We already wrote about how the Dan Gilbert-owned Bedrock Real Estate Services is evicting the artist community out of Capitol Park's 1217 Griswold — ironically destroying an organically-grown collective of artists to make way for ... hmmm, more artists' spaces. While we're happy to see investment in the city, we're bummed to see gentrification rearing its ugly head.
Yesterday, VICE weighed in. In "I'm Getting Evicted From Detroit's Most Famous Techno Loft," residents Gustav Brovold and Andrew Roberts explain that the building was a creative incubator for the early rave scene, giving rise to the artists who eventually went on to form Paxahau (of Movement and DEMF fame).
They then go on to describe this bohemian haven:
There’s no other place like this gruesome paradise where you can pay $500 a month for a 2500-square-foot loft just outside the Financial District and run a boisterous-ass venue out of it. There's no other place where you can take acid on a Friday, go run around in an apocalyptic world, come down, do shitty coke, drink shitty coffee, ride a snowmobile downtown to go see Carl Craig, or Erika, or someone cool like that, then come to again, get chased by a pack of stray dogs, die, take a vitamin B supplement, eat a taco in your sleep, have your shoelaces come untied, keep on partying, do a line of Ambien, then at some point realize it’s 3PM on a Tuesday and you're late for work.
Well, shit! We're not issuing any moral judgement on five-day-long drug binges (!), but it seems like readers of VICE now envision Detroit as some sort of magic hipster fairytale where people are fucked up all the time, driving snowmobiles while at the same time managing to create great art.
