Reporter Claire Brownell is spending seven days in Detroit, showcasing the positive ways the city has changed and the challenges that still remain. On Day 2 on Monday, she explored gentrifying areas like downtown and Corktown. On Day 1 on Sunday, she embarked on a cycling tour of Detroit.
Follow her @winstarclaire and tweet using #7intheD. Below is a Live Blog of Day 3 and below that is her Day 3 set up piece:
Here’s what she has planned for Day 3:
If you’re looking for something to symbolize how things are looking up for Detroit, you can’t do much better than the city’s new Whole Foods.
The upscale grocer opened on June 5 in Midtown – the first major chain grocery store within city limits in years. And according to its CEO, business is gangbusters.
Before it opened, “Detroit has no grocery stores” was a common entry in lists of Shocking Facts about Detroit. And like other Motor City Shocking Facts (such as the dubious claim that 47 per cent of Metro Detroiters are functionally illiterate), it highlighted a real problem, but blew it out of proportion.
Detroit has lots of places to buy food. Here’s an excellent takedown of the “Detroit is a food desert” myth, from before Whole Foods opened. They may not be the mega chain stores you can find in the suburbs, but you can stock a decent pantry and also find some pretty interesting stuff they don’t carry at Walmart.
On Tuesday, I’m going grocery shopping. I’m planning to start at Detroit’s historic Eastern Market, which holds hours on Tuesdays in the summer in addition to its usual Saturday market. From there, I’ll head to Whole Foods and Honey Bee La Colmena, an independent family-owned grocery store in Mexicantown that’s been around for decades.
Some Windsorites buy all their groceries in Michigan, where they’re cheaper and the selection’s better. But we’re lucky enough to have access to more than discount milk. If there’s anything you’ve just got to pick up and bring home when you cross the border – a particular Mexicantown tortilla, a beer you can only find at one party store in Hamtramck – I want to hear from you.
You can leave a comment on this blog post, email me at cbrownell@windsorstar.com or tweet using the hashtag #7intheD. You can also follow me live on Twitter while I go on my grocery shopping adventure on Tuesday @WinStarClaire.
