The Opposite Of East Jefferson

    East Jefferson Avenue is often the first surface street a visitor to Detroit will experience.  Two southbound freeways terminate and give way to its freshly scrubbed multiple lanes in the downest part of downtown.  It leaves a nice first impression: gleaming, mostly-occupied, skyscrapers, a tree and flower-lined median strip, statues and sculptures abound, elevated trains hum by, off to one side the river sparkles. 
   Detroit, however, is nothing if not a dichotomous city.  So maybe it should come as no surprise that West Jefferson looks like a back-country road compared to the unquestionably urban East Jefferson.  The stretch between Rosa Parks Boulevard and the Ambassador bridge is one of the city's loneliest streets.  It is unmarked, unpaved and uninhabited for the most part, save for a metal forging company. 

    It's unlikely anyone's GPS is going to send them down West Jefferson anytime soon.  So in a world where many people only go where their GPS tells them to go, it's a shame most people will never see this side of Detroit.  And by this I mean the quiet and contemplative side, where you can hear the birds chirping and insects whirring, witness nature's ongoing dominance and have it all to yourself.  The crunch of a city's dusty dirt road.  New Yorkers should be so lucky.