TRAILBLAZIN' ALL THE WAY ---> IN 944 MAGAZINE

I recently was contacted  had the privilege of saying what and how I felt about Detroit! The pleasure was all mine to sit in front of my mac, sip a cup 'o joe, and answer questions about the City I have known and loved all my 28 years as a Ferndale gal.

Not much to brag about, some would say, living in the same city for all of my life.  But it is!! I have seen, first hand, the rise and fall of communities, and the revolution that is currently taking place around Metro Detroit. The Industrial Revolution.

Ferndale, the city I know as my hometown, lies feet north of Detroit Proper.  A 6 lane Highway connects the East with the West, and is infamously known by fellow Detroit native, Eminem, in the movie 8 MILE. Ferndale, today a thriving, diverse, artsy community, was a different place in the 80s which is when I grew up.  Neighborhoods were torn by the influence of Erotic/Fetish/Homosexual Activity that occupied the Woodward & 9 Mile Corridor in the 70s.  What most didnt know is that Ferndale was an immigrant community too.  My family, the Greeks, were here by the dozens in the 80s and 90s.  My Elementary School was home to the City's only "GREEK SCHOOL" which took place two nights a week after regular "ENGLISH SCHOOL".

Over the last twenty or so years, the urban sprawl that fled from Detroit in the 80s, made Ferndale what it is today. A vessel between uptown grace and downtown edge.  Funny.  That is kind of how I view myself.  Most people claim to be a product of Detroit.  Technically, I am the product of Ferndale, and fashionably proud to claim it.

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