Detroit

Nick, Sierra, Steve and Bella made a few wrong turns and took a tiki tour around the back streets of Detroit last night before they found the Red Smoke Barbecue Restaurant, Greektown, en route to a Detroit Tigers baseball game.  They met up with Sierra's Dad, Mike and his friend Tim for a pre-game meal, then headed to Comerica Stadium in downtown Detroit only to see the Tigers go down 7-4. Bella enjoyed singing 'Take me out to the ball game', the popcorn and the tiger mascot but was very tired when she got home to see me.  

Sierra and Bella

Steve, Nick, Bella, Sierra and Mike

With the baseball stadium, Ford Field (where the Detroit Lions NFL team) play, and the Ice hockey stadium all within 10 mins walk, downtown Detroit is actually a pretty cool and happening place. You wouldn't want to wander too far into the suburbs at night though. In the 1950s Detroit (Motorcity) was pumping with close to 6 million residents, but with the decline of the U.S motor industry and the trend for offshore manufacturing, its population has now declined to 900,000. Uncle Nick was explaining that many of the houses and whole communities were abandoned, along with all the schools, shops and services. Now you can buy a big, beautiful, old house for $1 but you might have to drive 30 mins to get groceries. Some streets only have a couple of houses occupied. However, a recent trend is groups of families moving back into Detroit and choosing to buy whole streets of houses for next to nothing and setting up urban communities together.  An interesting idea when property in other places in the world is so expensive.