Put your hands up for Detroit..... I love this city!

Detroit is like nothing you have ever seen, nor something you can accurately describe. The best, and only way to describe Detroit is that it is simply an empty shell. It lingers as a post-industry ghost town that for so long struggled to recover from what it lost, and is still losing, the Automotive Industry. Motor city, once an accurate description of what Detroit stood for, now almost all but lost due to industry arrogance.

While most think Detroit was the hardest hit by the 2008 Global recession, and true that is, it was this decline in their quintessential industry that accelerated their demise a long time ago. 

It is scary, empty and run down but at the same time completely fascinating, captivating and somehow lovable. Hopefully the photos below will help you understand how great Detroit actually is behind all the media stigma.

One of our main reasons to go to Detroit was to go to Slows Bar B Q which was on Man vs food. Above is part of their incredible menu.

Your choice of available BBQ sauces, choose wisely or smother all on everything.

Lauren's "I'm excited for Slows face"

So we ordered to many sides as you can see but hey they were only $2.25.
Anyway above you can see the almighty Triple Threat Pork sandwich which was by far the best thing we have eaten since being in Canada & America. The sandwich contained a thick slice of smoked ham, a layer of pulled pork and a layer of crispy bacon. Needless to say this sandwich was life changing!

So much delicious food!

The magic of Slows Bar B Q.

This is the view from the top of the building where we were staying in Detroit. The city looks pretty nice at night. The buildings with the blue rings around them are the General Motors buildings. 

A panoramic view

This was the view from the other side, looking out to the suburbs. 

The next bunch of photos are ones we took as we wandered quickly through the city. Every street was littered with these abandoned buildings and stores, with more 'for lease' signs than operational stores. It was a very confronting sight.

A typical abandoned building.

The foundations of what was going to be a skyscraper.

Amidst all the closures and abandoned buildings, there is still one cluster of buildings pumping (some) money throughout this hemorrhaging city. This is General Motors. Still the forefront of the American automotive industry (just), the GM buildings are the beating heart of Detroit, and you can tell, they are ultra modern inside and feature its own mini mall and food court. It was almost its own ecosystem or community if you will, sheltering those inside from the dysfunction that lays outside.

It kind of reminded me of a modern day death star, and the inside was no different (scroll down).

At the base of the main tower they had a showroom, so naturally I roamed for at least an hour looking at all the different sub-brands of GM including Chevy, Cadillac, GMC and Buick. 

The three motor brands that are under GM's banner. They notably lost Pontiac, an American icon, from that list not too long ago. 

The brand new Cadillac CTS

Kristian was drooling over this Corvette and it was only $65,000.

After seeing what remained of the functional greenback-producing GM community, we ventured out into the suburbs where things were not so green and rosey. These were the kind of places were taxi drivers (and locals alike as we found out) we afraid to get out of their car, it was that bad. It was the same place you could also buy a house for under $1,000, yes you heard me, $1,000. But then again, you must ask yourself the question, is your life only worth $1,000? Exactly, that's what I thought.  

The reason we ventured this far was to check out something called the Heidelberg Project. Its a bunch of streets that were abandoned back in 1986, and a local artist decided to transform them into funky artistic pieces. The whole street was littered with these houses that had been turned into alternative galleries if you will. Even the yards had their own theme. Every house was different, and represented or reflected something different. They were an expression of Detroit, struggling to find something in the abyss of nothing.

This is what a typical street looked like, with each house representing a different concept with a different meaning. 

Half way through exploring the different houses and their surroundings, we were startled to find out that people actually live in these houses, mostly because they have no where else to live. 

This house was actually a small gift store in which we purchased a really cool bowl made out of on old record.

A street pole, but not as you know it. 

The typical sidewalk and street of the project.

Plenty of taxi's in this neighborhood. 

Old record covered house.

Local kids were encouraged to bring an old or unused toy to this house so it could be part of the project.

These were some photo's taken out of the taxi on our way home from the project. Keep in mind this is only about 4-5km from the city center, and we only managed to take a couple of photo's, this scene went on forever. 

These were some more photo's of Detroit City, yes this is what the city looked like. Every time you turned a corner on what looked like a main city drag, you would be confronted with more graffiti-littered abandoned streets and buildings. 

This is just one side street off what is considered the main street of Detroit, once a bustling city of a Million, now reduced to less than half of that. The building on the left used to be a bank aswell.

This particular graffiti/art speaks a thousand words as to where Detroit is now, and its aspirations of what it would like to become.

It seemed as though at this particular point in time there were more pigeons than people in Detroit. 

This entire complex had been abandoned. However, things are looking better, as a few of these old buildings are being converted into apartments in order to bring people back into the city. Its a good start. 

Surprisingly as we found out there is actually a housing shortage in Detroit City at the moment, with most converted apartments holding one year plus waiting lists for people coming (slowly) back into the city. Having a tour guide as our host, we learnt a lot about this city, and contrary to popular belief, Detroit City itself actually has a lower crime rate than the American average (but the same cannot be said about the inner suburbs).

This was the view from our apartment during the day.

This was a complete row of closed shops lining one of the main streets of Detroit. This photo didn't even capture half of the stores either. 

Pretty standard in the states, but there's always steam spewing out of a man hole in the street. There about as common as Starbucks. 

A Detroit Hero in terms of Hockey. 

As usual, a visit to a city isn't complete without some hockey, and Detroit was one of the original six hockey teams in the NHL so this team was special. 

As it turned out Detroitonians (I have no idea if they actually call themselves that) love their hockey, so it was a pretty intense night. 

So that was Detroit, one of, if not the most mind-blowing interesting cities we have seen to date. Everything in Detroit had some story of adversity, but it was nice to see and hear that the city is in recovery. Who knows when it will fully recover, if ever, but at least recovery is progress.

Next up: Chicago!

Kristian & Lauren.