Coffee Bar-Hopping

Cafe 1923 in Hamtramck is like my new BFF. It is a great place to work. And even though I am possibly the most rabid anti-smoker I know, if you stay in the front part it isn't really noticeable that they allow smoking in the back room. Of course if you want a comfy chair you have to deal with smoking, but fortunately I don't.

The front is also better for the random run-in. Just yesterday I was enjoying tea and viewing the internet when who should walk in but fellow Detroit blogger D-Tales. While I was reading her blog. That was funny.

After a fantastic old-school liquid lunch with a colleague at the Caucus Club I ventured over to the Mercury Coffee Bar in Corktown.

That place has been buzzing every time I've driven by lately. Sunday night around 5pm it was nuts in there. It was relatively busy yesterday too, lots of folks working on laptops and a few meeting type activities in the lower level, but I think the greatest thing was working and being able to look out at the Michigan Central Depot on an overcast Monday afternoon.

Another thing I've noted before and has been verified by several friends is the very attractive and well-dressed crowd that patronizes this business. Incredulous, one of my friends asked, "where did these people come from?"

Actually the only thing that has been bugging me about Mercury is the fact that their identity program involves using the initials "MCB." First of all, why in God's name would you not fully utilize a great name like Mercury?? Of all the horribly named places in this area (Detroit Breakfast House and Grill comes to mind) you get handed this really glorious name by virtue of your location and you decide to change it to the wholly-uninspiring initials "MCB"?

And secondly, MCB is kind of already taken in Detroit - it's how everyone seems to refer to Motor City Brewing Works.

I feel like I will just call it Mercury all the time and maybe "MCB" won't catch on. Otherwise, I love it.
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And the hits just keep on coming

Hey, just to kick you when you're down, I wanted to let you know that we here in SE Michigan fared no better than California (again). Voters in the multi-culti funkytown of Hamtramck also voted to hate gays a little more, defeating the Hamtramck Human Rights Ordinance. 55.4% of Hamtramck voters cast ballots against it.

Those Hamtramck United folks worked their butts off though, and according to council member Scott Klein in this article in Between the Lines, they will keep pushing the issue. So we all need to thank them a lot, and maybe offer them a non-sexual massage the next time we see one of them.

Jay McNeeley. Jay McNeeley. Jay McNeeley.
(thrice for Google Image searches)

And if you see Jay McNeeley a.k.a. Gladys Kravitz - the guy from Ypsilanti who nosed in and decided Hamtramck needed to make this a ballot issue in the first place - or any member of the American Family Association, feel free to kick them in the balls. If it's a chick kick her in the cooter, I don't care. I'm tired of this bullshit.
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Rambling

Nothing special to write about here, just some thoughts on a Tuesday morning.

Had breakfast with a mover/shaker pal at Mercury Coffee Bar this morning, which I am continuing to love. We talked about how irritating all the marketing of Detroit stuff continues to be, and just how ass-backwards the thinking of the people holding the pursestrings is in this town.

On the one hand it is always nice to know folks who are on the ground running like my friend and who feel the same way about that stupid time-wasting. On the other hand, it doesn't change the fact that right this minute there could be some dude in pleated pants out there deciding it's a good idea to throw half a million bucks at another website to attract the creative class.

We segued into how genius it would be if the downstairs of Mercury stays non-smoking when they get their beer/wine license. Which they should do since they are all foodie and everything.

Left there to drive around and find a place to get some wi-fi and ended up in Hamtamck. On the way up here saw another closed up big old building half devoured by scrappers, what the fuck is this city gonna do about that? It's insane. I never cry a tear when I hear of one getting electrocuted, I will tell you that much. If that makes me a bad person then fine.

Angry, I drove through some of the Ham-town neighborhoods, drove down Jos. Campau, went by my brother's house from when he first got married, watched kids playing in schoolyards - that all calmed me down a lot and put me in a good mood again. And I saw this, which was awesome:

A sign of tough times.

But read the fine print.

Ended up at Cafe 1923 to work. It's actually my first visit here - I've shied away in the past because they allow smoking, but mercifully there's no one smoking here now. They've really got their act together, and it's more coffee-housey than the Rowland Cafe. So here's another good coffee spot in Detroit (well, Hamtramck is technically inside Detroit). And oddly, the people I've seen here are mostly quite well-dressed. So if you are wondering where the nicely-dressed people in Detroit are, they are at Cafe 1923.

I do like Hamtramck a lot.

OK, another mover/shaker friend just walked in (dressed fabulously) so I gotta go.
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Fundraiser for Hamtramck United

Hey, in case you missed it in the comments section on the "Let's Get Political" post, there is a fundraiser tonight for Hamtramck United at the Painted Lady. Details here. Map here. Video here:

Not to distract from the issue at hand, but how cute is this Richard Sparks guy?

Let's Get Political

Now that we are in final stretch of election season, at least until next spring and then next fall and then the following year (the fun never ends), I thought I'd take a moment to discuss one of the challenges facing the LGBT community in Michigan this year.

As we have seen, all real progress in terms of gay and lesbian civil rights in Michigan happens on the local level. Ann Arbor and East Lansing were, along with San Francisco, the first cities in the country to pass gay rights ordinances back in 1972. Detroit added protection for gays and lesbians in the 1974 City Charter. That was a pretty good start.

A gay rights march in the 70s. Admire the solidarity, not the hair.

But then there were the Reagan 80's and AIDS and the rise of the culture wars and things kind of stagnated, and really in Michigan regressed. In the last ten years we've seen fights over gay rights-related ballot initiatives in Traverse City, Kalamazoo, Huntington Woods, Ypsilanti, Royal Oak, Ferndale, and Lansing (among others). Ypsilanti had an impressive victory on their inititative, a result of a ton of hard work. Ferndale took, what, three tries? And Royal Oak was never able to get one passed. The completely not-impressive list of cities in Michigan with ordinances protecting gays and lesbians can be found here.

Of course then the anti-gay marriage amendment came up for a vote and we were served up a heapin' helpin' of homophobia by the good voters of Michigan, and then Attorney General Mike Cox twisted the knife culminating in the Michigan Supreme Court decision completely prohibiting (and removing) any partnership benefits for gay employees of public institutions. So now U of M gets to try and recruit to academic talent to a backwater.

Now this is just a little overview. But basically, most of Michigan's population views us as less than wholly human. The truth is ugly.

So we are back to fighting at the local level, which brings me to the point of this post. Hamtramck, our own little hip melting pot city-in-a-city, has a Human Rights Ordinance on the ballot this November.

Freep.com offers the following summary: "The Hamtramck City Council passed the ordinance in June, but opponents gathered enough signatures to place it on the Nov. 4 ballot in hopes of appealing it. The ordinance prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and city contracting for several groups, but its inclusion of gays and transgendered people has stirred up controversy."

So now the ordinance is on the ballot and you've got vocal opponents like the priests at Hamtramck's three Catholic churches taking the "no special rights" stance against this "dangerous threat" to the community. (Um, hi priests ... ?)

But you've also got groups like Hamtramck United Against Discrimination fighting for passage of the ordinance. And sure, while people still reserve the street parking spot in front of their houses with chairs (and woe to anyone who might disregard that placeholder) this is a city with a crazy amount of ethnic diversity AND an openly gay City Council member, so it seems like the population might be ready to say, ok, fair is fair.

(credit to flickr accounts brian_brooks, mihai radu baluta, ifmuth
and shannonrossalbers for the Hamtramck photos)

But it's still a fight. If you are a Hamtramck voter, be sure to vote yes to pass the ordinance. If you know a Hamtramck voter, be sure to encourage them to vote yes. And if you can, make a donation to Hamtramck United on their website. Hamtramck is everything we seem to love in an urban neighborhood - hip, dense, diverse, quirky, full of history and centrally-located. I think it's appropriate for "tolerant" to be officially added to that list.

Every little bit helps, and for the time being it seems all we are going to have are these grassroots victories. But baby steps will still get us where we are going, so do what you can to get the gay rights Baby Huey up and tottering around in Michigan. Today Hamtramck, tomorrow the whole friggin' state.
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