Downtown Detroit's First Mobile Restaurant Doing a Brisk Business

El Guapo, Detroit's first fully legit downtown food truck, seems to be doing quite well for itself. This little restaurant/truck that could had them lined up along Randolph on Friday afternoon, waiting for some southwestern fare.

This is, I think, a good opportunity to editorialize - Randolph has lots of potential to be a lively street, with more scenes like this, but it is lined with parking structures and lots that really get in the way of that scene right now. If the city wants to get Campus Martius and Greektown and Bricktown and Broadway all connected with lively action, it will need to tackle Randolph.

Random Act of Culture at the Renaissance Center

Today around lunchtime an improvisational piano player known as Merton showed up at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and began playing piano. He started singing about people coming down the escalator in front of the piano - people headed from their office work to the food court.

It was hilarious. As people came into his view and began uniting sound and picture, they would inevitably smirk. It made everyone's day. Kudos to the brain trust that made this happen.

Accidents Will Happen

I was walking by the site of the Ford Auditorium demolition today and noticed that the wrecking crane had taken a sharp spill and was on its side. Oops!

The City Comes Alive

Detroit has been picking up steam lately, as far as downtown development goes anyways. On Friday, the city's growing energy was wildly apparent, with a confluence of events showcasing the recurring vitality of the central business district.

In the early part of the day, crowds began to gather for the Van's Warped Tour at Comerica Park. The picture below shows a set-up area for the concert, which was stationed at Madison and Grand Circus Park. 

Later in the morning, the city began its planned demolition of the Ford Auditorium in Hart Plaza. While demolition is not redevelopment, per se, this demolition should add to the quality of life downtown. The auditorium was seldom used for much of the past two decades, due to its poor acoustics. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which lived in the auditorium for a number of years, eventually went back to its home in Orchestra Hall on Woodward in Midtown, due to the poverty of value associated with the auditorium.

Also along the river on Friday was a clipper ship, which had traveled to Detroit from Baltimore a few days hence. The ship was part of an effort to raise money for flag restoration (or something to that effect), but it served mostly as an interesting way to spend time along the river.

The last and most exciting thing that was going on downtown on Friday was the practice fly-overs of an F15 fighter jet, which was preparing for its flyer over of the Gold Cup boat races this weekend. The jet buzzed downtown for more than half an hour, circling at super sonic speeds around the skyscrapers that make up the city's heights. People stopped and watched each time it passed, because the sight and sound was breathtaking.

Harmonie Park

They call it Buck Park these days, but the former Harmonie Park is alive again with music. The Arts League of Michigan, which now calls a neighboring building home, has seen to it that there is live music in the park on a regular basis. One of my favorite parts of their involvement is the Wednesday concert series they've helped orchestrate.

The series is actually put on by Springfed Arts, a Royal Oak-based singer/songwriter/poetry collective, but many attendees are from the neighboring Arts League. Anyways, this series happens at lunchtime on Wednesdays in the park and features area singers/songwriters belting out tunes. Some of the singers are funny and some are bad, but some are well worth the price of admission (free!).

The crowd that gathers to hear them is equally worth watching, what with its ragtag mix of office workers, arts aficionados, the homeless, and other stragglers. Its no Abbey Road, but its certainly an engaging and enriching experience that I recommend you check out next time you are downtown on a Wednesday.

Broderick Tower Renovation Continues

The long vacant David Broderick Tower (aka: Eaton Tower) continues its transformation from single use commercial to mixed use residential. Construction crews have positioned an impressively long yellow trash chute up the side of the nearly 40-story tower to assist with removal of all the debris that needs to be removed from the tower. You can see that chute and the tower in the picture below.

I'm a fan of public art, but a little voice inside of me keeps hoping that they remove those whales from the tower before opening to the public. The cognitive dissonance caused by the presence of salt water creatures in a fresh water place makes me squeamish.

Madison Theater Building Continues Renovations

Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans, a major mortgage company, recently acquired the former Madison Theater Building at Broadway and Grand Circus Park, as part of his ongoing real estate binge. The building, pictured below, has been under constant construction ever since.

Skidmore Design, a firm started in Detroit but since located in Royal Oak, will be moving into the building, which already houses StubHub, a ticket broker, and Angelina's Bistro, an Italian restaurant. Dan Gilbert-affiliated companies are sure to occupy the rest of the building soon.