Memories of Detroit

            I'm a diehard baseball fan.  Because my job had me travel to all parts of the country, I was fortunate enough over the years to watch major league baseball games in 22 different ballparks.  My favorite, of course, was Fenway Park, home of my team, the Red Sox.  But the best park for watching a game was Tiger Stadium in Detroit.  For the price of a grandstand seat and a $5 tip, I could move to an empty seat in the front row of the upper deck between home and third.  You couldn't get any closer to the action anywhere in the country.  When the game was over, I could walk to my car in the lot outside the gate, drive onto I-75 just around the corner, and be back in my living room chair in 45 minutes.  Great parking, great seats, great entertainment, easy drive home.  For a baseball fan it doesn't get any better than that.

            From 1989 to 2003 I lived in the Detroit suburbs around 25 miles from downtown. I liked Detroit for the many things it had to offer.  My wife and I enjoyed the great restaurants in Greek Town,  took in an occasional Red Wings hockey game at Joe Lois Arena, attended the annual International Auto Show, and saw musicals like Les Miserables and Mamma Mia in the theater district.  Detroit also had a fine art museum, an annual classic car parade down Woodward Avenue, and, toward the end of our stay, several new casinos (which we did not patronize).  In spite of all these advantages, the signs of Detroit's imminent demise were already there.
            The mayor of Detroit back then was Coleman Young, perhaps the most corrupt big city mayor    of all time.  He planted the seeds for Detroit's destruction with his cronyism, his union payoffs, his fat contracts with city employees, and all the rest. 
            Symbolic of the attitude of the people who lived within the city limits was Devil's Night.  On Halloween, a hundred of fires were set all over the city, mostly in abandoned houses.  Crowds gathered around these blazing bonfires, confident that no fire trucks would come.  Arsonists cheered at the destruction of their neighborhoods.  By the time we left Michigan, the only thing living among burned-out shells for entire blocks was overgrown grass.
            Detroit is now officially bankrupt, all but wiping out public pensions and bond-holder assets.  Once the country's fourth largest city and a show piece of industrial America, Detroit is ready for the bulldozer, both literally and figuratively. 
            I will always have fond memories of my Red Sox coming to town with Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, and Roger Clemens battling the Tigers in that old ballpark.  How sad it is that my memories are all that remain of what once was a vibrant, industrious city with so much to offer.