“We are in one of the most beautiful parks anywhere in America. Roosevelt Park, the front of the train station, has now eclipsed the Scott Fountain of Belle Isle as the most photographed site in the City of Detroit. And tonight it’s going to be the most watched site,” he told the Free Press.
Duggan said Detroit police were prepared for a safe night downtown on Thursday at the outdoor concert for 20,000 ticketholders, not including people outside the venue.
“Detroit’s got the best police chief in America. He’s now the spokesperson at all the national conferences. The Detroit police will be out here in large numbers,” Duggan told Free Press. “I feel very confident in what we’re doing and I’m confident in the men and women of the Detroit Police Department. We prepare every day. You never know when you get an incident anywhere in America. We’ll be well-prepared. I’m optimistic we’re going to have a very good night. Life is good.”
Duggan added that the significance of the moment can’t be overstated.
“I grew up here. I know what the train station meant. Visitors would come to see us and you’d pick them up at the train station and their first image of Detroit would be spectacular,” he said. “To watch it be abandoned and lose the windows and be covered with graffiti was heartbreaking for everybody like me who looked at it and saw it the way it was. But from my first month in office, I was totally focused on this station being restored and reused. I never could’ve believed it could’ve been restored as spectacularly as Bill Ford and the Ford Motor Company have done.”
Duggan added, “You have to be a longtime Detroiter to understand this, the pain of what was taken away from us, the auto plants moving out, the movie theaters moving out, the restaurants moving out, our neighbors moving out … All of that is turning around. To see this come back, for a lot of people, it’s a night of deep pride.”
At that, the mayor said he was headed out to pick up his wife for the show.
— Darcie Moran
For Candice Jackson, 35, the concert is a home game.
She lives just west of the train station off Interstate 75.
“It’s about a 5-minute walk,” Jackson said.
She has tickets to the show and brought her son, Carlos, 8, with her.
“I like Fantasia and Diana Ross,” she said. “I like Big Sean, too.”
Jackson said she doesn’t get to see a lot of concerts, so she was eager for this one close to home. She arrived about 5 p.m. “They said doors open around 6 and I wanted to get here early.”
An event staffer started briefing people waiting in line, saying seating is very limited inside and many people will have to stand. Visitors can’t bring in food and drink. Metal detectors are in place about 20 yards beyond the first layer of barricades.
— John Wisely
Once Tanner Langdon, 16, of Madison Heights heard the music lineup for Michigan Central’s grand opening, there was no way he was missing out on the action.
“I had to go,” he said.
On the day of the concert, Langdon heard that extra tickets were set to drop at 10 a.m., the same time as his 10th-grade honors history exam at Lamphere High School.
Thankfully, his teacher held off for 10 minutes.
“He was totally down for it,” Langdon said. “I got ’em.”
Jack White is the big draw, he said. But if Stevie Wonder shows up, “I might actually pass out.”
— Andrea Sahouri
![Frank Nitt, J Dilla’s brother Illa J, drummer Daru Jones, Jack White and Slum Village’s T3, pose for a photo during “Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central” in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit on Thursday, June 6, 2024.]()
Michigan Central Station is blocked off with black sheeting at street level, preventing unticketed eventgoers from watching the show.
The campus was empty Thursday afternoon as guests slowly made their way to Michigan Avenue and 14th Street just before 5 p.m., while some popped into Mercury Bar, Grandma Bobs and other nearby restaurants fueling up ahead of the big event.
![Roosevelt Park and Michigan Central Station are obscured from street level along Michigan Avenue in advance of the reopening event for the station on Thursday.]()
A local Detroit artist who goes by the name Benzo Bee, 28, was lucky to get his hands on tickets the night before the event. In a group chat, one of his friends asked if anyone wanted a ticket. Bee couldn’t miss the rare opportunity.
“I love everything about Detroit and I love when they don’t tear down buildings that we reuse and repurpose them,” Bee said.
“it means a lot to me now especially because I am a photographer now, so it’s really cool just to just be part of these historic things because I think my favorite thing about photography … is you take a piece of time and you get to capture it for a little bit and you get to hold it for future generations. So there’s gonna be 1000s of cameras in there just shooting and just seeing all this stuff.”
Bee is also stoked to see Diana Ross perform.
“It says everything about Detroit, its elegance, its chicness, its grit and … like the responsibility that we have for this city and just doing everything possible to keep it alive and keep it great,” Bee said. “This event is going to definitely be historic, and I can’t wait to enjoy it.”
— Dana Afana
People are standing around waiting to be let in.
It’s hot on the pavement, about 80 degrees. But the passing clouds and stiff breeze make it feel cooler.
Joan Smolarek, 66, grew up in Hamtramck and now lives in Naples, Florida. She is in town visiting family.
“I heard it was happening and wanted to see it,” she said. “We had dinner at Mexican Village (restaurant) and walked over from there.”
Smolarek said she doesn’t have a ticket to the show but hopes to enjoy the music from outside.
“I’ve never been inside” the train station, she said.
She’s planning another family visit in September and hopes to take a tour then.
— John Wisely
Michigan Avenue was mostly quiet leading up to 4:30 p.m.
Groups of security personnel in royal blue golf shirts and event staffers wearing black Carhartt T-shirts milled about.
Mercury Burgers and Bar at Michigan Avenue and 14th Street was full. So was the bench outside. The bar even set up an outdoor serving station.
Beer and wine are $5 apiece. Watermelon vodka is going for $12.
They’re also selling hot dogs, lemonade and Faygo pop.
On a bench outside, Tracey Wyatt, 58, of Detroit, was sitting with her 85-year-old mother, Shirley Wyatt.
Their family moved here from Nashville after her father took a job working for Chrysler. He arrived first and they came later.
“I was brought here on a train by my parents in 1966,” Tracey Wyatt said.
She was not quite 2 then, and she doesn’t remember the train ride, but her mother does.
“I remember there were a lot of people there,” she said. “My husband was waiting for us. I haven’t been here since then. To see it reopen is historic.”
— John Wisely
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