We like you too, Dan
I like this guy a lot more today than I did yesterday. Finally, someone with a respectable thing to say about Detroit (although he does make some lame points). I’ll take it any day over people who point to Detroit and go “Ha Ha!! Your city is ugly and your economy is weak!”
Getting revved up about the Motor City
By Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe Columnist | January 31, 2006
DETROIT -- I come to you in praise of Detroit. That's right. I like Detroit. In fact, I love Detroit. I could live here. Really.
It's fashionable for out-of-town sports columnists to invade a Super Bowl host city and trash the place. If memory serves correct, I may have been guilty of this once or twice in the past (Houston, we had a problem. Yo, Jacksonville -- have you Big Gulp yahoos built a three-story hotel yet?). But not this time. Who needs Miami, Tempe, or Southern California? We have Super Bowl XL right here in the heart of the Motor City.
Motown has had its problems in the last 40 years, no question. Crime and unemployment hit hard. Just last week Ford announced more devastating layoffs. There has been flight from downtown, and a lot of the great old institutions (Hudson's Department Store) shut down or packed up and left. There are boarded-up buildings, and the glass in front of the cashier at White Castle by the downtown bus station is thicker than the lens of the Hubble Telescope.
But the place is coming back, I tell you. It's a real city with a real downtown. It has real taxi cabs, four big league teams, and hard-working people who aren't afraid to eat red meat, drink brown liquor, or say, ''Merry Christmas." You can still light up a smoke in your favorite downtown bar without getting arrested.
Detroit gave us Ernie Harwell and Al Kaline. Detroit is where Mark Fidrych became a god. Detroit had the Lindell AC and Hoot Robinson's, a couple of baseball taverns where you never asked to see the wine list. Detroit has the Red Wings, one of the Original Six, who sell out every game, downtown, and feature the most talented roster in the NHL. Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons are the best team in the NBA, a unit of actual adult basketball players, winning nightly in a suburban building called the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Detroit gave us Diana, Flo, and Mary. It gave us Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson and the late David Ruffin and the Temptations. It gave us Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and the James Montgomery Blues Band. Detroit gave us the late Joe Falls, plus Mitch Albom, Mitch Ryder, Barry Sanders, and Bo Schembechler.
Detroit gave us Rosa Parks, Henry Ford, Stroh's Beer, Lionel Trains, and Walter Reuther. It is home of the world's largest tire, an eight-story Uniroyal that served as a Ferris wheel at the New York World's Fair in 1964. Detroit is where the Lions play at home on national television every Thanksgiving. Detroit gave us Ty Cobb, Gordie Howe, and Bill Laimbeer (OK, never mind that last one)
Detroit gave us ''8 Mile," Eminem, Kid Rock, Uncle Cracker, Jackie Wilson, Madonna, Martha Reeves, Joe Louis, Ted Nugent, and Dick Vitale. (Vitale was coach of the Pistons when Detroit traded the No. 1 overall pick to the Celtics, who turned around and swapped it to Golden State, in effect getting Robert Parish and Kevin McHale for Joe Barry Carroll.) And it was the Detroit Tigers who lost to the California Angels in the last game of the 1967 season to give the Impossible Dream Red Sox the pennant.
Detroit gave us Marvin Gaye and Aretha, who sang, ''When my soul was in the lost and found, you came along to claim it."
The city's soul has been lost for a while, but Detroiters are determined to reclaim it. Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick says this is Detroit's chance to reintroduce itself to the world. He says this is his city's ''coming-out party."
No less than 10,000 volunteers are working with the Super Bowl Committee, and they are killing us with kindness this week. They're eager to answer all of our questions and quick to apologize for anything that's less than perfect. Several people told me they're sorry about the rainy weather. There was hail nearby yesterday.
No problem, Detroit. We did not come here for the weather. In fact, local climate is perhaps the most overrated Super Bowl ingredient. Last year's weeklong abomination in Jacksonville was not saved by any great Florida weather. Most of that week felt like Chelsea in March. It was damp and drizzly just about every day. Houston was no better the year before.
Certainly San Diego and Arizona (and Miami next year) can promise a few sun-splashed days, but most Super Bowl activities (eating, drinking, client-schmoozing, and gambling) take place indoors. In Detroit, we expect the weather to be terrible, so there is no chance for disappointment. Nobody brought their golf clubs to Super Bowl XL.
Folks from Detroit have been the butt of jokes for so long, they're trying almost too hard to be nice this week. It's not necessary. Really. This is a place with real people with real problems. No one sweats the small stuff, and you can be pretty sure the local librarians would let the FBI look at a computer if it had been used to e-mail a bomb scare to one of the local universities.
NFL big shots contend that a Super Bowl pumps $300 million into the local economy of a host city. Detroit can use the boost. Last week's crushing news from Ford is not something the locals can sugarcoat, not even during the annual festival of gluttony that is the Super Bowl.
Given up for dead a few years ago, Detroit has survived and appears to be coming back the way Cleveland and Baltimore and Pittsburgh came back. The golden days -- when GM custodians had summer homes and their wives got new eyeglasses every year because their health plan said they could -- are never coming back. But the Super Bowl has come back to Detroit, and some of us are glad to be here.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.
Getting revved up about the Motor City
By Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe Columnist | January 31, 2006
DETROIT -- I come to you in praise of Detroit. That's right. I like Detroit. In fact, I love Detroit. I could live here. Really.
It's fashionable for out-of-town sports columnists to invade a Super Bowl host city and trash the place. If memory serves correct, I may have been guilty of this once or twice in the past (Houston, we had a problem. Yo, Jacksonville -- have you Big Gulp yahoos built a three-story hotel yet?). But not this time. Who needs Miami, Tempe, or Southern California? We have Super Bowl XL right here in the heart of the Motor City.
Motown has had its problems in the last 40 years, no question. Crime and unemployment hit hard. Just last week Ford announced more devastating layoffs. There has been flight from downtown, and a lot of the great old institutions (Hudson's Department Store) shut down or packed up and left. There are boarded-up buildings, and the glass in front of the cashier at White Castle by the downtown bus station is thicker than the lens of the Hubble Telescope.
But the place is coming back, I tell you. It's a real city with a real downtown. It has real taxi cabs, four big league teams, and hard-working people who aren't afraid to eat red meat, drink brown liquor, or say, ''Merry Christmas." You can still light up a smoke in your favorite downtown bar without getting arrested.
Detroit gave us Ernie Harwell and Al Kaline. Detroit is where Mark Fidrych became a god. Detroit had the Lindell AC and Hoot Robinson's, a couple of baseball taverns where you never asked to see the wine list. Detroit has the Red Wings, one of the Original Six, who sell out every game, downtown, and feature the most talented roster in the NHL. Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons are the best team in the NBA, a unit of actual adult basketball players, winning nightly in a suburban building called the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Detroit gave us Diana, Flo, and Mary. It gave us Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson and the late David Ruffin and the Temptations. It gave us Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and the James Montgomery Blues Band. Detroit gave us the late Joe Falls, plus Mitch Albom, Mitch Ryder, Barry Sanders, and Bo Schembechler.
Detroit gave us Rosa Parks, Henry Ford, Stroh's Beer, Lionel Trains, and Walter Reuther. It is home of the world's largest tire, an eight-story Uniroyal that served as a Ferris wheel at the New York World's Fair in 1964. Detroit is where the Lions play at home on national television every Thanksgiving. Detroit gave us Ty Cobb, Gordie Howe, and Bill Laimbeer (OK, never mind that last one)
Detroit gave us ''8 Mile," Eminem, Kid Rock, Uncle Cracker, Jackie Wilson, Madonna, Martha Reeves, Joe Louis, Ted Nugent, and Dick Vitale. (Vitale was coach of the Pistons when Detroit traded the No. 1 overall pick to the Celtics, who turned around and swapped it to Golden State, in effect getting Robert Parish and Kevin McHale for Joe Barry Carroll.) And it was the Detroit Tigers who lost to the California Angels in the last game of the 1967 season to give the Impossible Dream Red Sox the pennant.
Detroit gave us Marvin Gaye and Aretha, who sang, ''When my soul was in the lost and found, you came along to claim it."
The city's soul has been lost for a while, but Detroiters are determined to reclaim it. Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick says this is Detroit's chance to reintroduce itself to the world. He says this is his city's ''coming-out party."
No less than 10,000 volunteers are working with the Super Bowl Committee, and they are killing us with kindness this week. They're eager to answer all of our questions and quick to apologize for anything that's less than perfect. Several people told me they're sorry about the rainy weather. There was hail nearby yesterday.
No problem, Detroit. We did not come here for the weather. In fact, local climate is perhaps the most overrated Super Bowl ingredient. Last year's weeklong abomination in Jacksonville was not saved by any great Florida weather. Most of that week felt like Chelsea in March. It was damp and drizzly just about every day. Houston was no better the year before.
Certainly San Diego and Arizona (and Miami next year) can promise a few sun-splashed days, but most Super Bowl activities (eating, drinking, client-schmoozing, and gambling) take place indoors. In Detroit, we expect the weather to be terrible, so there is no chance for disappointment. Nobody brought their golf clubs to Super Bowl XL.
Folks from Detroit have been the butt of jokes for so long, they're trying almost too hard to be nice this week. It's not necessary. Really. This is a place with real people with real problems. No one sweats the small stuff, and you can be pretty sure the local librarians would let the FBI look at a computer if it had been used to e-mail a bomb scare to one of the local universities.
NFL big shots contend that a Super Bowl pumps $300 million into the local economy of a host city. Detroit can use the boost. Last week's crushing news from Ford is not something the locals can sugarcoat, not even during the annual festival of gluttony that is the Super Bowl.
Given up for dead a few years ago, Detroit has survived and appears to be coming back the way Cleveland and Baltimore and Pittsburgh came back. The golden days -- when GM custodians had summer homes and their wives got new eyeglasses every year because their health plan said they could -- are never coming back. But the Super Bowl has come back to Detroit, and some of us are glad to be here.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.
posted by John at 1:18 PM
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