U-Matic

Neighborhood Shots: People/Working/etc..
P.M./Spirit/People Downtown

U-Matic tape containing silent footage of people engaged in mostly staged neighborhood clean-up activities followed by footage of the Spirit of Detroit outside of the City-County Building, the Department of Buildings and Safety Engineering inside the building, and a meeting.involving the Census.

The tape begins with several scenes of people cleaning and performing other maintenance duties outside of homes, and around neighborhoods. Most of the individuals being filmed appear to be staged specifically for the camera. These scenes includes a woman sweeping the walkway in front of a house, a man painting the trim around the roof of a house, a man painting the lower truck of a tree white on the sidewalk in front of 18185 Dequindre Street, a woman using a hoe in a vegetable garden, Two short shots occur next featuring the lawn to the north of the house at 18145 Dequindre Street. The camera then moves to the traffic island on the northeast corner of Nevada Avenue and Dequindre Street, where a man edges around the base of the Grixdale Park Property Owners Association marker, while another man works around some nearby bushes.

The camera then moves downtown for a series of shots taken outside of the City-County building, incorporating the Spirit of Detroit statue and passing pedestrians. The camera then moves to the hallway outside of the Department of Buildings and Safety Engineering. A mural showing the Renaissance Center, the downtown skyline, and a man holding a document decorate the hall. A "CCB" logo consisting of script lettering decorates the offices doors. Within the office, people wait along a long counter. After several shots of the mural and activity through the department's doors, the camera returns outdoors for more shots of the Spirit of Detroit. These shots consist of a series of pans from the flower beds below to the statue, from the statue to the Renaissance Center, and from the People Mover as it passes above Woodward Avenue to the statue.

Back inside the building, a meeting is filmed where a man points to a series of maps, including one from the Department of Public Works and one showing 1980 census tracts, as a group of people take notes at a table.

The recordings are on a Fuji KCA-30 U-Matic tape with a handwritten Fuji label on its top. The tape is housed within a grey plastic case.