Et Tu, Belle Isle Home?

My esteemed blog friend at The Night Train: Detroit asked on her facebook page (probably jokingly) what I thought about the idea floated by a guy at Tech Town to put a vineyard on Belle Isle. Be careful what you wish for, TNT. Since the island is so near and dear to my heart, I'll give it a shot. It sounds like this is just a fledgling idea for now, not really thought-out and with few details attached. However, we recently saw a tweet go from a far-fetched crazy idea to an actual statue in the making pretty quickly (the Robocop statue). If the vineyard thing turns out to be a serious plan that may actually happen, I have some questions, and I hope other people that are smarter and more influential than me do, too.

The guy who has the vineyard idea, Randal Charlton, suggests putting a vineyard on 10 "vacant" acres of land near the lighthouse. I don't think of the land he suggests as "vacant" at all. I consider it to be the most serene, peaceful, and scenic part of the island, with trails along the river and the Blue Heron Lagoon. Last time I checked, having open green space was an important thing in a park. On any given summer day, there are people using the "vacant" land to walk, fish, jog, play football, picnic, bike, read, meditate, do yoga, take pictures, or just sit and watch the boats go by.

Belle Isle is unarguably Detroit's finest public park. Is it a good idea to sell or lease part of it off to a private company? What parts of it are people willing to turn over to a private company? I'll agree that parts of the island are underutilized or not used at all... a section of the old golf course and the closed zoo come to mind, and there certainly could be more of an effort to develop the island into a winter attraction. If we're talking about redeveloping the island, is there a master plan and how does a vineyard fit into it? How would the private company's vineyard benefit the island as a whole?

How would having a vineyard in this area impact public access? Would this private company be able to fence off their "property"? Cut off access to the water? Charge admission to this part of the island?

Before we dive in head-first on this vineyard thing on Belle Isle, I'd like to see a conservancy established to run the island, like the conservancies that successfully run Central Park in New York, and Campus Martius and the RiverWalk here. With a conservancy in place, I would feel more confident that a vineyard plan or any other plans for the island would have safeguards in them to make sure that Detroit's  public playground and park doesn't get chopped up into a bunch of private parks that benefit their private owners, while making it harder for us regular folks to enjoy the river.

Although I'm not so sure about a vineyard on Belle Isle, I actually do like the idea of a riverfront winery. Since we're tossing around ideas here, what about using some city-owned land along the riverfront that IS vacant and needs to be redeveloped for a vineyard? There is talk of the West Riverfront, when it is developed, cutting a much wider, deeper swath along the river. Would a vineyard fit in to this part of the riverfront? If we're talking about a vineyard and winery being a big draw for visitors, why not use it as an anchor for redevelopment somewhere that doesn't already get thousands of visitors a day, like Belle Isle does? What about vacant city land adjacent to Fort Wayne? Fort Wayne has incredible potential for being a significant tourism draw. Wouldn't a winery along the water be a great fit there, on the bluffs overlooking the river?

I'm clearly no expert on any of this, and I don't have any answers. Maybe this is a really cool idea and I have just been drinking the kool-aid about people trying to steal Detroit's precious jewels for too long.  But if Detroit really does have any precious jewels left to steal, surely Belle Isle is one of them. Can we please not screw this one up?

Urbex For Tots

Come out to the island and play.

I have been working feverishly all weekend on the next installment of Gracie Krum's story, and just as I was nearing the end of editing, I accidently deleted the whole thing. And then in trying to retrieve it, I deleted the back-up draft. Phooey. So I give up for today and we will visit the great kids playground instead. Ok? Happy Valentine's Day

"Shiver"-ing

At "Shiver on the River" today, the Coast Guard gave a demonstration worthy of the Indy 500 with its ice boat, throwing blizzards of snow hundreds of feet in its wake. (more on the air boat at the end of this post)

There were several groups of skiers on the island.

The sudden snow squall might have kept a few people from heading to the island, but it was such a pretty whiteout....

...unless you are very short, like the fluffy one, and you are a bedraggled, snowy hot mess, tired of defying gravity, bounding blindly through ear-deep drifts, and you finally refuse to get out of the car, preferring to watch Smart, who is never tired, from the driver's seat.

I was quite enthralled with the Coast Guard demo and the air boat, so I dug up a little more info..... Here's a video of a sister boat in action:

Here's a link to some information about air boats and their use in ice rescue, and here's a link to the official Coast Guard Station Belle Isle page.

A Tale Of Two Car Parades

July 1909. Less than a year earlier, the first Model T rolled out of the Piquette Plant. Cars were becoming affordable for the average family, not just toys for the rich, and Detroit was hosting the Glidden Tour.

Men would drive 2,560 miles, taking the long way from Detroit to Kansas City, showcasing the safety and reliability of the increasingly popular automobile. Several women had participated in previous years. Mrs. Andrew Cuneo had been the first woman to complete the race in 1908. As a reward, the fairer sex were banned. No women would race this year.

But before the race started, on Monday, July 12th, Detroit hosted a big party for the tour. There were banquets, factory and showroom tours, a band concert in front of City Hall, and an afternoon on Belle Isle, with a parade of over a thousand cars, many of them decorated, followed by games and athletic competitions.

The parade began at Woodward and Grand Boulevard and proceeded down Woodward to Jefferson, then across the Belle Isle bridge and around the island.

The 1909 tour itself was actually a bit of a letdown for its planners. The number of entrants was disappointing to organizers. Thanks to the success of the nascent auto industry, many car makers were so busy making and selling cars that they no longer felt the need to promote themselves by participating.


Did you notice the title on the map, "PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION OF KEROSENE AS FUEL"? It seemed ironic, as I walked the dogs near Cobo Hall, where the Auto Show is taking place, in the year of the Volt. Sidewalks and streets can be quiet during the week near Cobo. On this night, I was drawn from Campus Martius to Cobo by voices, laughter, footsteps... going to see an electric car. It felt good.

There are hundreds more amazing 1909 Glidden Tour pictures at The Making Of Modern Michigan website, many of them showing familiar downtown landmarks and Belle Isle in the background.

Map image from the New York Public Library digital collections.
Panorama of cars in front of the Belle Isle Casino from the Library of Congress.
All other Belle Isle images from the Detroit Public Library, Lazarnick Collection, viewable on The Making of Modern Michigan site.

"Where The Honk Of The Motor Horn Is Heard"

The more things change.... look closely and you'll see that this car is plugged in to recharge. That's right, it's the Chevy Volt's great grandaddy, circa 1919. You'll rarely find me writing about cars, but I was curious about the beginnings of the Detroit Auto Show (now known as the North American International Auto Show), so I did a little digging, and ended up.... guess where? on Belle Isle.

It started with a bicycle guy, William Metzger. He and his partner Stanley Huber operated the biggest, most successful bicycle shop in Detroit in the early 1890's. Below, a later motorcycle and bicycle shop he owned...

In 1895, he went to an automobile show in London. He returned to Detroit convinced that automobiles were the future, sold his shares in the bicycle shop, and in 1897 opened Detroit's first independent car dealership. In 1899, Metzger included several steam and electric vehicles in a show with bicycles, firearms, and sporting goods. Below, Metzger's car, adorned with greenery, in a bicentenary parade, 1901... and see his home in Boston Edison here.

In 1907, the Detroit Auto Dealers Association formed, and the Detroit Auto show was officially born.

During the first decade of the twentieth century, the American Automobile Association was hard at work promoting cars in its own way. In 1904, the AAA started a "reliability" race for cars from the east coast to the St. Louis World's Fair. The following year, telephone exchange magnate Charles Glidden put up $2,000 prize money for the winner. In 1909, the DADA's influence brought the Glidden Reliability Tour to Detroit, and to Belle Isle for a parade.

 The official pathfinder car for the 1909 tour was a product of William Metzger's latest venture, the EMF.
Shown below, the 1912 EMF, from Wikimedia Commons.

By 1911, the Detroit Auto Show was held at the Wayne Hotel Gardens. From the Michigan Manufacturer, January 14th, 1911:

A year ago both floors of the Wayne Gardens were crowded to the last inch. This year the pinch for room will be worse than ever.

The 1911 exhibit will, however, be wonderful and interesting, even to the people who have to constantly dodge testing cars on the streets in this city, where the honk of the motor horn is heard above the pound of the anvil.

Each year the men who make and sell cars have to strive to make their particular car more attractive, more durable, more economical to maintain and more complete in detail to tempt the eye of a curious and educated-buying public.

The result is that the merits of a car rests on the finer points of construction. The car that was a rich man's plaything a few years ago is now doing dray duty for the shopman around the corner.

Careful study has brought the manufacturing end down to the fine point where a better and cheaper car can be turned out. The man of moderate means can now own and operate a car that will compare favorably with the more expensive car owned by his millionaire friend.

The use of the motor car for commercial purposes has long ago passed the experimental stage. It is only a question of time when the commercial vehicle will be adapted for every use in the country and in the city.

The universal popularity of the motor car in all countries and in all climes has opened up a great field and, despite all that has been said to the contrary, it will take years to reap the harvest.

....the more things remain the same.

I'll be following the 1909 Glidden Tour in Detroit and on Belle Isle later this week.

From the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library

All photos from the Library of Congress, unless captioned otherwise.

Listening To The Ice Music

The ice performs a different concert daily as it passes the island. One day it creaks and groans, whines, wheezes, and clatters like factory machinery.

Another day, it giggles, chirps, plinks, and trills like a gaggle of pre-teen girls.

On this lucky day, it murmured and shushed, hummed a lullaby, and sang the blues.

Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere by Hadda Brooks

More Hadda Brooks music on iLike

And more interesting ice music below.... hope you're enjoying the holidays.

10 Winter Things To Do On Belle Isle

So you have relatives coming from out of town for the holidays? Or some free time on your hands? Looking for a fun family day? You could spend a whole day hanging out on Belle Isle, inside and outside.

1) Visit the Conservatory... it is warm, green, and heavenly on a cold day... think orchids, ferns, and cactus, poinsettias in December. Bring your camera. Open 10-5, Wednesday-Sunday. Free.

2) Bird and critter-watching from inside the Nature Zoo. There is a fireplace! And a lovely comfy sofa right in front of the window overlooking the bird feeders. And spiders and turtles and such for the kids to view. Open everyday 10-5 except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Free.

3) The Dossin Great Lakes Museum has the pilot house of a Great Lakes freighter stuck on its backside. You can pretend that you are captain of the universe. Open Saturdays and Sundays 11-4. Free. (Closed Christmas and New Year's Day)

4) Be Dutch for a day... bring your ice skates and glide along the network of canals. Or be Canadian...set up a hockey rink on one of the shallower ponds.

5) Cross country ski over the river (well, creek) and through the woods. You will have the place mostly to yourself early in the morning, and the city will seem a hundred miles away. Great map of the island showing nature trails.

6) There's always the Ice Tree!

Last winter's tree

This year's model underway

7) Bring your dog for a walk... just be careful about the icy river and deeper ponds, please.
8) New Year's Eve Fun Run/Walk

9) New Year's Day Toast at the Detroit Boat Club ... had enough football? have you ever wondered about the lonely white building next to the bridge, above? want to see the inside of it? make new friends?

10) Come to the island while it is snowing...you will feel like you are on the inside of a snow globe. Bring  hot chocolate or coffee. Park where there is a good view of falling flakes. Ponder the meaning of the universe as expressed in snow angels and catching flurries on the tip of your tongue.

Links to these and many other interesting Belle Isle sights/sites can be found at the top right of this blog, in the section, "The Isle Itself". Any favorite winter memories of Belle Isle you'd like to share?

Loving Elleisle Blogspot- The One Year Anniversary

No, this isn't going to be about a new detroit lesbian vacation destination. In spite of how it sounds. It's about how grateful I am that someone googled my blog with what they could remember of it, albeit somewhat garbled but somehow right on. And how grateful I am that through writing about Belle Isle and Detroit this past year, I have gotten to know so many amazing people and places.

I know that for many of the people who read this blog, I am preaching to the choir about the city.

I know that for some of you, I am just another Pollyanna with a point-and-shoot, cherrypicking the same old bright spots, and ignoring the very real and overwhelming problems we have, representing the carpetbagger tourista invader faction. Welcome Hot Fudge Detroiters. Churl away.

Some of you have just plain given up and disowned your city. You're not from Detroit. You're from Livonington. Or Broyingchester.  Or St. Harper Heights. For you, I borrow Lyle Lovett's words, "But what would you be if you didn't even try? You have to try." Unless you don't care if you, or your kids, or your grandkids can get jobs. Or have to move away to get them. "Make it a cheeseburger, please" indeed.

But enough about lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way. Today I celebrate the "loving elleisle blogspot" one year anniversary by thanking you for visiting, being open to learning more, seeing for yourselves, and finding a way, your own big or small way, to be part of "speramus meliora; resurget cineribus".

From October's Access Arts exhibit, Michael Jacobs at work reinterpreting Detroit's skyline.

"We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes".  Happy belated Thanksgiving from Detroit. And from me, smart, and fluffy.

The smart one and the fluffy one leading the way through the woods on Belle Isle....

Looking At The End Of Summer From The Lighthouse Steps

Usually the gate to the lighthouse is locked, and we peer through the fence longingly. On this late summer eve, the karmic scales tipped in our favor. Perhaps someone important had visited, perhaps the lawn was to be mowed. Carpe diem. We rushed in, and clanged the gate shut behind us.

Up close, we could see the details that were blurred from the other side of the gate...the pattern and patina of the door....

the cherub watching over the ships of the Great Lakes....

...we could see August, as it always does, stretching endlessly in a shimmering haze, and then suddenly, unexpectedly, gone.

In brief, the Livingstone Lighthouse was built as a memorial to William Livingstone, president of the Lake Carriers Association for many years, leading Detroit banker (Dime Savings Bank), investor in the Detroit Publishing Company (along with his sons, who ran the company), owner of the house known as "Slumpy", and horseman.....more on the lighthouse, and Livingstone's story and achievements later this week, in the next installment of "Named For Detroiters".

It is believed to be the only marble lighthouse in the US, and the only lighthouse designed by Albert Kahn.