Detroit: What a surprise! By Geniusofdespair

I decided to go to Detroit when I got a $66 round trip fare. How could I go wrong? Never been and I was pleasantly surprised. The food was good, their people mover was great and the Lyft drivers the best...except for the one that obviously had been smoking pot, but hey you can't get everything you want. The downtown is becoming very hip. There are trendy shops and restaurants even on the outskirts of the Downtown proper. In mid-town Selden Standard was one such place. No they are not making pizza. They are making roasted vegetables. The place was over-booked, popular. Tasty fresh food.

This is a clothing store near Selden Standard in a lovely Victorian house.

There is also a famous store called Shinola in Mid-town, where they sell bikes, leather goods, watches and shoe polish. I bought loose tea there.  I found this ad for Shinola in the New York Times.

Here is the rest of my trip in photos...

Michigan is freakishly close to Canada. What does that mean? My Michigan friend's mom went over to Canada to have her baby because it was cheaper. Also, during the Slave Trade they made a law that Slaves were not safe in Northern States anymore, they had to flee to Canada. Michigan's people helped many slaves to reach freedom in Canada.

Detroit has some awesome architecture. No this is is not a church unless you worship money. It was once promoted as “the Cathedral of Finance.” It is a building that has a history of finances: The Guardian Building.  They say "The Guardian Building is one of the most significant and striking Art Deco skyscrapers in the world."

Then there is the Henry Ford Rouge Factory just outside of Detroit. They build some stupid pick up truck here that everyone seems to like...the F-150.  You can tour the assembly line. I found it pretty incredible. They wouldn't let you take photos. But every worker has a yellow cord to stop the line to make further adjustments. We saw the line stop several times.

The accordion like square under the car goes up and down with each worker to make it easier to perform their task. They work 4 10 hour days. They have a half hour for lunch and I am not sure, but I think one 23 minute break.

They have a green roof over the Rouge plant. I believe it is the world's largest green roof. It was sort of brown when we were there --- you know winter. Below is the green roof and the solar panels that just heat water.

 

This is porous asphalt that allows the rain water to pass through the the parking lots at the Rogue Factory.  Good idea for South Florida's aquifer.

Back in Downtown Detroit.

This is Greek Town. We got there on the People Mover. It was a great area, like Little Italy in New York. We ate at the Pegasus and had an excellent meal.

Well I would say the $66 fare was worth it. Especially when Frontier Airline sent us a $25 dollar voucher because our plane was late. That brought down the round trip airfare to $41. Great way to spend a long weekend.

Also, they have one of the best Art Museums in the Country. There are two Diego Rivera Wall Murals of the assembly line at the museum and a Titian, Van Gogh and Gauguin I have never seen.  Here is "The Pickers" by Van Gogh.

The auto industry brought massive money to this area. A lot still remains that we all can appreciate, invest here.

Can't stand Trump? Thinking of a move to Vancouver, Canada? Here is the Scoop. By Geniusofdespair

Be Forewarned: The Architecture since the late 70's can be quite bad here. The Canadian's just love Aluminum -- it is every where especially in the condos/apartments.

Vancouver is probably the only place I would consider living in Canada to escape the insanity going on in the U.S.

Some things to think about besides the architecture (that can make you wince)...

• In the city, in 2 full days, I saw 11 people of Color.

• No one said "Eh", big disappointment.

• Bike paths abound throughout the city... wide bike paths. But no Uber or Lyft.

• There is excellent seafood.

• The water can be viewed from everywhere. They even have a park (Stanley Park) with about a 10 mile walk around the perimeter (with a separate bike path). There are 3 beaches within the park. It is not like Miami-Dade where you have to travel far to see waterfront.

• Real Estate prices are high. On Vancouver Island even the condos run near a million.
Yaletown rentals are in the $3,000 range. I did see, in Downtown area, a few 800 square-foot condos for sale in the $800,000 range -- for two bedrooms two baths. Most were more.

• Not that many dogs in the city, or fake yippie service dogs.

• People are more fit either from walking or biking. They aren't in the same shape as people at Trump rallies in West Virginia.

• Less museums than even Miami but many libraries. Maybe they read during the shorter winter days - 4:30 sunset. One library is a bad reproduction of the Roman Colosseum. Over all, a walkable city with friendly, polite people.

More wacky architecture:

Pip Pip to London, Back in Town. By Geniusofdespair

What can I say about London, besides getting food poisoning and seeing the prime meridian? The scaffolding was grand. I mean that in a good way.

Because I am such an observer of things utterly useless I looked up and said to myself, "Hey man that is some major over the top scaffolding." I asked the construction manager on the ground: "What gives with all that scaffolding"?

No blasting..... not like here is the States where they implode old buildings to make way for the new.

In the heart of London because they are near so many government buildings and really old buildings, they must demolish buildings piece by piece.

On this particular building they have until the end of next month to complete the scaffolding around it according to a contract with a Sheikh in Abu Dhabi. When they are done with the over abundance of scaffolding, they will put sheathing on the scaffolding exterior and work the demolition of this, the entire Scotland Yard building, also infested with asbestos. They don't want 60's or 70's architecture around anymore anyway. The Sheikh is putting up dozen of luxury condos on this site and Scotland Yard is moving back to its original address.

Hurry, hurry, they have a tight schedule to finish the scaffolding! The building in the background is slated for demolition too.

This is a different building:

It looks old, I doubt they are knocking it down, but I was in a car and it was Christmas day so there was no construction manager to question.

The Building in the background, that is what they seem to want to get rid of in London.

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I thought this devotion to considerate construction commendable (I saved it very large so if you hit on it you can really see some great intentions):

Note the red X, don't do this. And the green check: do this instead. Note the absence of cars and nukes in the "to do" side.

They appear to like scaffolding so much, they even design their buildings to mimic it.

 Where I spent most of my trip, when I wasn't out looking at construction,  thank you London Chinatown:

What else can I say about London? Clear soup is hard to find. They close the tube (subway) on Christmas day.  Londoner's are funny when you ask them directions, if it it is a 10 minute walk they say, "Oh, that is too far, take the tube."

Rui Hotel Montego Bay Sucks. By Geniusofdespair

I switched to 3 buildings --  all the rooms smelled moldy.  I wanted out but at 6pm not easy. Anyway I stayed. Let me assure you that non-smelly rooms is the most important thing on my list of vacation needs. The bathrooms were very nice. Spent a lot of time there. I spent almost $800 for 3 days there, with what seemed like 1,000 other people. Very relaxing, not so much.

I looked at reviews and was astounded by all the 4 and 5 stars given by people (must have been stoned). The staff were nice but the hotel needs major upgrades. I had an old fashioned TV and a bedspread. More like an old Day's Inn.  I asked for a CLEAN blanket and got a nice white clean blanket instead of the old blue one in the closet.  I tried with the air conditioning to control the room smell. Didn't work. I just froze with the thin blanket.

This hotel had meals. I liked the tea and the croissants. One night I ate all desserts. The jerk chicken was really good but none was available for dinner. That is about it on the food front. They did give you giant bottles of water free.

Most people were Canadians and from Europe. They were having a good old time drinking away the free booze. I don't drink nor smoke pot. I think that was my big problem. If I had I wouldn't have cared about anything else. I never saw quite so many drunk people. And pot was very easy to get. Guys literally put it in your hands.

The most famous attraction: The waterfalls -- too long a drive: 1 hour and 1/2.

Too many tourists. Too much unpleasant odor. If you want to walk on the beach you can't go far, as one accurate reviewer said:

Last time I'll do all inclusive. The beach is man-made. Unless you get "off the reservation" you don't even see real Jamaica. This isn't even Montego Bay. It's Mahee Bay (manmade with construction sand)

Length of beach...This hotel had to be built in the 50's with little renovation.

I wanted to windsurf but they had no harnesses and the uphaul line was without knots (so it doesn't slip down your hands when raising the sail) and a boom with no rubber. I would say the setup was about 20 years old.

They say they have free wifi. It is 90 minutes and only works in the lobby (and it is sporadic).  The  pool was nice, but I don't do pools.

Here is another Trip Advisor review from 2013:

We chose this hotel for a girls get-a-way; we were immediately disappointed by the low quality service, below average restaurants, and limited service throughout the hotel. The hotel room itself felt dated and had a "weird" smell to it. 

Best part of trip seeing an old friend and spending time together.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix....By Geniusofdespair

...I will have noticed my new IPhone 6+ is missing. I left it in my Tucson Hotel Room. It had been a shitty vacation, I threw my back out, I was cranky and now this.

Anyway, They found it and are charging $119 to ship  the phone back. That's right for less than a 1/2 of a pound, $119. It is taking 2 days because UPS doesn't work on Sunday. I feel like my cell phone is being held for ransom. All that top secret Miami news is stuck in Arizona on that phone with a very stupid password on it. The naked photos alone of David Beckham... You are all lucky the phone wasn't lost on 4th Avenue in Tucson the Hippie capitol of the world. Looking at the people, it was like being in the Village in the late 60's. You could get all the cheap, junk Mexican crap and incense you could stuff in your suitcase and then some. I now know why the Marriott Resort staff thought I was crazy for wanting to go there.

"Travel back to the hippie days of tie-dye shirts, peace signs and rock n roll. This time capsule is right on 4th avenue, called the Hippie Gypsy. You honestly can’t miss this store. Heading south on 4th Avenue, you’ll see the murals with bright colors and pictures of Bob Marley and The Beatles."

(It wasn't just this store, it was dozens of shops and bars, the Hippie Gypsy was just the focal point)

I bought this very cool T Shirt from Moon Smoke Shop on Tucson's 4th Avenue, at another shop. It smells like tobacco and incense (it is in the wash).

Trash Asia. By Gimleteye

Inle Lake

Yes, the decline of the environment in Asia is has advanced in direct proportion to wealth accumulation.

Winding up a month traveling through India and Myanmar, it seems the entire subcontinent is covered in a hazy blanket of pollution. Reports from Beijing a thousand miles to the north press the limits of belief. But air pollution can be cleaned by stopping emissions. Much more difficult is the problem with water.

Here is my take-away: tourism and rapidly growing economies are already colliding head-on with climate change.

In south India, a massive drought is interrupting electricity supplies at the same time local economies are experiencing rapid growth. One way or another, the 24/7 world-wide web has created a global village where massive wealth transfers – from the West, East – have enabled hopes, dreams and prosperity that was unimaginable only a few decades ago. (Tom Friedman recently coined the term, ‘the virtual middle class’, and he is not wrong.)

In the United States, we mired both in the fog manufactured by fossil fuel industries and right wing extremists and in ineffective efforts by environmentalists to advance a rational transition away from fossil fuel based economies. Whatever one’s persuasion, climate change is occurring at a far faster pace than we are adapting.

In Myanmar, on the Irrawaddy River – one of the world’s great rivers – the vessel from Mandalay to Bagan ran aground on sandbars due to dramatically low water levels. At Inle Lake, a water body that is as shallow and formerly grand as Lake Okeechobee, low water levels will soon strand tens of thousands of rural poor who live on reed shacks built over the lake.

The cause is altered rain cycles. Over the last decade rainfall patterns have broken from the seasonal norms that sustained civilization in Asia for millennium. The changes follow the same pattern we are seeing in US: extremes at both ends of the spectrum. This is exactly as climate change scientists have predicted; the consequence of extraordinary additions to the atmosphere of man-made gases including carbon dioxide. Last season’s monsoon was short in south Asia, leaving water supplies at extremely low levels as the hot months approach for a billion people.

As hard as it is to grasp what is happening – although the fact of climate change is visible for all to see – what is even more perplexing is the notion that civilized nations have been unable to alter a course for humanity that points in the direction of catastrophic impacts.

Clearly, the poor – who have lived for centuries and thousands of years – through subsistence economies will be the first to be displaced. For a while, the news will be clear of famine reports, because even poor nations like Myanmar can organize the distribution of rice and basics for elemental nutrition. Successive years of severe drought will bring catastrophe, home. But, here, at Inle Lake, the impacts are at the door. Fishermen and their families – already coping with huge algae blooms for the same reasons as Lake Okeechobee – will no longer be able to access fishing grounds from homes on canals left high and dry by dropping water levels. Nor will tourists, who cannot access locations to visit except by long propeller boats. For all these, climate change is here and now.

As climate change accelerates, these stories are bound to pile up. The risk is that Western nations, with industrial scale food and energy distribution, will be lulled into imagining that our bunkers and silos are hardened. Those attributes, however, will prove far less durable in the long run. Under the pressure of climate change, the skills of the village people of Asia, accustomed to thriving through the resource and ingenuity of their own hands, could prove more durable than all the prizes of the industrial revolution.

Where am I and When Am I coming back. By Geniusofdespair

Sigh, coming back soon. I am in San Antonio. I want to look at absentee ballots in some races. Al Crespo has asked Fernandez Rundle to look into them in district 105(?). A reader wrote to me about Daphne Campbell's race. Very suspicious. I also heard Floria First PAC (or CCE) figured into the Rivas Logan loss. Want to look into that as that entity, Florida First, spun negative ads against Joe Gibbons and Ray Judah (both were written about on Eye on Miami).

I have taken the majority of my pictures at between 70 and 80 mph from inside a car except at the Grand Canyon. I am surprised more people don't end up in the river in San Antonio -- the riverwalk is narrow. My favorite State visited is Arizona. I could see myself living in Scottsdale, going on trips to Vegas (gambling away all the money I made on this blog) and California - not writing this stupid blog anymore. Peace? But I miss you guys.

P.S. Did you all know that Florida mangroves are still thriving in Biosphere 2?

I am so over the Marriott full service hotels. By Geniusofdespair

As I cross the country I have noticed that the Marriott hotel rooms are desperately in need of upgrading. They redo the lobbies but not the guest rooms. It is time to ditch the crooked bed skirts Marriott. It is also time to clean the ventilation systems. I have switched rooms numerous times because of smell, mostly moldy smell. Yes I am working points here but Marriott, when the Residence Inns are better than your hotels it is time to do massive room design. I switched to a boutique hotel in Albuquerque - the quirky, elegant Andaluz. Not a Marriott so no points. It is a historic Hilton they spent 3 years rennovating. Boutique hotels are the best, at least they are interesting. I am also doing Residence Inns in smaller cities, trying to ignore the shouting kids.

Hotel Andaluz lobby (above) Albuquerque.