Michigan Central Station

Jill and I went to Warren, a suburb north of Detroit, today to meet her friend Mary. They know each other from grad school. We ate at a sports bar, and they caught up. After, Jill and I went to downtown Detroit so I could photograph this massive building.

Michigan Central Station opened in 1914 and was in use until 1988. Last year, Ford Motor Co. bought it and is in the process of redeveloping it. This whole area used to be run down and blighted, but it's slowly seeing renewal. A few blocks away a luxury apartment building is being constructed. It's the kind of development most cities had seen starting around 15 years ago.

Speaking of blight, some of Jill's friends and her mom think Detroit is a run-down, crime-infested nightmare. They think it's still the 1970s. I find it so odd. They all live in the suburbs and watch sensationalized local television news, which adds to the problem. They make it seem like they'll get raped or murdered if they set foot in the city, so they stay in their comfortable, boring lives in suburbia. That's just not true of cities anymore.