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April 29th (II), Detroit Fire Department
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I've mentioned before that I admire the job DFD do in a city with a lot of problems.
I'd no intention
of coming on another DFD scene today, but ... having done the circle of BI (below) I was heading to Hamtramck
to pick up some parts from a hardware store. But as I headed over the bridge from BI there appeared that all too familiar
pillar of black smoke from the near west side. Normally I'd note it and no more but this looked like it might have been from
around 3rd street where some friends have apartments so I headed to check it. By the time I'd gone up along Grand Bvd to
Hamtramck drive and then over west of grand river to the source of the smoke 45 minutes had passed. So it came as a surprise to
find the fire flaring up still in the back of a residential property. DFD were well on top of it, I hope it was vacant because
looking around there was not an occupied property on that block. Every other lot was either burned out or bulldozed. Fingers
crossed for the fire fighter injured at another scene on Sunday morning.
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| | Passing an old fire in hamtramck ... yep the whole block was burned out \ |
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| | Even 45 minutes after the smoke was still coming up |
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| | checking for hotspots and evidence, chief ? |
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| | Checking for fire in-between the walls |
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| | The real problem was around the back where the fire had got a grip again |
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| ... and they spot the fire in the back of the building and deal.
DFD Heros as ever! |
April 29th, New Arivals
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What a great day. The sun really started to warm up, the tigers were finding some form (lets forget saturday),
and the goslings started hitting belle isle for the first time. All in all cause for celebration even without
the most wonderful news! Congratulations Tikis!
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April 26th, A bad sign. WTF ...!!!
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One of the most dangerous junctions downtown is the one by the Ren Cen. Several large parking structures empty
office-workers eager to get home into a junction that merges in traffic from 2 freeways and also from the city.
Turning on this junction from the RC means watching for fast moving traffic coming from the left, turning traffic
from the city, traffic from the freeway doing a U turn into the RC and er ... pedestrians. The last groups
really are hard to spot though. And you've got so many other big things to try not to hit.
The result is a dangerous junction. I've seen many many hits, shunts and near misses here. However the sign
below ... well ... if you get it send me a mail, there's a link on the right!
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April 25th, A Real Life ...
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I got a glossy booklet today from the UCCA. They're a good group who among other things look to develop the historic property around midtown-downtown and have done a lot to really get people living downtown again. But what I saw in this booklet was worrying. If a developer moves in and converts a load of brownfield property into lofts and houses that's probably a good thing. But when seemingly hundreds of developers move in and virtually every decaying industrial site is converted cheaply and quickly into lofts then we start to get ahead of ourselves a bit. If then the average price of a single loft is about 180,000 USD, around twice the price of the entire site when it was bought, things get worse. This booklet was advertising these numerous loft and condo developments. For me this is a problem because it's starting to look like a bubble. I used to live in the Park Shelton until we were all kicked out for the condo-conversion. Now it stands virtually empty - I heard the last long-stay tenants moved out last month. Down towards the River one of the most successful condo-conversions has been harbortown. They even have two more towers planned. Make that had. The condo market has fallen so far through the floor that they've not only shelved the plans for the new towers, they've also started converting some condo units back to rental. And at the same time all this extra space is being created.
As the Michigan economy shrinks, the state and city struggle to pay bills and people are still leaving Detroit in their thousands this whole mass conversion of empty buildings into lofts with sky-high pricing (up into the 350k zone )is starting to look like a BIG bubble. If it pops there may be a lot of burned fingers. Ok, I'm mixing metaphors here, but you kind of get the picture?
The building below is in many ways a fave. It's next door to the B&W from April 22nd and is completely characteristic of some downtown businesses. This building is still in use, in fact on the other side there's a customer car park and busy office furniture store. It's just the way some businesses downtown keep their buildings. Who's going to smash windows when every pane is already broken? Who's going to rob a place that looks so derelict ... but some long empty condos?
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April 22nd, Back to Reality
April 21st, Spring Hits BI
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After a kind of abortive start to spring a few weeks back, temps look to be firmly headed into the 80s
again over the next few days. I've yet to see signs of any goslings around the place and the spring flowers
have been kept decidely in the ground by recent frosts, but there's a definite feel of nesting and
preparation for spring in the air.
Motor has been doing the rounds of the local zoos so it seemed
like time to have a look how Belle Isle is looking. Not much in the way of spring vegetation, but critters
everywhere (email me (link on the right) if I got any of these guys mixed up)...
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| | Belle Isle: Blue Jay & Grub Lunch |
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| | Belle Isle: Turkey Vulture & Dinner Guest |
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| | Belle Isle: Blanding's Turtle, escaped from the Scott fountain? |
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| | Belle Isle: Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, spotted him! |
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| | Belle Isle: Bird Food (ants!) |
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| | Belle Isle: When these guys get going Saki must be drunk! |
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| | Belle Isle: Run duck run! |
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