Michael Rass

Michael Rass

Michael Rass is the web producer for The World.

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Where is ‘South Detroit’?

October 25, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
Ouellette Avenue (Photo: Jason Paris/Flickr)

Looking north toward Detroit from Ouellette Avenue (Photo: Jason Paris/Flickr)

The Geo Quiz is looking for a place that may or may not exist: South Detroit.

In Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,” we hear the line “just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit.”

The Detroit Tigers play the song in their home stadium, every game, between the 7th and 8th innings.

But check a map of Detroit and you won’t find a place called “South Detroit.”

In fact, if you travel south from Detroit, you end up in another country.

So if it’s not technically in Detroit, where is South Detroit?

Answer: it’s Windsor, Ontario in Canada.

Yes, it is confusing and we asked Detroit based journalist Dave Lingholm to clear up the geographical confusion for us.

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Discussion

3 comments for “Where is ‘South Detroit’?”

  • Vilik

    Getting to “South Detroit” wouldn’t involve travelling south from Detroit (which would indeed put you in Windsor), it would involve travelling to the more southerly areas within the city limits. Just because there’s no neighborhood commonly or officially known as “South Detroit” doesn’t mean that the city doesn’t have a southern portion.

    • David Lingholm

      While technically true, Detroiters recognize Southwest Detroit as the southern-most part of our city.

  • Mark G

    He probably just shortened “Born in the south side of Detroit” . Geez.