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July 3rd, Extramural Candidate
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Hazen Pingree took a short ride in a long car back in the year 1901. That would sadly make him almost
overqualified to hold public office in Detroit.
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June 28th, The Downtown Valet
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Come on down, have yourself a time and leave your car overnight to the tender cares of our downtown valet.
Likely this car isn't even in the same street it was parked in - just dropped off in the dirt lot
by Chene Park for a bit of tender loving theft. A police officer drove past the lot, but
was too busy talking into her mobile phone (an offence in the city) to stop and look.
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| | Looks like they spooked before taking the last wheel |
June 24th, Fireworks
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Annual fireworks festival - a very hot, very humid evening. Great to see so many people along the new stretch of the riverwalk.
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| | Many people watching from behind the Omni hotel |
June 23rd, Harbortown Update
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According to their website, harbortown will be closed for some days yet.
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June 21st, MexicanTown
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We spent the morning exploring the latest developments around mexicantown. The gateway project which has been
a huge PITA for people in the area looks to be approaching completion. Whether or not the Bridge Company will
be allowed to build a second span remains in doubt. It seems the project impacts a public park and permission
has not been given by the city for this (which supports the alternate plan of a second bridge further down river).
My own experience was that one morning when taking pictures in the park next to the Bridge, an Ambassador security
guard ordered us to stop taking pictures near the bridge. This is a bridge that regularly has tour boats go under
it full of people taking pictures ... needless to say they seemed to have decided back then that the park was
effectively theirs and not a public space.
Other than that, the bakeries in mexicantown were great, the food stores clean and well stocked and it was
good to see the murals being kept bright with fresh paint.
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| | The huge gateway project reaches completion |
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| | Mexicantown mural (click to zoom), more on the art page |
June 20th, Detroit River Days
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Pro-am dog jumping. Dog jumping a sport? Wow.
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June 20th, Harbortown
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One thing that erks about living downtown is the dearth of decent food markets - ones that sell good food at reasonable
prices. It's all too tempting I guess to head for Royal Oak or the Points. Zacharos on Woodward tried to
buck the trend but seriously mistimed their opening and market niche. So there are a few places left, mostly
small family markets, University foods, Honeybee over on Bagley and until this weekend Harbortown on Jefferson
at about Mount Elliot.
We arrived this afternoon at Htown to find a boarded up front window and signs of fire. It
seems their deli had a fire and the store then suffered water damage from the fire fighting. On the bright
side there were at least six clean-up and fire-damage repair trucks parked around back busily putting things
to right. Here's to a rapid re-opening to Harbortown - since the closure of the last Farmer Jack's a little
further along Jefferson the store has been the one we rely on daily - other stores on Jefferson I've tried
only to find the food on the shelves 6-9 months past its sell by date.
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June 14th, Watching the Wings Go...
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Don Cherry, may his pink suits smell of fish guts for years to come, jinxed us for game 7. Well, not competely true, in the end the Wings didn't really need a jinx. They
looked tired towards the end, their passing was not what it has been and the Penguins were younger and with fewer injuries. End of a long
season - congrats to Pittsburgh - thanks to the Wings for another great season, Western Conf champs, now time to move on.
So the Redbull air race was almost in town. Officially in Windsor the course didn't seem to have moved
and inch from last year. The only difference was the absence of much of the razzmatazz. That and the commentary over
the speaker system which came across from Windsor at times strangely 'last year we were in Detroit, this year we are so
happy to be here in Canada, in beautiful Windsor' ... yo, folks, the commentary is coming to both sides of
the river! Jeez. Anyway shots below and some vid from Clo here (try VLC or Quicktime to view this if you have problems)
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WINDSOR-DETROIT REDBULL AIR RACE 2009
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| Saturday was overcast but Sunday Beautiful with
many choosing to cruise to Harbor Park & stay overnight in advance of the race |
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| As usual things kicked off with some serious military hardware (F18)
although this year it was the RCAF rather than the USAF and things were a bit quieter. |
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| Despite rumors the course was flipped or shifted it looked unchanged sitting between the RenCen and Casino Windsor (sic)
the only evident difference the new wildlife park being constructed between Rivard and Harbor Park |
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| The race planes arrive
at this point he's really upside down and looking up at the ground |
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| | Ozzy, Canadian, Brit, American ... a good mix |
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| | Fast and maneuverable the pilots flip them and hit 12g's in the air |
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| | With everyone in the air, time for the pilots to make the race course |
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| | In through the start/end gate and through the twisting circuit in the fastest time (video here) |
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| | Watched by one heck of a traffic jam on the river |
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| | Past the pylons without hitting them like this |
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| | As pilot after pilot races the course, smoke builds making it hard to spot the planes |
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| | Unless you get up really close |
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| All in all a great weekend after the tension of Friday night
a Brit won but didn't manage to take the championship lead from team Abu Dhabi |
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| The only remaining issue at the end of the day was clearing the river.
More photos from last year's event here |
Recently archived posts
Montreal Webcam
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& Questions
A Detroit Diary
Detroit Books (Winter)
[1] The Guardian Building:
Cathedral of Finance
 
[2] American City
 
[3] Motoons
 
Short reviews on the book page.
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Flickr: Exposure Detroit
StreetArt Gallery
(Updated July 2009)
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