Windsor-Detroit fit is like comfortable pair of shoes
Christine Lucier is a law enforcement officer who drives across the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor to Detroit a few times every month to watch baseball, football or hockey and take her daughter to Somerset Mall in Troy. Hopping over the border is just part of life for the 49-year-old woman. “Everybody in Canada refers to Windsor as South Detroit. Everybody,” she said.
“It’s just always funner over here.”
She looked around at a table full of friends and family at a packed Nemo’s Bar & Grill in Corktown on a recent evening, one of dozens of Canadians who cross the border on weeknights and weekends. They talked of going to family reunions in the States, taking kids to skating lessons, driving across the border to ski and buy groceries, and attend shows at Little Caesar’s Arena, the Fox and Fisher Theaters, and catch exhibits at the Detroit Institute of Art.
“I’ve been coming since I was little. Going to the States is second nature,” said Tanya Fryer, 45, of Essex, who works at the Aphria medical marijuana processing plant.
“My boyfriend’s family is from Farmington Hills — his grandma, uncles, aunts. We shop for groceries, go canoeing and camping. The new Detroit is amazing. I’m almost in tears, I’m so happy.” Monday evening, if the weather is good, Detroit and Windsor will have their most visible annual display of being sister border cities, the 60th annual fireworks display, now sponsored by Ford. The Canadian and U.S. flags will be flown over the Detroit River between the two downtowns before the scheduled start of the show at 9:55 p.m. For many Canadians, the connection doesn’t involve a special event. At least 6,000 Ontario residents work in metro Detroit and cross regularly, but beyond that, Canadians make it part of daily life for family, entertainment and education. Many referred to Windsor as a suburb. All of them talked about Detroit as essential to everyday life — even offering a few money-saving life hacks.
For example, Robert Moore, 25, a security guard from Windsor, said he comes over every week to check a postal box in Detroit. “It’s just so expensive to ship things to Canada. So I just pay $5 to cross the border and pick up my mail downtown.” Canadians sometimes buy groceries, particularly dairy goods, during trips to Michigan, even though Canadian border agents will allow only a limited quantity of goods to cross.
“Your milk and your cheese and your eggs are much cheaper than ours,” said Sarah Goodburn, 51, a nurse at Henry Ford Hospital. While Canadians say the political landscape seems to be changing, their feelings toward Detroit aren’t disrupted.
FROM SOUTH DETROIT
While the hit 1981 rock song “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey contains the locally beloved lyric “Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit,” band members have said that the term was used for songwriting rather than accuracy; there is no South Detroit. Yet Canadians claim the geography and often break into song. Airplay at sporting events has made the anthem timeless.
Don Sephton, 75, of Hamilton, Ont., a retired math teacher, said he has been coming to Detroit regularly for more than 30 years, or “since the Gordie Howe days.” His cousin Angus McMaster, 68, a retired auto-parts salesman from Westland, Mich., said Canadians and Detroiters “are like family. We all have a lot of relatives on both sides of the border and we all get along.”
“We have a family farm in Grimsby, Ont., with grapes and pears. I used to pick those grapes, Concords, for juicing.” Crossing back and forth to spend time with grandkids or in-laws or celebrate special occasions is common.
Connie Toth, 56, of Morpeth, Ont., is a real estate agent whose son studied ice dancing across the border. She and her husband, Dennis, 60, a power lineman, like going to Mexicantown for dinner, stopping by Nemo’s for drinks and taking the shuttles to special events. Border officers ask where they’re going, when they’ll return, if they’re carrying fruits or vegetables and where they work. Border security tightened after the terror attacks on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001, and again in 2008, when proof of citizenship such as a passport became mandatory. People say they have become accustomed to the crossing process and the questions.
Ken Quiring, 24, an accountant from Kingsville, loves coming to Detroit but said it feels more dangerous than Canada because, well, guns are legal in the U.S. “Nobody has guns in Canada. Or locks their doors.”
Catharine and Greg Winkler of Belle River, spent their 27th wedding anniversary at the Motor City Casino.
“It’s only 20 minutes from home but wanted to stay in Detroit and have fun,” Catharine said. “We love Kenny Chesney and come see him. And Keith Urban. We love the U.S.A.”
CROSSING TO CANADA
Son Nguyen, 40, owner of Nguyen Chiropractic in Windsor’s Walkerville neighbourhood, has regular clients every month who drive from Detroit to Canada. Married to an American citizen who lives in Canada, she adapts her business to the steady cross-border traffic. “I see a lot of people who live in Canada and work in the States,” she said. “It’s why I have late hours. I work 8 to 6 on weekdays and then Saturdays. I see a lot of nurses, professors and employees of the Big 3. A lot of friends go skiing in Mount Holly. Everybody takes their kids to The Henry Ford museum.” Like many Canadians, she has family reasons for visiting Michigan, as well.
She added, “Detroit has turned around. It has great restaurants now. And I actually go for yoga classes, like rooftop yoga and garden yoga.”
Diane Pineault, 55, of Windsor is a Mystic, Conn., native who visited Ontario and never went home. She worked as a massage therapist with the Detroit Lions back in the 1990s and now clients come to see her. “A lot of clients come see me from the States,” said Pineault, a U.S. citizen who uses a NEXUS card to rapidly cross the border. Her daughter, Laura Pineault, 24, lives at home in Windsor and crosses the border daily to attend classes at Wayne State University in Detroit, which offers students from Windsor in-state tuition. “I can get from home to school in 30 minutes,” Laura said. “We go shopping, eat and travel in the States. I regulate my school schedule so I’m driving at non-peak hours. It’s definitely more metropolitan in Detroit than Windsor.” She said she gets stopped in her black Buick Verano perhaps every three months, and guards take her into an office while she leaves her keys in the car to be searched. “You leave your keys, take your wallet and walk inside a really sterile looking white room with a bunch of computers and a desk,” she said. “They take your name, you sit and wait until the officer calls your name and then go up and give your documentation, like your NEXUS card or passport. They have your whole record in the computer. They ask where you’re going, if anything is in your vehicle. During this point, officers are going through your car and checking everything to make sure you’re not smuggling anything.”
It’s all pretty routine, she said.
‘OPEN AND FREE’
Visiting Detroit isn’t more routine for anyone than Ris Massetti, 69, of Windsor, owner of Kurley’s AC bar on Erie Street. He’s often at Nemo’s, too.
“Nemo’s is like our sister bar,” Massetti said. “It doesn’t seem so regulated and Victorian here. It’s more open and free in Detroit. I come about once a week. In the old days, it was four or five days a week, just to get away from my own place.”
Ask a Canadian where to go in Detroit, and the first stop is often Nemo’s. Pat Springstead has owned the place for 53 years. He attended a private Catholic boarding school in Windsor — Assumption — and developed friendships across the border that have lasted a lifetime. And they all come to Detroit. “I just got a card from a judge in Windsor who said he remembers playing high school football,” Springstead said. “We beat ’em something awful.” Everyone seems to know Springstead as he wanders back and forth behind the packed bar, greeting regulars and old friends. He whispered, “We have an affinity for Canadians.”
Detroit has turned around. It has great restaurants now. And I actually go for yoga classes, like rooftop yoga and garden yoga.