DETROIT:AMERICA'S love affair with the car turned it into a boomtown in the first half of the 20th century; riots in the second half made it a byword for guns, drugs and urban decline. Now Detroit has reinvented itself yet again by going back to its cultural roots – music.
Welcome to Motown, a city with one of the hippest, most star-studded, musical pedigrees in the US, easily the equal of New Orleans or Nashville – with a soundtrack featuring John Lee Hooker, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, The Four Tops, and Marvin Gaye . . . right on up to Eminem and The White Stripes.
In fact, “Motown” – a jive-talkin’ combination of “motor” and “town” which first appeared in 1960 as the name of a new independent record label promoting local artists – would have been a more appropriate name from the off for what began as a higgledy-piggledy settlement perched on the Canadian border.
It was founded on the banks of the Detroit river in 1701, at the height of the war between the British and the French, by a French officer, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, whose name went on to adorn some of the most desirable motors the city’s high-volume assembly lines ever produced.
Cadillac was the first man to go down in history as an automobile brand. Another was Chief Pontiac, the Indian leader who laid siege to Fort Detroit in 1763. He was beaten back by the British, though not before one of their captured soldiers was ritually cannibalised – a grisly custom of the time, apparently, in the Indian cultures of the Great Lakes.
Ford opened in Detroit in 1903, followed in quick succession by Dodge, Packard and Chrysler. The second World War consolidated the city’s reputation as a centre for heavy manufacturing, which led to the nickname, the “arsenal of democracy”. Then in the 1940s came the first urban freeways and the start of commuting. Detroit was not alone living the American dream – it was the American dream.
Which is when, inevitably, it all began to go wrong. The success of the car plants led to powerful trade unions, some of them – such as Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamsters – notorious for their hold over virtually every aspect of day-to-day manufacturing. As their power increased, so did the number, length and ferocity of industrial disputes.
There were racial tensions too. Plentiful jobs meant black workers migrated north from the southern states at the same time as white immigrants, such as Italians and Irish, arrived from Europe. The first race riots were in June 1943, with 34 people killed before federal troops restored order.
But the unrest that changed Detroit forever were the infamous 12th Street Riots in July 1967, which lasted five days and left 43 people dead, 467 injured and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. This was the beginning of the end. The flight of the white middle class began. The city’s tax base declined. And gradually Detroit became known as much for gun crime and drugs – particularly heroin and crack cocaine – as for Cadillac, Pontiac and Chrysler.
Then, just when it seemed that it couldn’t get much worse, the oil crisis which followed the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East in 1973 showed for the first time that even an industry as enormous and strategically important as car manufacturing could be vulnerable to outside forces. It wasn’t, in economics parlance, too big to fail.
This was the crisis that first opened the gates for foreign car-makers producing smaller, more economical models. Despite the icy wind of competition, Detroit’s iconic brands refused to change with the times – and paid the price.
For the fabric of the city it was death by a thousand cuts. The population of Detroit fell from a peak of roughly 1.8 million in 1950 to fewer than half that number today – though the fightback has begun.
THE REASONyou need to know this history in advance is that you're going to meet it on virtually every street corner as you take in the sights of this remarkable, sometimes sad and at other times uplifting, town.
Nowhere will that history be handier than at the Henry Ford Museum in the suburb of Dearborn, a historic landmark which displays some extraordinary All-American artefacts, including the presidential limousine in which John F Kennedy was shot, Thomas Edison’s laboratory, and the Wright Brothers’ bicycle workshop. There’s also the actual bus on which, in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, sparking a nationwide campaign of black civil disobedience.
In terms of motoring curiosities, there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here to see a Ford Nucleon car, designed in 1958 with a small nuclear reactor (simulated) in the back, and looking for all the world like the Batmobile. There’s also a fun 27-foot-long, 11-foot-high Wienermobile, a car shaped like a hotdog on a bun that was used to promote Oscar Mayer hotdogs. The kids will love it.
With real commercial savvy, the key to Detroit’s reinvention of itself for the 21st century is that it’s successfully turning all the different strands of its history into tourist attractions with mass appeal – no matter how destructive they were at the time.
So, there’s the Birthplace of the Automobile tour, the American Revolution tour, the Civil Rights Movement tour, the Native Americans tour, the Prohibition tour, and, of course, the Motown Music tour . . . and a thousand variations on each.
The heart of Detroit is the International Riverfront, which was an attempt in the 1990s to stop the rot and create a modern high-rise “city within a city”, as the planners called it. It looks particularly good from across the river in Windsor, Ontario at night. Detroit could be New York rather than a broken city on its uppers and trying to fix itself.
The best way to see the Riverfront and the Downtown area is to take a ride on the Detroit People Mover, a driverless rapid transit system that travels just 4.3 kilometres in a one-way loop through the heart of the city – all for just 50 cents.
Head for the iconic Renaissance Center – known as the “Ren Cen” – a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers conceived by Henry Ford II and largely financed by Ford Motors with the aim of bringing big corporations back to the city.
Take a trip up to the restaurant on the roof of the Detroit Marriott hotel, officially the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the western hemisphere, and have a drink. It’s pretty jaw-dropping, on a par with my favourite, the rooftop restaurant in the San Francisco Hilton.
Back on the streets – as they say in the cop shows – head to Midtown and the Detroit Institute of Arts, which, despite its prosaic name, houses one of the finest art collections in the US. Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry cycle of 27 fresco panels – gifted by another Ford, this time Edsel – is considered the best work of his career.
While you’re in the neighbourhood, take a break at the Thistle Coffee Shop at 4445 Second Avenue, popular with students from nearby Wayne State University and unusual in that it’s vegan-friendly.
MUSIC LOVERSwill now be chafing at the bit, so head to the Motown Historical Museum, yet another prosaic name for what used to be called Hitsville USA, the first Motown headquarters at 2648 West Grand Boulevard – not surprisingly one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.
In the old days, the studios here used to operate on adrenalin and other synthetic chemicals 22 hours a day, seven days a week. A sign on the door, which is still there, used to read, “Closed 8am to 10am for maintenance”.
There’s so much to do here it’s actually quite boggling. Over in Greektown, you can enjoy wonderful food and try to win your money back at the Greektown Casino, one of three casino resort hotels in Detroit. (For the unduly optimistic, the others are the MGM Grand Detroit and the MotorCity Casino.)
On Saturdays, crowds throng the historic Eastern Market in the old commercial district around St Joseph’s Catholic Church – which has fabulous stained glass – and Lafayette Park neighbourhood. Which leaves plenty of time for a trip to the Motown Motion Picture Studios in suburban Pontiac.
Not surprisingly, live music is the big night out here. There’s pretty much anything you could ask for. Detroit Theater District is the second-largest in the US and hosts most Broadway performances. There’s the Detroit Opera House. The enormous neo-Gothic Detroit Masonic Temple Theater is worth a visit for the architecture alone.
But if it’s Tamla Motown you’re looking for, just step out of your hotel and start walkin’ – it’s everywhere. But be careful: Detroit has its wild side.
Get there
Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) flies from Dublin to Detroit via Chicago-O’Hare.
Detroit: Where to . . .
Stay
Value: Double Tree Suites by Hilton, 525 West Lafayette Blvd, 00-1-313-963-5600, doubletree.hilton.com/detroit. Hotels at the lower end of the market can be unpredictable in Detroit, so this is a good option. All suites are two rooms, totalling 60sq m. The bedrooms have different bed combinations, and the living rooms have a sofa-bed for the kids, so it's good value and big enough for a family. Prices start from $183 (€134) a night.
Mid-market:The Detroit Marriott, 400 Renaissance Drive, 00-1-313-568-8000; search for Detroit at marriott.com. Permanently out of date in a way typical of international hotel chains, the three-star Marriott, however, is perfectly friendly and probably has the best views in the city from its riverside rooms. Prices for a double start from $159 (€117), and if you need to pay a bit more, well . . . take a look!
Upmarket: The Westin Book Cadillac, 1114 Washington Blvd, 00-1-313-442-1600, bookcadillacwestin.com. This grand old four-star had a $200 million (€147 million) makeover in the past few years and is looking good. It's central, luxurious, safe – and $189 (€139) a night for a double or $219 (€161) with a "breakfast package".
Eat
Value:American Coney Island, 114 West Lafayette, 00-1-313-961-7758, americanconeyisland.com. This is most definitely one for the kids, though if you like the American diner experience, you'll probably get into the spirit as well. It's all about hotdogs, chilli, fries, chicken wings, cheese cake. You get the message: calories!
Mid-market: Fishbone's Rhythm Kitchen Café, The International Center Building, 400 Monroe Street, 00-1-313-965-4600, fishbonesusa.com. Although the food is not actually Greek, Fishbone's is in the centre of Greektown, and is run by the Gatzaros family. Menu includes steaks, seafood and New Orleans favourites such as jambalaya and shrimp creole.
Upmarket:The Coach Insignia, Renaissance Center 71st 72nd Floor, 00-1-313-567-2622, mattprenticerg.com. This comfortable, friendly restaurant has good views over Detroit, 360 degrees around the city and over the river to Canada. Its extensive wine list was awarded Wine Spectator's 2011 Award of Excellence.
Shop spot
The Renaissance Center.All the quality shopping in the centre of Detroit is concentrated in the 5.5 million sq ft "Ren Cen", or between there and the riverfront. There's flowers, chocolates, fashion, perfumes, shoes, a tailor, dozens of restaurants . . . in fact, no reason at all to go outside.
Night spot
Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway, 001-313-961-3500, michiganopera.org. It says "Opera" House, but in fact this beautiful theatre hosts everything from Motown revivals to jazz to comedy evenings, to, yes, opera itself. There's a nice bistro here too, called – you guessed it – the Cadillac Café.