I hear the train a-coming

Site – n. 1 the position or location of a town, building, etc., esp. as to its environment. 2 the area or exact plot of ground on which anything is, has been, or is to be located v. to put in position for operation, as artillery.

Last Saturday, in search of more material, I took a train to Detroit. Before the trip I surveyed the area via aerial photographs. Apart from a bus tour and a bike ride through, I don't have much experience in Detroit.

I know it comes with a history of voyeuristic-saviour types poking around and handing out unsolicited "solutions". So, knowing that characterization is somewhat inescapable for me at the moment, I will try to tread lightly with hopes of immersion if the city comes to play a larger role in my thesis on down the road.

From the aerial survey I noted that after the Amtrak stop, the tracks continued East, curved South down through Eastern Market, and continued on to the Detroit river. My goal was a walk, forgoing maps and using the rail as a spine to structure the visit.

From the aerial survey, I also noted that the rail cut an interesting cross section of neighborhoods and landscapes through the city. The Amtrak station is at the upper west corner of the candycane (north is up). Eastern Market is the highlighted portion just to the northeast of the interstate interchange near the base.



In previous experiences, Eastern Market had caught my attention. I was there once on a Saturday morning, market at full bore, and once on a Friday evening when everything was relatively quiet. The ad hoc, temporary urbanism of the place is arresting. A barbecue joint had a karaoke station going.



Urbanism n. the way of life of people who live in a city


That pedestrian bridge, populated with vendors, is reaching over to the Gratiot Central Market. Before I-75 was built, the market was just across the street from Shed 1 (now demolished).

Since I had to catch the train back to Ann Arbor, I didn't make it all the way to the river. But on the way back to the station, in order to see some other terrain, I walked along the parallel freeway, about half a mile inside the tracks. Sandwiched between the two infrastructures, a wide variety of urbanisms are strung together, occasionally politely, with thick buffers, occasionally in tension.