Driving Detroit: An Intern’s Perspective

The first Cool Story comes from Oliver Honderd, who took a ride through Detroit and ended up seeing more than just the sights:

Late one afternoon a co-worker/boss of mine at the Eastern Market Corp. took me and fellow intern Emma Landgraf on a “Tour De Troit” as he referred to it. (The real Tour De Troit is a bike race I think). Michael (our tour guide) drove us around Midtown, past lofts converted from warehouses and vacant lots with beautiful, decaying houses.

He explained that Detroit has gotten an unfair wrap and took us to a number of places to prove his point. He pointed out his favorite bars and showed us the historic mansions in the Boston Edison neighborhood. We got to walk through the kitchen of Cuisine, a French restaurant, then tour the Fisher Building.

My favorite part of the trip, though, was driving through the “no man’s land” between Eastern Market and Uptown. On every block, a few gorgeous, red brick houses still tower over big patches of knee-high grass. I’ve never seen anything like it, and to me, the images represent what is exciting about Detroit: it’s a place with history, culture and beauty that is ripe with potential. It has a “blank slate” quality that makes me believe that I could make feasible, positive change. I know that sounds like something from an Obama speech, but by the end of the tour I agreed with Michael that Detroit is a special and cool place.

Since that afternoon, I’ve enjoyed browsing apartments listings and reading articles from Model D Media in my down time at work.

Oliver Honderd is a Cool Cities intern at the Eastern Market Corporation in Detroit, and has ensured his place in history by submitting the first Cool Story.