U-Matic

Neighborhood/City Clips
Demolition
7-10-89

U-Matic tape containing b-roll footage shot around the neighborhoods of Warrendale, Franklin Park, and Core City, as well as footage of activity inside of the Twelfth Precinct Station and the City-County Building. The tape is silent with the exception of a brief segment in the police station.

The tape opens with a title card, created using a character generator, which reads "Neighborhood/City Clips" in white text against a black background.

The b-roll then begins, picking up where tape 2015.008.298 ended, with the camera positioned in front of 7310 Patton Street, the camera films a northward view along the street, as well as the house at 7313, and one across the street. A man and a boy walk past carrying grocery bags.

The camera then moves to the north side of West Warren Avenue between Rosemont Avenue and Ashton Avenue for a close-up of a sign which reads, "Welcome to Warrendale, 'A Grateful Community,' Sponsored by the Warrendale Business Association." From the spot the camera also captures traffic to the west along Warren, and shots of streetlights (including one with an airplane flying in the background, and a street light in the foreground).

There are also several shots, mostly from low angles of people crossing the intersection, shot from the northeast corner of West Warren Avenue and Westwood Street. The sign Harry's Department Store in the background is visible in the shot of people crossing Westwood. The camera also pans across the curb itself.

The camera then moves outside of the Plymouth Square apartment building, off of Plymouth Road, for shots of the building, its sign, the adjacent Farmer Jack supermarket, and the exteriors of the Plymouth Square Village housing development. The camera also captures several people in the area including a boy running beside a boy on a bike, and a boy riding in a toy monster truck beside and adult.

The next sequence takes place at the Detroit Police Department's 6th Precinct Station on Fitzpatrick Street, near Warwick Street and Plymouth Road. Here the camera get shots of the building's exterior, people walking in and out, and a police car driving past.

The next portion of the tape features several blighted houses, beginning with a severely charred house. Part of its address sign remains, reading "201." The camera zooms out from a shoe on the house's roof to reveal the full structure. Next, the camera films the exterior of a brick house with graffiti on the boards covering its windows and door. Next, a red brick home , with fire damage visible around its upstairs window and garage is filmed. Here, a child skips into frame to wave at the camera.

Then, from the passenger seat of a car, the camera rolls getting footage of a stretch of an unidentified street, and of an adjacent alley lined with open garbage bags and tires.

Again from a moving car, the camera shoots as it makes several passes around the south corner of Putnam Avenue and the Jeffries Service Drive, where two intact houses neighbor the ruins of several other homes. In a series of zooms, the camera moves between a row of intact houses on Tillman Street, southeast of Putman Street, and a dilapidated house on the service drive visible in the background. In one take, two people peek out from a window of one of the buildings in Tillman. After several takes of rounding the block again, it eventually heads down the service drive to West Warren Avenue. From here, it proceeds southwest along Warren, filming the northwest side of the street. Following some jumpy footage and a cut, the car is then heading northeast along West Warren, from Tillman Street, filming the southeast side of the street. "Money In Effect" is painted on a wall visible near the corner.

After another cut, the car is heading northwest on the Fisher Freeway, near the Trumbull Avenue overpass, with Tiger Stadium visible out the window. The recording cuts, then resumes for a shot of Cass Technical High School from the freeway. The freeway footage ends with a close-up of a passing car.

The recording them resumes inside of the Detroit Police Department's Twelfth Precinct Station on Seven Mile Road where a TV in a waiting area is showing Alvin and the Chipmunks as part of WKBD's "TV 50, The Place for Kids" block. The camera also gets a close-up of the same "Investigative Operations" sign featured in tape 2015.008.298, as well as the signs for the office of the Commander's Clerk and Inspector's Clerk. Inside the latter office, the camera glimpses Officer Angela Mitchell and Inspector Joseph Brooks working at their desks. The camera then moves into the Community Relations office for another shot of an officer working at his desk. Next, an officer is show speaking to a grounp of other officers from behind a podium in one of the station's halls. During this scene, the tape briefly has sound.

The remainder of the tape shows the interior and area around the City-County Building. This begins with a silent scene of a City Council meeting. A model of Comerica Tower is on their conference table, and an architectural drawing is displayed on an easel. A meeting behind a glass door labeled "Committee of the Whole," a City Council sign on a window below the Spirit of Detroit logo, and "Department of Public Works, Director's Office, Central Accounting, Personnel-Payroll" sign, and the doors to the Department of Public Works' Administrative Office are also filmed. 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.

The camera the moves outside of the City-County Building for a series of pans combining the Spirit of Detroit statue with pedestrians passing along Woodward Avenue. The camera briefly returns to the hall outside of the Department of Buildings and Safety Engineering, before coming back outside for more shots around the statue. In a series of additional shots of the Spirit of Detroit, the camera pans from the Renaissance to the statue, and from the People Mover passing over Larned Street 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. In the final scene on the tape a woman from the previous scene's meeting is shown talking on the phone at a desk beside a computer.

The recording is on a UCA-60 U-Matic tape with a handwritten 3M label on its top. The tape is housed in a black plastic latching case with a matching label on its cover.