stacy

Comments by stacy

There's So Much More to Detroit

Hard times indeed. And despite the bone-crushing defeats, the place still has a heart of 24 karat and gossamer grass Austin, Texas (my recent home thanks to grad school), can't touch with a ten-foot pole. I can vouch for much of what the author skims over in this piece. And I can add quite a bit, too. Like the city's own riveting little island, Belle Isle, with its cricket matches and sculling and rowing teams, its herd of reindeer and the elegiac Detroit Yacht Club; Hart Plaza and its myriad free concerts series all summer long; Chene Park for even more concerts on the Detroit River, that legendary body of water that held--and bested--Harry Houdini during his last under-water trick. There's much more, from the nation's first paved road to its first traffic light to its longest-running bowling alley--all on Woodward Avenue. I moved from St Clair Shores to famed Austin, Texas, six years ago. Not a day goes by I don't miss the golden heartbeat of my beat-up and beloved Detroit. It's an old joke now to say "Detroit's a great place to be from." Because, well, nearly everybody's moved out. But there's a warmth and an energy in the people there that ain't so different from Austin's overheated populous. And that's sayin a ton considering how cold them Great Lakes winters are.
— May 16, 2011 11:35 p.m.