Reasons Why We Love Detroit

In preparation for our upcoming contribution to the We Like Music Festival happening at The Magic Stick in Detroit, we are brainstorming a running list of reasons why we like Detroit. This blog post will be the spot where we can bounce ideas back and fourth through comments to use in our projection of text on Saturday, September 18th.
Let me get things started here.
Reasons why we like Detroit:
-The monorail is only 50 cents
-Windsor gets to enjoy a gorgeous skyline
-Mexican Town monday nights Canadian money at par
-St. Andrew’s Hall
-The Magestic
-Red Wings fans
-Faintly hearing festivals at Hart Plaza from the Windsor riverfront
-Russell Industrial Centre
-Guerrilla Gardening
-Constant inspiration
-Windsor doesn’t seem like such a bad place in comparison
Let’s hear it dudes!


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Wooo! Nice start, Michelle…
I’ll add:
-A sense of utter possibility
-Rumours about rumrunning
-Architectural scale vs. the remaining population
-Detroit News from ABC, Fox, and NBC
-Houses sold for hundreds of dollars
-Neighbourhoods that can really be transformed
-Epic history
-Epic exaggerations on just how bad it is
-Jerry Herron
Nice ones!
However, I would say that Detroit news is a reason why I DON’T like Detroit as opposed to liking it.
-Cass Tech High School Graduates
-Instant Street Cred in other cities
“Instant street cred” is amazing.
Good call on the Detroit News … I guess there’s something about a nostalgia of growing up on that stuff, knowing the weather in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius.
A couple more:
-Legends of urban exploration
-Frontier mindset
Memories of Tiger Stadium.
The White Stripes.
Very olf freeways.
Abundance of steel infrastructure.
$29 or 2/$50.
Hotel Yorba.
MR ALLAN’S!
How about instead of Fox news let’s say WDET radio. Detroit Public Television?
That’s way better! Nice call.
How about this instead of my news one?
-An understanding of the feeling of Fahrenheit.
heidelberg project
motown!
Iggy and the Stooges
Being able to see the Detroit skyline from as far as South Windsor.
The city’s uniqueness- life in abandoned areas.
michigan central station
burton theatre
what i got so far!
-Electric Six
-Detroit Techno
-North American International Auto Show at Cobo
-Steam-heated main roads (snow never accumulates on them)
-Grand-idea graveyard in some areas
-an amazing transit system with cheap fares and awesome transfers
-a second amazing transit system that will take you nearly anywhere in the state
-the people mover
-sweet architecture, even for people who haven’t a clue about such things
-proximity to so many other places of interest
- the deep sense of pride
- DIA
- picnics on Belle Isle
- the sense of Grandeur
- Detroit jazz/funk
love the wording Justin “architectural scale vs. the remaining population”
- the novelty of J. K. King bookstore (that place is amazing!)
-the ridiculously high number of (ancient) churches per square kilometer – not the idea of ‘church’ but the actual buildings themselves are beautiful and generally out of place in Detroit.
p.s. I love all of these comments
- The music! Detroit is THE place for hip-hop and rap right now, I’d say it hasn’t stopped.
- Central Station, the place is just HUGE.
- Gonna have to agree with ‘instant cred’.
eastern market
>supino pizza
>russel st deli
dequindre cut
paris crepes
tour de troit
slows bbq
dally in the ally