From Michigan and never going back

I often meet people who have a face that is covered in tattoos and I think to myself that they are likely hiding from who they want to be or from who they are. I see sadness in the eyes of so many who live on the streets of America.

“I’m from Detroit, Michigan,” he told me while standing outside of a truck stop. While looking away he said, “I will never go back.”

As for the tattoos, “I was going to get my eyebrows tattooed like a clown, because life’s a joke and you have to laugh – if you don’t laugh then somethings wrong with you.”

“The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather what he does not say.” - Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

It was once Beautiful

Detroit has more than 10,000 abandoned homes and is labeled as having the highest crime rate in America. However, it was almost poetic seeing architecturally beautiful 19th century homes falling apart in fields all throughout Detroit. It was like walking through a graveyard of vast wealth that no one kept up with.

This home, probably 5,000 square feet in size, was missing the entire back wall.

"Art is never finished, only abandoned." - Leonardo da Vinci

Empty neighborhoods a mile long

A neighborhood street in the downtown area of Detroit. 

"Downtown Detroit has more vacant buildings over 10 storeys than any city in the world." - Meg White

Built in 1967

This small building was built in 1967. It sits behind a shuttered Detroit Fire Station that still has a 1980’s model fire truck sitting in the rear parking lot.

The building, once covered in graffiti, was pressure washed and nicknamed “Dzale’s House of Faith.” That was over 10-years ago and I have no clue as to who Dzale is or where he might be? I can say for sure, he was not in his house of faith.

Today, it sits empty.

Empty Places: Deserted and trashed home

The walls were blank of family portraits, but it was clearly evident that this house was once a home to someone or some family. The house was on an empty street that was once crowded with homes. The City of Detroit bulldozed the other homes on the road to prevent arson, which costs the city money. This home, likely still owned by a family, was spared.

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.” ― Robin Hobb, Fool's Fate

Staying Warm in Detroit

“Staying warm,” he said as he laid on the cold Detroit concrete next to a manhole cover with steam pouring out. He would take his knit cap and hold it in the steam and then place it on his head. He followed this routine over and over again. Sweat was rolling down his forehead as he firmly placed the cap in place. 

"Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief." - C. S. Lewis

Inside a vacant Detroit home

Inside a vacant Detroit home. Empty. Poetic to some, romantic to others and just plain vacant to the surrounding world. 

The Detroit Free Press

The 14 story Detroit Free Press building stands empty in downtown Detroit. It is the largest city newspaper owned by Gannett, the same company that owns The Tennessean and many more daily’s throughout the United States. The Detroit Free Press started about 184 years ago.

The paper left their large downtown structure in 1998 and moved into what they call their News Building. Gannett bought the paper in 2005 from Knight Ridder.

In 2008, they decided to cut distribution to homes and businesses to Thursday and Friday only. On other weekdays, the paper would continue to be sold on the newsstand, but it would be smaller than what Detroit residents grew up with.

In 2014 the paper moved to the former Federal Reserve building in Detroit where today they utilize about less than six floors. The operation is much smaller than their previous address of 321 West Lafayette Street where their original Art Deco building that was constructed in 1924 still stands today. Today, the once busy loading docks sit empty and bricked over. 

He worked for the U.S. Post Office

“I’m 60,” he told me. “I was with the Post Office for 16 years, now I do odds and ends jobs,” he said as we talked. 

As I walked away he asked as if he knew me... "Is this gonna be in your book?" I responded, "I hope so. 

I retired from Chrysler

“I retired from Chrysler,” he told me. When he saw my camera he said, “But, I have scars on my face.” I smiled and said, “You look perfect.”

He lives within eyesight of the massive graveyard of downtown Detroit and can clearly see the Renaissance Center from the front door of his high rise apartment.

The 73-story Renaissance Center is the centerpiece of downtown Detroit. It is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers owned by General Motors. It is GM’s world headquarters. The building was constructed in 1973 and later renovated in 2004.

Despite his view, he never worked for GM… only Chrysler.

He looked as if he were in pain

He walked as if he were in pain, his back bent forward and his hands in his pocket. A nearby security guard saw me photographing him and yelled, “He was a famous boxer!”

He looked back at her and then looked towards me and smiled, “They called me Speedy. I came up with Muhammad Ali.”

“I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick.” - Muhammad Ali

The Berlin Wall, but in America

Imagine a 1-foot thick wall dividing whites from blacks. Although no longer serving that purpose, a section of the wall still stands in the Motor City. However today, the wall is colorfully painted with persons of all races on the wall. But, it stood bare in some areas and littered with graffiti in other areas up until 2006.

When the wall was built in 1940, it stretched five miles and was 6-feet tall. It was the physical barrier between those who were white and owned their own home and those who were black homeowners. It is in the area of 8 Mile Road and is often referred to as the Eight Mile Wall or Detroit’s Wailing Wall. Some compare it to the Berlin Wall.

The idea to build the wall was launched into action in 1934 and finished in 1940. The time period was when Detroit was booming and the Federal Housing Administration was pushing for more home ownership among all races. Community groups wanted the wall to keep their neighborhoods segregated as they thought housing for those of color would interfere with the successful real estate market.

Do people live here?

I asked, “Do people live in abandoned buildings in Detroit?” She looked over her shoulder at the building behind her, “Not this one, it is falling apart too much!” She then looked at me as if I were an idiot. Love it!

Meet Maudrey

“My name is Maudrey,” she told me. “Are you from here,” I asked. “I live here, but I was dropped off here after they released me from the hospital,” she responded with a great big smile. I asked her why she had to be hospitalized and she told me that she is both schizophrenic and bipolar. “I’m taking my medicine now,” she said after telling me that she feels much better.

Prior to meeting Maudrey in downtown Detroit I drove past about five buildings with a green medical cross on the front of them. “What’s with all the marijuana pharmacies in Detroit, they’re everywhere,” I stated with a little laugh. “You want marijuana? I can get you a whole bag of it for $4,” she replied. With a laugh I said, “Naaah - I’m good, but thank you.” She then pointed across the street, “See, I can get it for you right there.”

I changed the subject and went back to her mental illness. She told me that her anxiety gets really bad and it is tough living in Detroit. Sorrow fell over her face when she mentioned anxiety. For those who do not realize, anxiety can mimic numerous ailments which can lead to more worry and make the person suffering think they have a disease or a sickness. 

As if the conversation never took place, she then danced away to buy a single cigarette from the gas station. Yes, they sell single cigarettes in some gas stations of Detroit for .50-cents each.

“Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.” - Jack Nicklaus

He lost his job years ago in the Motor City

“I worked for Johnson Controls in Detroit for 16.5 years. I lost my job with them in 2005 and have been homeless ever since. I did not take their buy-out because I did not want to lose my pension, which will pay out more than the $50,000 they were offering to other employees. The problem is, I will not get it until I turn 62. Today I am 47 and there are no jobs here.”

A pension is a payment made during a workers retirement. It is made from an investment fund to which contributions were made by an employer or employee during their working career.

Since 2001, Michigan as a whole has lost around 150,000 manufacturing jobs, according to a 2014 article in The Social Contract Press. In Detroit, Johnson Controls, Inc. was contracted as an automotive supplier for numerous companies. Between 2004 and 2009, the company had to close 11 plants and cut numerous jobs due to a lack of manufacturing progress in not only Michigan, but across the country.

As this man continued to talk to me the snow continued to fall. I could not imagine being homeless in Michigan during the cold winter months.

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse." -Henry David Thoreau

Empty Places: The Packard Plant in Detroit closed in 1958

The Packard Plant sprawls multiple city blocks in Detroit and measures in at 3.5 million square feet. The Packard Company opened the plant to build luxury automobiles in 1903. At the time, the plant was considered to be the most modern automotive manufacturing facility in the world.

Inside the multi-level structure, cars were moved from one floor to another thanks to massive elevators. Each floor included a large workforce to manually build different sections of the Packard automobiles. Most of the buildings are still completely intact thanks to the brand new application of steel-reinforced concrete in the early 1900’s.

The Packard cars manufactured in the plant were no stranger to new ideas or inventions. In fact, Packard was the first company to build a working 12-cylinder engine and to provide air conditioning in a passenger car.

Detroit resident Henry Bourne Joy bought an Ohio made Packard in 1900. He was so impressed by the car that he helped to bring the company to Detroit, thanks to a group of investors. On October 2, 1902, the Packard car, which was manufactured under the name Ohio Automobile Company, changed their name to the Packard Motor Car Company.

In the 1940’s, Packard switched from cars to the war production of airplane engines. The conversion proved to be extremely positive giving the company millions of dollars in reserve. However, bad management decisions and struggles with Ford, GM and Chrysler in the mid 1950’s destroyed the company.

Packard closed their doors for good in 1958. Other businesses rented the massive property from time to time for storage, but that completely ended for all but one of the buildings in the 1990’s. A company called “Chemical Processing” stayed in one of the many Packard structures until year 2010.

Empty Places: Northville Psychiatric Hospital

The Northville Psychiatric Hospital opened in 1952 in the Township of Northville, about 30-minutes from the City of Detroit. The massive structure was built on 453 wooded acres and had 20 buildings that included a movie theater, a swimming pool, gymnasium and even a bowling alley. It was once known as a premiere psychiatric hospital with top notch care that utilized art and music to aid in treatment.

By the 1970’s, budgets for such hospitals were drastically cut and Northville’s high standing in the medical world started to collapse. The number of patients soared from 650 to 1,000+. To make matters worse, the hospital was designed to hold only 650 beds, so the bowling alley and gymnasium looked like a shelter for storm victims by 1971 filled with cots.

As medical staff was cut, doctors ditched music and art related treatment for the mentally ill and focused only on medicine. The Detroit News reported in the early 1980’s that patients were found sleeping in hallways, rape and assaults were common and some patients even died while fighting with staff, other patients died from alleged medical malpractice, as seen in past lawsuits filed against Northville.

The facility eventually closed in the early 2000’s and has sat vacant ever since. Problems selling the property revolved around medical waste, arsenic, barium and lead being dumped on the once pristine 453 acres of land.

The hospital has been deemed as one of the most haunted places in Michigan by some.

Finding Stuff

“I found an old lamp and an ashtray today,” he told me while pushing a shopping cart down the street. “What will you do with them,” I asked. “I’m gonna’ take them home,” he told me.

In further talking to him, he told me that he lives with his mother on Hazelwood Street in Detroit. He said that he walks all over the city looking for interesting finds.

“How old are you,” I questioned with curiosity. “I’m 30 and my mom is 55,” he said. I didn’t question him as I believe he really thinks he is 30-years old.

“The dog that trots about finds a bone.” -Golda Mei

Empty Places: The National Theater in Detroit

The National Theater of Detroit Michigan is the oldest theater in the city. It was built in 1911 and closed down in 1975. The structure is labeled historic, so it cannot be torn down. The theater sat 800 patrons during nearly every performance.

The theater opened with comedy acts, song and dance in 1911. In a strange twist, the theater closed in 1975 with multiple showings of adult films (pornography). Reports indicate the adult films hit the National in 1970 and continued up until their closing date.

The theater was sold in 1976 for $35,000 and never reopened. The building was later sold again in 1977 to a man who wanted to turn it into a restaurant. The idea never materialized as the theater had unpaid back taxes.

In 1999 the theater was sold again, but plans for turning it back into a theater died when it was learned it would cost between $12 million and $20 million to renovate.  

Today, the theater sits empty and boarded up. 

Wheelchair bound and homeless

This group of homeless men were sitting on a closed off street in downtown Detroit. The one on the ground is paralyzed from the waist down. His friend is sitting in his wheelchair as he props his head on the curb as if there was a pillow beneath him.

“I was in an accident while at work which placed me in a wheelchair,” he said. He went on to tell me that he lost his job the same month along with losing his wife to divorce. Those three combined items placed him on the street several years ago.  

Another man on the street said to me, “We are starving and haven’t had anything to eat in the past day.” Without another word I picked up ten hamburgers for them to enjoy on a cold January day.

“To do more for the world than the world does for you, that is success.” – Henry Ford