Two Detroit Bike Rides

This past Friday and Saturday were big days for bicyclists in Detroit. It started Friday night at 7 p.m. with Detroit’s Critical Mass, a worldwide bicycling event held on the last Friday of every month (through October here) to bring attention to cyclists’ rights to the road. Despite strong westerly winds blowing a steady 25 [...]

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Junkyards, Scrap Dealers & Junkyard Dogs

The area around McNichols, 7-mile road and East Davidson in Northeast Detroit seems to be a hot bed of scrap yards, junkyards and used auto parts joints. I must have come across a good half-dozen or so within a few blocks of each other while riding in this neighborhood. Some I pedaled by were clean, [...]

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Barbershops of Detroit

Barbershops seem to be everywhere I ride in Detroit. They are found on major roads such as Gratiot Avenue, Fenkell, Linwood and on many others I’ve ridden. Others are situated in a neighborhood storefront, and most appear to be a gathering place for the locals. Sometimes they are hard to spot because their signage has [...]

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Hamtramck Festival plus Richard Powers

Labor Day Weekend in Hamtramck is festival time and that means food, music and (as I discovered on my early morning Sunday bike ride) a polka mass on Joseph Campau.  Shortly after crossing Caniff where the Festival began, I was approached by a little old lady who asked if I knew where the outdoor mass [...]

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Ice Cream Trucks plus Jazz Fest

It seems they’re everywhere throughout Detroit’s neighborhoods and parks in the summertime hawking their sweet, drippy treats.  Like the pied piper, they can be heard a few streets away before they’re spotted, beckoning kids from the surrounding area. Most, if not all of the ice cream trucks I’ve seen and heard while bicycling, are playing the [...]

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