Loin des yeux, loin du coeur. (Out of sight, out of mind)

The french saying above is usually about somebody whose lover lives at a distance and is therefore out of mind, but the french saying literallly means; "far from sight; far from the heart." I think this applies to Detroit in a variety of ways.
Reading threads on things lacking in Detroit makes me think that depletion over time makes it hard for Detroiters to imagine what the city had not so long ago. Then you factor in the suburban divide often populated by ex-Detroiters hurt by or intent on forgetting the city's plight; all this makes for a strange milk of amnesia, dont you think? These circumstances go a long way to explain the uphill battle that needs to be fought in order to recover a sense of belonging [[1) and [[2) A sense of mission.

In matters of transit for instance, Imagine someone coming to Detroit via the Michigan Central Depot and taking a bus or streetcar to downtown. Not much was lacking in the Detroit of 55 years ago.

The general idea I propose in this thread is to help bring about a reimagining of a city that did have success, did have equipment that propelled it forward. The city had connected neighborhoods and retail along its arteries. It had major retail in the core and all the cultural attributes that big cities have.

Okay, a lot of it is damaged and depleted but if you look at what is left and how it is a vital force for the future, it is clear that a lot of it competes with what other cities have got.

Cultural and sports institutions are still there. There are casinos now that didnt exist back then. The PeopleMover is a potential service for tourism and a growing clientele to downtown venues. The Downtown office park situation is not only stable but growing at a fairly brisk pace compared to 5 years ago. Better bus and light rail, maybe suburban rail will be needed to connect the burbs to the city, and that is hopefully in the works.

The time for change in habits toward transit usage is there. A better promotion by those who propose new schemes needs to be delivered so that potential users see the benefits on an individual and collective basis. In my view, the idea of a collective spirit borne by a regional concensus is paramount to this change of outlook on Detroit. The ethnic divide is also less of an issue if one cares to review the power shared by Afro-Americans in the last 50 years. There are still items on the menu, but Detroit's black leaders are not relegated to the backbenches as religious leaders to smaller homogenous communities like in 1963; they are now part and parcel of a greater whole. My two cents. Canadian. Retired. No more pennies in circulation in Can-o-da.

Grateful you corrected your title in the body of your thread. Coeur, is heart. I took 6 maybe 7 years of French and mean't to be a French teacher, plans changed and 40 yrs later my French is only good for crossword puzzles. Lovely language.

Thanks Sumas, I like it too!

lol @ milk of amnesia ! I belong to a couple of French Canadian Groups regarding us as a Heritage and us in the Great Lakes region . I'm getting the impression for example that when the French went to places like Maine for example [[high French population ) is not the French spoken in Quebec , there's different variations

My husband worked for Canadian Feds for many years. On occasion, I traveled with him. I remember being in Quebec City and tried my rusty French in a restaurant and the waitress said, in clear English, don't bother Honey, What's your order. No clue if she was offended or flattered.

Regional differences occur every where. Folk from France are quite contemptuous of Quebecois French.Their loss! Things evolve and develop a charm of their own.

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Originally Posted by Wingnatic

lol @ milk of amnesia ! I belong to a couple of French Canadian Groups regarding us as a Heritage and us in the Great Lakes region . I'm getting the impression for example that when the French went to places like Maine for example [[high French population ) is not the French spoken in Quebec , there's different variations

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Yes, I guess Maine may have a strong acadian component because it touches not only Quebec but New Brunswick which is the heart of Acadia so to speak. There are parts of Quebec that are Acadian also. The English deported Acadian settlers on ships, and that is how they ended up in Louisiana's bayou country. The accents in Acadia and Louisiana are very similar. There is a sing-song rhythm to the speech that you can liken to that of Limerick in Ireland. Quebec French has kept a lot of the archaic pronunciations of old french. When you go to places like Montreal, the english language has infused the french for more than two centuries, and same with Acadia and Louisiana. And the Cajuns in Louisiana had their culture which was distinct from the settlers of New Orleans which came from France and New France, and then the creole from the french and spanish Carribean came and complicated the mix.

sumas, sorry to hear about the cavalier way you were served in Q-City. There is a reflex here among francophones to bow down to anglos even when spoken to in french, especially in Montreal where you can spend time in certain parts of the city where french is not spoken much. I go shopping at convenience stores or shopping centers and am spoken to in english only most of the time in my part of town.

Lowell and his wife visited Montreal and Q city this summer and I had the pleasure of spending a day with them. We had a meal at a restaurant where the waitress didnt speak to us in english at all. And then Lowell and Sue were surprised that the music playing in there was fifties style american music without a hint of french. Bummer! It is a bit of a mishmash of both cultures, bifocal, bipolar, etc...

Outstanding and thoughtful post Canuck! And thank you and Mrs. Canuck again for a fabulous day-long whirlwind tour of your great city Montreal on this summer's tour of Quebec.

This forum is greatly enriched by the outside perspective you and other far-flung Detroiters [in name or heart] bring to our discussion.

Among the most interesting aspects of Montreal is the bicycle culture. The streets are flooded with riders and accommodations for them and linking them with mass transit offer many lessons for the D.

Thanks Lowell, and give my regards to Sue! We had a fun day, I wish I had gotten reservations earlier in the week to a restaurant for Dinner!

I saw a program on the History Channel called '' Cities Of The Underworld'' and they usually travel to far off places and go underground and discover a city underneath a city that had a city built over the top of it . One episode was Montreal and I was surprised that in parts of the city had a functioning city underneath , shops , apartments , stores , etc. lol I was at one time going to travel to Trois Rivieres , Laval area and visit graveyards where many of my ancestors until I found out it was common practice that after a certain amout of time they would remove the headstone and bury someone else on top . There is a word for that that escapes me right now , but not an unusual practice elsewhere .
In Vieux Montréal [[ Old Montréal) on La Rue Notre-Dame there is a McDonald's restaurant and on the wall there is a plaque in French which reads " On this spot was the house of Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac , French explorer and founder of the City of Detroit, Michigan"

In todays Newspaper : I know a few people mentioned in this article .
Descendants track their French connections back to Detroit's birth

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2gHrT7Po2
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...th?odyssey=mod

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Originally Posted by Wingnatic

I saw a program on the History Channel called '' Cities Of The Underworld'' and they usually travel to far off places and go underground and discover a city underneath a city that had a city built over the top of it . One episode was Montreal and I was surprised that in parts of the city had a functioning city underneath , shops , apartments , stores , etc. lol I was at one time going to travel to Trois Rivieres , Laval area and visit graveyards where many of my ancestors until I found out it was common practice that after a certain amout of time they would remove the headstone and bury someone else on top . There is a word for that that escapes me right now , but not an unusual practice elsewhere .

In Vieux Montréal [[ Old Montréal) on La Rue Notre-Dame there is a McDonald's restaurant and on the wall there is a plaque in French which reads " On this spot was the house of Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac , French explorer and founder of the City of Detroit, Michigan"

In todays Newspaper : I know a few people mentioned in this article .
Descendants track their French connections back to Detroit's birth.

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Pretty good in-depth article Wingnatic, thanks for the link.

Montreal's Underground City is pretty extensive; 18,6 miles of pedestrian tunnels. It is on par with Toronto's system. It connects downtown office bldgs and shopping malls, hotels, the convention center, train and coach stations to subway stations. The result is that in bad weather, a lot of the city is accessible without stepping outside. Anytime a sizable new project is built, they try to connect it via tunnels to the system.

Speaking of underground the Ville Marie Expressway which passes underground through the heart of downtown Montreal is the longest stretch of underground expressway I have ever driven.

But when I first saw Wingnatic mention Montreal underground the first thought that popped in to my head was Canuck's stories of how Montreal mayoral politics have paralleled Detroit's in terms of corruption and scandal. lol

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Originally Posted by Lowell

Speaking of underground the Ville Marie Expressway which passes underground through the heart of downtown Montreal is the longest stretch of underground expressway I have ever driven.

But when I first saw Wingnatic mention Montreal underground the first thought that popped in to my head was Canuck's stories of how Montreal mayoral politics have paralleled Detroit's in terms of corruption and scandal. lol

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You betcha Lowell!

Elections are due soon and we have a whole bunch of new characters coming to the fore.

Our last elected mayor stepped down when journalists and op-ed writers made it clear his ignorance of corruption in the administration was due to incompetence if not collusion. Then, an interim mayor was elected by council and he was arrested and resigned pending trial for corruption in facilitating real estate deals. The mayor of Laval, Montreal's biggest suburb [[pop. 400,000) also resigned after an arrest on gangsterism charges.

Dear Canuck, I wasn't particularly offended by the waitress, I think she took pity on me struggling. We had many a wonderful time in Montreal City, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto and strangely, any annoying situations occurred in Windsor. Of course, my husband traveled Canada extensively.

I don't go to Canada these days for the simple reason I need a passport to come home. I refuse to do so, we have friendly borders and I don't like US policy.

Wingnatic wonders if Lowell share a common ancestor ? lol
From my uncle's Rootsweb family website:

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestr...slm&recno=2797