickered and said "So, I guess you're not happy to be coming home anymore?"

"Wrong, I am home, and when I'm home, this is what I look like happy. Fucking Detroit."

For as much as I joke, really and truly and honestly, you would have to pull me out of here kicking and screaming. I know, I know, some people can't wait to get out, but leaving just takes me farther away from the people and places that I love.

Detroit, where it always smells like spring!

[Nienna]

I moved here becaue I fell in love with Detroit. I just belong here. Everone said I'd end up murdered.. and I just laughed.. LOL

I love the city FOR it's abandoned buildings and post apop feel. It still has a soul.

[n0Mad]

When I got the job to manage a nightclub out in Colorado, I was thrilled. I had always wanted to move there and here was my fantasy coming true. I loved it, but it still felt weird. When the club closed and I had to move back to Detroit, I told everyone, "It's weird. Nobody wants to move to Detroit, but once you live there you never want to leave." I was happy to come home.

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

I moved here becaue I fell in love with Detroit. I just belong here. Everone said I'd end up murdered.. and I just laughed.. LOL

I love the city FOR it's abandoned buildings and post apop feel. It still has a soul.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very few of us actually live in detroit.... and the farther away from detroit we are physically (like on vacation), the closer we live to the Cass Corridor (of the 1980s) when we tell someone where we live:

Truth... "I live down river (or Roseville, or Southfield, a northern suburb, or Wayne)" Usually a newer town with mostly strip malls and homes built in the 1960s. When we go to detroit... its on a free way, its not a matter of walking to our front door and unocking 3-4 locks and a security door, then strolling out onto a broken sidewalk, looking both ways to avoid getting hit by a speeding bus and then quickly running though a rancid cloud of rank ass detroit city sewer gas waffing out of a manhole.

STORY: we tell people when we are out of town or people who dont look/seem like they know much about detroit "I live in a crack Ghetto... hookers are murdered on my door step, pimps give me smokes on my way to my car, I saw Kawame drive by, there are no cops in detroit, houses are always burning down, I killed a bum with my bare hands.... BUT, I love detroit, and thats why I live there... so I can go to city club.

It does all come down to city club doesnt it?

Most of us are tourists too.... very very very few DGNers live inside the city limits of detroit....

[JaneDead]

Very few of us actually live in detroit.... and the farther away from detroit we are physically (like on vacation), the closer we live to the Cass Corridor (of the 1980s) when we tell someone where we live:

Truth... "I live down river (or Roseville, or Southfield, a northern suburb, or Wayne)" Usually a newer town with mostly strip malls and homes built in the 1960s.  When we go to detroit... its on a free way, its not a matter of walking to our front door and unocking 3-4 locks and a security door, then strolling out onto a broken sidewalk, looking both ways to avoid getting hit by a speeding bus and then quickly running though a rancid cloud of rank ass detroit city sewer gas waffing out of a manhole.

STORY: we tell people when we are out of town or people who dont look/seem like they know much about detroit "I live in a crack Ghetto... hookers are murdered on my door step, pimps give me smokes on my way to my car, I saw Kawame drive by, there are no cops in detroit, houses are always burning down, I killed a bum with my bare hands.... BUT, I love detroit, and thats why I live there... so I can go to city club.

It does all come down to city club doesnt it?

Most of us are tourists too.... very very very few DGNers live inside the city limits of detroit....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:laughing

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

Here is my own reply to what I said above:

Dont bother complaining or trying to explain why I am wrong for 2 reasons:

1. I dont care

2. You will only look silly (well you will probably look worse... but IM trying to be nice)

[JaneDead]

i don't think you are wrong at all.

i run into people ALL the time that say they are from "the city" or "detroit" when they live further away from it than *I* do. well, i live down the street from "detroit" but i am a bit of a ways from "downtown"

i was actually with someone at a pistons game recently and some people asked her where we were from - she said detroit. she lives in harrison township. they on the other hand actually do live in detroit. (west siiiiide)

and that crack ghetto you were talking about ... that was my old 'hood before they finally tore down most of the houses on my street - AND actually put up new ones!! it only took about 15 years but they did it. but, only on my old street, none of the ones around it.

[n0Mad]

Truth: I live in Rochester Hills. A nice little yuppie community where nothing goes wrong. The owner of Flagstar Banks built a multi-million dollar mansion about a mile away from my house. All the other new development is half a mil or more. Of course, my parents bought their house back when it was all farm land so it's not like we have any money, but it is kinda fun living in the second richest county in the nation (Oakland, second only to Orange County, California) and watching all the pretentious fuckheads drive their SUVs three houses up the road and leave them idling while they chat with their neighbors about what private pre-school is the best.

Story: Yeah, I'm from Detroit. I go to a dingey old goth club on Cass (you may have heard rumors of the Cass Corridor? They're all true) right downtown on the dividing line between gang territory. A druglord used to run out of the warehouse across the street 'til half a swat team died in a shoot out so they just fired in flame grenades and burnt the place down. My band used to play in a dive in Pontiac (aka Ponticrack) which is pretty much worse than Detroit. You know all those Devil's Night fires you hear about? Yeah, that's Pontiac. The rock climbing gym I go to is in an old toxic storage building that Duesenberg Auto used to own (actual truth) right down the street from a block of crack houses and whore houses (actual former half-truth).

[Lilith]

i just say i live 2 miles out of detriot (wich is true) and people draw there own conclusions......... I do have truthful messed up stories of being in detriot but i have never lived there. I also never tell my meesed up stories to out siders they wouldnt understand.

They also would never understand the vibe the unity the people who coem to detriot from the burbs and those who live down there can feel at one of the huge event in hart plaza, they dont understand that half the guys who actually live in D would get an ass whoppin from there momma if they let a lady be stranded on the side of the road.

I like living 2 miles from D, i can still make my way down there to enjoy all the goodies it has to offer while trusting my air conditioner wont get stolen.

Oh i read the article orignally on MSN (my home page) and it all made me smile. Finally a good read about our city with out all the bull and politics. weather or not we live there we all take a great deal of pride and feel a great layolity to the city and we all love it for our own reasons.

[paradox]

truth: i live in harper woods now, but i can still spit on detroit from my porch.

i used to live downtown for a number of years...it was great!

the main reason we moved was the schools. having a child and living in detroit, well, the prospects of detroit schools was less than thrilling. otherwise, we probably would have stayed downtown. its an incredibly convienent location for alot of stuff, as long as you dont mind the bums calling you 'cracker' when you run up to the coner to buy something. the city, especially now, is more reputation lingering from the 70s and 80s than anything else. the thing i relly miss is driving past the hookers on chene. :laughing always a highlight of my day!

story: hey, its fun to tell stories. especially to non-americans! :laughing

[sass_in_the_pants]

We used to have an apartment on Willis next to the Magic Stick. We spied on the neighbors (woah, dude, it's not like we were pervs. We just didn't have a TV was all, what did you expect?) and I had my schedule down tight - I knew which bar had dollar drafts on which night and where to get free munchies.

Funny thing is, really, once you're out of Michigan there's no point in saying you're from Rochester Hills or Harrison Twp or anywhere but Detroit anyway, because no matter what you say, everyone will still say you're from Detroit.

[JaneDead]

We used to have an apartment on Willis next to the Magic Stick.  We spied on the neighbors (woah, dude, it's not like we were pervs.  We just didn't have a TV was all, what did you expect?) and I had my schedule down tight - I knew which bar had dollar drafts on which night and where to get free munchies.

Funny thing is, really, once you're out of Michigan there's no point in saying you're from Rochester Hills or Harrison Twp or anywhere but Detroit anyway, because no matter what you say, everyone will still say you're from Detroit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and if you say anywhere else it is not like they have heard of anything BUT detroit i have noticed

[Fierce Critter]

I just have to do this edit:

This is all small consolation to visitors who find themselves at City Club. They see the cold, bleak interior and decrepit facilities and think they have stepped on the set of a post-apocalyptic movie. And then they leave. And that is one of the great tricks of City Club: It is not cool to party here, and so anybody who is preoccupied with being cool stays the hell away, leaving a vibrant, exciting part of the city for the rest of us.

The thing about City Club is that you can't just show up downtown and see where it's at. You have to know where to go. City Club is a hidden gem. Oh, you'll probably find Mephisto's on your own, and maybe you'll find Luna in Royal Oak or Necto in Ann Arbor, but a great club like City Club is nowhere you might expect. And the locals probably won't tell you, since they have long since given up on selling their club to cynical visitors.

:grin

That said...

I've said enough times how bleak things were in North Carolina. There was so little in the way of culture, nightlife, etc. Oh, it was there. A museum or two. A couple nightspots here and there. But NOTHING like Detroit.

And the people - Ahh, there's just no explaining it. Once you've spent time away, you just know.

Detroit is so not comparable to cities like New York, L.A. and perhaps even Chicago. But we like it just fine, and plan on not leaving again.

As for saying "I'm from Detroit", once you're out of state, people really don't know where in hell Taylor, Warren or Westland are. But they know Detroit. It's the same as saying you're from New York if you actually live in Poughkeepsie. People start going comatose if you get into the whole, "well, I'm actually from Taylor, which is about 15 minutes south of Detroit" spiel.

Personally, my family is actually from Detroit, from grandparents through parents. I spent a good period of my life working, playing with my band, rehearsing, partying, etc in Detroit. I very much feel like I am a part of the city.

[n0Mad]

I just have to do this edit:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I thought the same thing when I first read the article.

When I first went off to college in Wisconsin, I'd tell people I was from Rochester Hills. They'd say, "Where's that?" I'd add that it's near Pontiac where the Lions play (they did back then) and Auburn Hills where the Pistons play. So they'd say, "Oh, you mean Detroit?" Even when half of our sports teams didn't play in Detroit, people still only think of things as Detroit. So now I just say Detroit.

I'd always have to add in though that I lived just two blocks away from Barry Sanders and would see him out getting his mail on occasion and we'd chat. (This was back when he was setting all of those records.)

[Shade Everdark]

I thought the same thing when I first read the article.

When I first went off to college in Wisconsin, I'd tell people I was from Rochester Hills.  They'd say, "Where's that?"  I'd add that it's near Pontiac where the Lions play (they did back then) and Auburn Hills where the Pistons play.  So they'd say, "Oh, you mean Detroit?"  Even when half of our sports teams didn't play in Detroit, people still only think of things as Detroit.  So now I just say Detroit.

I'd always have to add in though that I lived just two blocks away from Barry Sanders and would see him out getting his mail on occasion and we'd chat.  (This was back when he was setting all of those records.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You went to school in Wisconsin? Where'd you study, if you don't mind my asking?

[n0Mad]

You went to school in Wisconsin?  Where'd you study, if you don't mind my asking?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

UW-Oshkosh. I just spent my Freshman year there though 'cuz when I changed majors I changed schools as well.

[Onyx]

I just have to do this edit:

This is all small consolation to visitors who find themselves at City Club. They see the cold, bleak interior and decrepit facilities and think they have stepped on the set of a post-apocalyptic movie. And then they leave. And that is one of the great tricks of City Club: It is not cool to party here, and so anybody who is preoccupied with being cool stays the hell away, leaving a vibrant, exciting part of the city for the rest of us.

The thing about City Club is that you can't just show up downtown and see where it's at. You have to know where to go. City Club is a hidden gem. Oh, you'll probably find  Mephisto's on your own, and maybe you'll find Luna in Royal Oak or Necto in Ann Arbor, but a great club like City Club is nowhere you might expect. And the locals probably won't tell you, since they have long since given up on selling their club to cynical visitors.

:grin

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It really is amazing how well that all fits.

[Bpage]

Born in Highland Park raised in the suburbs. I actually tell people I'm from the Detroit Area, to Californians it's all the same.

I'm glad I got out of Detroit, I can't imagine ever moving back, I would shrivel up and die with the lack of culture and diversity. I do love coming back and visiting though, I make it back to City Club every time. It's like when people visit someplace they say, "It's a nice place but I wouldn't want to live there" I feel the same way "I'm glad I grew up there but I wouldn't want to live there now"