Day #2. Detroit

Heading north into Michigan, I was treated with a scenic detour as I-75 was routed off onto Fort Street down in Trenton. Now what braniac at MDOT came up with the idea of putting an entire expressway's traffic onto a divided two-lane complete with traffic lights and running it through several adjoining cities before returning it to it's proper path many miles north? Seriously MDOT...WTF were you thinking? Yet another example of Governor Granholm's crack staff (so called because they must be smoking crack) at work.

So since I had nothing else planned, I drove around downtown Detroit for a bit. I saw the old Tiger Stadium down at Michigan and Trumbull. It's empty now and the City Council wants to tear it down now that the team has been relocated to Comerica Park or whatever they call it now, but the old stadium will always be the only "real" Tiger Stadium and I'll never forget my old man pulling my out of school on my birthday one year and taking me there to watch the Tigers play. That was back when Mark Fidrych was pitching so it should give you a rough idea of the time frame.


Of course the shrine to dead crack-head Malice Green is still there at 23rd and West Warren.

Malice Green was a crack head who died while fighting the police and resisting arrest back in 1992. Normally I would avoid a Wikipedia article about something this controversial but this one actually has the story and it's aftermath pretty much correct. Suffice it to say that I have never agreed with the shameful actions of then-Mayor Coleman Young, then Prosecutor Kym Worthy, or any of the other cop-haters and racists who threw two of Detroit's finest officers under the bus and sent them to prison after a sham trial that was cause for both convictions to ultimately be overturned. I'll also say that I knew the family of Officer Nevers back then and spoke with Larry Nevers following his release and they will always have my full support. Two good cops got screwed and 5,000 more saw how the city refused to stand up for them and said "why bother?" This is what ultimately killed off Detroit PD, in my opinion. From a nationwide model department prior to the 1967 riots to a sad joke following the election of Mayor Coleman Young and the implementation of his anti-police policies. And many decent citizens have suffered due to the lack of police protection as a result.
Note that this shrine is on a burnt-out, condemned yet unsecured building. The local community--crack-heads and welfare cheats every one of them--won't clean up the broken glass, dirty needles or used condoms from the streets, nor will they mow the grass or paint any other building, but they always keep this mural cleaned and painted, as if Malice the felon crack-head was some sort of patron saint. I guess even scumbags have their priorities.

I myself was a student at Wayne State University at the time, and I was active in the campaign to support officers Budzyn and Nevers. In 1993, I plastered campus with stickers in their honor, and lo and behold, I saw one this very day, still affixed to the American flag pole in Gullen Mall on campus, right where I put it fourteen years ago!


I wandered around campus for a while, remembering earlier days with an earlier dog. Back then it was a Golden Retriever named Brandon and he lived with me in a couple of apartments on campus for several years.


Back then I used to get my morning paper at the Wayne Party Store, corner of Ferry and Cass. The owner Les used to give Brandon a pretzel stick every day and laugh as Brandon would sit up and beg for it. But Brandon's long dead and a visit to the store revealed that Les also is gone. He apparently retired and moved on some time ago.


A few doors south of the store is Campus Restaurant, once owned by a man name George and run by him and his family. I always had a bit of a thing for his daughter Maria but she never gave me the time of day even though I ate there once a day on average for years. But they're gone too now. George passed away years ago and different people run it now. It still looks pretty much the same inside though, and I can report that the fish and chips is as good as it ever was. George would approve.

I do miss those old days of living there. I was walking distance to both the massive Detroit Public Library--one of the finest public libraries in the nation--and the Detroit Institute of Arts just across Woodward Ave. I was a frequent patron of both places along with the Detroit Historical Museum and the Purdy-Kresge library on campus. In those pre-internet days (Yeah, I'm old) every fact and cultural tidbit that I could ever have wanted to look up was available at one of those places. Plus my rent was only $250.00 a month, utilities included for a one-bedroom apartment! Those were the days.