Nonetheless, the DSR’s employees were as militant as any other Detroit working people during the union fever of the late 1930s and early 1940s. In this photograph from 1941, striking street railway workers “gather around table to watch game of dominoes.”
But as much as Detroiters had hated the old “traction trusts,” a general affection for the DSR prevailed after the defeat of the DUR. Detroiters were proud to own their own transportation system. And that pride was touted in films, and evinced in the formal attire DSR workers wore in the performance of their duties. Take a look at this smart outfit, likely from the 1940s.
Still, it wasn’t easy running a sprawling municipal system, with many things working against it: Upgrading worn-out infrastructure, the challenge of integrating buses into a rail system, increasing competition for roadway from automobiles, and labor trouble.
Luckily, all those pennies and nickels Detroiters spent for transportation helped pay for the bonds, the improvements, and even new bus lines. According to researcher Ken Schramm, this photo shows the counting room at the DSR’s administration building: “This is the room that sorted and counted the approximately $100K received daily from the DSR’s streetcars and buses.”
In theory, what Detroit got for its money was one of the most thorough municipal streetcar systems in the world. But the system had seen better days. Since the private investors running it weren’t certain how long they’d be allowed to continue, the city’s trackage needed maintenance and investment.
Public anger and expiring franchises weren’t the only things hurting the DUR: Improvements to roads were lifting automobiles out of the muck and putting them on asphalt and concrete. The streetcar had always been the surest way around town, but now it faced competition from the private motorcar in a way it hadn’t before. They would exist side-by-side for the time being.
Before he left office in 1922, Mayor Couzens got the job done. On March 13, 1922, the city of Detroit purchased all track from the DUR for a sum of $19,850,000. Detroit’s Department of Street Railways began operating all streetcars in Detroit from April 1922 onward.
Wednesday, 3/9 –
Rangda
@ the Marble Bar –
The only acceptable reason to miss this show is because you are totally dead, or dismembered. The trio consists of percussionist Chris Corsano and electric guitarists Rick Bishop and Ben Chasny. These are absolute shredders with dozens of musical vocabularies available at any moment. Rangda just might be the best supergroup since Blind Faith. Pitchfork saddled their new album The Heretic’s Bargain (Drag City) with a 7.5, but it’s clearly an 11. The album starts with a Moroccan motorik surf-rock corker, “To Melt the Moon,” and ends with a blissed and baked journey to the center of your mind called “Mondays Are Free at the Hermetic Museum.”
Doors open at 9 p.m.; 1501 Holden St., Detroit; facebook.com/marblebardetroit; tickets are $10. Photo by Jason Meagher.
Another fighter for municipal ownership was Detroit Mayor James Couzens. He chaired the Detroit Street Railway Commission, whose goal was to make Hazen Pingree’s dream of a municipally owned streetcar system a reality. Under his leadership, Detroiters approved a $15 million bond issue to build a city-owned system. Here Couzens is pictured wielding a sledgehammer.
Impressive though the DUR’s network was, the impression that it was an unaccountable monopoly prevailed. Battles over fares and fights against extending expiring franchises characterized the 22-year reign of the DUR, and a lively battle was waged in the press, with a great deal of support for municipal ownership.
Wednesday, 3/9 –
Prettiots
@ UFO Factory –
The Prettiots are pretty much the only indie pop duo consisting of just a ukulele player and bassist that you ever need to see. They’re signed to Rough Trade so you know they manage to rise above cutesy-pie shenanigans and ironic cover songs. They are clever; even the great Roy Smeck was clever — it comes with the instrument itself, the ukulele. But hallelujah, they are legitimately clever, which is so rare as anyone whoever tried to date a person who owns a They Might Be Giants record know. Also, they are signed to Rough Trade! Check out “Boys (I Dated in High School)” online if you don’t believe us.
Doors at 9 p.m.; 2110 Trumbull St., Detroit; ufofactory.com; $8
Tuesday, 3/8 –
Dennis Coffey Quartet
@ Northern Lights Lounge –
Did you know that one of the chief architects of Motown’s funk-soul sound plays at Northern Lights every Tuesday, and it’s free? The 75-year-old guitarist burns it up every single week. We all have the easiest access to the once and future Funk Brother who blazed through “Ball of Confusion,” “Psychedelic Shack,” and “War,” not to mention his own hits like the stellar instrumental “Scorpio” (or his playing on Rodriguez’s Cold Fact). You can see him every Tuesday; why not show up this very night? You won’t be sorry you went.
Doors at 8 p.m.; 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; northernlightslounge.com; Free.
By the 1910s, Detroit was the hub of one of the largest unified electrical transportation systems in the world. Detroit United Railways operated what may have been the largest regional electric rail system in the world. It had more than 800 miles of track, more than 200 of them in the city limits of Detroit, where one fare would get you across town, and 600 miles in the high-speed interurban lines.
Many Detroiters began to view the private companies providing streetcar transportation as greedy, self-interested trusts, lagging behind in improvements to infrastructure and charging high fares. After his election in 1889, Detroit’s progressive Mayor Hazen Pingree (pictured here as the motorman) campaigned to get the companies to adopt 3-cent fares as their standard fixed price, with free transfers. When the companies refused, the maverick mayor sought to build publicly owned rail lines that would provide working-class passengers affordable transit.
Saturday, 3/5 –
Black Women Rock!
@ Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History –
The full title to this most worthy event is “Black Women Rock! An all-star tribute to Betty Davis,” and in addition to the live show, there’s also a panel discussion and five-day art show. Revolutionary funk singer Betty Davis got the Commodores signed to Motown, wrote “Uptown” for the Chambers Brothers, married Miles Davis in the late ’60s, and turned him on to psychedelic rock. Davis also wrote and produced all of her albums after her first, and was incredibly ahead of her time. This showcase brings together Ideeyah, Nik West, Steffanie Christ’ian, Shelly Nicole, Kisma, and more to honor her.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; show starts at 7:30 p.m.; 315 E. Warren Ave., Detroit; 313-494-5800; thewright.org; regular admission is sold out but an overflow area will be open for a donation of $5 that will go toward helping the children of Flint.
The conversion to machine power was equally fitful. Some streetcars ran on unshielded wires strung overhead, others on third rails embedded in slots in the street. A line on Cadillac even used steam power briefly. But by the end of 1895, the last company had completely electrified its operations. If the photographic records are correct, this image is of one of the last holdouts from the 1890s, on a turntable for cars at Hamilton and Holden.
The city offered franchises lasting for decades to private companies. By the mid-1870s, Detroit had 10 competing streetcar companies, each with its own lines, some running down arrow-straight thoroughfares, others zigzagging through the city, making turns every few blocks, sometimes paralleling the competition’s tracks for miles at a stretch, belying the hodgepodge construction of routes. Pictured here is a horse car on the Woodward Line in 1882.
Saturday, 3/5 –
The Rev. Peyton and his Big Damn Band
@ the Magic Bag –
The Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band bridges genres and eras with an intensity and effortlessness few contemporary artists possess. And their new album So Delicious elevates the trio’s work to a new level. Produced by the Rev. Peyton, his very own self, So Delicious offers the band’s most diverse collection of songs yet. The whole enchilada is buoyed by the Rev.’s supercharged six-string virtuosity — a unique style of fingerpicking inspired by his Delta blues heroes, but taken to different spaces that he himself has carved out.
Doors at 8 p.m.; 2920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; themagicbag.com; $18 in advance, $20 day of show.
By the early 1860s, Jefferson, Woodward, Gratiot and Michigan avenues were already trimmed with rail. Catering to the city’s upper classes, dray teams pulled passengers along Detroit’s radial arteries at a stately pace for 5 cents. Pictured here is a horse car of the Detroit City Railway. Note the arrow pointing to the bell on one horse’s neck.
