A-void Detroit
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2008
1
22
37
Trip End
Ongoing
Detroit,
Michigan,
United States
Monday, October 20, 2008
I can be pretty short about this city. I don't like it. And that's probably not fair to say so I will say this: I'm sure that there is a lot of soul, I would have loved to experience that, I wanted to give this town a shot. Benefit of the doubt. They write that Detroit is getting back on its feet. So many companies have left the city and so many people lost their jobs. And they say that it's rising from the ashes.
Well, I say a lot of ashes, poor people, huge empty buildings, empty factories, dirty neighborhoods. I didn't feel very comfortable. This is the first time that I thought: " you need to know somebody from here that can show you around". I gave it an honest shot. Drove all around town, in the swankiest neighborhoods (didn't know before my visit that they had quite a high end area). It's located on the east side of the city, along Lake Erie, suburbs that are connected to the city. And I kid you not, as soon as you get to the city boundary of Detroit, its "dirty time". Grey, crappy roads, rundown buildings, people on the street, hustlers and downtown has a few high rise buildings that give the appearance of a clean town but it's just a matter of a few blocks before the grey hits you again with the street people. I feel sad driving thru this town and get an unfair feeling about this place because in between all this sadness are huge stadiums with the sponsor names on them and right next door you have homeless people that don't have a penny to their name. I know that every big city has this problem but I've never seen it in such a contrast as in this town.
I found some neighborhood spots that I wanted to check out but I wasn't feeling comfortable enough to get in there. This city is a bit too unsettling for me. You really need a local that can maneuver you round town to find the spots that are great to hang out in. So I stayed in Detroit for 2 nights, 1 night after driving in from Hell (what a paradox) and 1 day of driving and trying to get into it but I couldn't so I'm leaving the soul that I'm sure this city has but I'm taking mine elsewhere...
That elsewhere would be Toronto, Canada. I thought that it would make for a nice detour, its right next to Detroit and that was one of the reasons I picked Detroit as a layover. Drive to Toronto, stay there for 2 or 3 nights and then via Niagara Falls back into the States. I had to skip the state of Ohio to do this but after Detroit, I was ready to skip the northern part of Ohio, particular Cleveland, another grey town with a sad story....I found a Starbucks close to the motel in Detroit (suburbs where I was staying), called Johannah's vet so she has the right paperwork to get in, they faxed it to me pronto. I booked the motel in Toronto, got the directions to the motel, travel info to hold me over for a few days (I couldn't use my blackberry there, the charges would be crazy high) and right before I left, I went to dogfriendly.com. This is a website that I use all the time on the road, it has city guides for pretty much every place in the country. They list things that are all connected to dog friendly places as in hotels, motels, parks, off leash areas, attractions, restaurant, etc.
I checked for Toronto and they seemed to as ok with the dog friendliness as so many other places in parks and stuff like that until I saw this little posting to the side of the postings. "We advise dog owners to avoid travelling to Ontario (state where Toronto is located) due to the laws they have against certain dog breeds".
I read a bit further in and it started to scare me a bit to travel to this city. Here is a quote from a by-law that they passed in 2005 (one that people are trying to reverse because it makes no sense, however it's still in effect as of today).
Here is the scary part of the by-law:
***It is very important to understand that, according to this law, the burden is on the dog-owner to PROVE that their dog is not even part "Pit Bull" breed as defined in this law. TECHNICALLY, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE THE BREED OF MOST DOGS THAT ARE NOT REGISTERED PUREBREDS. Please understand also that the law allows officers to IMMEDIATELY confiscate your dog. They do not have to allow you to leave the province with your dog.***
This is craaaaazy and I'm not taking the risk of some cop or anybody else in charge, to think that because my dog looks a tiny little bit like a pit-bull (which to me is so not the case but I've had plenty of people asking me in the past (people that don't know much about dogs) is Johannah is a pit bull) and to have the potential of having to give her up and for them to take he? Hey, Toronto seemed all of a sudden no big deal and a good city to skip.
I called the motel directly to see if they could tell me what their experience was with this issue. The guy was less then helpful so I cancelled the reservation and decided to drive thru Ontario to see the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls and then skip right back into the USA. I have no idea where I will be staying tomorrow night, I'm tired of all the research I did and so I'll just drive out tomorrow morning and see where we end up tomorrow night.
I will void Detroit tomorrow morning...
