Detroit

I had something else in mind to write about tonight.

Then I got to thinking. (Uh oh!)

Here's how that happened. I put together the business page for Tuesday's (011012) Good Morning Post-Gazette. (Inside A, black and white, boring -- or inspiring if that's how you want to look at it -- art.)

Anyway, main story is the North American Auto Show, opening today (1/9/12) in Detroit.

Hey! I've been there! And I've had a great tour guide in my friend Carol Morton. Friends Ellen Mazo & Virginia Linn and I drove up for Carol's birthday in October and she treated us to a day's tour of Detroit, which we followed up by driving to Grand Rapids, about 2 hours west, to take in the Art Prize. (That will be another post.)

It was a great weekend and I am so glad to have had the chance to see Detroit. Admittedly not the really dicey parts, but wow, the center city architecture is wonderful.

The Book Building is my favorite.

The picture is of the abandoned lobby of the Detroit Free Press, which moved to cheaper digs. Sad in so many ways.

But with so much beauty there, and throughout the Rust Belt, a comeback is inevitable. (Heck, Frank Lloyd Wright was practically promiscuous in Michigan.) These cities are encyclopedias of 20th century Industrial Age architecture. Here's hoping they're all strapped enough to leave the buildings standing, rather than tearing then down.

Wouldn't that be fabulous? (By the way, the Motown Museum was fabulous, also. I miss Marvin Gaye.)