Detroit By Air

[jobeterob]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/07/opinion/sunday/exposures-detroit-by-air-alex-maclean.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

[soulwally]

Thanks jobeterob. Fascinating pictures, and a nice little essay too. What's the area around Hitsville USA like nowadays?

[kenneth]

Wow, Jobeterob, such fascinating, heartbreaking photographs of my home town. Thank you for finding this although it tears me up to look at them.

@soulwally, I haven't been there in years but Motown used to be near GM headquarters. It was a working class neighborhood of Detroit, not a great area, but not a slum. Today, I'm not sure about the neighborhood as GM moved to the Renaissance Center downtown which may have left a blight on its old neighborhood.

I did a little research in Wiki and found out that the old GM building is now a governmental building and has been restored and updated. That's certainly good news for the neighborhood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Place

[jobeterob]

I thought there was a reference to Buena Vista in one of the pictures; wasn't that the street Florence Ballard or Diana Ross lived on once?

[kenneth]

I thought there was a reference to Buena Vista in one of the pictures; wasn't that the street Florence Ballard or Diana Ross lived on once?

I think so. It may have been the street they all had houses on at one time. Doesn't Mary mention that in "Dreamgirl?"

[jobeterob]

I'm not sure where it was mentioned ~ maybe in a few Motown books.