East Chippewa St, Downtown

When i was a little girl, my cousin lived on chippewa street. It was an inner city street where you put your throw away people. It was mostly businesses of the seamy kind.

I remember a chinese laundry that was in the back of a building. I was terrified of these hard working people with their strange long braids.

They had bars called the silver dollar, radices and fishermans warf. There were all types of society in these places and you had to be careful all of the time. Usually no unescorted lady went to these places. Radices was a strip joint of the lowest order. If you were at the end of your "career" this is where you came to get some of the appreciation you craved - except the appreciation was coming from the drunks that lined the bar.

Further down toward our main street where chippewa began was a small earring store. When i say small, i mean you could fit the owner, and 2 people max in this place. Of course, you were joined by hundreds upon hundreds of earrings, floor to ceiling at ridiculous prices. I got alot of my "mod" earrings there.

A few years ago, a man name mark goldman came to the street, opened a ritzy bar and nightclub - the rest is history but it was by far not as easy as it seems by my writing. the man had balls and a dream and he changed that street around. Soon bars and condos lined the street. it is not the "in place" to go on a friday or holiday night. If you have bucks, you might want to have an apartment near there.

This is why i am so hopeful for my beloved city. I have been around long enough to see that these streets, once so rundown, rose up in the most awesome way. If someone would have told me when i was a kid that this would be chippew street's fate, i would have thought that you had been drinking at the silver dollar or fishermans warf (long gone). amazing!