August 21 - Of and From the People Mover

At the Ren Cen, we boarded the Detroit People Mover. This system is automated and serves 11 stops in the CBD (actually only 10 were in service that day). The first image shows the tracks leading from the Ren Cen with Cobo Hall on the left and the Detroit Princess on the right.


The second image shows the two car vehicle along a track in front of One Detroit (aka the Comerica Tower).





Image three shows the Comerica Building as seen from the street near the People Mover station (it is from the Internet). The image shows the twin Gothic towers on top. Neo Gothic buildings are pretty rare. One reason they haven't caught on is that they are too.... uh... Gothic. Another is that the expense of the Gothic elements is pretty high and actually reduces the square footage compared to a square tower cross section.

The 4th image shows a building abandoned. It can be seen from the People Mover and speculation is that the sight of abandoned buildings in the CBD, so prominently seen because of their location near the People Mover, led some investors to be frightened of Detroit.


The 5th image shows the base of a different building that is also abandoned. The phrase "Kwame loves Bubba" probably is not a salute to a teen age inter-racial Romeo/Juliet story.  It probably refers to Kwame Kilpatrick who was mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. He was convicted of a number of finance and corruption related felony counts in 2008 (he then resigned his office) but received a light 99 day sentence (this light sentence may be the inspiration for the "Kwame Loves Bubba" graffiti). However he violated the terms of probation and in 2013 was convicted of several dozen addition counts and sentenced to 28 years in prison (his wife was also convicted of felonies of the same nature). Personally, I think the corruption of Detroit (Kilpatrick was not the only corrupt official) was more likely the source of some investors taking a pass.

On August 22 we flew home and actually got to BWI about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and then fairly quickly got our super shuttle.