meander avenue

While having a cigarette, I watched a cat walking around the inside of a fenced enclosure about a hundred yards or so to the east of my worksite. There are many stray cats around here and I assume that is what he is—he must have walked in through the gate while the business was still open. I’m not sure what kind of business it is—it’s called the Macomb Group and consists of a warehouse and a large fenced area with stacks of metal pipe. The cats usually hunt the wild rabbits that live in the field behind my office. I saw a red-tailed hawk take something down in the field the other day and feed for a good half-hour.
My office sits directly south of the train tracks on the former site of the Oldsmobile plant where they built the legendary R.E.O. Speedwagon. The only reminders of the plant are a pile of concrete in the middle of the field and a couple of rusted stand pipes jutting out of the broken ground. I’m not sure what these are attached to—are there some kind of tanks underground, holding decades-old sludge? There is a trail that goes from our parking lot through the field to the driveway of the Macomb Group, which is used by the residents of Baker Street. The street lies to the south and east of us, and is one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.
Police cars block off the entire neighborhood at least once a month in the summer—officers looking for a suspect or drug raids going on in different locations. The neighborhood is populated with low-income housing and has been troublesome for the city officials for a number of years. The only gas station in the area shut down its doors for a final time this summer, after numerous armed robberies. Prostitution is also rampant in this district as well.
Directly across the railroad track from my office is the old train depot, one of only two such structures in the city. This particular one was boarded up after the local kids smashed all the windows out. It had a short stint as a nightclub and was a restaurant for a number of years before that. Beyond that are a number of businesses—a meat processor, a bar, a biker-bar, another bar, a vacant bar, a uniform shop, a discount furniture store, a vacant lot, a beauty shop, several empty parking lots, another bar, a couple of vacant buildings, a second-hand store, two apartment buildings and a seedy motel. A highway lies just north of that and the central business district begins on the block just north of the highway.
To the south of us is another office building and a couple of warehouses, a church, a used car lot, a vacant lot, a vacant building, a pool hall, another second-hand store, numerous houses, a bar and two party stores. There is quite a bit of foot traffic throughout the neighborhood, but most of it centers on the party stores. The street is a wide avenue—two lanes northbound, two southbound and a median turn lane. At one time, this entire neighborhood was a bustling and thriving commercial hub. The avenue runs north for another mile and a half, directly into the downtown business district. If you hang a leftt and go a block west when the street ends, you will hit the state capitol.
The vacant bar and the one in the depot closed due largely to violence after the bars emptied out. There were a number of shootings, two of them fatal, so the liquor licenses were pulled by the city. The party stores have two-inch thick bulletproof Plexiglas, but have been robbed numerous times. If you go to one the stores, you have to weave your way around the panhandlers and the working girls. I usually try to ask them for a cigarette before they hit me up with a request—it signals you as a “have-not” and they move on the next person.
There is a street that bisects the avenue to the north—if you take a left on that and head west, it takes you to a GM plant. This is a secondary entrance/exit to the plant, which is primarily used by parts suppliers. Some of their employees use this route, but I see very few stopping in the neighborhood. The plant was built about five years ago and they build the new Cadillacs there-SRX’s and CRX’s and whatever other acronyms there are. Ironically, the “suicidal robot” commercial, which aired during this year’s Super Bowl, was filmed at the plant.
The seedy motel on the cusp of the business district is currently battling the city to keep its doors open. Drugs and prostitution are certainly issues there, but there have also been a number of murders there as well. The fact that they rent rooms out by the hour is a concern, but the hotel has had a bad history that it can’t seem to shake. Police gunned down a knife-wielding man right in front of the hotel about a decade ago. Investigators found close to sixty rounds on the ground and the medical examiner found another thirty-two lodged in the gentleman in question. I don’t remember what drugs were found in his system, but he had to have been on something for that many bullets to hit him before hitting the ground. Meth? Crack? All of the above?
A neighborhood in disrepair is nothing new to me—growing up in Detroit, I saw firsthand how once beautiful mansions along the boulevard have become drug-infested hovels. You can still see and still imagine the grand yesteryears, hidden behind crumbling weathered facades. Blocks upon blocks of boarded-up business and vacant lots remind me of photos of London after the Blitzkrieg. The 1967 Riots wiped out whole neighborhoods that have never been replaced. White flight to the suburbs kicked into high gear and the suburban population is now larger than the city’s.
The infectious optimism of the Motown Records years gave away to the gloom and doom of Iggy and the Stooges. When I think of Detroit I think of distortion, Iggy’s caterwauling and deep brooding bass lines. I think of genius destroyed by madness and addiction. But nothing stays the same, not even the dystopic ruminations of a musical genius. Iggy Pop is all cleaned up now and gentrification has begun in parts of the city long ago abandoned by its gentler souls. Iggy Pop now sings love songs and songs of redemption. In recent years, Detroit has built brand new football and baseball stadiums. Lofts and apartments are going up right next to the river that separates Motown from Canada. A new optimism had been born.
Lofts are springing up all over my city as well, one of the abandoned buildings up the street is being converted into a multi-unit as I sit here typing away on my keyboard. We have seen the gentrification of a former red-light district on the north side. The street is now home to a publishing company, several avant garde art spaces, bookstores, a public relations firm, a progressive disco, and a row of townhouses.
I once lived in a shelter for battered women and children, a block away from Detroit’s Fox Theatre. At that time the place was closed and all but abandoned, awaiting the wrecking ball. Since then, though, it has been fabulously restored and is the centerpiece of the city’s new cultural center which is called, “Foxtown”. That area now includes the two new stadiums and the building I once lived in was razed to make way for Detroit’s second renaissance. I can only hope that this one will have more of an impact than the first (which was minimally effective) and can serve as a blueprint for cities like mine.