Detroit’s used to flyover or drop-in parachute coverage about our city. Stuff that’s kind of sloppy and gets minor details wrong.
And nowadays, there’s food and drink coverage here and around the country written mostly by robots, curating Yelp reviews into articles with artificial intelligence.
But apparently, one of our oldest and hottest neighborhoods got renamed when none of us were looking — at least according to an email our team got from the folks at TravelZoo.
Apparently, “Corktown,” with roots into the 1800s, is now “Corkville” according to Karl Klockars (who apparently is a real person and hopefully laughs at this gaffe who just happens to have a memorable name straight out of a 1930s radio play).
It says the source is “Trumbull & Porter,” which is the hotel on Trumbull in Corktown, right near Batch Brewery, Brew Detroit, Folk and other places.
The whole thing makes me think of the scene about Crabville from “A Mighty Wind.”
So either Karl doesn’t know there’s a Corkville, which not being from here I can only chide for not Googling, or the “trendy abode” Trumbull & Porter doesn’t know what neighborhood it’s in.
Maybe if someone did the “urban exploring” they apparently offer, they’d see the signs. Or talk to neighbors and know where they’re at.
And don’t get me wrong. I’ve been to this hotel. It looks pretty, like something out of California if you’re into that sort of thing.
I mean, it’s progress. It replaced a motel that used to have a condom and underwear vending machine.
Maybe THAT was Crabville?
But really, we don’t need to go around misnaming — or renaming — our city’s neighborhoods.