It was a cold day, when I arrived at the Detroit Airport (DTW) and was part of a line to enter the border control. Unfortunately, It took more than two hours to pass the control. The Officer war utmost friendly and – what I didn’t expect – he spoke some words in german. We had a good chat during the control and he wished me a nice stay – not before he told me that I should keep my eyes open, when leaving Downtown until I’m out of Detroit – don’t move into 8 miles south part as this might be not good for a White Bread like me.
I was a little bit frightened as I have read that Detroit is the most dangerous town in the US with many murders and more than 13.000 homeless and all the magazines and Internet sources that have written that are not that wrong. The good news is, that I’m privileged to leave this town with in a week and I’m not forced to live in something like a “Hood”.
Anyhow – my manager wanted me to visit Detroit, some of our partners and the SAE WBX (World Congress) at the COBO Center in Detroit. So I asked our Travel Agency to book a hotel – if possible the same as my boss.
I ended up at the Hilton Garden Inn in Detroit Downtown.
He was already in Detroit and we wanted to meet at 5pm in the Lobby – so we wanted to agree on a nice Restaurant for the first evening. My recommendation was the “Hard Rock Cafe” – as I’m always going for this chain when entering a town/city where one is located.
The good news was, that it was only 500m from the Hotel. From my Hotel – as he was booked in to the Garden Inn in Novi. Brilliant.
Nevertheless. We decided to rebook my hotel room for the next nights to Novi and I stayed for this night in Detroit Downtown.
So I took a short shower, cultivated my exterior and went down to the Lobby to ask the Concierge for the way and if it was secure to walk.
A huge Afro American guy was standing at the Concierge Table and looked down on me. Maybe a little funny smiling – “Yeah. relatively safe to walk”.
8-(
Question: “What means relatively?” – “Hey Dude, its safe. No worries, we are in an Amusement Area, Casino, etc.- Just walk down the street, turn left and then right. You’ll see the sign and same way come back. Easy going.”
He gave me a map to locate my surroundings and I started my walk to the HRC Detroit Downtown.
It was a nice evening.
The only downside is that I met three homeless asking for money. The downside is not the people asking for money, but that the US has no social parachute that supports the “fallen” like we have in Europe. As one of my friends said – you as a private person can’t support everyone with some Dollars. But it is as it is. I hope that the society finds a way to help the fallen, as there are 13.000 to 14.000 homeless in the Detroit Area and there is definitely a huge need to help these people.