Detroit Preview

I got back from Detroit on Sunday afternoon and, due to a combination of factors, haven't had a chance to compose my thoughts or even sort through my pictures. In the meantime, here's a quick look at what's ahead:

• Tasty BBQ
• Food coma-inducing pizza
• Coneys
• Beer
• More beer

And maybe also a few initial thoughts on the city itself. Detroit is... bleak. There's a lot of empty space (read: surface parking lots galore), and a lot of empty buildings. Nobody appears to live in the city; I don't think I saw any supermarkets or clothing stores or laundromats or others of that sort of thing that serve local residents. (OK, maybe in Greektown, but not in most of the parts of the city where I visited.) As a result, while there are plenty of people around the city for events (e.g., Tigers opening day last Friday, the Frozen Four), at night there don't seem to be many people around. I don't think I felt unsafe, but I wouldn't want to be walking around alone at night either. If the city is going to improve, that needs to change. There need to be reasons for people to want to live in the city, and there need to be ways for commuters to get into the city (read: better transit options) that don't require the vast oceans of parking lots that make the city seem so bleak. (The Detroit People Mover is nice for getting you around, but not for getting into and out of the city.) If that were the case, that empty space could then be turned into something a bit more vibrant.

OK, but this isn't an urban planning blog; go read Planetizen or Streetsblog if that's your cup of tea. This is about food and drinks. So, I think if the urban renewal I was alluding to above were to happen, Detroit has the makings of a good food scene. Some of these empty buildings that I mentioned above could be converted into interesting dining spaces; I'll have pictures from one such conversion later on. There's a heterogeneous population, an airport bringing visitors to town, good meat available. We ate some good food, and like I said, if Detroit heads in the right direction (which isn't a given, of course), there could be more out there.