Last week I clocked over 2000 miles on my li'l beemer traveling from New York to Detroit to Toronto, back to Detroit and finally home to New York.
My event at the Southfield Library was wonderful! I had a good crowd and it was nice to see a familiar face in the audience - Jeanette thanks for coming out and supporting me....again!) 
I was happy to finally meet Facebook friend Ms. Venise McMillan. We had a wonderful conversation and she even received a short life lesson from my 84 year old grandma!
I don't share this with many people, but i'm going to share it here today. Michigan - Detroit to be specific hold a very special place in my heart and the reason is this: 42 years ago on my birthday my mother and I were traveling by car from Ohio to Detroit when we were involved in a near fatal car accident. We were hospitalized in separate Ohio hospitals for two months. And every week my
Aunt Lula May had someone drive her from Detroit to Ohio so she could visit us. After we were discharged we convalesced at her home for a month.
So you see why I feel the way I do.Lula May Hilson married my maternal uncle Richard May over sixty years ago. They had twelve children together..and those children had children..and those children had children...and so on. I can't begin to count how many limbs have sprung from the Lula & Richard tree - but let me give you an example: One of Lula May's sons, Edward - has 23 grandchildren of his own!
And lemme tell you something about this family of mine...they are kind, generous, unpretentious - give you the shirt off their back type of folk....you know the type...you have them in your family too!
I have a lot I want to say about Detroit...but I've already taken up so much of your time, so I'll just say this:
Many parts of East Detroit resembles New Orleans after Katrina hit. East Detroit has been in perpetual ruin since the 1967 riots. White folk fled the area and it was customary for them to burn down their homes for the insurance money. There are whole blocks of abandoned homes in Detroit. There are so many vacant lots that the wild life has started to migrate to the area - you can walk down the streets and come into contact with wild rabbits and pheasants...yeah...pheasants!
In Detroit, city services have been cut down to nothing. I saw one police cruiser the whole time I was there. The residents pay more for insurance and utilities than the surrounding (white) neighborhoods. Also let me say this...Detroit has some of the most beautiful homes I've ever seen.
SO why am I telling you all of this? Well have you heard the saying: "The best time to buy property is when there is blood on the streets?
I know what's going on...I've seen it happen in Harlem and in my own neighborhood of Bedstuy. The powers that be will allow a neighborhood to eat itself from the inside out and then those that are able to move away - do. The less fortunate remain. Property values fall to rock bottom prices and that's when those that have (usually white folk) come in and scoop up everything...it's called gentrification - and those that called said neighborhood home for decades are suddenly priced out and eventually set out.
I'm just saying..if you got a little extra cash I would strongly suggest you invest in Detroit. Don't be fooled by what you hear on the news. The USA is not going to let Motor City fade into oblivion. Downtown Detroit used to be a ghost town, now its a thriving, hot spot. Westin Hotel purchased the historic Book Cadillac Hotel and spent 300 million dollars to renovate it.....would you do that in a city with no future? Come on now ya'll better get on board!
Shoot, property is so cheap you can buy a house with one of your major credit cards...for real.
