DETROIT -- On a front lawn off Jefferson Avenue, 11-year-old Tania displays dolls dressed in hand-designed African fashions.
"My grandmother buys them and gets fabric to make the outfits," Tania says, reporting that on this day sales are up with spillover traffic from the free Jazzin' on Jefferson festival. I buy a beautiful doll in green and gold kente cloth headdress before walking the block toward the sounds of the Motor City All Stars playing with New Orleans piano legend Eddie Bo.
The neighborhood party signifies why Detroit can be an unexpectedly inviting summer weekend destination. A creative, consistently friendly, and unpretentious atmosphere with predominantly African-American vibes suffuses the city, layered with a melange of Greek, Polish, Arab, Mexican, and other ethnic textures highlighted in a series of free music and cultural festivals. If you need guidance, Detroiters are proud to describe the event choices for any given weekend.
A helpful geographic anchor for a city excursion is the Woodward Avenue corridor stretching from the downtown riverfront to the cultural center two miles north. Along this stretch one finds comfortable accommodations, restaurants, the elegant Detroit Institute of Arts (reopening Nov. 23 after a six-month reconstruction and renovation project), and the setting for a neighborhood architectural tour. It's best to have a car because Detroit is big, and you can log significant mileage between locations.
Begin the day at the Eastern Market just east of Woodward. Operating at this location since 1891, the enormous market is a vast outdoor array of produce, flower, antique, and food stalls. Having forsworn barbecued ribs, kielbasa, and lamb kebab as breakfast foods, I opt for a feta cheese bagel from a Greek food cart, then gather picnic items and head for the waterfront to stretch out along the scenic Detroit River at the only point in the United States where visitors look south to Canada. This summer the city is putting the final touches on its two-plus-mile RiverWalk after years of clearing industrial sites and overcoming red tape.
"There was just waste here and a factory graveyard for too long," says Nicholas, a dreadlocked painter selling canvases along the walk. "We needed this."