Cameras and Photographers Prepare Detroit for Its Spring Awakening
Do You Have a People Mover Story?
Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 at 10:34 AM
Somewhere in the Detroit Medical Center
Detroit, Michigan
I noticed cameras and photographers taking images in Detroit Tuesday night. I made my way downtown from the Medical Center because I had a beer and chicken mixer at the Brakeman at 5:00 PM. Of course I wasn’t going to show up right at 5 PM. I caught the Merry Mack Bus 31 to Rosa Parks Transit Center, popped onto the totally free People Mover, and I settled in for a rocket ride through the sky to the Broadway station.
The Detroit People Mover doesn’t charge 75 cents for each ride for at least 2024. Priority Waste always advertised on the side of the Mover, but now Priority has started trash pickup service in the city. To celebrate, Priority has paid all of our fares, but don’t call it a kickback. Now there’s talk of adding routes and stops to the Mover.
It’s really a fun way to zip around from the Book Tower to the Detroit Club to Huntington Place to the Renaissance Center and to Greektown and to the Belt at Cadillac Square and to the Siren Hotel and to the David Whitney Hotel. I feel that a world has arisen in the neighborhoods surrounded by the People Mover track. What is it? Inside the Loop? The Inside Track?
I noticed a man carrying a blue covered Bible. It wasn’t the King James Version, the one I was taught to trust at bible lessons, First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. We were coursing along the Detroit River, seeing a light chop on the waters. We were on our way to the Financial District Stop. I asked, “Are you a street preacher?”
The passenger sitting two seats to the left chimed in, “I never see street preachers on the corners of Detroit. I love seeing preachers sharing sermons on the corners of New York City streets.”
“No, I just picked up this bible from a little book cart at the Millender Center stop.”
“It’s pretty nice. It’s from Oxford University Press.” Chiming in once more.
“I guess. I picked it up for free.”
“This is like a Little Free Library?” We had left the Ren Cen stop and we were on our way to Bricktown.
“It’s offered books for years. Go from the platform to the bridge over Jefferson.”
I’ve never stopped at Millender Center. Now, I have to check out the book cart.
I had to wonder about all the People Mover Stories people have told while zipping around the 3.2 mile track. I picked up one more story as I left the Broadway Station. A man and I stepped off the Mover at the same time.
“You know where you are going?” People Mover people are so friendly today.
“Oh yeah, over to the Siren Hotel. I’ve People Moved since the start, 1988, a twenty-five-year-old kid and I’m sixty now.”
“Sixty? You’re just a kid. I’m about to turn sixty-nine. God willing I’ll make it to one hundred. My mother lived to be 101.”
“One thousand years. So do you know where you are going?”
“I’m meeting my friends over at La Casa Cigars for a smoke and some whiskey. Whiskey from a pocket flask. We talk over Vietnam War stories. I was knocked cold in a helicopter crash in ‘Nam and I awoke from a coma fifteen days later.”
“You really deserve a good smoke and a swig. Thank you for your service.”
“Nice location. It looks out over Harmonie Park”
“Isn’t that a piece of Paradise Valley?”
“We’re rebuilding Black Wall Street one shop at a time.”
“I love it. I’m off to the Siren Hotel.”
I am promoting the return of lobby culture to Detroit. The Siren Hotel has a coffee bar by day and a bar if one wants to day drink. A fancy table with the shaded lamps one finds in law libraries occupies the space by a window with gilded lettering: HOTEL, BAR, RESTAURANT. I noticed a journalist, obviously, logging photos in a database. I noticed two old school Canons on the table, outfitted with sweet, expensive telephoto lenses.
“Nice rigs. I’m feeling camera envy.”
“Old camera and good glass, that’s how I roll.”
The journalist jumped into action, the older Canon ready to shoot. Out the door in a few seconds, the journalist had left a laptop, open to the database, and two vintage leather purses on the table. I said to the guest across the table from me. “That’s what I mean about the lobby culture of Detroit. No need to ask if we would watch the purses or the computer. We’re Detroiters. We’ll keep our eyes peeled.”
I wrote my daily note to my daughter, took a picture of the Detroit Athletic Club off in the distance and enjoyed the eavesdropping in the lobby. An executive type talked loudly into an iPhone held upon the palm of her left hand. A photographer brought a party through the lobby, pushing aside the velvet curtain over the portal to the Candy Bar. The Candy Bar might be the most instagrammable interior in the city.
The photographer returned, gathered up laptop and vintage purses, and added, “Have a lovely day in the lobby!” And I watched the photographer walk towards the elevator and felt envious. How could I be retained to shoot Detroit pictures and stay in a lovely Detroit hotel suite?
Having cooled my heels long enough, I strolled over to the Brakeman for the Start Up Detroit Happy Hour. Not only did the event promise me a free beer, TechStars Detroit was bringing their Spring cohort to show off. TechStars even promised to feed us with Penny Reds fried chicken and honey drizzled biscuits. A photographer for the event, with a long lens, and a big flash captured a moment when Olivia Wheat gave me a high five. “We’re connected”, Wheat declared as the bulb popped and the palms smacked. Wheat pretty much is the PR star driving TechStars in Detroit.
I was pretty surprised to count so many well dressed, young Detroiters wearing name tags with the yellow dot. The yellow dot means, “I’m open to work.” One programmer shared with me the grueling interview processes. “This morning, I was asked to write blockchain code for three hours as two technical interviewers watched on Zoom.”
“Really? Back when I earned my spurs as a programmer / analyst, the tech interview began and ended with one question. ‘Are you a Microsoft Access guru?’ One yes and the hiring boss said, ‘Show up tomorrow’.” I met project managers, product directors and sales executives, showing the yellow dot of hire me on their name tags. The photog kept snapping pictures every time I picked up a new conversation.
The photog worked fast, capturing images of the hundreds who showed up to drink free beer, nibble Penny Red chicken and swap LinkedIn profiles. The house kept heaping up the chicken and biscuits. I hoped to stay longer, but I had to make it to Randolph and Lafayette to pick up the Giving Gratiot Bus 6 to Seven and Gratiot. I had nineteen minutes to make it to the stop … and I had Cadillac Square and Greektown to walk.
Luckily, the activated alleys of Detroit make walking to Greektown a windless walk on a colder day. I zipped up Parker’s Alley, cut through Mootz, skipping a trip to Side Hustle for the huge slices of street pizza. Mootz is a great way to enter the Belt, the outdoor biergarten and art gallery curated by the powerful Library Street Collective. Plus, that’s where one finds the biffies for the alley.
I emerged just as I spotted a photographer walking up the Belt with three rigs dangling from her shoulders like charms on a charm bracelet. On the head, the photog wore a red ball cap embroidered with the word “Paris”. I meet a lot of people in the Belt. A month ago, I helped a couple from Austria find the opening night of an art show at Louis Buhl and Company. The alley filled with techno dancers during the weekend of Movement, and many wore boots you just couldn’t buy in America. So I had to ask,
“Are you from Paris?”
“Paris? No, I wish to visit and photograph the city. I am from Detroit.”
“Ah, but have you heard of the Paris of the Midwest?”
“Yes, I just wrapped a shoot over at the Book Tower and Roost Hotel. The Book Tower has a French inspired roof and lovely French ornamentation.”
At that moment, a lovely couple emerged from The Skip, holding hands, clearly a recently engaged pair.”
“Your clients?”
“Oui, monsieur.”
And I continued my hike to the corner of Randolph and Lafayette. I was soon barreling north by northeast up Gratiot to the place I keep my cameras. The sun of the Spring solstice revealed to me all the Gratiot details I had known only in the dark.