No big discoveries on the TDH today. A great day out on the road, though it was a bit breezy headed downtown. (Plus half my back is seized up). That said, I did run by some points of interest.
First, the house that comes with its own graveyard (see prior post, please) is no more. I don’t know if they plan on pushing all the debris into the big hole – but maybe next week I’ll be able to report back to you if that turns out to be the case. Voila: The ex-house.
Newly-dead house
The owners of said house had a clearly non-effective sign trying to keep the area tidy:
Careful! Security Camera is watching!
A couple of weeks ago, I pointed out a couple of sinkholes. The lesser of the two appears to be destined for repair. (At least that’s what I think, judging by the paint. It could also be an alert to walkers, riders, and drivers). If you’re on Kercheval, and you see it, you can tell your friends you saw one of the Tour De Hood landmarks. Gives you instant street cred.
Famous sinkhole
I think Detroit has general issues with its sewage system. While I’m not a civil engineer, I believe most of the sinkholes and enormous potholes I see are because of busted sewer lines and/or water lines leaking into the ground and eroding support for the pavement. On the opposite side of leaking is clogging, as demonstrated by this sewer, which by my lights is a seweren’t. (I had to put this picture in just so I could include that jeux de mots). Or, if you prefer, it’s a Storm Drain that Drain’t working.
Storm Drain’t.
You’ll notice it’s lost its ability to actually drain water. A bit further along I rode by the erstwhile “Peace in Heart Crusade Church of God”. Looks like the neighbors prefer lucre to the promise of eternal happiness.
There’s Gold in that there Hood.
I may be wrong, as I passed another building (a former restaurant supply shop) that is much more blinged out.
Gold, Cutlery, Scales and Meat Hooks
You’ll notice on the upper left “MOCAD 3/29”. MOCAD stands for Museum Of Contemporary Art Detroit. So this Gold stuff may actually be some kind of conceptual art that I’m too much of a philistine to appreciate.
Until today, I hadn’t known there was a downtown Synagogue. Here it is, or was. I can’t really tell if it’s still in use for that purpose.
The Downtown Synagogue – must be the only one
I love the door handle.
Magen David
Right across the street is a new (to me – I don’t spend much of my time looking for, or frequenting, adult entertainment enterprises) place to spend some time and money.
Generous drinks for fat white guys
Looks new to me. Maybe this is the result of the Stimulus Money Detroit is supposed to be receiving from the Federal Government. If anyone knows if this place has been around for a while, and I’m just ignorant, please weigh in.
That said, there’s one thing for sure. The Tour De Hood is always filled with interesting things. This graffiti just about sums it up.
No kidding
Tour De Hood 
Magen David, the synagogue. Not to be confused with Mogen David, the wine.
Well I’ve got a lot to weigh in on today!
First off, “Gold” building #1 used to be a church but was purchased by none other than the folks at Slows. The plan is to put in a “Slows To Go” restaurant there to ease up the load on the mothership. There’s been a bit of a slowdown in progress with the lending crisis. If a business that essentially mints money can’t get a loan, what hope does other small business have?? Things are moving along though, stay tuned.
“Gold” building #2 used to be some kind of candy company, and then later was restaurant supply in Eastern Market. It too is owned by a group involving the Slows folks and was converted to very cool single-floor loft apartments, known as the Candy Company Lofts. The crappy outside is temporary – to get historic tax credits they were not allowed to take the building to it’s original brick facade, but instead had to leave what the Historic Commission considered “historic” for the area, that being the later Market-related business. When the tax credits are exhausted further facede restoration will commence.
An interesting note, I drive by this building every day on my way home, and it seems to be where well-heeled Grosse Pointe 20-somethings land on their move to the city.
GOLD, by the way, was MoCAD’s big fundraiser for the younger hip set last year. Phil Cooley was involved in the planning hence the Gold graffit on every Cooley-owned building. I did a little recap on it here:
http://supergaydetroit.blogspot.com/2008/03/gold-retold.html
The Downtown Synagogue is actually no longer in use as a synogogue, but I believe it is for sale. It’s quite a great little wedge of a building there at the north end of Capitol Park. For a real treat, stop into Cafe D’Mongo’s next door some Friday or Saturday night (the only nights they are open). It’s quite a scene. I wrote about it here:
http://supergaydetroit.blogspot.com/2008/04/while-i-was-out.html
Finally, the Eros Lounge has been through many iterations but always as a strip club. It’s like a second-tier club (as downtown strip clubs go) and is owned by the owner of Bazouki Lounge, downtown low-rent landlord Dennis Keffilanos (who owns about half of Capitol Park). Previously this place was known as “Bazouki II” and “Lolita’s”. And it primarily caters to a black crowd, the white guys all stay in Greektown. I wrote about this club here:
http://supergaydetroit.blogspot.com/2007/09/thinking-outside-box.html
I guess my point is, you should read my blog, you’d have the inside track!
Thanks for your call inquiring about trends in modern homosexuality, and I hope to see you soon!
I am clearly an out of it old guy.
Arthur,
You write about such fascinating things on your tour. You should do a special ride for the new shoe on HBO called “Hung”. The opening credits show all kinds of abandoned buildings, including the train station. Draw a map and give us the 411.
Excellent idea, Jennifer. It may be a multi-day ride, because of how they edited it. I’ll see what I can do.
There’s a big scene at Harpo’s. That’s nice and close. Looking forward to it!
Harpo’s? I thought that was a local metal/southern rock kind of place
I love the Tour De Hood posts. Makes me want to fix my road bike.
Not to contradict you supergay but the synagogue is still in use it where i attend temple.
If it is indeed still in use, all the better.
Hey Nick, I did find out a lot of info after I wrote about this, most notably that the decision on whether or not to sell the synagogue has been postponed and there is a very active young group of worshippers doing lots of cool stuff there! They are trying to raise some dough, no?
There’s a good wikipedia entry on the Downtown Synagogue.
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