The Biggest Slide on Belle Isle

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The giant slide on Belle Isle used to be yellow. It was painted with this special thing to reduce the friction and keep people from going all going all night. So what you do is you pay your little 50 cent fair or whatever, at least that's what it used to be. You get on a burlap back in the day, and there's a big debate about this. And now it's like pure silver and it looks like just metal,. Apparently they over waxed it and like, you know, they just like put like just like cults of turtle wax on it.

Why an episode on Detroit?! It’s got a great story. Standalone, this episode is a fascinating look at a metropolis that swelled and thrived during the auto boom, then declined, and is navigating a rocky rebirth of sorts. Aaron Foley was Detroit’s first official City Storyteller and wrote the book “How to Live In Detroit Without Being a Jackass.” I’ve wanted to have him on Ologies for five years, and we finally sat down to talk about MoTown, car culture, square pizza, $1000 houses, gentrification, urban infrastructure, underground salt mines, amusement park slides, Diana Ross, emerging rappers, and the city’s abandonment issues. Stay tuned for the March 21 Domicology episode on how buildings and neighborhoods decay, and what people – and science – can to do about it. Also, if you’re looking for a book to read, I’m loving Aaron’s debut novel, “Boys Come First,” which he describes as “very Black, very gay, and very Detroit.”

Visit Aaron Foley’s website and follow him on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok

Buy Aaron’s debut novel: Boys Come First

Buy Aaron’s non-fiction books: The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook and How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass

A donation went to the Detroit Justice Center