Detroit :: The W2N.net

Detroit (pronounced /dɪˈtrɔɪt/) (French: Détroit, meaning "strait"⁵, pronounced [detʁwa] (help·info)) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major⁶ U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded in 1701 by the Frenchman Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

It is known as America's traditional automotive center — "Detroit" is a metonym for the American automobile industry — and an important source of popular music, legacies celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, The Motor City and Motown.⁷⁸ Other nicknames emerged in the twentieth century, including Rock City, Arsenal of Democracy (during World War II),⁹ The D, D-Town, Hockeytown, and The 3-1-3 (its telephone area code).¹⁰

In 2007, Detroit ranked as the United States' eleventh most populous city, with 916,952 residents.¹¹ At its peak in 1950 the city was the fourth largest in America with 1.8 million people, but has since seen a major shift in its population to the suburbs.

The name Detroit sometimes refers to the Metro Detroit area, a sprawling region with a population of 4,467,592¹² for the Metropolitan Statistical Area, making it the nation's eleventh-largest, and a population of 5,405,918¹³ for the nine-county Combined Statistical Area as of the 2007 Census Bureau estimates. The Detroit-Windsor area, a critical commercial link straddling the Canada-U.S. border, has a total population of about 5,700,000.¹⁴

History

Main article: History of Detroit

The city name comes from the Detroit River (French: l'étroit du Lac Érié), meaning the strait of Lake Erie, linking Lake Huron and Lake Erie; in the historical context, the strait included Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River.¹⁵ Traveling up the Detroit River on the ship Le Griffon (owned by La Salle), Father Louis Hennepin noted the north bank of the river as an ideal location for a settlement. There, in 1701, the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, along with 51 additional French-Canadians, founded a settlement called Fort Ponchartrain du Détroit, naming it after the comte de Pontchartrain, Minister of Marine under Louis XIV. France offered free land to attract families to Detroit, which grew to 800 people in 1765, the largest city between Montreal and New Orleans.¹⁶ Francois Marie Picoté, sieur de Belestre (Montreal 1719–1793) was the last French military commander at Fort Detroit (1758–1760), surrendering the fort on November 29, 1760 to the British. Detroit's city flag reflects this French heritage. (See Flag of Detroit, Michigan.)

During the French and Indian War (1760), British troops gained control and shortened the name to Detroit. Several tribes led by Chief Pontiac, an Ottawa leader, launched Pontiac's Rebellion (1763), including a siege of Fort Detroit. Partially in response to this, the British Royal Proclamation of 1763 included restrictions on white settlement in unceded Indian territories. Detroit passed to the United States under the Jay Treaty (1796). In 1805, fire destroyed most of the settlement. A river warehouse and brick chimneys of the wooden homes were the sole structures to survive.¹⁷

Detroit in the 1880s.

From 1805 to 1847, Detroit was the capital of Michigan. As the city expanded, the street layout plan developed by Augustus B. Woodward, Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory was followed. Detroit fell to British troops during the War of 1812 in the Siege of Detroit, was recaptured by the United States in 1813 and incorporated as a city in 1815.

Prior to the American Civil War, the city's access to the Canadian border made it a key stop along the underground railroad.¹⁸ Then a Lieutenant, the future president Ulysses S. Grant was stationed in the city. His dwelling is still at the Michigan State Fairgrounds. Because of this local sentiment, many Detroiters volunteered to fight during the American Civil War, beginning with the Iron Brigade which defended Washington, D.C. early in the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying Thank God for Michigan! Following the death of President Abraham Lincoln, George Armstrong Custer delivered a eulogy to the thousands gathered near Campus Martius Park. Custer led the Michigan Brigade during the American Civil War and called them the Wolverines.¹⁹

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many of the city's Gilded Age mansions and buildings arose. Detroit was referred to as the Paris of the West for its architecture, and for Washington Boulevard, recently electrified by Thomas Edison.²⁰ Strategically located along the Great Lakes waterway, Detroit emerged as a transportation hub. The city had grown steadily from the 1830s with the rise of shipping, shipbuilding, and manufacturing industries. In 1896, a thriving carriage trade prompted Henry Ford to build his first automobile in a rented workshop on Mack Avenue. In 1904 he founded the Ford Motor Company. Ford's manufacturing — and those of automotive pioneers William C. Durant, the Dodge brothers, Packard, and Walter Chrysler — reinforced Detroit's status as the world's automotive capital; it also served to encourage truck manufacturers such as Rapid and Grabowsky.

With the introduction of Prohibition, smugglers used the river as a major conduit for Canadian spirits, organized in large part by the notorious Purple Gang.²¹ Strained racial relations were evident in the 1920s trial of Dr. Ossian Sweet, a black Detroit physician acquitted of murder. A man died when shots were fired from Ossian's house into a threatening mob of whites who gathered to try to force him out of an all-white neighborhood.²²

Cadillac Motor Co..(c.1910)
Cass Ave. at Amsterdam St.

Labor strife climaxed in the 1930s when the United Auto Workers became involved in bitter disputes with Detroit's auto manufacturers. The labor activism of those years brought notoriety to union leaders such as Jimmy Hoffa and Walter Reuther. The 1940s saw the construction of the world's first urban depressed freeway, the Davison²³ and the industrial growth during World War II that led to Detroit's nickname as the Arsenal of Democracy.²⁴

Industry spurred spectacular growth during the first half of the twentieth century as the city drew tens of thousands of new residents, particularly workers from the Southern United States, to become the nation's fourth largest. At the same time, tens of thousands of European immigrants poured into the city. Social tensions rose with the rapid pace of growth. The color blind promotion policies of the auto plants resulted in racial tension that erupted into a full-scale riot in 1943.²⁵

Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument of the Civil War with the old Detroit City Hall.

Consolidation during the 1950s, especially in the automobile sector, increased competition for jobs. An extensive freeway system constructed in the 1950s and 1960s had facilitated commuting. The Twelfth Street riot in 1967, as well as court-ordered busing accelerated white flight from the city. Commensurate with the shift of population and jobs to its suburbs, the city's tax base eroded. In the years following, Detroit's population fell from a peak of roughly 1.8 million in 1950 to about half that number today.

The gasoline crises of 1973 and 1979 impacted the U.S. auto industry as small cars from foreign makers made inroads. Heroin and crack cocaine use afflicted the city with the influence of Butch Jones, Maserati Rick, and the Chambers Brothers. Renaissance has been a perennial buzzword among city leaders, reinforced by the construction of the Renaissance Center in the late 1970s. This complex of skyscrapers, designed as a city within a city, slowed but was unable to reverse the trend of businesses leaving the city's downtown until the 1990s.

In 1980, Detroit hosted the Republican National Convention which nominated Ronald Reagan to a successful bid for President of the United States. By then, nearly three decades of crime, drug addiction, and inadequate policies had caused areas like the Elmhurst block to decay.²⁶ During the 1980s, abandoned structures were demolished to reduce havens for drug dealers with sizable tracts of land reverted to a form of urban prairie.²⁷²⁸

In the 1990s, the city began to enjoy a revival, much of it centered downtown. Comerica Tower at Detroit Center (1993) arose on the city skyline. In the ensuing years, three casinos opened in Detroit: MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, and Greektown Casino which debuted as resorts in 2007-08. New downtown stadiums were constructed for the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Lions in 2000 and 2002, respectively; this put the Lions' home stadium in the city proper for the first time since 1974. The city hosted the 2005 MLB All-Star Game, 2006 Super Bowl XL, 2006 World Series and WrestleMania 23 in 2007, all of which prompted many improvements to the downtown area.

The city's riverfront is the focus of much development; in 2007, the first portions of the Detroit River Walk were laid, including miles of parks and fountains. This new urban development in Detroit is a mainstay in the city's earnest desire to reinvent its economic identity through tourism.²⁹ Along the river, upscale million dollar condos are going up, such as Watermark Detroit, some of the most expensive the city has ever seen. Some city limit signs, particularly on the Dearborn border say "Welcome to Detroit, The Renaissance City Founded 1701."

Geography

Topography

A simulated-color satellite image of Detroit, with Windsor across the river, taken on NASA's Landsat 7 satellite.

Detroit skyline along the Detroit River.

A view of the city from Belle Isle Park.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 143.0 square miles (370.2 km²); of this, 138.8 square miles (359.4 km²) is land and 4.2 square miles (10.8 km²) is water. Detroit is the principal city of the Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan regions. The highest elevation in Detroit is in the University District neighborhood in northwestern Detroit, just west of Palmer Park sitting at a height of 670 feet (204 m). Detroit's lowest elevation is along its riverfront, sitting at a height of 579 feet (176 m). Detroit completely encircles the cities of Hamtramck and Highland Park. On its northeast border are the wealthy communities of Grosse Pointe. The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge is the only international wildlife preserve in North America, uniquely located in the heart of a major metropolitan area. The Refuge includes islands, coastal wetlands, marshes, shoals, and waterfront lands along 48 miles (77 km) of the Detroit River and Western Lake Erie shoreline.

Three road systems cross the city: the original French template, radial avenues from a Washington, D.C.-inspired system, and true north–south roads from the Northwest Ordinance township system. The city is north of Windsor, Ontario. Detroit is the only major city along the U.S.-Canadian border in which one travels south in order to cross into Canada. Detroit has four border crossings: the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel provide motor vehicle thoroughfare; the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel provides railroad access to and from Canada. The fourth border crossing is the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry, located near the Windsor Salt Mine and Zug Island. Not far from Zug Island, the southwest part of the city sits atop a 1,500-acre (610 ha) salt mine that is 1,100 feet (340 m) below the surface. The Detroit Salt Company mine has over 100 miles (160 km) of roads within it.³⁰³¹

Climate

Detroit and the rest of southeastern Michigan have a continental climate which is influenced by the Great Lakes. Winters are cold with moderate snowfall³² with temperatures at night sometimes dropping below 10 °F (–12 °C), while summers are warm with temperatures sometimes exceeding 90 °F (32 °C). Average monthly precipitation ranges from about two to four inches (50 to 100 mm). Snowfall, which typically occurs from November to early April, ranges from 1 to 10 inches (3 to 25 cm) per month.³³ The highest recorded temperature was 105.0 °F (40.5 °C) on July 24, 1934, while the lowest recorded temperature was –24.0 °F (–31.1 °C) on December 22, 1872.³⁴

Weather averages for Detroit, Michigan
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °F	31	33	44	58	70	79	83	81	74	62	48	35	58
Average low °F	16	18	27	37	48	57	62	60	53	41	32	22	39
Rainfall inches	2	1.5	2.6	3.5	3	3.6	3.5	3.4	3.7	2.8	3.3	2.6	35.5
Snowfall inches	10.2	9.1	7	1.7						.2	3	10.2	41.4
Average high °C	-1	1	7	14	21	26	28	27	23	17	9	2	14
Average low °C	-9	-8	-3	3	9	14	17	16	12	5	0	-6	3
Rainfall mm	50.8	38.1	66	88.9	76.2	91.4	88.9	86.4	94	71.1	83.8	66	901.7
Snowfall mm	259.1	231.1	177.8	43.2						5.1	76.2	259.1	1,051.6
Source: Weatherbase³⁵ Nov 2006

Surrounding municipalities

Novi, Farmington Hills, Southfield

Troy, Madison Heights, Royal Oak, Berkley, Ferndale, Oak Park, Hazel Park

Mount Clemens, Warren, Eastpointe, Roseville, St. Clair Shores, Lake St. Clair

Ann Arbor, Livonia, Redford Twp

Grosse Pointe, Lake St. Clair

Detroit, Michigan ³⁶³⁷

Dearborn, Lincoln Park, Romulus, Taylor, Woodhaven, New Boston, Wyandotte

Detroit River, Windsor, Ontario

Belle Isle Park, Detroit River, Windsor, Ontario

The cities of Hamtramck and Highland Park both lie entirely within the boundaries of the city of Detroit.

Cityscape

Detroit International Riverfront at night during the Season of Super Bowl XL.

Architecture

Detroit's skyline at Hart Plaza.

Main article: Architecture of metropolitan Detroit

Penobscot Building (1928) left, with the Dime Building (1912).

St. Joseph Catholic Church (1873) is a notable example of Detroit's fine ecclesial architecture.

Wayne County Building (1897) downtown by John and Arthur Scott.

Seen in panorama, Detroit's waterfront shows a variety of architectural styles. The post modern neogothic spires of the Comerica Tower at Detroit Center (1993) were designed to blend with the city’s Art Deco skyscrapers. Together with the Renaissance Center, they form a distinctive and recognizable skyline. Examples of the Art Deco style include the Guardian Building and Penobscot Building downtown, as well as the Fisher Building and Cadillac Place in the New Center area near Wayne State University. Among the city's prominent structures are the nation's largest Fox Theatre, the Detroit Opera House, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

While the downtown and New Center areas contain high-rise buildings, the majority of the surrounding city consists of low-rise structures and single-family homes. Outside of the city's core, residential high-rises are found in neighborhoods such as the East Riverfront extending toward Grosse Pointe and the Palmer Park neighborhood just west of Woodward. Neighborhoods constructed prior to World War II feature the architecture of the times with wood frame and brick houses in the working class neighborhoods, larger brick homes in middle class neighborhoods, and ornate mansions in neighborhoods such as Brush Park, Woodbridge, Indian Village, Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest, and others. The oldest neighborhoods are along the Woodward and Jefferson corridors, while neighborhoods built in the 1950s are found in the far west and closer to 8 Mile Road. Some of the oldest extant neighborhoods include Corktown, a working class, formerly Irish neighborhood, and Brush Park. Both are now seeing multi-million dollar restorations and construction of new homes and condos.

Many of the city's architecturally significant buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places and the city has one of the nation's largest surviving collections of late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings.³⁸ There are a number of architecturally significant churches, including St. Joseph Catholic Church and Saint Anne de Detroit Catholic Church.

There is substantial activity in urban design, historic preservation and architecture.³⁹ A number of downtown redevelopment projects — of which Campus Martius Park is one of the most notable — have revitalized parts of the city. Grand Circus Park stands near the city's theater district, Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, and Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers.

The Detroit International Riverfront includes a partially completed three and one-half mile riverfront promenade with a combination of parks, residential buildings, and commercial areas from Hart Plaza to the MacArthur Bridge accessing Belle Isle (the largest island park in a U.S. city). The riverfront includes Tri-Centennial State Park and Harbor, Michigan's first urban state park. The second phase is a two mile (3 km) extension from Hart Plaza to the Ambassador Bridge for a total of five miles (8 km) of parkway from bridge to bridge. Civic planners envision that the riverfront properties condemned under eminent domain, with their pedestrian parks, will spur more residential development. Other major parks include Palmer (north of Highland Park), River Rouge (in the southwest side), and Chene Park (on the east river downtown).

Neighborhoods

Historic homes in the Indian Village neighborhood on the east side.

See also: Neighborhoods in Detroit, Urban development in Detroit, and Public housing in Detroit

The National Register of Historic Places lists several area neighborhoods and districts such as Lafayette Park, part of the Mies van der Rohe residential district. Lafayette Park is a revitalized neighorhood on the city's east side.⁴⁰ The 78-acre (320,000 m²) urban renewal project was originally called the Gratiot Park Development. Planned by Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Alfred Caldwell it includes a landscaped, 19-acre (77,000 m²) park with no through traffic, in which these and other low-rise apartment buildings are situated.⁴⁰

On Saturdays, about 45,000 people shop the city's historic Eastern Market.⁴¹ The Midtown and the New Center area are centered around Wayne State University and Henry Ford Hospital. Midtown has about 50,000 residents, yet it attracts millions of visitors each year to its museums and cultural centers;⁴² for example, the Detroit Festival of the Arts in Midtown draws about 350,000 people.⁴² The University Commons-Palmer Park district in northwest Detroit is near the University of Detroit Mercy and Marygrove College which anchors historic neighborhoods including Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest, and Green Acres. In 2007, downtown Detroit was named among the best big city neighborhoods in which to retire by CNN Money Magazine editors.⁴³

Detroit has numerous neighborhoods suffering from urban decay, consisting of abandoned houses and vacant lots. Estimates report that there are as many as 44,000 abandoned houses and storefronts in the city. The city states it will be a slow process to destroy these abandoned houses as it costs about $10,000 to demolish each one, and it requires many legal steps to do so.[2]

In April 2008, the city announced a $300-million stimulus plan to create jobs and revitalize neighborhoods, financed by city bonds and paid for by earmarking about 15% of the wagering tax.⁴⁴ The city's working plans for neighborhood revitalizations include 7-Mile/Livernois, Brightmoor, East English Village, Grand River/Greenfield, North-End, and Osborn.⁴⁴ Private organizations have pledged substantial funding to the efforts.⁴⁵⁴⁶

Immigrants have contributed to the city's neighborhood revitalization, especially in southwest Detroit.⁴⁷ Southwest Detroit has experienced a thriving economy in recent years, as evidenced by new housing, increased business openings and the recently opened Mexicantown International Welcome Center.⁴⁸

Culture and contemporary life

Renaissance Center with giant decal for the 2005 MLB All-Star Game.

Lifestyles for rising professionals in Detroit reflect those of other major cities.⁴⁹ This dynamic is luring many younger residents to the downtown area.⁴⁹⁵⁰ Luxury high rises such as the three Riverfront Towers have views of Hart Plaza and Canada. The New Center area contains examples of historic housing redevelopment. The newly re-opened Westin Book-Cadillac Hotel includes a number of luxury condos. The east river development plans include more luxury condominium developments. A desire to be closer to the urban scene has attracted young professionals to take up residence among the mansions of Grosse Pointe just outside the city. Detroit's proximity to Windsor, Ontario, provides for spectacular views and nightlife, along with Ontario's 19-and-older drinking age.⁵¹

Entertainment and performing arts

Main articles: Culture of Detroit, Music of Detroit, Theatre in Detroit, and Detroit celebrities

Fox Theatre lights up 'Foxtown' in downtown Detroit

Live music has been a prominent feature of Detroit's nightlife since the late 1940s, bringing the city recognition under the nickname Motown. The metropolitan area has two nationally prominent live music venues: DTE Energy Music Theatre and The Palace of Auburn Hills. The Detroit Theatre District is the nation's second largest.⁵²⁵³ Major theaters include the Fox Theatre, Music Hall, the Gem Theatre, Masonic Temple Theatre, the Detroit Opera House, the Fisher Theatre and Orchestra Hall which hosts the renowned Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The Nederlander Organization, the largest controller of Broadway productions in New York City, originated with the purchase of the Detroit Opera House in 1922 by the Nederlander Family and continues to operate to this day.

Important music events in the city include: the Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, the Motor City Music Conference (MC2), the Urban Organic Music Conference, the Concert of Colors, and the hip-hop Summer Jamz festival.

The city of Detroit has a rich musical heritage and has contributed to a number of different genres over the decades leading into the new millennium.

In the 1940s, blues artist John Lee Hooker became a long-term resident in the city's southwest Delray neighborhood. Hooker, among other important blues musicians migrated from his home in Mississippi bringing the Delta Blues to northern cities like Detroit. During the 1950s, the city became a center for jazz, with stars performing in the Black Bottom neighborhood.⁵⁴ Prominent emerging Jazz musicians of the 1960s included: trumpet player Donald Byrd who attended Cass Tech and performed with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers early in his career and Saxophonist Pepper Adams who enjoyed a solo career and accompanied Byrd on several albums. The Graystone International Jazz Museum documents jazz in Detroit.⁵⁵⁵⁶

Hilberry Theatre at Wayne State University.

Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Motown Records which rose to prominence during the 1960s and early 1970s with acts such as Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Diana Ross & The Supremes, the Jackson 5, Martha and the Vandellas and Marvin Gaye. The Motown Sound played an important role in the crossover appeal with popular music, since it was the first record label owned by an African American to primarily feature African-American artists. Gordy moved Motown to Los Angeles in 1972 to pursue film production, but the company has since returned to Detroit. Aretha Franklin is another Detroit R&B star who carried the Motown Sound; however, she did not record with Berry's Motown Label.

Detroit's music includes many popular rock bands from the 1960s and 70's. During this period, local and national acts performed regularly at venues such as the Grande Ballroom and the Eastown Theater. Popular local bands producing and performing music included artists like: the MC5, The Stooges, Bob Seger, Amboy Dukes featuring Ted Nugent, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Rare Earth, and Alice Cooper. The group Kiss emphasized the city's connection with rock in the song Detroit Rock City and the movie produced in 1999. In the 1980s, Detroit was an important center of the hardcore punk rock underground with many nationally-known bands coming out of the city and its suburbs, such as The Necros, The Meatmen, and Negative Approach.

In recent times, the city has produced a number of influential artists. From the late 1990s into the new millennium, the band Sponge toured and produced music, with artists such as Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker. The city has an active garage rock genre that has generated national attention with acts such as: The White Stripes, The Von Bondies, The Dirtbombs, Electric Six, The Hard Lessons, and The Enemy Squad. Detroit has also been cited as the birthplace of techno music.⁵⁷²⁰ Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson.

The term "New Media" has spawned several online writers and graphic designers and journalists from Detroit. Westland native an former Detroit resident Tim "Fuzzy" Jones has taken elements from Hunter S. Thompsons Gonzo style of journalism and added his own flair to the internet and web video. Considering himself a "Graphic Journalist/Humorist", Jones points to places like the now famous C-POP Gallery,the techno music movement and the world class schools like the College for Creative Studies,Wayne State University and of course the University of Michigan as foundational sparks that allowed the blaze of whats happening creatively online now. "This recession is crippling a lot of people" says Jeff Bloomer. The artist, teacher and former CCS student talks on: "Creativity will not only live online, it will thrive because it can be shared with people all over the world. Detroit will make it although it will not be the Detroit we once knew."

Tourism

Detroit Institute of Arts

Main article: Tourism in metropolitan Detroit

Greektown in Detroit

Many of the area's prominent museums are located in the historic cultural center neighborhood around Wayne State University. These museums include the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Historical Museum, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Science Center, and the main branch of the Detroit Public Library. Other cultural highlights include Motown Historical Museum, Tuskegee Airmen Museum, Fort Wayne, Dossin Great Lakes Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID), and the Belle Isle Conservatory. Important history of Detroit and the surrounding area is exhibited at the The Henry Ford, the nation's largest indoor-outdoor museum complex.⁵⁸⁵⁹ The Detroit Historical Society provides information about tours of area churches, skyscrapers, and mansions. The Eastern Market farmer's distribution center is the largest open-air flowerbed market in the United States and has more than 150 foods and specialty businesses.⁶⁰ Other sites of interest are the Detroit Zoo and the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle.

The city's Greektown and casino resorts serve as an entertainment hub. Annual summer events include the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival, and Woodward Dream Cruise. Within downtown, Campus Martius Park hosts large events such as the Motown Winter Blast. As the world's traditional automotive center, the city hosts the North American International Auto Show. Held since 1924, America's Thanksgiving Parade is one of the nation's largest.⁶¹

CityFest in the New Center with Cadillac Place in the background.

Dotty-Wotty House - a part of the Heidelberg Project.

An important civic sculpture in Detroit is Marshall Fredericks' "Spirit of Detroit" at the Coleman Young Municipal Center. The image is often used as a symbol of Detroit and the statue itself is occasionally dressed in sports jerseys to celebrate when a Detroit team is doing well.⁶² A memorial to Joe Louis at the intersection of Jefferson and Woodward Avenues was dedicated on October 16, 1986. The sculpture, commissioned by Sports Illustrated and executed by Robert Graham, is a twenty-four foot (7.3 m) long arm with a fisted hand suspended by a pyramidal framework.⁶³

River Days, a five day festival on the International Riverfront, marked the opening of the River Walk along the east river leading up to the Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival fireworks with about 3.5 million visitors.

Artist Tyree Guyton created the controversial street art exhibit known as the Heidelberg Project in the mid 1980s, using junk and abandoned cars, clothing, shoes, vacuum cleaners, and other garbage Guyton found in the neighborhood near and on Heidelberg Street on the near East Side of Detroit.

Sports

Looking towards Ford Field the night of Super Bowl XL.

Main article: Sports in metropolitan Detroit

Detroit is one of 13 American metropolitan areas that are home to professional teams representing the four major sports in North America. All these teams but one play within the city of Detroit itself (the NBA's Detroit Pistons and the WNBA's Detroit Shock both play in suburban Auburn Hills at The Palace of Auburn Hills). There are three active major sports venues within the city: Comerica Park (home of the Major League Baseball team Detroit Tigers), Ford Field (home of the NFL's Detroit Lions), and Joe Louis Arena (home of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings). A 1996 marketing campaign promoted the nickname "Hockeytown".

In college sports, Detroit's central location within the Mid-American Conference has made it a frequent site for the league's championship events. While the MAC Basketball Tournament moved permanently to Cleveland starting in 2000, the MAC Football Championship Game has been played at Ford Field in Detroit since 2004, and annually attracts 25,000 to 30,000 fans. The University of Detroit Mercy has a NCAA Division I program, and Wayne State University has both NCAA Division I and II programs. The NCAA football Motor City Bowl is held at Ford Field each December.

Sailboat racing is a major sport in the Detroit area. Lake St. Clair is home to many yacht clubs which host regattas. Bayview Yacht Club, the Detroit Yacht Club, Crescent Sail Yacht Club, Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, The Windsor Yacht Club, and the Edison Boat Club each participate in and are governed by the Detroit Regional Yacht-Racing Association or DRYA. Detroit is home to many One-Design fleets including, but not limited to, North American 40s, Cal 25s, C&C 35s, Crescent Sailboats, Express 27s,

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