Last week I rode Detroits People mover for the second time in my life.
“The Mugger Mover” has been malined as a boondoggle by the critics of Coleman Youngs adminstratration. Even though the guy is dead he is admired and maligned at the same time. I got on at finacial center. The Station was hard to find because it was 3 storys above the street and the elevater was hard to find. I finaly found the station. The token machine was not working so I had to jump the turnstyle NYC style. It was very quiet above the bustle of Detroits Streets and I was a little nervois not having many people around. Finally there was a humming and two miniture subway cars slid into the station. One other man got on who was a buisnessman staying in the hotel next door.
I got up front and watched like a kid on a amusemenmt ride in a theme park as to what would happen next. The G pull was mild and the tracks (yes there were tracks) pulled under me. We pulled into a 1970s style mod station the doors opened no one got on. and then to another station that reminded me of something out of Star Wars 70s mod. A Maintance man for the People Mover got on and I intiated a conversation. He explained that this was Coleman Youngs Idea and that he was a great man who finaly brought blacks to the same table as whites in what was the most segrated city in america and that he tried to Modernise the city and created jobs. The People Mover has 12 cars and I belive about 12 stations. It employes about 30 people to take care of the tracks and the cars. They Give tours of the shops in the morning by reservation.
One thing that I noticed is how much of Downtown Detroit is a Abanided Hulk.
40 story buildings stand empty and the Statler which was the citys (The Statler was the first major hotel chain in this country) finast hotel was being preped to be blown up. In a later converastion I had with a former Detroiter in Port Huron
He explained that the Statler was alowed to degrade into a Welfare Hotel
and the area was overrun
I really wi***hey had rennovated/restored Tiger Stadium.
That old ball park had a lot more character than Comerica
Good question… A lot of the cities have really done a good job of reclaiming their central downtown and inner urban areas over the last 10 years or so… Even Los Angeles has improved. I remember reading that they were working on the problem in Detroit, but apparently they haven’t solved it yet.
Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Directional RR Radio Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/
Bring back the BobLo boats !!!