DETROIT REPORT, PART ONE (Comments: 0)

Here I am a at usual destination on a Spula-style bike-trip: a bar. Yes, sipping a pint of local pale ale lubricates the blogging process better than teflon oil does a drivetrain. The bar, as luck would have it, is around the corner from the BiketIt tent city, and folks here are very positive about the Social Forum, and attitude not universally reflected in the local media (the ironically-named Detroit Free Press recently published an extended insult by some local columnist, who referred to, among other things, the aromatic quality of Social Forum participants – and he wasn’t talking about Chanel No. 5. But the low-income neighbors here off Woodward, the main arterial, are more welcoming; I’ve had several good conversations at the fence with folks who are trying to weather the economic storms that have hit southern Michigan especially hard. Today is check-in day the Forum itself – I realize now I don’t have the right armband to get back into Tent City tonight – so I gotta rush down to the extravagantly capacious Cobo Center and get my credentials. The tent city is definitely a work in progress: showers going in (solar, of course), more tents going up on plots reclaimed by mulch infill. Quite a project – and even the Detroit MSM are taking notice! More later, Rocbikers… The Forum officially kicks off in an hour or so, and I’ve still gotta find a shower and a clean shirt.
-Jack, from Motor City