Five Days in Detroit - Part One

Have you ever visited Detroit?  Do you know someone who has been to Detroit?  Having recently visited I would be surprised if the answer is ‘yes’.  Detroit is not somewhere I would have chosen to visit but a recent opportunity for my husband led us there just a few weeks ago.  We initially knew very little about the city, other than that it was the home of Motown music, birthplace of house and techno and that it went bankrupt not so long ago.  A little bit of online research revealed that Detroit has one of the highest crime rates in the USA (but a safe downtown area) and that over the past 60 years the population has declined by two thirds.  The city of Detroit could geographically contain the whole of Boston, San Francisco and Manhattan but has only 28% of the population of those combined cities combined.  So we knew we were about to visit a city that has been having some hardships, and really weren’t sure what to expect.  

My husband is an artist and was invited to paint a mural by the Library Street Collective, who hope to help boost the rejuvenation of the city through various art installations and projects.  Working closely with the contractors who are redeveloping the buildings they want to create an art filled street with restaurants, street food and live events.  The mural we worked on would be on this street.

We were delayed in Chicago, they lost our bags, and we arrived at the hotel very late with no clean clothes to change into. There were also issues with the computers meaning check-in took forever; we arrived in our room ten minutes after the end of room service and we were STARVING!  Unsure of where to go for food and with everything nearby closed we know it was best not to talk and get to sleep to avoid any hunger-induced bickering :)  We ordered a huge breakfast in the early hours of the morning to make up for it! 

Making the most of our delay at Chicago

We set off from Newcastle Airport and enjoyed a little time in the lounges there and in Heathrow (frequent flyer perks!)  I’m a sucker for anything free so ate everything on offer and drank a few mimosas before boarding, ignoring the fact of how much we would have had to spend on flights to get these perks.  Two flights later and with one left to go we were going through Immigration at Chicago O’Hare.  Anyone who has travelled to the states will have had some experience of waiting for a long time in a line, before being mildly interrogated by an immigration officer as to your reasons for visiting.  Our worst experience was probably once in New York were we waiting for two and a half hours!  Well, they have these new automated machines in Chicago, and as we had travelled to the states before we were able to scan our passports and answer a few on-screen questions and voila, ten minutes later we were through.  We spoke briefly to the customs officer who asked where we were travelling on to.  When I told him Detroit he asked “Why??” and told us that it’s not a good time to go.  Hmmm… not exactly what we wanted to hear.  What were we letting ourselves in for?

My first impressions of downtown Detroit were that the streets were extremely quiet.  There we very few people walking around and relatively few cars.  Through the day it didn’t feel unsafe, but if venturing out at night time we never walked (but used the super efficient Uber service, please come to Newcastle soon Uber!)  So we did feel a little restricted at getting out and exploring.  Whilst the downtown area is safe, and full of CCTV, there are plenty of ‘pockets’ of areas where you have to take more care.  Luckily we were pretty busy through the day working on the mural.  We worked hard most of the week but did get a chance to savour some of Detroit's delicious restaurants and our hosts gave us a really interesting driving tour of the city.  

Join me for the next instalment for my thoughts on the art, restaurants and music in this fascinating city.