Niki's Window

If there has to be one concrete message that I gathered from reading this piece, it would have to be the last line written by author Jerry Herron.
"For the same reason, however, it is also the city that becomes finally, the hardest to know."

There were so many things written in here that caught my attention, but, ultimately, I began to disagree with as I continued to read on.

Whether or not it's my incorrect interpretation, however, I felt that throughout the reading, I was viewing the rant of an older man seemingly displeased with the current state of our city history. I agree and disagree with this statement.

His recurring talk about the history of the buildings, which stand in the area now known as Greektown, was the core of his rant. The Dodge brothers initially had their first building there before moving on to a grander establishment. The author carefully points this little fact out to us as though it were some grave travesty that has forever soiled the name of Detroit; that this historical landmark was not being put on display for all to know and worship for being a part of the beginning of automobiles.

The first argument that popped into my mind after my first glance through is the importance of history and/or historical items. When you ask yourself, "What makes something historic?", do you get the same view as the author? For some reason, I don't.

One line that made me laugh in this piece had to be his quick insert about other famous historical cities.
"...residents pride themselves on being genuinely historical: Boston, New York, San Francisco, Baltimore, Philadelphia. They've all got neighborhoods like Greektown..."
He seems rather irritated that the city of Detroit is not on the same level as many other cities in terms of preserving the past. My question is that are these things so integral to Detroit's history? Sure, the automotive industry has very well put Detroit in the big picture nationally and globally, however, the preservation of a few lesser known buildings does not impact that thought very much. Even if every automotive-related building was shut down, demolished, and forgotten about, the dent left in Detroit's history will forever be there. The automotive capital. That is what history is to me.

Even watching the news earlier this morning, I see what I think is more important history to our city than what he was describing. History doesn't have to be funneled into the category of being several hundreds of years ago. History has to be something that left or will leave an impact for the city. Turn to any news station and what do you see? The Detroit International Auto Show. Not exactly monumental in terms of length in years, however, that is history. To be more specific, that has made history and will continue to. I pride that event in being our genuine history. Forget this horse carriage, cobble-stone street, declaration signing crap that all the other original 13 states' capitals boast.

The last thing I feel as though I should address would be the title. Where out of all of this that I've talked about does the title fit into? Niki's window is, as the name implies, a window in one of the restaurants that currently reside in Greektown. The connection that Herron was trying to establish with his title is the forgotten memories now encompassed by the bustling enterprises of Greek food and entertainment. Apparently the owner has no reason for calling his establishment Niki's, which seemed to shock the author. No historical meaning? No ties to his heritage? Oh no! Not everything needs to be deeply woven into a person's background in order to be understood. A name is a name, and what you do with from the time you create it until it's inevitable end is what makes history.

Maybe it's the new age thought, maybe it's my irritation or predisposition to the author's writing style. Finding something for myself to rant about this piece of literature seemed all too easy.