Detroit Off Topic

[dnast]

Wow...

[rbdetsport]

The Detroit Forum!!!!! This is the new Campus Martius Park in Detroit with a skating rink the size of Rockefeller in New York. During the spring, summer, and fall it is a green lawn with concerts. Compuware World Headquarters is located at the park. Visteon is also moving workers to a new building on the park.

Edited April 17, 2005 by rbdetsport

[baldy]

If you haven't heard yet, Detroit's allustrious mayor was listed among the 3 worst mayors in the US (I don't think they were ranked) in Time magazine. The other 2, the mayor of San Diego who almost lost to write in candidate who owns a surf shop, and the mayor of Philly who is being investigated by the federal government. Way to go Kwayme!

[Allan]

That'll really help him win the election in November! Haha.

Here is the link to the article: http://www.freep.com/news/locway/kilp18e_20050418.htm

[baldy]

Here's an article called The Harris Manifesto from the Metro Times

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=7615

Joe Harris is the Detroit Auditor General and as his 10 year term is expiring the year, he took the opportunity to let loose about the state of the city's finances.

Definitely worth the read.

[dnast]

That was a great read.

I'd hate to be in his position for so many years. Working on a well thought-out plan and warning officials, but always being ignored has to be the worst. It must have been a great relief getting that off his chest. I wish he would've done that 3 years ago.

[baldy]

Fire Breaks Out In Dowtown Building

Fire broke out at a four-story office building in downtown Detroit at about 4 p.m. on Thursday. Fire crews responded to the two-alarm blaze at the building at Bagley and Clifford streets, in the Grand Circus Park area of Detroit.

The office building has been rented out in the past but no tenants are currently in the building, the station reported. Its owner told Local 4 that its being used for storage.

Here's the rest of the story

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/4455114/detail.html

Does anyone know what buiding this is? I think this is over by the United Artists building.

[wolverine]

It's the building next to the Statler. Somehow, I feel it was related to the Statler demo. There are a ton of photos (Rather blurry) over at detroit.com. Check the thread "Statler is On fire" for more info. At first, everyone thought the Statler was burning, but it wasn't.

EDIT: One of Detroit's best photographers was on the scene, check out Urbantiki's photos at Flickr HERE

Edited May 6, 2005 by wolverine

[Allan]

UT's shots are amazing. He's lucky enough to work in Book Tower, so he was able to capture all the action.

[dnast]

Impressive. There are a lot of talented people on Flickr. I haven't been there in about two months, but I'm going start visiting again. There are a lot of great ideas and inspiration on that site.

[wolverine]

Yeah, I recently joined Flickr under the name "ifmuth." I'm considering upgrading to a pro acocunt since flickr keeps my photos more organized than my u of m server space which is absolutely trashed.

[Allan]

I walked around Detroit & took photos of all the new parking garages yesterday. It appears that the Opera House Garage will be much nicer than the old garage.

This hideous looking garage is nearing completion several blocks to the southwest.

[atperry]

I just got back from Chicago and noticed that they have a ton of parking garages...but they are well disguised. Many of them are the first few floors of tall apartment building. Is there a particular reason why this did not happen in Detroit?

[wolverine]

Well, the Millender Center has something like that where the parking garage is on the lower levels. But the big reason behind what you see above is because most of these parking structures serve existing older buildings that need to remain competitive to other Class A office space towers. The ramp in the last pic servers the dime building which I think only had the Kennedy garage for parking. Other than that, people had to walk a few blocks to their car. This is the consequence of a very automobile orriented city. I know Chicago has a lot of parking structures too, but for their density ratio to parking, it's much better than Detroits. Part of the reason is because they have good mass transit systems where Detroit doesn't (if has any).

EDIT: I'm actually quite happy with the Opera House garage. Yeah, it's a prefab slab structure, but it doesn't even look much like a parking garage yet. I just hope the seams between the panels are filled to make the walls look more solid than jointed.

Edited May 11, 2005 by wolverine

[Allan]

150 W. Jefferson is a good example of a parking garage being integrated into a skyscraper. Many people don't even realize that the base is a parking garage.

[RustTown]

I found out a cool thing about the Whittier Towers on East Jefferson. I've always wondered why the elevator shafts looks so unnnatural and tacked on to the structure, and I found out that it's because they are.

Some time in the 1970's the former owner of the what was then an assisted living facility added the elevator towers because he planned to add a restaurant on the roof of the tower. Unfortunately, he was killed in a plane crash and the plan was never realized.

Also, if you guys have ever noticed, the flat top roof on the Whittier leaves it looking unfinished. Well, that's because when originally built, the developer left the option open of building above the roof. The tower can actually support another 14 story addition!

I wonder when renovation work will get through on this.

[Allan]

The Whittier is still guarded...they would not have guards if they were going to let the building sit & rot away.

[SNWEB]

The Island now has a date

in theaters July 22

[baldy]

So did anyone hear clips from the KK's annoucement for relection on Tuesday. He said all gloves were off and he would fight the media and his critics to win a second term. Bad idea to try and fight the media when they keep on discovering new lies and corruption, IMO.

Anyway, his parents decided to speak and help.

His dad said he was a history buff and compared what is happening to his son to the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis!

"They had a big lie in Europe. A guy by the name of Goering said that the Jews was responsible for all the misery that the Germans was having. One lie! And that lie caught on," he said. "And before it was all over, 6 million of them died. Off of one big lie."

I guess the Holocaust museum offered up an invitation to visit.

Then his mom got up and was screaming like a mad woman the whole time. It was so bad, originally I thought it was McPhail! A couple of things stuck were the "turn off your TVs y'all", calling Kwame "y'all's boy" and said that a lot of people had died so her son could be mayor!

You can read some of this in this Free Press Article

Looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Edited May 19, 2005 by ebaldy

[Zissou]

I saw a 2 minute clip of his mother screaming and I was in shock. Why would he let that crazy woman speak on his behalf. It will be nice to get Kwame and his cronies out of Detroit politics. It is one huge embarrassment.

[wolverine]

That article cracks me up. Thanks for sharing baldy.

[baldy]

That article cracks me up.

Edited May 20, 2005 by ebaldy

[Zissou]

Yeah thats just a snippet of what I saw. Shes a congressman? Holy crap.

[Allan]

Yeah, she's a congresswoman. I've heard from many that she's got even more corruption surrounding her than KK has surrounding him.

[Zissou]

I guess it runs in the family. I will be one happy camper when Kwame is gone. I liked his vision and enthusiasm for the city but he is way to immature to handle the responsibilities that come with being the mayor.