drzarron

Once again, I HATE the Freakin Dream Cruise!

For those Non-Detroiters, the Woodward Dream Cruise [wiki] is one of those "Lost Youth" events harkening back to the days of yore when we would be BORED teens on Friday night and drove from fast food place to fast food place looking for friends, or just drove the roads looking cool in cars. Once a year, the keen hot rods, old cars and vehicles of interests come out for a long hot day of a slow cruise up and down Woodward Ave. Outwardly, this is a keen event.

The PROBLEM is that is become a Corporation Whoring Event, with all major companies in the area trying to outdo each other slapping their names on everything that does or doesn't move. Every single parking place from 8 mile to Pontiac and back along Woodward is rented out for parties and private events. Not surprising Woodward itself becomes an impassable parking lot. All non restaurant/bar business along the route normally just have to close up, cause no one who might want to use them can get to them and those who are in the area have no need of books or hardware or videos.

This wouldn't be so bad if it would stay on Woodward, but it doesn't. Every other road that leads to and from Woodward is also jammed, either with people heading for the event, people trying to get around it and those skirting around it trying to get their keen cars back to a keen place along the route.

And if you haven't guesses it, Woodward is nary a mile from our house, cutting us off from all parts West and South of us. And Adams, our road, is a MAJOR cut back route and so it becomes a parking lot too, thus trapping us in our house.

But none of this would be so bad IF IF it was for just the one day, the Saturday it is officially held. No.. this Damn thing keeps getting bigger and bigger to the point where yesterday, the Wednesday before, Woodward is already impassable. Between cranes and large trucks setting up displays and knuckle-heads already cruising the strip the road is useless. Last night it took 45 minutes to travel what normally would have taken 10 minutes.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE cars. And I actually LOVE watching the cars cruise. But this "mission creep" of the event is getting out of hand! We're suffering so others can enjoy. They taut that its good for the local economy, but I don't see how, if no one can get to the local businesses to spend money.

I growl with Jealousy at Diana, who smartly arranged for GenCon to held over Dream Cruise week just so she could escape to Indiana.