ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ October 19981669

Detroit
A desktop travelogue for the 9th National Conference

by William P. Kane

You can’t help your­
self—whenever you re­
m em ber that ACRL’s 
u p co m in g  N atio n al 
Conference is going to 
be in Detroit, you start 
thinking, “Honolulu, 

why not Honolulu?” or “Paris, what’s wrong 
with Paris?” Come to think of it, though, it’s 
been a while since you’ve been to Detroit, 
and besides, didn’t you see the January 1998 
C&RL News article describing Motown as a 
hip, hoppin’, happenin’ place? In addition, 
you recall more than one recent piece in the 
national media concerning Detroit’s revitaliza­
tion, and the Red Wings do seem to keep win­
ning those Stanley Cups, so you have to figure 
that the place is riding pretty high these days.

But still, it’s always a good idea to try 
and get a closer look at a town before actu­
ally showing up, suitcase in hand, heading 
for the convention center. What you might 
do, you figure, is get an insider's perspec­
tive, see what the locals see, get a sneak 
peek at Detroit’s local (albeit gritty) charm.

Like any tourist worth a right-click, you can 
find the standard weather forecasts and attrac­
tions for cities all over the world, from Akron 
to Zanzibar, in a hurry. You work in a library, 
have reasonably easy access to the Web, and 
you’re in the mood for some sleuthing, maybe 
in the guise of professional development. You 
want to take your time on your virtual travel­
ogue, looking for places that are a bit off-beat, 
but maybe likewise indicative of the city’s soul. 
So, you fire up your browser, load up the inkjet, 
crack your knuckles, and have at it.

w w w .visitdetroit.com
Standard but useful information to be had 
here, and not a bad starting point, particu­
larly if you’re interested in some quick and 
quirky facts and figures. For example, you 
never knew that Detroit has the largest an­
nual fireworks display in the world, or that 
it’s the only U.S. city that’s actually north of 
Canada. However, when you learn that De­
troit is the potato chip capital of the world, 
and that Detroit has more registered bowlers 
than anywhere else, you figure that may be 
more than you need to know.

You order some free visitors’ guides and 
move on.

w w w .d ia.org
Now you’re getting somewhere. You’d heard 
that Detroit has the fifth largest fine arts mu­
seum in the United States, and their Web 
site includes lots of good stuff about upcom­
ing exhibits, permanent collections, and such, 
but also, and most interestingly, a waycool 
database of some 1,000 plus digital images 
o f artworks from the collections that you can 
search, browse, view, and obtain. You knew 
that museums would start acting like librar­
ies some day. Meanwhile, you’re happy to 
realize that the museum’s right up the street 
from the convention center, because you’d 
love to see that massive Diego Rivera fresco 
“Detroit Industry” firsthand, as it’s evocative 
o f a place with a pulse.

pewabic.com
More artsy-craftsy stuff here, further dispel­
ling the notion of Detroit as purely shot-and-

About the author

William P. Kanecochairs ACRL's National Conference Local Arrangements Subœmmittee and is regional sales manager for 
Blackwell'sBookSen/ices,e-mail:william.kane@blackwell.com

http://www.visitdetroit.com
http://www.dia.org
mailto:william.kane@blackwell.com


670 / C&RL News ■ October 1998

Built in 1928 in the tradition of great movie pa
magnificent theater was beautifully restored in 
offers the finest in entertainment from concerts an
to magicians and ice shows.

beer blue collar. Pewabic pottery, founded 
during the Arts and Crafts Movement, is 
rooted in tradition and elegance. You’re quite 
happy to see that there are public installa­
tions throughout the city, and, if you could 
afford it, you’d plaster the tiles throughout 
your house. Maybe a small tile as a souvenir 
is in order.

w w w .heidelberg.org
Speaking of art, you can hardly even believe 
the Heidelberg Project. Artist Tyree Guyton 
has spent the past 12 years collecting and 
displaying found objects d ’artes (some might 
say “garbage”) onto a city street’s landscape. 
House after some otherwise maybe aban­
doned house on a block of Heidelberg Street 
is festooned with thousands, maybe millions 
of big and bright polka dots, punctuated by 
oddball and somehow sad assortments of 
life’s remnants— baby dolls and old purses 
and board games and shopping carts and 
lawn mowers— all covered by those big, 
bright polka dots. The street is lined with 
painted, polka dotted shoes and old polka 
dotted vacuum cleaners. A tall polka dotted 
tree has old polka dotted telephones nailed 
all the way up its polka dotted trunk, with 
polka dotted suitcases sprouting from polka 
dotted branches like polka dotted leaves. 
Polka dotted mannequins sit on polka dot­
ted porches smiling out at polka dotted car 
hoods; polka dotted hubcaps adorn the polka 
dotted sidewalks lining the polka dotted 
lawns.

You get the feeling the artist 
has a thing for polka dots. Go 
figure. Even if you don’t, you can 
tell it’s an eye-popping, jaw- 
opening, get-out-of-your-car- 
and-stare, one-of-a-kind  city 
block, and probably worth the 
quick side trip (following the 
d o w n lo a d a b le m ap s) w hen 
you’re in town. You hope that 
it’s still there com e April, as 
you’ve read that the City Coun­
cil (no doubt prompted by some 
polka dot-weary neighbors) is 

laces, this negotiating with the now world- 
1988 and renown artist for the project’s re­

d musicals location. In any case, you can’t 
remember the last time you’ve 
seen such a real-life illustration 

of how discard and decay can somehow end 
up colorful and poignant and ultimately up­
beat.

w w w .h fm gv.o rg
On the other side of town, but just a click 
away, you find another (perhaps more tradi­
tional) showcase of ideas: the Henry Ford 
Museum and Greenfield Village. This unique 
and huge indoor/outdoor complex illustrates 
innovations and ingenuity, and is one of the 
major tourist attractions in southeast Michi­
gan. The kind of a place you can learn, study, 
inquire, or just take a peaceful walk back 
through the American centuries. Like seeing 
the Empire State Building when you’re in 
New York City, or the Grand Canyon when 
you’re in Arizona, you know you have to 
see it when you’re in Detroit, if just so you 
can check it off your must-see list. Ed. note: 
Conference-goers will have the museum to 
themselves on Saturday night for an ACRL 
party.

w w w .fordhouse.com  
www.um d.um ich.edu/fairlane
Speaking of Henry Ford, you’re starting to 
get the impression that the guy had an im­
pact on this town: there’s the museum, the 
hospital, the college, the high schools and, 
oh yeah, the auto company. You can’t help 
thinking that his and his son’s estates would 
be worth walking around, to witness first­
hand the physical manifestation of the wealth 
of one family, and, by extension, the rewards

http://www.heidelberg.org
http://www.hfmgv.org
http://www.fordhouse.com
http://www.umd.umich.edu/fairlane


C&RL News ■ October 1998 / 671

of the work of an entire city, as it is handed 
down from one generation to the next. The 
estates are quite different from each other 
and at opposite ends of the city, but they’re 
both beautifully preserved architectural land­
marks to icons of industry.

bhere.com/ruins
In stark contrast, you stumble across this site, 
dedicated to “The Fabulous Ruins o f Detroit,” 
equating some abandoned industrial and 
commercial and residential buildings in De­
troit to the ancient ruins of Rome and Ath­
ens. You’re not sure what to make of that 
juxtaposition, but the photographs and de­
scriptions of the old, once-proud buildings 
are indeed haunting, and you’re starting to 
get the idea that Detroit’s cityscape is an in­
teresting mix of the really new and the pretty 
old. You’re not sure if you’d be embarrassed 
by the lack of preservation efforts, or proud 
of the moxy it takes to cut your losses and 
start anew.

In any case, Detroit seems like a big place 
that’s enjoyed a lot of room to spread out 
and keep growing, and sometimes, obviously, 
it doesn’t look back.

w w w.foxsearchlight.com /polish/
But lots of people do look back, and cap­
ture the spirit of Detroit on paper and on 
film. Elmore Leonard is a Detroit native, and 
keeps churning out those novels punctuated 
by somehow witty but dumb-guy dialogue, 
which you wonder how the novelist can cap­
ture seeing as how he lives in the tonier part 
of town.

Meanwhile, it might be your imagination, 
but it seems like Hollywood has caught on 
lately: “Out of Sight” (based on an Elmore 
Leonard novel), “Grosse Pointe B lan k ,” 
“Hoffa,” and “True Romance” are just a few 
of the flicks set and filmed in Detroit. Indeed, 
you’re sorry you missed “The Polish Wed­
ding” when it came out in theaters last sum­
mer, as you’re a big Clare Danes fan to begin 
with, and you’ve learned that it was filmed in 
the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck.

Didn’t some trendy magazine recently vote 
Ham-town as one of the “most trendy” cities 
in the United States? You’re not sure what 
that even means if it’s true, but you get a kick 
out of the idea of the leather-clad trendoids 
on their way home after a long night at the

hip after-hours clubs and looking for latte 
passing the old ladies with babushkas on their 
morning kielbasa run. You’re also getting a 
hankering for one of Hamtramck’s famous 
p aczki (pronounced “poonch-key”, and look­
ing not unlike a big fat jelly donut), found 
everywhere on Fat Tuesday (the day before 
Ash Wednesday). All this http’ing is starting 
to make you hungry.

m etrotim es.com
Restaurants, you’re interested in restaurants. 
Every city it seems has its weekly arts and 
entertainment rag, but Detroit’s Metro Times 
is pretty sophisticated, with full-feature ar­
ticles and investigative reporting that verge 
on real journalism, and you like its Web ver­
sion for the online calendar of events—  
there’s lots going on in the bars, in the con­
cert halls, in the sports arenas, and, yup, in 
the restaurants. The dining reviews here are 
up-to-date and loaded with attitude, and you 
can even sort by price or cuisine or location. 
You’re glad you like to experiment while din­
ing out, because Detroit’s evidently got a bit 
o f everything— from Ethiopian to Greek to 
Middle Eastern to Irish to big, old midwest 
steakhouses.

Plus, the desserts tend to go beyond the 
merely huge and venture into the enormous 
—which is a good thing, because you like 
dessert. In general, though, whether you’re 
interested in a swank establishment with an 
extensive wine list, or a lunch counter 
slinging cheeseburgers, you can rely on the 
Metro Times to give you a pretty good idea 
o f what to expect, and for that alone you’d 
give it a rating of four forks.

All right, you’ve seen enough; you’ll save 
the other tempting Web sites— like those for 
the Museum of African American History, De­
troit Science Center, Detroit Public Library, 
Holocaust Memorial Center, Center for Cre­
ative Studies, Cranbrook Institute, etc.— for 
some realtime sightseeing once you get to 
the Motor City.

Sure, Detroit’s not Disneyland, but it’s 
clearly cosmopolitan and comfortable, and 
just different enough to keep things inter­
esting: it’s got that big-city pace, loaded with 
the usual as well as some unusual things to 
do and places to see, and filled with friendly 
folks who are rightfully proud to show off 
their town. You can’t wait. ■

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/polish/




C&RL News ■ October 1998 / 675