Dave Price, owner of Dave's BBQ, and piano player Bobby Womack.
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Photos by Paul Warner
As far I can tell, two people with little in common helped put 8 Mile Road on the map: Eminem and Mayor Coleman A. Young.
You might recall shortly after Young was elected in 1973, he gave an inaugural speech, talking tough on crime.
"I issue a forward warning now to all those pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It’s time to leave Detroit; hit 8 Mile Road! And I don’t give a damn if they are black or white, or if they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road.”
Then in 2002, Eminem (aka Marshall Bruce Mathers III) starred in the movie "8 Mile," an American hip-hop, biopic film. I was living in D.C. at the time, and after the film was released, people were curious and intrigued about 8 Mile Road and asked me about it.
Suddenly, a street that was the dividing line between the 'burbs and the city, and had always had some element of sleaze, was hip. Go figure.
Parts of 8 Mile Road feel a little bit a like a poor man's Vegas; too much neon, plenty strip joints and money that guys with too much to drink pass on to strippers.
Photographer Paul Warner spent a few days going up and down the strip capturing photos for Deadline Detroit. This is the first of two installments. -- Allan Lengel
Slapping on the ribs at Dave's BBQ.
Two bucks for a mixed drink? We're talking about 1965 prices.
A little flash on the strip. It's sort of what you would imagine the Hall of Fame For Wheels would look like.
Stephanie (l) and April make a living with their clothes on. They're waitresses at the Penthouse, a topless joint on the strip.
Baker's Keyboard Lounge at 8 and Livernois is an institution. The joint first opened up in the 1930s. Over the past few decades it opened and closed, and now it's open.
A couple guys were working on the sign to make sure the neon is shining bright at night.
The motel advertises that it has ESPN and HBO. But some how, you get the feeling that folks who check in for a night -- or maybe even just for a few hours -- might not care what's on the tube.
It looks as if some Chili's restaurant is missing a hot pepper.
Doesn't exactly add class to the strip. Rugs for sale.
To compete with all the neon on 8 Mile Road, the liquor store has to pile on the neon.
Nothing subtle about this.
