Kets: We woke up in the lovely home of Trumbullplex, though I hadn’t slept very well I was excited about the coming day. Our new friend J lent us some of the house bikes so me and Z could go for some food in the morning. Detroit wholefoods and its serious security guards didnt really invite to a good environment for any five-finger-discounts, so we spent a lot of money that day to feed ourselves… Though, even with a big wound in our pockets, we knew that we are so often treated with nice meals by known or unknown friends along the road so better accept it and try to work for cheaper solutions in the future…
The program for the day was, except for another presentation and discussion in the evening, to go for a little tour around the city guided by our local friend. He helped to find and prepare some more bikes that we could borrow. Z grabbed something that looked like a chopper with its fork really long and a tiny wheel attached to it. The handlebars where super long (high) and there was a thing attached on the back of the bike where you could keep a toy sword for eventual fights on the road.
Seriously a great spectacle to watch but unfortunately a little hard to ride so he chose another, more “normal” bike in the end.
Feeling like the coolest bike-punx, listening to RVIVR from Zs cellphone, we cruised together on all the different bikes, including a tandem! J took us past the abandoned train station, through some neighborhoods, around town, by the space of the big food markets, over the industrial areas into another neighborhood where we stopped to look around the Heidelberg project. It was a strange place. Funny, mysterious, cute and also weird. Many questions came to my mind about what was the meaning of the project? There where many toys and clock-symbols scattered or organized around the area – but no signs to answer my wondering.
During the presentation that night, a cat decided that we took too much of the “stage” ourselves and decided to roll around and play super-cute while Ramona tried to focus on telling her story. Of course, what Ramona has to say is super interesting, but when a cat is cuddly breakdancing next to you I guess its hard to compete for peoples attention, haha.
I think there was about 20-30 people who showed up and there where some good responses, reflections and questions that came up. One person told us about how she organized with people against evictions in the city. She was pretty radical and I was inspired by her devotion. She mentioned knocking on doors and telling local people against the latest specific case but also felt like we need to find other ways to reach out to more people.
We where told that the water situation in Detroit is also pretty bad. Some areas (and its inhabitants) don’t have gotten the water shut off while stadiums and corporations have unlimited access. Right me if I’m wrong, but I heard that the water resources might get privatized. There are group(s?) organizing around this as well. I have the feeling that a lot of interesting, but also seriously heavy stuff, is goin’ on in this city.