Destination: Anonymous, Michigan U.S.A.

Detroit. My heart aches for Detroit. In 24-hours spanning last night, 16 were shot, including 7 dead. The Detroit News also reports that the city is on pace for 350 murders this year. The city has lost 25 percent of its population since 2000, maintaining its role as the poster-child for urban flight. In 1950 it was the fifth largest city in the U.S.—a thriving, muscular industrial center of the world. This is the city which birthed the auto industry and is the home of incredible blues, gospel, jazz, rock, and, of course, R&B/soul. Now, sadly, the city is emblematic of deterioration, rust-belt rot, and despair. America has turned its back on Detroit. An intelligent blog about Detroit, Motor(less) City: post industrial despair, documents history and current state of affairs. The blog has many photos of abandoned properties, which is a photographic project of the blogger. In fact, there’s an adjunct site called 100 Abandoned Houses, which shows photos of orphaned houses. Seeing them gets me inspired about the possibilities and angry about the lack of creative solutions – which appears to be how the blogger feels. I couldn’t find the blogger’s name or contact info, which seems to match the city’s abandoned and anonymous feel. After further digging. I did learn his name but sort of have the sense he’d prefer to be anonymous, like the broken-down city he loves.