Detroitblogger John, who was doing this long before Charlie LeDuff rolled back into town, again shows the value of going where few journalists venture.

His original Detroit Blog today visits the six-stool White Grove Restaurant, on Second near Charlotte since 1948, and introduces a character Damon Runyon could've used as source material. Hunter S. Thompson, too.
“What’s the problem, punk?” she barks back, facing him square. “You think you’re a real pimp now ’cause you got that new truck, right?” Outside the window is a battered, used pickup he just drove up in. She threatens to shoot him. “I can kill you, and then you’ll die,” she says.
John wraps ups with this piercing observation, sharp as a stiletto:
Attack as defense. It’s how you have to be here, in maybe the craziest neighborhood in town, where nearly everyone preys on everyone else but nobody’s got anything worth taking.