This week’s WordPress photo challenge is “Street Life.” I went down to Detroit this morning and parked near Greektown, hoping for something. But the light wasn’t great in Greektown itself, so I was wandering back to my car when I saw the towers of General Motors combined with the People Mover track overhead, the red brick factories converted to shops and lofts, and the tourists walking below.
I liked it, so I stood in the middle of the empty street and shot it.
Also on the way back to the car I saw a man, maybe Niki himself, standing outside a Greek pizza parlor…
…and unfortunately, a couple of homeless people sleeping near a grate.
Combined, these images show a version of the streets in the city of Detroit. There’s much more, of course, to this city – – much that is less photogenic. I saw some of that too but was not comfortable enough to stop. It reminded me that those of us out in the suburbs, in the country, driving our big SUVs, mowing our lawns, shopping in our trendy stores, have no idea what life is really like just a few miles down the road.
So that’s my street life submission. You can see a few of my favorites here, here and here. What does the street life in your part of the world look like? I’d be interested, and there’s plenty of time. You can post your images till next Friday at the WordPress site here.
I love how these challenges take us all over the world.
Enjoy!
March 30, 2014 at 12:43 pm
Great pictures. How can anyone survive being homeless in Detroit? Between the arctic cold and violence, I don’t know how they endure…
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:24 pm
I don’t know how they do it. I have someone I know that was homeless in Philadelphia part of last summer and he talked about it on facebook and it scared me to death.
LikeLike
March 30, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Your choices of Detroit street life are very good – I think you found some of the nicer parts of the city, with, of course, he exception of the sleeping homeless. Sometimes reality is ugly, isn’t it? We lived between Ann Arbor and Detroit a very long time ago – probably around 40 years ago. Ann Arbor was lovely – Detroit not so much, although I spent little time there. I remember one trip in for dinner at a Greek restaurant, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Sent from my iPad
>
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:25 pm
I was too scared to get out of the car in the other parts of the city. This was a tourist destination, and early Sunday morning, so I felt somewhat safer.
LikeLike
March 30, 2014 at 2:07 pm
Well done, Dawn. Quite a cross section of street life. Street life here would be boring by comparison. Just a mostly empty road leading to more mostly empty roads.
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:25 pm
My other option was to stick closer to home and photograph dirt roads leading to other dirt roads leading to country roads leading nowhere. That could have been interesting too in an entirely different way. But I’ve shown you all our roads before and wanted to do something different.
LikeLike
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Street Life (Daffodils) | What's (in) the picture?
March 30, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Thanks Dawn we enjoyed looking at your photo’s too. It’s a sad fact it’s not only in your part of the world there are people who sleep on the streets.
xxx
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:26 pm
They are everywhere, we just don’t always notice. In fact I was across the street and walked past these guys twice before I noticed them at all. 😦
LikeLike
March 30, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Great photo, Dawn! It always saddens me to realize just how many homeless people there are — and what a miserable winter they’ve had in Detroit. If we think the cold and snow has been awful — we who live in warm, comfortable houses — what must it be like on the streets? Thanks for a sobering post.
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Some of the homeless choose to be that way, others are mentaly ill and don’t know anything better, and some are just down and out. They all make me feel bad.
LikeLike
March 30, 2014 at 4:18 pm
Sad to see the homeless people, but your photo is thought provoking. You did show us all sides of the city …. shiny buildings and the grittiness.
I should take some shots of the city where i teach. There’s some really cool stuff there. If I were a better parallel parker I’d go downtown more often.
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Parking was entirely the issue. I saw lots of stuff that was interesting, and even when I felt safe enough to get out of the car I couldn’t find anywhere to park.
LikeLike
March 30, 2014 at 4:50 pm
Thank you for the link Dawn, it brought me over for a look at the interesting views of your city. What a terrible winter those poor homeless people have had
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:28 pm
Yes it was a terrible winter, though there were lots of shelters put together to get them through the winter, still it was a terrible terrible time.
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 8:24 pm
Let’s hope the spring and summer compensate for it
LikeLike
March 30, 2014 at 8:03 pm
have been to Detroit a couple of times but what stuck in my mind was driving through Gross Pointe and seeing these huge house and gorgeous gardens then crossing an intersection and thinking we were suddenly in a gang war zone….scary
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Yes, it is like that…beautiful places and then…BANG….a different world. I wouldn’t want to live on the fringes of the beautiful side.
LikeLike
March 30, 2014 at 8:51 pm
Great pictures. I love the contract between factories, the towers and people mover. Not sure what I would take pictures of in Chicago. The thought is a little overwhelming.
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:46 pm
Chicago would be awesome. Lots of street life there. Would be fun to wander the streets, and probably less scary in many places than Detroit.
LikeLike
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge – Street Life – From the crowd |
March 31, 2014 at 1:16 pm
Cool pictures
Lily & Edward
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 3:47 pm
Thank you Lily and Edward!
LikeLike
March 31, 2014 at 4:25 pm
I like your shot of the city. It is a sad thing that we have so many homeless people. We have one that stands on a corner here in the burbs and he is a veteran. He now looks terrible after a year of begging and he begs directly across the street from the Athenaeum. We have taken him meals and given him groceries on our way home from the grocery store.
Thanks for being a friend
Sweet William The Scot
LikeLike
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Street Life | Life is great
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Street Life | Life is great
Pingback: Cape Cod Roads (Part 2) | The Bohemian Rock Star's "Untitled Project"