This is an excerpt of a column I wrote on July 14 for Dome Magazine.
Take a long walk, or a street car ride, along the vaunted section of Woodward Avenue known as Detroit’s downtown/Midtown renaissance area and you will be dismayed – perhaps even stunned – by what truly lies within this section of resurrection.
During a recent visit when I served as tour guide for an out-of-town couple, I found myself in a central core of the rebounding city that amounted to a twilight zone, an expensive playground for suburban whites. The Woodward corridor has become a strange mix of chic shopping normally found in Birmingham or the Bloomfields and pubs/restaurants that duplicate the beer-specialty hangouts in Royal Oak and Ferndale.
The gushing tributes by newspaper commentators about the Detroit core’s comeback leave aside one overwhelming fact – this is not Motown, this is hipster headquarters. Long beards, man-buns, thick-framed glasses and purple hair serve as common sights in this part of town.
All along our path northward from a starting point at Campus Martius, with its over-sized sandbox, an elaborate shopping mall-style water fountain, and Oakland County-inspired outdoor cafes, we found a far-from-diverse crowd that certainly offered a distinct disconnect from the decaying neighborhoods and shops within a reasonable walking distance from Woodward.
Everything seemed designed for young white people – in a city that is 90 percent minority occupied – or for the region’s upper middle class, of all ethnicities, who were visiting a town that distinguishes itself as the nation’s poorest major city.
Prices along this yellow brick road match the most outrageous mark-ups seen in upscale boutiques in suburbia or at Troy’s chic Somerset Mall.
Continue reading here.
Everything was designed for white people in your unbiased opinion. However, YOU are the one who took them there. So YOU are complaining about it? Why didn’t you take your friends to the “real” Detroit Chadly? Too scared? Afraid that your liberal white butt may be robbed? Did you carry your gun that you have a CPL for? All your liberal spew yet you live in the WHITEST community in Macomb County. Keep drumming up all your liberal lies.