It's London Time

It is very difficult for me to pick just one city to visit. My decision changes all the time depending on my mood. When I first looked at the question I thought... London, Sydney, Venice, or Honolulu? I finally decided on London because they speak English, some of my ancestors came from that area, and even though the weather there isn't great they have a lot to offer. I think that traveling to an area where your ancestors come from is important. At least it is for me. I would like to know a little about the kind of lives my ancestors lived and possibly learn why they decided to come to the United States. I would also like to go to London because the shows I have seen about the city on the Travel Channel show have featured museums, theaters, and castles that I would really like to see. I don't get bored often because I always have something to do, but I live in a small city so when I want to take a break and do something fun I don't have a lot of options. So it would be nice to have a larger selection of things to do. London is also in a good location so while I am on vacation I can also go to other European cities like Dublin or Paris.

During my week in London the first things I would want to see are the castles. They are so majestic I almost feel like they're not real. It's hard to believe that people actually live or lived in them and that there may have been battles there. Roaming the halls of a building that is hundreds of years old and has so much history is amazing. From there I would probably take a tour of the zoo and museums. The zoo is the home to 16,000 animals and they were the winners of the "best tourism experience award" from the Visit London publication. It would be easy to spend the whole day here. The newest exhibits are a rainforest where the animals run around free without the burden of being stuck in a cage and a penguin beach which is the largest penguin habitat in England. After seeing the lions and tigers I would wrap up my visit with a trip to butterfly paradise and then head to the British museum. I would begin my museum tour by seeing the museum's exhibit that features 2 million years of world history through 100 objects. These objects range from the 2 million year old stone chopping tool to the solar powered lamp and charger. Next I would look through the galleries of Ancient Egypt, the Americas, Europe, and Ancient Greece and Rome. I would finish exploring the themed exhibits at the museum before leaving to have dinner at a local pub.

I would finish my week by visiting Stonehenge, even though it is a bit of a drive from London, seeing a play, and taking a walk through one of London's beautiful parks. Since this London trip involved so much activity I'll probably be ready for that trip to Hawaii so I can spend a week just relaxing on the beach.

My Detroit Interview

I interviewed Roxy Tedesco, a 27 year old woman that moved with her family to Detroit from a small town in West Virginia ten years ago. Her experiences with Detroit are different from mine because I have never lived in Detroit.

Since I have a relatively low opinion of Detroit I decided to begin the interview by asking Roxy what she likes about living there. Her number one reason for liking Detroit is that there is so much to do.

She says that sports are an important part of life in Detroit and with the Pistons, Lions, Tigers, and Red Wings it seems like there is always something going on. When she gets together with friends they usually either go see a game, go to a club, or to the Motor City Casino. She used to go to the casino about once a month, but she's thinking about cutting back because she hasn't been winning as much lately.

When she feels like she wants to get in touch with nature there are a few options. She can go to the zoo which, according to Roxy, has some nice exhibits, the beach, or the Belle Isle and the Whitcomb Conservatory. She visited the conservatory for the first time recently and she said that it was a lovely area and wandering around all the foliage was a nice escape from the concrete jungle.

She is thrilled with the number of shopping and dining options in Detroit. Coming from an area where the nearest grocery store was half an hour away it is a nice change to have so many shops and restaurants nearby. She really enjoys the variety in the area. You can get food from just about any country you can think of... German, French, English, Greek, and more. She eats out a lot and she is grateful for the opportunity to have something different once in a while.

Roxy also likes Detroit because the housing is cheap. You can get a decent house for only ten thousand dollars. Of course you would have to deal with a high crime rate, but you can spend some of the money you are saving on security features for your home.

From what Roxy has said Detroit actually sounds pretty nice. So I asked if there was anything she didn't like about it. She said her main problem is the crime. There is a lot of it in her area. Her purse was recently stolen as she was leaving a restaurant downtown. So it has made her a little jumpy and she is always on high alert when she goes out. She understands that sometimes you have to make a compromise when you choose a place to live and right now she feels alright about dealing with a high crime rate since she can be near the activity of a city. Though she would like to start a family soon and she says that she wouldn't dream of raising her children in Detroit.

Speaking with Roxy made me wonder why Detroit has so much crime. I have been to other poor areas that do not have the same problems that Detroit has. So I did a little research and I found that one of the poorest cities in the country, Fort Thompson, SD, has an average annual household income that is less than half that of Detroit and a similar unemployment rate. Yet their crime rate is also less than half of Detroit. The main difference between these two cities is the people. Detroit is about 80% African American and Fort Thompson is about 80% Native American. I don't know much about Native American culture except for what I have seen in movies. It seems that they have a respect for life and they seem to think of each other as part of an extended family even if they are not actually related. I think that this may be a part of the reason for the lower crime rate in Fort Thompson. If we can figure out what makes one area more dangerous than another maybe we can reduce crime everywhere.

I did learn quite a bit from my interview with Roxy. I found that Detroit does have some good points like entertainment venues and tasty food. Unfortunately its high crime rate and bad reputation keep many people away. If there is any hope of improving Detroit I think it has to start with the people. Though it seems like they just wish it would get better instead of doing something about it so I don't think that its going to change any time soon.

Detroit is Not the Happiest Place on Earth

My images of Detroit are going to be a little different than most of my
classmates because I have never lived in Detroit. In fact, I have only been there
three times in my life and one of those times was only to go to the airport. So my
idea of Detroit comes from a combination of my limited experience with it and
what I hear on the news. The impression it has left me with is not good.

I don't watch any tv shows or movies about Detroit, but I do occasionally
hear about Detroit in the news. The most common information about Detroit in our newspaper is about people coming to Traverse City from Detroit to deal drugs. I have also seen articles about the worst places to live in the United States. Detroit frequently ranks toward the top of the Forbes list of America's Most Miserable Cities. These things make Detroit seem like a dangerous area that should be avoided.

My first trip to Detroit was in 2004. I thought it would be fun to take a road trip with my daughter and her father to Detroit to visit the museum and the zoo. I grew up in Chicago and my family made frequent trips to the zoos, plays, and museums. These places were always clean and fully stocked with interesting exhibits. Since all I knew of Detroit at that time was that it was a relatively large city I expected to have an experience similar to the ones I had in Chicago. I was sadly mistaken. When we arrived at the zoo the exhibits were small and the animals seemed depressed. If I remember correctly there were no extras like a walk through rainforest area, butterfly house, petting area, or anything else. These were things my daughter and I were used to seeing at other zoos so we were quite disappointed. We left and went to the museum. Again we found a lack of exhibits and entertainment. We were in and out of the museum in less than an hour. I am not sure how things are in Detroit's museum and zoo now because I have not been back. Hopefully they have made some improvements.

My second trip to Detroit was in 2006. I was going to a concert downtown
with a friend. It was dark and we ended up getting lost so we pulled into a gas
station in a deserted area to check a map. That is when we noticed two black
males approaching our car swinging a baseball bat. Luckily we managed to
escape unharmed and made it to the concert on time. Since we had seen enough of the locals and the area we decided to drive home that night instead of staying in a hotel. The feeling that my friend and I were left with is that Detroit seemed like an area of total anarchy. I have been in Chicago downtown at night and never had a problem. I'm sure that it could happen, but I think that Chicago has more of a police presence. I feel relatively safe walking downtown in Chicago, but it is something I would never do in Detroit.

My last trip to Detroit was to the airport. We used mapquest to plan our route and we had problems because so many of the roads were closed. There was trash on the streets everywhere. It looked like people had a total lack of respect for their city. When we finally made it to the airport it was filthy. The floors and chairs were dirty. There were even missing ceiling tiles with clouds of dust bunnies hanging down. It was disgusting. Seeing the airport in such a state of disrepair made me worry about the plane we were about to board. Checking our baggage and getting our boarding passes was quite an experience. The customer service representatives were unbelievably rude. Actually most of the people in the airport were rude. It was the worst experience I have ever had in an airport.

As you can see I am not a fan of Detroit. There are probably some
people who love it. Maybe? Unfortunately I have only had bad experiences
there. The thing that surprised me the most was just how dirty it was. If you live in Michigan and you are looking for a city to visit this summer I would say check out Chicago or even Cleveland, but whatever you do don't go to Detroit.